I was a bit bummed when I heard Godzilla was on screen for less than 10 minutes, but the reviews and ratings have convinced me to probably go watch it in theaters!
Edit: I just booked last minute tickets for the last show tonight (in 1.5 hours) lol. I'll be busy tomorrow and I don't want to go on a weekend, so might as well go now.
Edit 2: Just got back from the theater. The two best things about this film are:
Atomic breath / heat ray. Even the latest hollywood godzilla’s version of atomic breath is nothing compared to this one. Amazing.
The score. The eerie orchestral swells fit so well with the circumstances of the time period when the film takes place. I’ll definitely listen to the score again if they release it officially.
I’d say it’s worth it to watch in theaters. It’s not perfect, but all scenes with godzilla more than make up for whatever flaws the rest of the film has.
Not as good as Shin, but I consider Shin the 2nd best in the franchise, only after '54. Minus One is solid though. If you're at all interested you should check it out.
I really enjoyed Shin Godzilla. They are very different movies, and I'll need to rewatch minus one a few times before I cement my opinion, but I think I'd give Shin the edge.
I'll offer a dissenting voice here and say that I thought it was better than Shin Godzilla (even though that movie is excellent). It's the first time they nailed the human storylines since maybe the original 54 film. The depiction of Godzilla is more god-like, for lack of a better word, and less anime like the Shin depiction.
Godzilla is terrifying, and the story is solid. The score is amazing too!
Definitely worth a watch on the big screen, and I'm looking forward to watching it again.
As others have said, hard for me to separate between Shin and Minus One. Both great, but different. Need to rewatch Minus One a few (hundred) more times first.
Edit: Just rewatched the original 1954 Japanese version. Minus one has a number of nods to this epic original. Quite a few more parallels than I remembered! For anyone interested, the original is available at the Internet Archive