Ranking the Godzilla Films (#20-11)
Hey, it's part 2! So in this part I will be continuing my "Ranking the Godzilla Films" list. Let's go through some shizzity shoo.
20: Godzilla (2014) AMERICAN IMDb: 6.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 74% (Monsters: Godzilla, Male M.U.T.O., Female M.U.T.O.)
Director: Gareth Edwards
Soundtrack: Alexandre Desplat
Woah! This film actually wasn't half bad, but it certainly could've been better. This movie has a BADASS theme song and intro, and I mean that. It's possibly the most clever part of the entire movie. There's also lots of hidden jokes in it, such as "Are these animals real? Can we prove they exist? Or are they merely men in rubber suits with costumes designed by tricksters?" and something about the Illuminati.
So the acting isn't too bad in this movie. The main character is a little bit generic, but oh well.
Bryan Cranston does a great job in this movie. Too bad they killed him off in like the first half of the movie or less. "DISAPPOINTED!" -Hercules
So basically, to quickly sum up the plot, there's this kid in Japan from America and it's his dad's birthday. His parents work at some nuclear facility. The mom goes in with a crew and there ends up being a breach. They have limited time to make it back outside. The dad runs to where they are as the building's power goes off and people evacuate. He has to close the doors and kill his wife's crew in order to save everyone else from the breach. He watches her die.
Some scientists discover some huge skeleton. Yeah.
The kid has now grown up and is in the military. He lives in San Francisco, is married and has a son. He decides to go visit his father back in Japan.
He believes his father is crazy, but is convinced to go with him to the zone where the incident took place, which is supposedly hazardous. The father discovers that the place is perfectly safe to breathe in, and they revisit their old house. They get taken by the people who have the place closed off, Monarch.
They are protecting some sort of spore. It ends up breaking open and hatching the male M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism).
This thing starts destroying stuff and kills the father. Thus a great character is wasted.
Basically these thing lived a very long time ago alongisde Godzilla, and they're both ancient species.
Godzilla shows up in Hawaii and fights the monster after it flies there to consume nuclear waste. They discover that the M.U.T.O. may have been behind the attack in Japan.
Another M.U.T.O. appears, and the humans discover that they are communicating to each other. Turns out the other one is female, and that the two will mate and make more M.U.T.O.s, which is bad.
Godzilla battles the two monsters in San Francisco. Godzilla uses his atomic breath finally. He ends up killing the male one, but the female one is still going. The main character tries to get to a bomb to blow her and maybe Godzilla up with... but she comes after him. Godzilla stops her, though, and what happens next is probably the best scene in the movie.
Hell yeah.
This movie's okay, but Godzilla literally has about ten minutes of screen time in a movie called Godzilla. Decent film with not enough kaiju.
However, this is a better-made film than a lot of the ones on this list. It's just not that good of a kaiju movie.
19. Godzilla 2000 (Godzilla Millennium) (1999) MILLENNIUM IMDb: 6/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 56% (Monsters: Godzilla, Orga, Millennian UFO, Millennian)
Director: Takao Okawara
Soundtrack: Takayuki Hattori
Erm... yeah, I don't know. This one's pretty decent. Its plot is pretty simple. There's a family that tracks Godzilla like a storm. A giant flying rock comes down to earth. Godzilla fights said rock. The rock reveals itself to be a weird chromatic UFO.
This thing ends up turning into the Millennian:
Which stays in its current state for all of about a minute. It then transforms into its final form...
...Orga. This thing fights Godzilla and then tries to consume him and take his form. Godzilla breathes fire into its mouth while it does this, and it gets completely obliterated.
There's also a scene at the end where a guy yells "GODZILLAAAAAAAAAAA!" and then gets killed. Yep.
I don't really know what else to say. It's an okay kaiju film. It can get a little bland at times, though.
18. Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) HEISEI IMDb: 5.8/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 55% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, SpaceGodzilla, M.O.G.U.E.R.A., Little Godzilla, Fairy Mothra)
Director: Kensho Yamashita
Soundtrack: Takayuki Hattori
So this was the second-to-last film (6th) in the Heisei era of Godzilla films (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah was the 3rd entry if you were curious), and Godzilla was sort of a hero figure for the first time in the Heisei series.
So basically a couple of things happened (I won't go into specifics because it'll spoil some of the later movie reviews) and Godzilla's cells are now in space. They form an extraterrestrial creature known as SpaceGodzilla, who admittedly has a pretty bad name.
So he ends up fighting Godzilla and trapping his son in a crystal. He takes over part of Japan and engulfs it in crystals.
The U.N. is also working on a new mech known as M.O.G.U.E.R.A. (Mobile Operations Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aero-type),
which can split into Land Moguera and Star Falcon, two separate vehicles. He is actually based on another mech named "Moguera" from The Mysterians.
There's also Fairy Mothra who talks with the humans and stuff.
Anyway, Godzilla, M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and SpaceGodzilla all have a pretty nice fight in which Godzilla ends up obliterating both SpaceGodzilla and M.O.G.U.E.R.A. with a massive atomic breath blast.
This film isn't the best, but it's pretty fun.
17. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster) (1971) SHOWA IMDb: 5.9/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 64% (Monsters: Godzilla, Hedorah)
Director: Yoshimitsu Banno
Soundtrack: Riichiro Manabe
So this one is really psychedelic and weird. It's supposed to be an environmental message about pollution, but... it's pretty weird.
Let me briefly, and I do mean briefly this time, sum up the plot.
Basically some weird smog thing shows up in the water and attacks some kid's dad. He cuts it with a knife as it flies away.
Basically it evolves over time and becomes this really powerful smog creature, and is named Hedorah. There's this one really weird scene where there are a bunch of people at some drug-induced party. Some guy hallucinates this. THIS.
Yeah. He thinks everyone has fish heads. Basically a bunch of smog floods the place and gets a poor cat really sick and it's probably going to die later. It's actually kind of sad.
Anyway, the only way Godzilla manages to defeat Hedorah is by doing what he seemed to do best in the late Showa series, defying the laws of physics.
He manages to catch up to Hedorah as he flies away, and gets him to the military. Here, they pretty much fry Hedorah, killing him.
It's pretty silly but it's also pretty dark at the same time.
16: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) MILLENNIUM IMDb: 6.8/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 69% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Kiryu)
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Soundtrack: Michiru Oshima
This one's plot is pretty simple. Godzilla is attack Japan and the GDF (Global Defense Force) makes a mech called Kiryu...
...to stop him. Kiryu ends up going haywire and attack Japan too, as he begins to think like Godzilla does. They manage to regain control of him and Godzilla battles Kiryu again at the end. Kiryu's pretty cool looking, but I feel like they tried a little too hard to make him armed.
It's pretty good, but the plot is nothing special.
15. Godzilla vs. Mothra: Battle for Earth (Godzilla vs. Mothra) (1992) HEISEI IMDb: 6.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 67% (Monsters: Godzilla, Mothra, Battra, Mothra Larva, Battra Larva)
Director: Takao Okawara
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
So now we're getting into some pretty good stuff. This is the 4th entry in the Heisei series. Mankind is punished for the wrong it's done with a dark Mothra counterpart's larva, Battra. And oh my god, he looks awesome.
So Godzilla gets awakened by a meteorite, and the two fight. Mothra gets sent to stop Battra. Battra turns into his adult form. The two end up teaming up to stop Godzilla. Yep. That's a brief description.
It's a fun movie with good fights and awesome suits/puppets.
14. Godzilla vs. King Kong (1962) SHOWA IMDb: 5.9/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 33% (Monsters: Godzilla, King Kong, Giant Lizard, Giant Octopus)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
This one is rather silly, and the reviews show it. But Godzilla's suit is pretty great, although his tail seems to have a mind of its own and he likes clapping. There is very little to say about this movie's plot. King Kong is somehow the size of Godzilla. He looks ridiculous. Godzilla does not. They fight. King Kong makes Godzilla eat a tree. This weird stop motion thing happens:
This film also has an epic theme song. That's about it. Somehow King Kong manages to survive at the end and swim away... I don't even know.
This one's silly, but good in my eyes.
13. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) MILLENNIUM IMDb: 6.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 72% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Kiryu, Mothra, Kamoebas)
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Soundtrack: Michiru Oshima
This one's pretty great. The whole movie is pretty much a giant showdown in Tokyo. This one is a direct sequel to Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla has returned. Kiryu is updated by the GDF. Mothra is sent from Birth Island. Godzilla and Mothra fight. He beats her. Kiryu appears to fight. Godzilla gets his butt kicked. Mothra sacrifices herself for her larvae. The two larvae and Kiryu team up on Godzilla to finish it off. Yep. Like I said, the movie is mostly a giant battle, and it's awesome.
12. The Return of Godzilla (Godzilla, Godzilla 1984) (1984) HEISEI IMDb: 6.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 13% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Super X, Shockirus)
Director: Koji Hashimoto
Soundtrack: Reijiro Koroku
Okay, critics seem to think this movie is absolute garbage as you can see by the Rotten Tomatoes rating up there. While it is kind of silly in parts and has some questionable deus ex machinas, it's actually pretty dark. It's also the first movie in the Heisei series.
First off, Godzilla looks great. His animatronic suit looks very impressive.
Godzilla, for the most part, is by himself in this one.
There is a sea louse kaiju in the beginning known as Shockirus. It attacks someone who investigates a stranded ship that saw Godzilla awaken.
There's also a Cold War subplot between the U.S. and Russia with nuclear weapons.
The Japanese Government secretly designs a machine to protect them from nuclear warfare called the Super X. They end up using it to fight Godzilla (Who has a great first appearance when he attacks by the way). They almost kill him- until Russia and the U.S. launch nukes at each other, which hit each other and cause a storm. Lightning strikes Godzilla and he is revived. He destroys the Super X.
They figure out that Godzilla is attracted to bird sounds for some reason. They lure him to a volcano, where they set off explosives and send him tumbling down to his demise. It's actually pretty sad hearing Godzilla scream as he falls.
11. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) HEISEI IMDb: 6.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 71% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Garuda, Super Mechagodzilla, Rodan/Fire Rodan, Baby Godzilla)
Director: Takao Okawara
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
So this was the 5th entry in the Heisei series, and it's pretty awesome. This list is already long and you probably want to get tot he Top 10, so I'll make this short.
G-Force uses the remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah to make a robot to fight Godzilla.
A group of people finds a giant pteranodon named Rodan who is the guardian of some eggs.
One of these eggs happens to hold a Baby Godzilla.
This Godzilla would end up becoming Little Godzilla in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.
So yeah. You get to watch Godzilla and Rodan fight for custody of Baby Godzilla, and you get to watch G-Force's mechagodzilla fight them for... well, fighting reasons.
That concludes this list. Stay tuned for the Top 10.
-sonicfan0001
