As of this past Saturday, Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One is officially on Netflix in North America, and millions of subscribers are getting the chance to learn why kaiju fans and beyond have been losing their minds about the movie with a giant irritated lizard. Seriously, no less than Steven Spielberg is reported to be a great admirer of Minus One, with the Jaws filmmaker telling Yamazaki he’s watched the film three times.

There is of course a sound basis for this (and not just because Godzilla Minus One in part alludes to Jaws). Not since perhaps the original 1954 Godzilla has the iconic creature appeared so terrifyingly real and so menacingly apt as a metaphor for the industrialized war in the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is indeed a strong case to be made that Godzilla Minus One acts as a perfect companion piece to last year’s Oppenheimer,...