Gorgo x Konga x Anne Hathaway? 12 Godzilla knock-offs that are almost as good as the originals
The kaiju in these monster movies may not be household names, but they can level a city with the best of them
Film Features Godzilla
Why do we love kaiju movies so much? Is it the sight of an enormous creature stomping its way through a metropolis, tapping into our secret desires to see them leveled? Or the representation of nature’s wrath against humanity for its mistreatment of the planet? A punishment for our sins of avarice and hubris? Whatever the reason, giant monster movies are more popular than ever. The King of the Monsters now holds an Oscar statue in his mighty claw after wowing audiences and critics alike in Godzilla Minus One. And following in the wake of last fall’s well-received TV series in Monarch, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, just became the fifth film in Legendary’s MonsterVerse series to open in theaters. The appeal is undeniable.
Ever since Godzilla and King Kong first fought each other back in 1962, in King Kong vs. Godzilla (the third of what’s now more than three dozen Godzilla films), audiences and filmmakers caught onto the notion that whenever two giant frenemies go head-to-head it makes for a good time at the movies. In the decades since, many studios and filmmakers have tried to repeat the success of these icons, and a few have even succeeded. Here are some of our favorite blatant attempts outside of the Godzilla and Kong universes to capitalize on our insatiable appetite for destruction on a massive scale.
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That’s not the real Gamera song and you know it! This is the REAL Gamera theme:
You’re not wrong. The first time I ever heard the theme song was in the original MST3K episode. Believe that I still sing, “Gamera is really neat, Gamera is filled with meat,” whenever his name comes up. Thank you for that clip. Day officially made.
Any timeYou need some moonbeamsGameraIs the thing
Gamera is really neatHe is filled with turtle meat
The real Rodan song for you.
War of the Gargantuas DOES have a connection to Frankenstein — it’s a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World, in which the titular monster somehow gets to kaiju size and battles Baragon. The two gargantuas here are “descendants” of that Frankenstein, generated from left over tissue from that monster.
I’m so old I saw Q in the theater when I was 8 years old! lol!War of Gargantuas actually scared me as a kid in the late 70’s early 80s on repeat as the “bad” one ate people. And yes Gamera is great, we all wish we god a real Godzilla and Gamera team up.
The words get stuck in my throat
People definitely disagree, but Colossal—at least in regards to the kaijuness—is bad. It’s a great movie about toxic masculinity and alcoholism, which the leads are great at, but once the metaphor is in effect and understood as not metaphor to them, the nature of conceit cracks. Once you figure out that you control a monster constantly devastating another country—something the movie needs to be bloodless but sometimes acknowledges. It’s on a character level very cathartic, especially the final confrontation (which kinda doesn’t work, given the mechanics of kaiju), but wow, way to render the nameless foreigners to just props.
I think it’s a wonderful film because it raises those topics you say, but you judge its intentions under the worst faith reading possible.
I should just leave it as a difference of opinion, but how do you figure this is the worst reading possible given I said it’s good about what it’s about, toxicity and addiction? Hell, to take it seriously, the destruction could actually fit in very neatly with a critique that the damage of said behaviors enveloping even unintended victims. But I found it off-putting that the movie goes as far as to show people watching the destruction on tv, but the leads mainly interact with it as being a fun thing while people would obviously terrified and dying. I dunno, I think event should tip that off, so it’s not handled like they didn’t know either, they go back to playing around. It’s been a while, but I think another character does comment towards the end, but it did feel perfunctory given the handling before.As for the final scene—it’s great! It looks like the kaiju is talking to the characters, and it’s a really emotional moment. The mechanics of the movie is that they don’t see what the kaiju see, though, they do whatever they do in one place and it does the same elsewhere—so the exchange where she picks up someone, and seemingly talk to each other, wouldn’t happen really, unless she’s randomly picking and squishing people.The conceit served a narrative purpose, but I think it was only thought through as far as it’s effects for the lead characters. Everything and everyone in Seoul would very literally be a prop.
It’s also wonderful because drunk, hot-mess Anne Hathaway is a fine Anne Hathaway indeed.
If you’re interested in more Kaiju fun, You Tube channel Bog o’ Bones has a great deep dive into the genre. Focusing obvisouly mostly on Godzilla (just for sheer output) it does reference the genre as a whole and include many other examples. However, many of the ones in this slideshow don’t appear there, so the two complement each other well.
There’s only one cute baby in the whole world worth any fuss and that’s baby Gorgo.
I remember War of the Gargantuas as the first film I ugly cried at its ending. I was 9-10 years old when I saw it. When the volcano pops out of nowhere, and the forest Gargantuan realizes he’s not going to be able to save his murderous brother from himself and that he’s going to have to Steinbeck both themselves just gutted me. (The fact that two guys in ridiculous gorilla-kaiju suits with static face masks that couldn’t move or really show any facial emotion could still convey the emotions needed to convey the scripts tragic ending to a ten-year-old that just watched kaiju movies to see monsters’ step on shit still impresses me.)
Apart from Colossal being wonderful – the best thing Nacho Vigalondo has ever done and my favourite modern kaiju – I love Q not because of the monster but because of the main quality of the film: an absolutely unhinged Michael Moriarty doing pure method acting, mixed with what it seems some improv, which is in another radically different tone than the rest of the actors. Larry Cohen loved it this way, I love it too.
I think the idea with “Triphibian” is, amphibians live both in water and on land, and these creatures live in water, on land, and in the air! It’s a weird stretch I know.Should’ve included The X From Outer Space as well.
I really like Q except for the monster, which is like…Full Moon quality, if that.
Yeah, I’m not a fan of remakes, but a remake of Q with a better monster would not be unwelcome.
“Rampage has no lofty ambitions to be smart or groundbreaking cinema. Like the original Godzilla and King Kong movies, it exists merely to transport and entertain us for a little while.”Jfc… have you never actually watched the original Godzilla? And do you (obviously) know absolutely nothing about it? Because it absolutely was not a fluffy piece of escapist entertainment. It was a brutal and chilling metaphor for the (then-recent) devastation of the nuclear bomb on Japan, you utterly clueless hack. “This movie showing a population and area getting slaughtered and savaged by a giant walking metaphor for the nuclear bomb that had recently been dropped on them is just a dumb silly popcorn movie, derp derp!”Heaven forbid you had even the tiniest sliver of knowledge about something that youre writing a freaking article about. This site continues to grow progressively embarrassing.
Wow, I actually had no idea that Anne Hathaway Godzilla movie ever came out. I remember hearing about it before she was attached (I think it may have been a Black List script) and thought the project died after the Toho lawsuit. Maybe I’ll check it out sometime.
It’s not hard to be “as good as the original” Godzilla because, bear with me here, the original Godzilla is not a good movie.