'Godzilla Minus Zero' wows first viewers at the New York Film Festival. Early word: a giant monster and a family story worth caring about.

The monster movie of the season just got its first reactions, and they're about the people as much as the monster. Variety reports that Takashi Yamazaki's "Godzilla Minus Zero," the sequel to 2023's "Godzilla Minus One," wowed journalists at the New York Film Festival with epic thrills and the first R-rated action set pieces in the long-running kaiju franchise. It's the 38th Godzilla film and the 34th from Toho, the Japanese company that created the character. "Minus One" earned $116 million worldwide, the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla film ever, and won the Oscar for best visual effects. The new film stars Kamiki Ryunosuke and Hamabe Minami, is the first Japanese feature shot for Imax screens, and picks up in 1949, continuing the story of the Shikishima family. "A truly epic cinematic feat," wrote reporter Jonathan Sim. "It takes the King of the Monsters to a whole new level while still grounding everything in human, emotional stakes." Critic Brandon Lewis called it an "overwhelming achievement of kaiju filmmaking," and Marissa Hill wrote that "it works in the quieter moments too," marveling that these films are "made on a fraction of the budget" of today's blockbusters. It opens in U.S. theaters Nov. 6, three days after it begins rolling out in Japan. Here is the lesson. Hollywood keeps telling us spectacle requires a blockbuster budget and a cinematic universe. Yamazaki keeps showing it requires a family you care about and a filmmaker who respects the audience. First reactions aren't full reviews, and festival crowds run hot. But if this one delivers in November, buy the ticket and bring somebody who remembers when monster movies had a heart. Your ticket is a ballot, and this is a good one to cast.