Top Ten Godzilla Movies

After having seen Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I have to admit I’m rather pleased…but also kind of disappointed.

I would be foolish to be ungrateful for the adaptations of traditional Toho kaiju and the use of Akira Ifukube’s music in tandem with the adaptation of the Blue Oyster Cult song.

However, I would be equally foolish to not admit that the dialogue and characterizations needed more work, and that for all of the variety of kaiju, basically all three fights are Godzilla against King Ghidorah, and that the “nature” themes were mere decoration at this point.

Many would argue that this is all we should care about, monsters fighting and silly dialogue.

I would argue that Godzilla has been done better than this, on a minimum of ten occasions.

10. Godzilla: 2014

Explained Badly: Two young lovers wreck the cityscape and wake up a grouchy elder.

Explained Better: Currently the only truly great American Godzilla movie, and admittedly one of the greatest ones of all time, this entry is something of a military film, with a parachute scene my dad just won’t stop talking about.  

Part Godzilla vs. Hedorah, part Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, but far better than either movie, this entry depicts Godzilla as essentially a hero who balances out the ecosystem.  The plot is as simple as its two points of reference, so the perhaps the plot is too simple: The main antagonists threaten the human race, and humanity must choose between fighting the monsters directly, or just accept their inability to fix the problem themselves and have faith in a new monster, Godzilla.

The acting and dialogue are generally better than that of King of the Monsters, especially, obviously, on Bryan Cranston's part.  Sadly, only three characters were fleshed out in engaging ways.

The combat choreography was not quite as engaging as that of King Kong vs. Godzilla or Terror of Mechagodzilla, but it keeps one interested far more than Godzilla Raids Again and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, with Godzilla fighting a bit like a bear against angry charging MUTOs.

The soundtrack for this movie could be underwhelming at times, but using Georgy Ligeti's Requiem for Godzilla's theme was a most inspired decision!

9. Godzilla vs. Biollante

Explained Badly: A man’s grief causes Japan to develop a weed problem.

Explained Well: The second entry of the Heisei series, Godzilla vs. Biollante was proof that Godzilla was fully ready to enter the modern era, by storm, featuring far more creativity and a more believable premise than was expected by anybody at the time.  

The plot is very complicated, perhaps a bit too much, but it adequately covers many of the potential concerns involving the misuse of bio-technology.

It probably has the best acting in the Heisei series, and Ken Satsuma is clearly more comfortable in his role as Godzilla than he was in this movie's predecessor, The Return of Godzilla.  

The fight choreography is incredibly simple, but also reasonably effective.  Biollante can't exactly properly wrestle Godzilla, which poses a problem, but she can dish out new powers bit by bit, which makes the fights brief, but fairly riveting!

The soundtrack choices were odd, but Biollante's theme does successfully convey the tragedy behind the character.

8. Terror of Mechagodzilla

Explained Badly: A guy attempts to liberate a Femcel from her crippling anxiety.  It ends poorly.

Explained better: The end of the Showa series, Terror of Mechagodzilla was cited by none other than Akira Kurosawa as the exemplification of Ishiro Honda’s capacity to emphathize with others.  Emphasizing the tragedy of the various characters, from Katsura, to Dr. Mafune, this movie had to have been directed by a true empath.  

Hardly a Godzilla movie, just a movie with Godzilla in it, Terror of Mechagodzilla is really about the human characters, but in the best way possible, as most of the human characters are memorable and loveable save perhaps for most of the protagonists (but it’s hard to not see Ichinose and Katsura, and not have an impression).  As a result, it was the favorite kaiju project of many of the actors involved because of how deep their characters were compared to the rest of the 1970s projects.

This entry, along with King Kong vs. Godzilla, has some of the best combat choreography out of any existing Godzilla movie, and memorable monsters and destruction sequences.

The soundtrack is more repetitive, of a generally smaller scale, than was usual for Akira Ifukube, but the movie carries it out so wonderfully well, each theme fitting each monster perfectly.

7. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Explained Badly: A bunch of extreme globalists go back in time to drown a dinosaur.  They fail.

Explained Better: Underrated because of poorly explained time-travel mechanics, what many fans didn’t observe about this movie was that this movie otherwise had the most linear plot out of the entire Heisei era.  Besides, we have not one, but TWO good explanations behind the time travel.  So why complain? This movie is great!

Starting here, it’s going to be hard to talk about these movies without mentioning politics and social issues, something that Godzilla movies are very famous for.

If King Kong vs. Godzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla have the best combat choreography, then this and GMK have the second best sequences of combat choreography; all major fight sequences were fully riveting, and proved that Godzilla doesn’t always need help from another kaiju in order to have a satisfying fight with King Ghidorah.

The soundtrack marked the return of composer Akira Ifukube, who had not composed a single theme for Godzilla in nearly two decades before this movie was released.  It has one of the single best soundtracks of the Heisei series as a result of his welcomed return.

6. Godzilla, Mothra, & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Explained Badly: Japan’s Nanking Denial presents a much bigger problem than China asking for compensation...

Explained Better: Probably the only truly great Millennium entry (though GXMG was pretty good too!), GMK focused heavily on problems that really mattered.  Japanese historical revision comittees were getting press attention in the previous year, so naturally it became a major subject for a lot of media, including this movie.

Everybody's done differently than usual: Godzilla is truly evil instead of a force of nature, and King Ghidorah is a protagonist.  However, this movie does it remarkably well, no matter how jarring the concept is!

5. Shin Godzilla

Explained Badly: Thanks Obama

Explained Better: An answer to not only the lack of government response to Fukishima, but also the growing concerns among Japanese people about the potentially looming threat of North Korea (at the time) that the Japanese government would surely be unable to act against, Shin Godzilla emphasizes a bogged-down bureaucracy that must surrender to younger, fresher faces as they race against time to defeat Godzilla, a living nuclear disaster.

Filled with only the most heart-wrenching themes, and showing Godzilla as in serious pain from his increasingly twisted body, Shin Godzilla depicts the tragedy of Godzilla in only the most poignant way possible.

4. Mothra vs. Godzilla

Explained Badly: An attempt to win the annual Easter Egg  ends in am unwanted snuggie for Godzilla

Explained Better: Widely regarded as one of the better entries, Mothra vs. Godzilla was probably the most expensive Showa Godzilla movie ever produced, and it shows, with the best suit of the Showa era, using only the most meticulous molding and only the highest quality material available at the time, as well as a huge Mothra egg prop for the human characters to touch, and giant objects to make the Peanuts (the performers who played the Shobijin) look smaller than they really were.  No expenses were spared on its special effects, save the relative lack of miniatures for some kaiju sequences, but Toho wasn’t all about cityscapes back then, especially given that King Kong vs. Godzilla proved that you only need one major full cityscape miniature scene in order to be a decent kaiju film that can attract massive crowds.  The same could be said about Mothra vs. Godzilla.

This features some of the more subtle human acting of the franchise, perhaps the best short of the 1954 movie, making what would have otherwise been annoying muck-raking speeches incredibly poignant, and it also features Godzilla suit-actor Haruo Nakajima adding more color to his character.

3. King Kong vs. Godzilla

Explained Badly: Two foreign tourists go ape and fight each other as an act of community service.

Explained Better: Underrated because “Godzilla should have won”, many miss the point of this movie: King Kong is often juxtaposed against imagery of primitive societies in-tune with the natural world.  Godzilla is often juxtaposed against imagery of the Soviet Union and the United States, the two main nuclear powers at the time.  The Japanese version of this movie even emphasizes that Godzilla was “a product of the atomic bomb”.  Essentially, Godzilla represents the major nuclear powers, and King Kong represents the countries they fought in proxy wars.  Think Hetalia, but with giant monsters.  Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa accurately predicted that the Soviet Union and the United States would eventually get far more than they bargained for from their proxy wars; he was proven right, given that the USA lost the Vietnam War and the Soviet Union lost the Soviet-Afghan War.

It also, along with Mothra vs. Godzilla, probably had one of the single most technically sound scripts of any existing Godzilla movie to date, with a tight, evenly paced plot that takes all of the elements introduced in the story and adequately resolves itself.  But if there’s one thing film critics and G-Fans agree about, it’s that we really don’t rank Godzilla movies strictly on how technically sound the script is.  So while I love this one, and have to say that it has the best-written screenplay in terms of plot, it’s not my favorite, and it’s not the favorite of many people either.

It also features, along with Terror of Mechagodzilla, the absolute best combat choreography, providing a highly engaging battle between Godzilla and King Kong.

2. Invasion of Astro-Monster

Explained Badly: The world gets saved by the most annoying sound in the world (or at least, the most annoying besides Rebecca Black’s voice).

Explained Better: Alan Moore looked at the Golden Age and Silver Age of comics and praised the “imagination” put into them.  This movie is pretty much that, like an American comic from before the 1970s, with a cool sci-fi premise, tons of worldbuilding, and a strange brand of camp that actually aged well rather than poorly the way most of the more campy Godzilla movies did.  It’s actually milder than the Adam West Batman camp, and sits better with most than the camp of , so it’s often easy enough to ignore or enjoy.

The combat choreography isn’t a whole lot to write home about, but it’s far more memorable than any fighting moves you’re going to see in Godzilla Raids Again, Son of Godzilla, and Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and generally succeeds at its main goal, to be thoroughly entertaining.

1. Godzilla (1954)

Explained Badly: Not sure if I can.  It’s too hard to explain badly.

Explained Better: This is the easy part.  This movie has quite the history.  When Tomoyuki Tanaka was unable to get a big-budget Japan-Malaysia co-production movie released, he looked over the sea from the plane he was flying in, and saw the ocean below, he thought of the Lucky Dragon, a fishing ship that got soaked with radiation.  From there, he got the idea that he could make a movie about a radioactive monster.  Having commissioned Shigeru Kayama

The human acting is very heavy and intense, probably the best of the franchise in general; thanks to the acting, every single major human scene is perfectly memorable and impactful.

This entry features the absolute best destruction sequence of the whole Showa series, and maybe even Godzilla as a whole, save perhaps the destruction sequence of Destroy All Monsters.

There are no fight scenes, because it only features Godzilla, and fighting really isn’t the point of this movie.

As you can see, I’m a huge Showa fan.  I remember back when it strictly remembered for camp and childishness.  Strangely, as somebody who grew up with it, that’s not what I remember.  I remember a ton of imagination and passion being put into these stories.  I remember elaborate commentaries being woven into the stories.  And I remember something that most other eras did not: Memorable, loveable human characters, especially, but not exclusively, in the 1954 film.  Then again,

So, what are your top ten Godzilla movies? Let me know in the comments below!