The 7 Best And 7 Worst Godzilla Movies

This year, 65 years after the great monster first arrived on the shores of Japan, we will see the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, sequel to 2014's Godzilla and the third Hollywood film to star the legendary kaiju. The movie hopes to merge the Hollywood scale and atmosphere of the 2014 film with the decades of mythology built up by Godzilla's original production company, Toho, by bringing in several of Godzilla's most famous allies and enemies, including Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah.

The very premise of King of the Monsters asks us to look back at Godzilla's vast history, which now includes nearly three dozen films across four different eras of storytelling (the Showa Era, the Heisei Era, the Millennium Era, and the Reiwa Era). They range from dark depictions of post-nuclear Japan to comedic sci-fi romps to time travel sagas and everything in between. With so many films to choose from you might be wondering where to start. So, whether you're looking for the best Godzilla flicks or the most infamous, start here. These are the five best and five worst Godzilla movies.

Godzilla was a massive success upon its release in 1954, so of course it made sense for Toho to push out a sequel to the film as quickly as possible. That arrived the following year in the form of Godzilla Raids Again, and as is the case with a lot of quickly made sequels, the results are disappointing.

For one thing, though this is the first film to feature monster vs. monster combat as Godzilla battles fellow dinosaur-like creature Anguirus, the battles are not yet what they would later become. There's a lot of shuffling around, much of it an effort to look animalistic, but it's just not as fun as the full-on wrestling matches that would follow in future films.

The mythology is also a little underwhelming, particularly when you find out that this Godzilla is actually just another giant radioactive lizard from the same species, since they killed the original monster at the end of the first film. The film also suffers technically, featuring a good deal less atmosphere and visual artistry than its predecessor.

All that said, Godzilla Raids Again is still watchable, but it's the definition of a lackluster sequel.

For a little while in the middle of the Showa era of Godzilla films, Toho tried to focus on keeping budgets in check while also devoting its better crews to other films, and unfortunately that sometimes shows in the work. The studio also experimented with broadening the franchise's appeal through the introduction of various new characters, which unfortunately brings us to Godzilla's son, Minilla.

There's nothing inherently wrong with Godzilla having offspring. In fact, later films also toyed with this idea to varying degrees of success. Here, though, the interactions between Godzilla and Minilla are played with such a comedic, put-upon-father sensibility that it starts to grate on you almost immediately. Minilla quickly becomes an annoyance, and his reputation as one of the more questionable choices in the franchise is secure.

That's not the only problem with the film, though. The creatures this time around — the giant mantises called Kamacuras and the giant spider called Kumonga — look cool, but because they're puppets instead of men in suits, the fight scenes are rather limited in terms of intensity. Plus the Godzilla suit built for this film (deliberately designed to make him look more like a parent) just... doesn't work.

It's inevitable in a franchise that's as varied and long-lasting as the Godzilla films that occasional corners will be cut. Sometimes that results in relatively small-scale storytelling like Son of Godzilla, which is largely relegated to Monster Island, and sometimes that results in lackluster kaiju battles and other shortcomings. It also means that, at one point in the Godzilla series, we got a film that was in some ways just a sizzle reel for Godzilla films which came before it.

All Monsters Attack, also known as Godzilla's Revenge, is the story of a young boy named Ichiro who dreams of Monster Island to escape his lonely, bullied life. In his dreams he befriends Godzilla's son Minilla, and the two deal with their respective bullies through the power of friendship. This isn't necessarily a bad concept, but the film also leans heavily on footage of Godzilla that's been recycled from Son of Godzilla and Ebirah: Horror of the Deep, among others. There's also the problem of Minilla, who remains annoying despite his noble quest to overcome his bully. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the premise, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

In the 1970s, Toho was hoping to create its own giant hero modeled after the success of the Japanese character Ultraman, and held a contest asking children to design their own hero. The resulting character, after plenty of tweaks by the studio, was the giant robot Jet Jaguar, who was originally supposed to get his own film. Somewhere along the way the Jet Jaguar film was merged with a Godzilla film, and Godzilla vs. Megalon is the result.

Godzilla and a giant robot man in the same movie definitely sounds like fun, but the film itself suffers from a rushed production process, one of the less impressive monster designs in the form of Megalon, and a plot that spends more time with Jet Jaguar than you end up wanting. The film is also infamous for its depiction of Godzilla executing a drop kick that ends up looking like he's riding his own tail, and the monster fights don't really improve beyond that.

Yes, director Roland Emmerich's 1998 Godzilla film, the first American attempt at a reboot for the creature, gets a lot of hate thrown its way. People don't like the creature design, they don't like Matthew Broderick cast as the scientist poised to take down Godzilla, they don't like the whole conceit of the creature having babies, and sometimes they just don't like the 1990s of it all. Godzilla '98 is an easy film to hate for a number of reasons.

Despite all of those reasons, though, the biggest problem with Emmerich's film is the frustration that comes from watching it, because if you're really paying attention you do get the sense that there was almost, maybe, possibly a hint of a good movie lurking in there somewhere before everything went wrong. There are some truly interesting moments in the film, from Broderick's character standing in a footprint and not realizing it's a footprint to the creature's first appearance in New York City. Sadly, that's not enough to carry the film even as a campy "so bad it's good" movie. It's just a series of confrontations with a monster so things can explode for a few minutes before the film sets things up for the next set of explosions, and then it ends.

Godzilla: The Planet Eater is considered a disappointing end to an anime trilogy that began with 2017's Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters and continued with 2018's Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, though there are some who found it a vindication of the series.

Haruo, the main protagonist voiced by Mamoru Miyano, has a big grudge against Godzilla and with good reason, as Godzilla and other kaiju have emerged on Earth and taken it over. Earth has also been visited by not one, but two alien species, the Exif and the Bilasaludo, who cannot defeat Godzilla, foiling their plans to invade the Earth. Having all fled the rampaging Godzilla on the spaceship Aratrum, the humans and aliens return two decades later to find that not only have 20,000 years passed on Earth, but that both Earth and Godzilla have significantly changed, with Godzilla DNA present everywhere. The humanoid Houtua, a spiritual race who worship Mothra, are also involved.

Godzilla: The Planet Eater includes Godzilla's main antagonist, King Ghidorah, who's summoned by the religious Exif in a "shadow" form. Haruo has conflict with both the Bilasaludo, who blame him for their predicament, and Exif priest Metphies, voiced by Takahiro Sakurai, whose religious fervor leads to the destruction of the Aratrum via Ghidorah and who manipulates Haruo throughout the series.

The philosophical underpinnings of the trilogy's end are somewhat downbeat. Humanity can best survive if it reverts to a more primitive lifestyle, eschewing technology and submitting to the will of gods and monsters, both literal and not. This message appears not to have resonated with many, putting Godzilla: The Planet Eater in the "Worst" category.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, also known as Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Godzilla – Ebirah – Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas, begins the stage of the Showa era when Godzilla gets silly and Toho cuts costs. The film features a friendlier-looking Godzilla fighting what's basically a giant lobster. Originally conceived as a vehicle for King Kong, the project was retooled when Toho and Rankin/Bass, which produced a King Kong cartoon, couldn't come to terms on Kong's use. Well, not really "retooled" so much as just sticking Godzilla in where Kong would appear.

The movie is a jumble of spy shenanigans, terrorists called the Red Bamboo enslaving islanders, a damsel in distress, and a criminal who reforms after his misadventures. Godzilla doesn't just fight Ebirah, but Mothra, too, as she arrives to save her people, all before the island is nuked out of existence. The movie is slow-paced and it takes a long time for Godzilla to appear, even by Godzilla film standards.

Ichiro Honda did not direct this mess; that fell to Jun Fukuda, who would go on to direct Godzilla vs. Megalon. Godzilla mainstay Akira Takarada plays bank robber Yoshimura, who hides out on a boat that gets stolen by a man and his friends searching for the man's missing brother. The boat is attacked by Ebirah and the group washes up on Red Bamboo's base. They stumble upon Godzilla, deciding to awaken him as a distraction to help Mothra's people escape. Later on, Godzilla and Ebirah play ping-pong with a rock. It's... not good.