The election results for the European Parliament are in. While not surprising, they are horrifying regarding the advancing power of the extremist right, with France’s Macron, facing terrific losses, even calling for new elections in the middle of preparation for the Olympics.

How shall we escape a monstrous present? If you are like me, by watching monster movies, of course, where all the horror is safely contained in a make-believe world. All the better if they amuse you – and today, for all the reviews I’ve read with people claiming they shed tears over the moving melodrama in question, I have to admit, mine were tears of laughter.

I am talking about the newest Netflix addition, fresh from a short, extremely successful run in real cinemas, praised to the heavens by most who know their cinematic stuff and adorned with an academy award for special effects: Godzilla Minus One.

The public loves it. The critics loved it. (Reviews from the US and abroad here, here and here.) It was shot on a minuscule budget as these kaiju – strange creatures – movies go, and it has two parallel storylines allowing you to focus either on a human interest drama, or the frisson of seeing a mega-monster trample Japanese cities, throw large ships and train cars miles through the air, and dooming all the extras.

So what’s wrong with me that I felt it provided a huge amount of comic relief? Particularly since the underlying message is really an anti-war stance and a reminder of what hell nuclear bombs created (viz. monsters) and what trauma a government forced upon a population asked to sacrifice for war without sufficient militaristic, technological or other support?

The movie’s title already introduces the idea of devastation. Set in 1946, the war has brought Japan to ground zero. A potentially successful attack by Godzilla, a sea creature that grew, radioactive flame throwers included, from the exposure to nuclear bombs and later nuclear testing at surrounding atolls, would move the needle even further into the dark ages – from zero to minus one. Would I have known that if I hadn’t scoured the internet for explanations? Of course not. Maybe not the best start.

Here’s the (abbreviated) plot line (spoiler alert!): Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima chickens out during the war and lands his plane with a pretext on a small island outpost with Japanese mechanics. Godzilla appears and our “hero” freezes again, not shooting the monster who then kills the crew but one. Returning to Tokyo after the war, Koichi as well as everyone else counts their losses, but with a large heart takes in a plucky young woman, Noriko, and an orphaned baby, Akiko, supporting them with dangerous work as a mine sweeper. On the job, he bonds with a band of diverse characters, the typical roster for action movies (think Ocean 11) with geeks and planners and musclemen well represented.

His shame and guilt prevents him from reentering life, attaching to the love interest, or becoming passionate about just about anything. When Godzilla reappears, now even more humongous than before, and destroys a city where love interest works, seemingly killing her in his spree as well, our hero decides to join the desperate attempts of civilians – with the government once again leaving them to their own – to tame and maim the monster, back to his old tricks as a kamikaze pilot. Except this time a mate provides his plane with an ejection seat, something the Japanese government had not afforded to war pilots before.

Curiously many ships get destroyed in the battle with Godzilla except for the ones manned by our merry band of misfits. After much fiddling and nail biting, the monster is slain, although some of the last underwater shots show parts of him regenerating already. Hero and love interest are re-united and he feels he has done sufficient restitution to his honor that he can “live” again.

The core story is indeed: war is bad, human bonds are good, trauma can last forever unless there is an occasion to redeem yourself. Survivor guilt dominates the post-traumatic stress experience. But it also hints at taking honor seriously, and being a bad person if you don’t sacrifice everything for the nation, or your fellow countrymen.

My problem? The acting is so cheesy, and the hero having not even a smidgen of charisma, that you feel you are in a method acting exercise with superlative special effects thrown in. Add to that the complicated approach to honor in imperialistic systems, with revisionism just about kept at bay, and a lack of familiarity with the details of these monster film scenarios on my part, and there you have it: I just felt amused, not riveted.

The special effects, though, and the visuals in general, were truly impressive. Shot in real water, the ocean-faring scenes are striking, the creature itself half terrifying, half exhilarating. I’d recommend watching it on a large screen rather than a small laptop, as I did.

Here is the trailer.

Funny thing is, I remembered having seen another monster story that struck me for its wooden acting and sappy melodrama many years ago, but for the life of me I couldn’t recall which one it was. A dear old friend came to the rescue, pointing to the 1954 movie Creature of the Blue Lagoon that we watched in the early seventies, feeling extremely confident that our scorn was justified.

I just rewatched it and must admit that the entire narrative about evolution, ecology, the value of science and the rotten nature of economic extraction was lost on this then 20 year old. At least I didn’t remember the white bathing suit of the heroine either, which apparently was a main attractant for scores of male movie watchers at the time….

And since things like to come in threes – here is another horror movie – and, yes, not a spoof. Apparently this 2 minute music video depicts what lots of Americans genuinely believe and why DJT’s scandals don’t impact his Christian support. Fanatics having found the CHOSEN one.

And with this, it’s back to the real world.

Photographs today from war ships and other fleet items echoing the movie’s maritime scenery.