Ranking the Godzilla Films (Top 10)
Here it is, the Top 10! Let's jump right into it.
10: Terror of Mechagodzilla (Terror of Godzilla) (1975) SHOWA IMDb: 6.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 62% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Titanosaurus)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
This film is great fun, and is also a direct sequel to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, but that film will come later. Not all that much to say about the plot, there are some aliens that rebuild Mechagodzilla and a giant fish monster named Titanosaurus who has quite possibly the most annoying roar of the entire series. Seriously, it's up there with Gabara's.
Anyway, Godzilla has a badass entrance and there are lots of great fights. It's easily one of the best of the series.
This was also the last film of the Showa era.
9: Invasion of Astro-Monster (Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) (1965) SHOWA IMDb: 6.4/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 63% (Monsters: Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
This movie's special because it was the first one to feature aliens of any kind. They are known as the Xiliens, and they would later be revived for Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004. This movie also has one of the best themes in the series.
So Earth discovers this new planet, "Planet X", and on that planet they meet the Xiliens, who supposedly come in peace. They tell of a monster who terrorizes their planet- and yep, it's King Ghidorah.
So Earth brings over Godzilla and Rodan to fight him and they win- but they soon discover that the Xiliens had King Ghidorah in their control the whole time. WHAT A TWIST. ;)
So they gain control of Rodan and Godzilla and send the three kaiju back to Earth to, well, destroy it. But Godzilla and Rodan regain control and defeat King Ghidorah together.
This is one of the best, and it also has Godzilla's famous victory dance in it:
Yeah.
8: Destroy all Monsters (1968) SHOWA IMDb: 6.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 71% (Monsters: Godzilla, Anguirus, Rodan, Mothra Larva, Gorosaurus, King Ghidorah, Manda, Minilla, Kumonga, Baragon, Varan)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
Wow. This one's great. This one also has a special place in my heart because it's the first Godzilla film I ever watched. As you can see, it features Godzilla, Minilla, Anguirus, Mothra Larva, Rodan, Kumonga, Manda, Gorosaurus, Baragon and Varan. And they all fight King Ghidorah. There's some aliens that come down and set out all of the monsters on Japan, and... yeah. It has a good balance of human plot and monster battles, all leading up to the epic battle at the end. It also has one of the best themes of the series.
This movie was actually supposed to end the series originally. I guess they went back on that decision... by a lot.
7: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (Godzilla vs. The Cosmic Monster, Godzilla vs. The Bionic Monster) (1974) SHOWA IMDb: 6.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 67% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, King Caesar)
Director: Jun Fukuda
Soundtrack: Masaru Sato
This one is really good. It features an interestingly swing music-themed soundtrack and...
blood. LOTS AND LOTS OF BLOOD. Lots of fans call this the Kill Bill of Godzilla movies.
So basically this weird-sounding Godzilla is being a jerk and people are confused. At this point in the series, Godzilla is a hero figure. Anyway, this Godzilla ends up breaking Anguirus' jaw after fighting him. Which is very bloody.
So the real Godzilla shows up and reveals the faker to be Mechagodzilla. And my god, I love Mechagodzilla's reveal scene. Seriously, it's so cheesy and I love it. Here, I even found the English-dubbed version of it:
So Mechagodzilla is terrorizing everything, and the main characters awaken King Caesar, some ancient dog kaiju. And how do they wake him up? BY SINGING FOR WAY TOO LONG. The scene's a little ridiculous, but very dramatic. And the last fight is pretty great.
Also, Mechagodzilla is controlled by ape aliens who reappear in Terror of Mechagodzilla.
6: Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) HEISEI IMDb: 6.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 72% (Monsters/Machines: Godzilla, Biollante, Biollante Rose, Super X2)
Director: Kazuki Ōmori
Soundtrack: Koichi Sugiyama
This may just be the most underrated film in the entire series. Very dark setting and mood, Godzilla looks great, the Super X returns and Biollante is TERRIFYING.
So this was the second entry in the Heisei series, and it has a rather complicated but admirable plot. It's not all weird and convoluted like Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah's, though.
So basically Godzilla is still trapped in the volcano from The Return of Godzilla and his cells are being kept at a laboratory. An assassin steals them and takes them to another lab. A scientist wants to use them on roses to make lots of them and solve people's dependency on oil wells for wealth. The lab ends up getting bombed and the scientist's daughter dies.
Five years later, he merges her cells with that of a rose so that she can live on in the plant. The mountain it is planted by explodes, almost killing the plant. The scientist desparately merges the plant's cells with Godzilla's. Another raid for cells occur by the mountain where Godzilla is buried. One of the raiders threatens to blow up the mountain where Godzilla is. Suddenly, a large plant tentacle attacks them. The explosives are placed. The creature escapes and goes to a lake, where it turns into a giant rose.
Godzilla is now awake again. Godzilla battles the rose. The Super X2 is also sent out to fight him at one point, but this time it's remote-controlled to prevent fatalities. Finally, Biollante evolves into her final form. And... she's terrifying. She manages to beat Godzilla with some lethal bacteria.
Like I said, very good film. I don't understand how more people don't like this one.
5: Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) SHOWA IMDb: 6.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 80% (Monsters: Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra Larva)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
Oh my, this is a good one. This movie pretty much invented the kaiju tag-team. Before this it had only been one or one-on-one. But this time, you have 3 vs 1.
Since the last one's description was so long, I shorten this one:
Some martians take host of a princess through her mind to warn the humans of a space monster known as King Ghidorah, who is coming to Earth. They tell the humans of the chaos he wrought on their planet. A bunch of people try to assassinate the princess.
Godzilla and Rodan appear and fight each other. Mothra's larva is sent to try and make peace.
The three team up to have an epic battle with King Ghidorah.
Oh, and the Shobijin can also translate kaiju speak. All I'll say is:
"Godzilla, what foul language!"
4: Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (GMK) (2001) MILLENNIUM IMDb: 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 50% (Monsters: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Baragon)
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Soundtrack: Kow Otani
Critics are a little unsure of this film, but it's one of the best. First of all, Godzilla has one of her best suits of the series (And yes, it's a she in this one). I mean come on, look at it!
Anyway, so Godzilla is supposedly an embodiment of all the unrestful souls that Japan killed in World War 2. So she's kind of a zombie-ghost-kaiju. Coolio.
The earth has three guardians to protect it from evil: Baragon, Mothra and King Ghidorah.
Long story short, this movie is quite different from some others where Godzilla is the villain: you do not feel bad for her if she gets hurt or killed in this movie AT ALL. She is an abosolute menace. There's even a scene where you see her kill a woman in a hospital bed. Damn.
Basically she gruesomely kills the other kaiju and ends up being blown up from the inside by her own breath. Her heart is still beating in the ocean at the end, though.
This one also has a great theme.
3: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) HEISEI IMDb: 6.9/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 83% (Monsters: Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Precambrian Destoroyah, Juvenile Destoroyah, Aggregate Destoroyah, Flying Destoroyah, Perfect Destoroyah)
Director: Takao Okawara
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
Wow. Just wow. This one is fantastic. It was also the last Heisei Era film and many fans believe it to be the true ending to the series.
Birth Island has disappeared, for starters.
Godzilla is melting down from the inside and his heart will explode. They can't kill him because it will set it off. If he explodes, it will set the entire world on fire. Meanwhile, a mutated lifeform from the Precambrian era is discovered. They were mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer. These things end up killing all of the fish in an aquarium with "MIro-Oxygen". They eventually turn into larger, human-sized creatures... the Juvenile Destoroyahs.
There is a great scene where the military goes into the building with the creatures. It's very reminiscent of something you'd see in an Alien movie. Seriously. They're breaking out of walls, killing peoplea nd jumping out constantly.
The military also develops the Super X3 to freeze Godzilla and stop him from attacking. This works temporarily.
The Juvenile Destoroyahs merge into the Aggregate form.
It fights the military.
Suddenly, the Baby Godzilla reappears- and it's growing up.
It is now "Godzilla Junior", and it fights Destoroyah in its flying form.
So they fight and Junior gets injected with Micro-Oxygen. He has this really sad thing where his eyes turn red when he gets scared.
Godzilla meets his son again, and Destoroyah transforms into his adult form, as seen in the top picture. He looks a lot like a demon.
Destoroyah ends up picking up Junior and dropping him into a building from high up, killing him in front of Burning Godzilla.
Godzilla actually does a peculiar roar, and it is revealed that he is crying. He manages to weaken Destoroyah enough for the military to shoot him down and kill him.
Then we get what may be the saddest moment in the entire series.
The military freezes Godzilla as he dies slowly, melts down and explodes. This Godzilla story arc had continued for seven films, this was the last movie with the original producer and the last movie with music by the original composer, Akira Ifukube. This seemed like the end. But, right at the last second, you see the energy enter Junior and grow him to full size. Everyone expected a new series.
But no. The next one was another full reboot (Excluding the American one, the next one was Godzilla: 2000). Damnit.
But this one is great. Give it a watch.
2: Mothra vs. Godzilla (Godzilla vs. The Thing) (1964) SHOWA IMDb: 6.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 90% (Monsters: Godzilla, Mothra, Mothra Larva)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
This one is fantastic too. It brought in arguably Godzilla's most iconic other character: Mothra. It also had a pretty good plot.
I don't even know what to say. It's just that good.
Some corporate assholes try to rebuild their company by taking a large egg that appears. They find the Shobijin, Mothra's protectors. They tell them to leave it alone. They ignore them. Godzilla appears out of the ground and destroys, like, everything.
The egg hatches the Mothra Larva. And the fights between Godzilla and adult Mothra are fantastic.
I can't say much else. It's just great and you need to watch it.
1: Gojira (1954) SHOWA IMDb: 7.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 93% (Monsters: Godzilla)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube
You can't beat the original. And I'm talking about the Japanese original, not Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Because I'm excluding that one for remake purposes.
This movie is dark, it's gritty, it makes you feel bad, it's scary and it makes you question moral ethics. I don't want to spoil this movie if you don't know much about it. This movie practically pioneered the kaiju genre, so definitely go watch it. The soundtrack is also amazing.
Welp, there you go. Those were my Top 10. Next time I one of these, I will be ranking the 12 Gamera films. Until next time.
-sonicfan0001
