I’ve been on a ranking kick lately, and I planned on ranking the entire Godzilla franchise after Godzilla x Kong this weekend, but Toho isn’t able to release Minus One on video for a while due to an agreement with Legendary to not compete with any of their movies. So since my ranking will have to wait indefinitely, I decided to just write about my general thoughts on each era or sub-section of the series. Keep in mind, I’m a novice Godzilla guy, and I didn’t even know about the eras until a few weeks ago. Still, I watched every movie except the aforementioned two (though I am seeing GxK this weekend) and Gigantis, the Fire Monster (which I’ll watch for my ranking), and I need to write something about these movies so I feel a slight sense of accomplishment.
Before I started this journey of forty Godzilla movies in a month, I knew very little about it. Honestly, I just dismissed it entirely. I thought it was all just shitty rubber suits and terrible miniature cities. Also, I was one of those dickheads who would watch a Godzilla movie (mainly just the 2014 one before I went deep) and complain about Godzilla not being in enough of it. As it turns out, these movies hinge on the human characters because as awesome as the fights are, this shit would get boring if that’s all the movie was. As far as the action goes, I was surprised by how entertaining I found it, even though the characters looked like “puppets,” according to my four-year-old son. Yes, sometimes the series gets a bit goofy, but the filmmakers are aware of it, to a degree. And every now and then a true gem would hit (a Hidorah, Destoroyah, Shin, etc.) and blow me away.
I enjoyed almost every bit of this series. I watched the American versions of some of the movies just to be a completionist, and they have their moments, but I prefer the originals. But the only thing I straight up hated was the animated trilogy on Netflix. I suppose that’s part of the Reiwa era, but I’m not going into further detail on those until the rankings, where they will be dead last. Anyway, here are some general thoughts from a newbie Godzilla fan.
The Shōwa Era
Before starting the series, I assumed things started off very serious and eventually turned into the kind of movies I saw parodied in a Beastie Boys video. I was wrong about the “eventual” part. While the first film is a certified classic and contains some of the darkest, bleakest moments of the franchise and absolutely no laughs are to be had with it, the series very quickly gets softer. But I get it, after nailing the connection to the nuclear bombs with the first one, what else is there to do with the character? They can’t just keep repeating themselves, so Toho knew they had to start introducing new characters and lighten things up from time to time.
That’s how we get King Kong vs. Godzilla for the third film in the franchise (I’m not counting Godzilla, King of the Monsters as the third movie since it’s just the American version of the original with Raymond Burr shoehorned in). I was surprised how early this was in the series, and others are, too. I’ve been talking to anyone that will listen to me about Godzilla, and someone made the comment that they liked the movies, but then they got silly by adding King Kong. Imagine my nerd delight when I got to say, “Actually, that’s one of the first movies in the series.”
The goofy factor so early worried me because I thought it would escalate from there, but the series isn’t that linear. There are the requisite introductions of all the great adversaries in the series with Ghidora, Mothra, Rodan, and whatnot, and those are all a good time. Then it does get into straight up childrens’ movie territory for a bit with Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, and All Monsters Attack, though the only one of those I dislike is All Monsters and mainly just because it re-uses footage from previous movies. Son of Godzilla is actually one of my favorites.
But I still prefer a slightly more serious take on the character, which is why Godzilla vs. Hedorah is my favorite movie from this era. To be fair, this isn’t a wholly serious take, but changing the theme from the dangers of nuclear weapons and power to pollution steered the series back into “message” territory. More than that, though, Hedorah is a disgusting, awesome villain, and I always like it in these early films when Godzilla gets to be the good guy. Their fight is surprisingly gnarly, and the whole thing is weird enough to be a standout for me.
The Heisei Era
Watching all of these movies in quick succession is not a good idea, and as I reached the mid-1970s, I was really looking forward to a change of pace and era for the series. After the reboot in 1984 (which is technically still Shōwa, but gets included in Heisei because the next film is a direct sequel), there’s a little break and we get into the late 80s and the 90s. I was looking forward to better suits and special effects.
For the most part, this era delivers. It also features a complete story throughout the era with a definitive beginning, middle, and end. And the end is easily my favorite.
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is amazing. This is the one in which Godzilla is basically a nuclear reactor in meltdown mode, so he looks increasingly crazy as the movie goes on. By the end, he is a glowing, smoking death machine. Beyond the awesome design and the fights, this is one that featured truly compelling human characters. It does a better job than even the original of making me care about both Godzilla and the humans. And this is one of the few ones in which it feels like Godzilla could really destroy the entire planet. It’s easy at times in this series to dismiss the severity of the action because it’s so clear that they are fighting on a miniature set, but in Destoroyah, the filmmakers do such a great job of making you care about everyone involved, you forget the special effects and get drawn into the story. Destoroyah is one that I plan on returning to many times in the future.
The Millenium Era
This is my least favorite era by far, mainly because none of the movies stand out for me. They all have their moments, and I don’t dislike any of them (though the first fifteen minutes of Final Wars had me worried), but none of them blew me away.
The closest to get the job done is Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. Godzilla looks demonic with this one, and it always impresses me when a film can do a good job of making Godzilla the villain. I typically like G as the hero, but when a movie can make the case that he needs to be taken out (as the original does), it’s special. Also, when he’s treated as the villain, he’s presented as extra powerful. Nothing sucks more than seeing G get knocked around like a weakling, so it’s great that he’s so strong in this one that it takes everything the world can pull together to take him out.
But beyond GMaKG:GMA-OA, I found the rest of the era just fine.
The Reiwa Era
Aside from the animated stuff I hate, the only movie I’ve seen in this era is Shin Godzilla. But as of this writing, it’s my favorite of the series. Godzilla’s design and power is so impressive and terrifying in this. I didn’t know what I truly wanted from this series until I watched Shin. All of the destruction is massive and awesome, and the human element is perfect.
This is what Roland Emmerich should have done with the 1998 movie: show what a modern government would do in response to Godzilla. Of course, that means showing bureaucracy to the point of comedy, but the film doesn’t just use it for easy jokes. It quickly becomes just as serious as the original film when the possibility of America using nuclear weapons comes up. This adds a compelling element to the human story, which made me just as interested in the outcome of their story as I was in just watching the big guy destroy a city. And any time you can get me to care about something other than destruction in a Godzilla movie, you’ve done something very right.
I imagine I’ll also love Minus One based on everything I’ve read about it, but time will tell. If it’s anything like Shin, it might take over the top spot for me.
Oh, and once again if I wasn’t clear before: fuck those animated Netflix movies.
American Versions and Others
This is kind of a miscellaneous era in that it isn’t all that connected. In general, I prefer the Toho versions of all the earlier movies, but the American cuts of Godzilla and The Return of Godzilla (Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and Godzilla 1985) are worth watching just for the Raymond Burr stuff. And the American cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla is worth checking out just for the condescending American news anchor and the scientist (who uses a grade school-level book about dinosaurs as a source of expert knowledge). But I only recommend these for completionists.
There’s also the trippy Godzilla from 1977, also known as Cozzilla, which is a slightly colorized and re-edited Italian cut of the film. It’s trippy as hell, but only weirdos like me need to watch it.
Then there’s the infamous 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla. It kind of sucks for all the reasons people have pointed out before, but if you go in expecting complete trash, you might end up finding it okay, as I did. I don’t care for the look of G in it, as he looks too much like a dinosaur for my taste. But there’s some fun, silly shit there. It just doesn’t feel like a Godzilla movie.
Legendary
I saved the most recent for last. In general, I dig all of these movies, with King of the Monsters my clear favorite. I’m a basic bitch, so I just enjoy seeing contemporary special effects, and it makes these movies easy to rewatch.
Originally, I hated the 2014 film because of the aforementioned “not enough Godzilla!” of it all. I still have issues with it (the constant cutting away from fights annoys me, and Cranston should have lived at least until the end of the movie), but it handles scale in a cool way, and Godzilla and the MUTOs feel accurately massive.
Godzilla vs. Kong was a bit of a disappointment for me upon a rewatch because it feels like a Kong movie that they just tossed Godzilla into. But the fight is great, and in general I find it to be a fun movie.
King of the Monsters is pretty amazing, though, since they got the rights to bring in Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan. It was awesome to see those monsters with modern effects, and all the fights are great. Mainly, though, this one nails the tone. It has some comedy here and there, but overall this is an end of the world movie, and it feels like it. It gets what this series should be.
The new film looks like it’s more in Kong territory, but I still have high hopes for it. Godzilla runs in the trailer, which old me would find stupid. Now, I’m all for it because I know now that Godzilla can and should be different depending on the movie. Run until you pass out, big guy.
Finally…
So that’s it. Next up, I might write about GxK. But I’ll definitely get to my overall ranking as soon as Minus One is available to me.
