So there’s this pattern I’ve noticed where people who mostly watch mainstream action movies will watch an action movie that’s like a bit off-mainstream and somewhat better than other action movies and declare it a masterpiece.

And so here’s another one of those. I heard all about how GMO was this incredible achievement, an absolutely great movie, and… it’s fine. It’s a basically competent action movie. It has something to say (the monster here is a metaphor for post-WW2 Japanese national trauma), it captures a kind of lo-fi monster movie aesthetic, it’s an enjoyable-enough two hours.

But that’s all it is. The character beats are obvious, fridging a guy’s not-exactly-wife to motivate him was a cliche thirty years ago, and the plot is straightforward (and the happy endings almost obnoxious). It’s a good solid B+ of a movie, but it’s nothing spectacular.

(My truly heretical opinion: I think Godzilla vs. Kong is the better Godzilla movie, because it didn’t just reprise “sea monster invades Japan,” it did some really weird shit that genuinely surprised me.)