Every Godzilla film, ranked from worst to best
As Godzilla Minus One arrives in theaters, it's time to count down the previous 36 films from one of cinema's longest-running franchises
Film Features Godzilla
Across four eras—Showa, Heisei, Millenium, and Reiwa—Godzilla has helped chart the course of both a country and a culture, speaking to the fears, hopes, and most fantastical dreams of the Japanese people. Toho’s Godzilla films have captivated the world for nearly 70 years, leading to a proliferation of giant monster (kaiju) films, inspiring a number of American blockbusters, while Hollywood has also successfully managed to develop its own take on the character (after an initial misfire).
From rubber suits to CGI, the Godzilla franchise has pushed visual effects forward, leading to some of the most incredible spectacles put on film. Beyond film, Godzilla has tackled television, video games, and comic books, truly proving himself to be King of the Monsters. In celebration of the upcoming release of Toho’s 33rd Godzilla film, Godzilla Minus One, and the current Hollywood-produced Monsterverse series, Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters on Apple TV+, The A.V. Club ranks every Godzilla film, from the worst to the best.
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Thanks from this elder GenXer that spent way too much time watching TV in the 1970s and remember some of these movies fondly.
Myself as well, always on channel 9 in NYC on the day after Thanksgiving and had playworld commericals all day!
I remember other commercials.
Yup, Crazy Eddy was on the Friday Godzilla block as well.Thursday was Kong day (and mighty joe young) Friday was Godzilla day!
I guess it was the ubiquity of these films on the Saturday Creature Feature back in the 70s. My slightly younger friends just don’t get it. A few of us saw the ‘14 Godzilla together and I was the only one who stayed awake. I was never a fan of the comic Godzilla. To me he was SCARY. He could be the hero, but he was a scary hero. As a kid I used to be scared to look out my bedroom window at night, it had a view of buildings and other objects that were maybe a mile away but seemed much further, and therefore (in my mind) gigantic. Giant stuff, even faraway, is scarier than merely large stuff up close. Godzilla tapped into that.
Channel 56 (WLVI) in Boston for me.
I was just the right age for Showa-era Godzilla when those movies hit American theatres, and I unironically loved absolutely every one that I saw. It wasn’t until MANY years later that I learned a lot of them were considered kind of a joke.
“the SuperStation”, Ted Turner’s WTBS in ATL showed these repeatedly. I too remember many of these films fondly. Very little kid me had to be reassured that the Smog Monster/Hedorah wasn’t real but Godzilla was a dinosaur! Yep, my parents used Godzilla as a gateway to all things dinosaur. Imagine my disappointment when I learned Godzilla was more like the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, and Santa. Love this list, BTW.I’m giddily excited to watch “Minus One” on IMAX this weekend.
Back in the early 80s we had a UHF channel that did Samurai Saturdays right after the cartoons ended and they frequently played Kaiju movies, samurai movies, Kung fu movies(it was the 80s) and occasionally an anime movie. Saw a lot of the Showa era stuff back then
War of The Gargantuas came of TV the other day and I was transported back to the 70’s and the TV of the Boys Club rec room where I watched Creature Double Feature on Saturdays.
Now we will never see Godzilla vs. Shane MacGowan.R.I.P. Shane.
And….this list is immediately irrelevant by putting All Monsters Attack last. Is AMA a good movie, not really, but its far from the worst movie. Its a movie about a basically un-parented latch key kid(which was becoming a problem across Japan in the mid 60s) who is bullied and dreams about Godzilla and Monster Island. The key here is that Godzilla does not exist in Ichiros world. He’d just a kid who likes monster movies and uses then as a way to escape the depressing reality of his young life. As a kids movie, which is what it is, its fine, and sometimes quite good.
Holy fuck this list is awful. KKvsGodzilla in the bottom half?? Its a COMEDY. The entire movie satirizes commercialism and the constant need for “publicity”. I honestly wonder if the author has even seen these movies in their uncut, unedited Japanese forms as intended.
I’d bet money he hasn’t. The section on AMA opens with “Despite being one of director Ishiro Honda’s favorites, All Monsters Attack is frequently cited by fans as the worst film in the franchise.” This is just like those crappy wirecutter-lite sites that rank the “best” items based on Amazon reviews.
This bozo has Mothra Vs Godzilla and Astro Monster out of the top 10 and 2 of the 3 AMERICAN movies in the top 10!!!! Along with Destroyah? This honestly might be the worst Godzilla ranking I’ve ever seen.Anyway. Saw Minus One last night and HOOOOOOLY crap was it good.
Okay I’m thinking with that username and the following comment you made you might have gotten a little lost on the way to a subreddit page…
Yah, this list is beyond terrible. All of the most recent/ modern movies being ranked so high is ridiculous. He either hadn’t actually watched the older movies, or has an extreme case of recency bias. Those movies have a fraction of the entertainment value of most of the Showa and Heisei Era movies.
The thing is, it’s not even “really” a Godzilla film- Toho still considered the series finished after DAM, and this was more something to help sell the first Champion Festival (a triple feature program intended to get kiddies back in theaters as the film industry was collapsing.) You can’t even really judge it by the same standards, it’s not a normal kaiju film.And yeah, this list is weird. I have no idea why Son of Godzilla is ranked below G vs Megalon or even Megaguirus.
I read it as someone that watched the Godzilla movies, without getting all nuts about them, and then ranked them in order of the ones he liked the most. Though I am 100% sure my 13-year-old would be in this particular thread agreeing with you guys all the way.
I mean it’s not a question of emotional maturity, Son of Godzilla is just better made.
“The thing is, it’s not even “really” a Godzilla film- Toho still considered the series finished after DAM, and this was more something to help sell the first Champion Festival (a triple feature program intended to get kiddies back in theaters as the film industry was collapsing.)“-This guy Godzillas
So it’s like the Little Match Girl (note: I’m assuming he dies at the end, freezing to death while imagining the warm, radioactive breath of Godzilla)
Leaving aside pedantry over whether or not it’s even fair to include non-Toho Godzilla movies in a ranked list, very hard chuckle at the idea of Monsterverse KOTM being in the top two, let alone the top thirty.
KOTM was so mid it’s crazy to even consider top 10, let alone number 2.
While, I appreciate King of the Monsters being so high up, I think you are giving it a little too much credit. It is absolutely the best of the American movies, but best overall over most of the Japanese films? Nah.Absolutely absurd.
Honestly King of Monsters is probably my least favorite of the new American series. It felt like 2 movies mashed into one, and there was so much Sci-Fi world building that it didn’t feel like the same universe as the 2014 movie anymore.
KotM was definitely the least cohesive of the legendary films. Godzilla and Godzilla vs Kong both had a clear vision of what they wanted to be. At the same time, Godzilla vs Kong’s b-plot around the 3 characters discovering Mechagodzilla was so grating and unnecessary that I may hate that movie more just because they screwed up executing on big, dumb fun.
Yeah everything about Mechagodzilla in general was bad, but we were really there to see Kong and Godzilla anyway so it was excusable to me.
Good, because the 2014 one is not very good and I’m not down for this revisionist claim that it’s good all of a sudden.I’d even put GvK above 2014.
It’s not even the best of the American entries. It might have some nice themes and some cool fights, but the film is a mess, both plot-wise and often visually.
KotM is probably the weakest of the US films, I still enjoy it because of the monster action but the human stuff rarely reaches the same extreme. Suffers a lot from the protagonist being annoyingly always right and take-charge.
Any Godzilla movie featuring Kumi Mizuno or Akiko Wakabayashi should jump to the head of the line.
And you ruined it by putting the 2014 movie in the Top Five.
Killing off Bryan Cranston was NOT an “effective” choice. It robbed the movie of any emotional impact it could’ve had and left us stuck with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the lead, and he’s about as boring an actor as there ever was.
Who makes these lists and what online fake school did they get their degree from?
You mean you don’t like it when a movie establishes a personal motivation for one character that would easily propel them through the entire story only to then switch focus to another character who should but somehow doesn’t have any personal stakes in the fight for the rest of the story?
Why would the character’s son not have any stakes after seeing his father killed seemingly by the same force that killed his mother? And having to actually take the place of a father figure by protecting not just his family specifically but other people around him?
That’s why I said “should but somehow doesn’t.” Ford should be shown to have a deeply personal motivation to fight against the kanji, but instead he sort of just trudges along from set piece to set piece. If you removed all the scenes with his dad, I’m pretty sure the way his character behaves wouldn’t need to change at all because he’s just a generic military guy throughout the story.
What would be showing his motivation to you? He takes actions that are consistent with that motive. Like if Cranston had survived and been the protagonist throughout he would have been doing most of the same stuff, it’s not like there’s room for big speeches and emotive scenes here. It’s all running around in the footsteps of gods.
yeah sorry Godzilla was the lead.
Leads of movies traditionally have less than 12 minutes of screen time through a 2 hour movie, that makes sense.
It’s right there in the title!!!
Am I taking crazy pills or is this list awful? The American Godzilla films are ranked way too high (But Godzilla Vs. Kong is too low) then some of the Showa era are ranked criminally low.
Agreed. I’m not in the “American Godzillas are bad” camp at all, but there’s some wild rankings here.
List is actually disrespectful to Showa.
How the Fúck is King of the Monsters above the sublime satirical genius that was Shin Godzilla? Madness.
I know rankings are of course subjective, but given that the first few entries cite the reputation the films have as part of their rankings, this list is way off from how these movies are usually perceived. Showa Godzilla vs Mothra ranked below the Heisei? King of the Monsters is #2? With Kyle Chandler screaming at everyone for two hours?!? I couldn’t have been happier his character was sidelined in Godzilla vs Kong.
I love Kyle Chandler as an actor. But I remember when he kicked the bomb out of the plane thinking that the movie was screwed. You just introduced a bunch of named characters dedicated to tracking Kaiju 5 minutes ago, including some military personnel, and then you immediately establish that the wildlife photographer is going to be the only one doing anything useful for the next 2 hours.
I like him as an actor too. I chalk that up to a script issue. His character ruined that movie for me.
The unfortunate story of Kyle Chandler is that he’s absolutely amazing and lovable in Friday Night Lights, usually very good but a bit stock in any bit part where he’s almost always playing an FBI guy, and bizarrely annoying when given a big role in almost any other movie. He’s actively irritating in the Godzillas and I can’t really understand why, whether it’s the writing or his performance choices or both or neither. But Coach Taylor, it ain’t.
Godzilla vs Kong is ranked way too low. It’s excellent for streaming, because you can fast forward to when the monsters are on screen. I watch it all the time, skipping from monster appearance to monster appearance, ignoring the humans.
If you’re skipping like 70-80% of the movie, doesn’t that kind of mean it’s a terrible movie?
nope! everything has a context. it’s a bad movie to sit in a theater and watch, it’s a great movie to watch with your hand on the scroll bar.
I mean, that’s basically porn, yes?
I’m kaiju-positive
My Favorite of the Happy Godzilla from the 60’s and 70’s: Invasion of Astro-MonsterLeast favorite of Happy Godzilla : All Monster attack, fuck that movieMy favorite of the 90’s Godzilla’s (maybe my favorite overall): Godzilla vs. DestoyahLeast Favorite: 1998 American piece of shitFavorite of 2000’s :Godzilla final WarsLeast Favorite: truth be told all of the 2000’s were meh to meFavorite of 2010’s on: Godzilla King of Monsters (shin Godzilla is a better movie but I loved the dumb monster fights)Least favorite of 2010’s: Nothing was too bad but I’m guess Godzilla 2014 but it was still go.List isn’t my cup of tea, I will say Godzilla 98 is the worst ever and All Monster attack is maybe 2nd or 3rd worse ever. 2019 Godzilla King of Monsters was fun but it’s not in my top 5, maybe 10.
At least someone else understands Godzilla vs Destroyah is probably the Godzilla pinnacle.
I was like 22/23 when I saw it on tape (bought it from a side store in the Village in Manhattan) and I fucking cried when Baby Godzilla died. Then I cheered at that ending as it was so awesome.Nothing can touch that feeling in a Godzilla movie for me.
I am not sure to be relieved or any angry that, “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” (1956) was not last on the list or not included at all.
I think they are lumping it with the ‘54 original. So much was cut that they’re really different movies. As far as I know, the ‘54 is only available subtitled, but is sooo worth watching.
Godzilla vs. Megalon was the first Godzilla movie I ever saw and I will hear no slander against it!Okay, it’s really a back door pilot of a movie to create a Jet Jaguar series of films that gives top billing to Godzilla just to get people into theaters, but I remember my dad taking 5-year-old me to the theater, I didn’t even know what we were going to see, and being amazed at this giant lizard that blasts a blue beam of energy from its mouth and throws down with weird space-beatles while teaming up with a Japanese robot with a face like the Joker. And it is a top-notch MST3K entry (Although Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, re-branded as Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, has one of my favorite MST3K lines — the crab monster skewers two hapless victims on its claws, and Tom Servo remarks, “Kebab, and Ke-Steve!”)
“I just saw half a crab kill a guy.”
I mean the worst Godzilla films are still pretty fun.
I hated the people story in that one but man Gigan was fucking awesome! I loved all Godzilla movies back then expect the 2 with his kid.
That description of Godzilla: King of the Monsters sounds like it’s part of a high school English paper when you really needed to hit the 3 page minimum on a book you didn’t actually read. Are those themes present in the movie? Yes, but they’re so broadly described and applied that you could swap out the name of the movie and characters and it would make just as much sense for like 28 other movies on this list.It also ignores that the plot of the movie was an overly-complicated mess that included far too many characters with far too little to do.
Not a very good list. I will concede that All Monsters Attack and Son of Godzilla are bad and belong at the end of the list, but not dead last. That distinction should go to the flaming dumpster fire that is Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla. It is universally hated by all true Godzilla fans and many don’t even consider it part of the franchise. I agree about putting all the animated Godzilla films near the end of the list. I am not a fan of anime and to me, they don’t belong in the Godzilla universe. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla are very underrated films. They belong much higher. Having the original King Kong vs. Godzilla rated so low is an absolute crime. It is a top 3 film in the franchise. I love everything about it. Mothra vs. Godzilla should be ranked much higher as well. Return of Godzilla is absolute trash. Destroy All Monsters is a top 5 film. Godzilla 2000 was a bottom 5 film. IMO, Godzilla vs. Destroyah may be the best of all the Godzilla films. It’s a masterpiece. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is an abomination. The special effects looked like they came out of a video game and the entire film had a very distracting blue hue to it that drove me nuts. It is without a bottom 5 film. Michael Dougherty should never direct another Godzilla film. It was almost as bad as Godzilla vs. Kong.
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Seems about standard for AV Club ranking, which is to say it’s basically insane.I think they start with a real list and then start moving things around to achieve maximum “engagement”. If ‘14 and KOM were in the bottom third nobody would pay it any mind.Putting both in top 5 was guaranteed to get people going, and that’s mostly what people are talking about… so task failed successfully.
RE your long-running franchises, I’m just gonna throw this out there: Bond vs. Godzilla. C’mon Daniel, you know you wanna come back.
What about Bambi vs Godzilla
THAT one I’ve seen! …it was a little long, frankly.
But the screenplay, choreography, wardrobe, production and production of the writer, choreography, costume director and producer were A plus!
John Wick vs Godzilla
This list is so bad. What an absurd ranking. Raids again does not need to be that low. Your explanation was “it’s not the 1954 movie” is ridiculous. None of the American films should be top 10 and Kong v Zilla should be the highest of them. 2014 and King of the Monsters are not top 10 films, period.
I feel like peoples favorite Godzilla movies are the ones they have fond memories of watching even if they were no good. I’ll watch Godzilla vs Megalon with or without the MST3k wrap any time even though it’s goofy. As a fan of the movie Versus, I liked Final War a lot. It’s also clearly the most “post Matrix” Godzilla movie. A lot of bullet time and wire work in that one by the humans
Haha yeah you are right because most of them are not good. Sorry but the silliness of men wearing rubber suits is just too much to ignore for most grown ups. Right? Unless they’re all supposed to be silly, and then I’ll admit I missed the joke, or I laughed at them on MST3K.
Um….where’s Bambi meets Godzilla?
People don’t like Son of Godzilla? What’s wrong with those people? No, I haven’t seen it since the 70s. I liked it when I was a kid.
That picture looks like something that should have been killed with fire as soon as it was born. That’s my guess. Don’t think I’ve seen it, or if I have it was so long ago I’ve successfully blocked it out.
I think people’s enjoyment of that movie hinges entirely on their ability to withstand Minilla. If you don’t mind that character, it’s actually a pretty solid movie. If that character does you in, then the movie is unwatchable. I don’t mind the little guy, so I kinda like that one.
I tried all day to read this on my phone but of course, Kinja made that almost impossible. Now it’s evening and I’m at home, reading through the comments, finding that many folks are on my wavelength: this is a massively wrongheaded listicle. How you include the Netflix animated shows with these titans of monster films, I don’t get. How you place ANY American film higher than numerous great Japanese films, I just don’t fucking get. (Don’t get me wrong, those Monarch films are beautiful but the human beings are awful and overwrought.)How you put OG King Kong Vs Godzilla that low when it’s one of the all-time greats…yeah, I just don’t know. Maybe the writing staff is young? Maybe these hit differently for folks as old as me? I don’t know.
In Cleveland (on Ch. 43/WUAB) we had Super Host! Every Saturday morning / afternoon his show aired a bunch of Three Stooges shorts followed by a double feature of monster or low rent thriller flicks. Saw a lot of Godzilla movies back in the day – 1970s/early 80s.RIP, Supe!
Wait, I actually enjoyed Godzilla vs. Kong. I had no idea that it’s not looked favorably among the fan base.One thing I noticed while watching the trailers, a Godzilla movie REALLY works in black and white. I would totally be okay with an ambitious director taking on a new black and white Godzilla movie.
Depends on who ‘the fan base’ is—-Godzilla nerds (and whoo boy these comments should serve as proof that is definitely a thing—they’re just lucky “Godzilla Nerds” sounds cooler than it really is) are gatekeepers for all this shit and tend to be like people that love early Smiths but hate all the later albums, if you get my meaning. I really enjoyed it and have no issues acknowledging that any movie about a fake giant ape vs a fake giant lizard will probably not get any better than that one (and we have enough of them now that I think it’s proven true).
Holy shit my 13-year-old has tried to explain the plot of some of these films, and I was convinced he had to be embellishing or just got some of them wrong, but nope, these descriptions are every bit as insane as what he was describing. I genuinely thought he was mixing up movies with the undersea kingdoms and time travelers and shit. Now I need the American movies to go that insane, please.
Thanks for giving King of the Monsters it’s due. I really enjoyed that one and was surprised it got lambasted by the critics. No surprise what was number 1, some of the others on the list I’d change around. I’d have Destroy All Monsters higher up, Godzilla vs Hedorah lower.
Godzilla vs Destroyah is way better than any of the American Godzillas.
Bump them all down one. Just saw the new Godzilla in theaters and it’s easily #1. It’s a good movie all the way around and one of the better films I’ve seen this year.
I remember that King of the Monsters trailer was fucking fire.
I can’t even begin to imagine being so wrong on so many points, so I will limit my criticism to the matter I feel most strongly about. Americans have never made a good Godzilla film. We simply do not know how, and at this point, I’m extremely doubtful that we will ever figure it out. Toho has certainly put out some stinkers over the years, but Hollywood should leave the Japanese studio to do its thing as only it knows how.
I’ve watched many if the godzilla films but this list was absolutely dogshit.The way you belittled the animated trilogy like that was just honestly stupid. It was some of the best godzilla content we got in decades. Aside from The OG not many godzilla movies are good. The animated trilogy was one fonthe good ones just i guess not for whoever this babyboomer who wrote the article. shin godzilla should be up higher its one fonthe best godzilla movies ever made period. Top 10 list for me: 1. Godzilla Minus One2. Godzilla (OG) 3. Shin Godzilla4. Godzilla vs Destroyah5. Godzilla 2014 (its honestly pretty good idk wtf people be on about saying its bad). 6. Godzilla animated trilogy 7. Godzilla vs King Ghidora 8. Godzilla vs Kong (2021)9. Godzilla vs Mecha Godzilla 10. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2018).
The 1999 film is so stupid, I feel like I discover a new plot hole every time I re-visit it.
Like the pregnancy tests that Matthew Broderick uses to confirm that Godzilla laid eggs. Store bought pregnancy tests detect human growth hormone. So there’s no way that would work with Godzilla’s DNA.
Or when Broderick gets fired by the military. He just takes a cab to the airport to leave. There’s a giant lizard on the loose!!! They haven’t grounded all flights?!
No love for Cozzilla, Luigi Cozzi’s 1977 colorized psychedelic version of King of the Monsters? Shameful.
Fuck right off with your Godzilla King of the Monsters. What a dull, muddy mess.
-putting Megalon below the 1998 travesty is a crime against humanity. What a joke. Godzilla vs Megalon is a dumb movie, but it’s ridiculously fun and entertaining. 1998 Godzilla is a complete abomination and a boring slog.-this gives WAY too much weight to thr more recent/modern entries. Ranking the 2014 Godzilla, the Godzilla vs Kong remake, etc etc, above some of the all-time classic movies from the past is just plain crazy. Those movies are a fraction as entertaining as some of the Showa and Heisei movies, imo. And I’m pretty sure “entertainment” is kind of the entire point.