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My Favourite Films - Godzilla |
| Title | Comments (if any) | |
| 01 | Godzilla, King Of The Monsters (1954) | The first, and still one of the best. I prefer the original Japanese version to the US 'Raymond Burr inserted' version. |
| 02 | Godzilla Raids Again (1955) | Okay sequel, once again the Japanese original is the better version. |
| 03 | King Kong VS Godzilla (1963) | One of the very best, and the first to be made in colour. |
| 04 | Godzilla VS Mothra (1964) | Takes a while to get going but is good fun overall. |
| 05 | Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster (1965) | An excellent monster who comes back time and time again. Godzilla starts to become a good guy in this movie. |
| 06 | Invasion Of The Astro Monsters (1965) | Not brilliant but fun anyway. Godzilla becomes humanity's protector by the end of the movie. |
| 07 | Ebirah, Horror Of The Deep (1966) | A classic film of lizard vs lobster (and you don't get many of those). Very good fun. |
| 08 | Son Of Godzilla (1967) | Very well made, cute film that's a different kind of monster movie. |
| 09 | Destroy All Monsters (1968) | Not a classic. Enjoyed it more as a kid. |
| 10 | Godzilla's Revenge (1969) | Ohhhhh dear. Bullied boy is helped by Son of Godzilla. Ohhhhh dear. |
| 11 | Godzilla VS Hedorah (Godzilla VS Smog Monster) (1971) | Saw this first in the '80's and thought it was terrible, and worse, boring. Seeing it again recently I now think it's a very good movie, very intelligent. |
| 12 | Godzilla VS Gigan (War Of The Monsters) (1972) | Godzilla talks!!!!! "There's a lotta trouble up ahead" or someting like that! Noooooooo!!!!!! I could hardly believe my ears even as a kid when I first heard that one. Not a classic in any sense. |
| 13 | Godzilla VS Megalon (1973) | Dull nonsense with a silly monster with an even sillier guardian: 'Jet Jaguar' indeed. |
| 14 | Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla (1974) | Excellent, my absolute favourite. Toho really seemed to put a lot of effort in this one. |
| 15 | Terror Of Mechagodzilla (1975) | Toho didn't seem to care too much about this one. I don't either. |
| 16 | Godzilla 1985 (Godzilla 1984, The Return Of Godzilla) | This seems aimed at an adult audience it seems to me, and is all the better for it. I actually prefer the US 'Raymond Burr inserted' version to the Japanese original, even though Burr's character is entirely irrelevant to the plot. Godzilla's back to being a bad guy with this one, this film ignoring every previous film but the first one from 1954. |
| 17 | Godzilla VS Biollante (1989) | Very good, very intelligent and the monster is superb. |
| 18 | Godzilla VS King Ghidorah (1991) | If anybody can explain the time travelling plot, give yourself a medal and call yourself 'Stephen Hawking'. It's a mess of unbelieveable (and continuity upsetting?) explanations and is all the more irritating because of it. However, when Godzilla battles Ghidorah it's almost quite fun to watch. |
| 19 | Godzilla VS Mothra (1992) | Excellent battle scenes but the singing twins who appear should have been stamped on by Godzilla 'cos they are soooo irritating. |
| 20 | Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla II (1993) | Made 19 years after the first Mechagodzilla movie, this one has neither the imagination or even the same appeal of the original. Mechagodzilla appears weak from the start, with less armaments than the original. What a damn dirty shame. A new baby Godzilla appears in this one as well. |
| 21 | Godzilla VS Space Godzilla (1994) | The worst Godzilla film made except for 'Godzilla's Revenge'. Space Godzilla looks awful but worse, much worse, those Mothra twins are back again!!! Nooooooooo! |
| 22 | Godzilla VS Destroyer (1995) | One of the very best Godzilla films and said by Toho at the time to be the last Godzilla film. Ha, like we believed you! |
| 23 | Godzilla (1998) | The Matthew Broderick film. Was
bored by it when watching it at the cinema, have grown to like it a lot since. He/she
ain't Godzilla though, no way, nope, nope, nope. I do feel sorry for the monster when it's babies get slaughtered and when the creature itself gets killed in cowardly 'tied to a chair' fashion when tangled up in a bridge. |
| 24 | Godzilla 2000 (Godzilla Millennium) (1999) | Extremely good film that seemed to set a new standard for the series. Entirely more entertaining than the US movie and vastly more intelligent. This Godzilla is the bees knees and would've whupped the arse of the mis-named monster of the 1998 film. |
| 25 | Godzilla VS Megaguirus (2000) | This film must've been a cash-in on the success of 'Godzilla 2000' 'cos it's not very good. Made within a year of 'Godzilla 2000' it chooses to pretend that that film (and every other Godzilla film apart from the first one) does not exist. Why????? How annoying and pointless. Godzilla battles mosquitoes and the battles ain't bad. |
| 26 | Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah - Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) | Ohhhhh dear. 'Let's ignore all
previous Godzilla films apart from the 1954 one AGAIN, that'll keep the fans interested
and get LOTS more bums on seats in cinemas'. Doh! It didn't do too well in Japan and is an awful film. Actually, it does accept the existence of one other Godzilla film, the 1998 one (huh?) although, with tongue in cheek, it states that the monster who attacked New York was not Godzilla. Well, we all knew that anyway. This isn't Godzilla as we know him either: gone is the monster born of atomic origin, here is a monster born from the souls of those who died in WWII. This doesn't satisfactorily explain why he looks podgy and has cataract-filled eyes. The battles are brief and Godzilla wins without too much effort or interest. The film is dreadful, and is probably my third least favourite Godzilla movie of all time. |
| 27 | Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) | Tediously, once again, all
Godzilla films (save for the 1954 one) do not exist according to this film. Why this
persistence in ignoring the past??? With every film??? How this is supposed to gain an
audience is beyond me. However, this one is not too bad, at least Godzilla looks more like
he should do, and the battles with the latest Mechagodzilla are okay. I would gripe that Godzilla doesn't destroy the robot, when he clearly has every opportunity for doing so on at least two occasions. Update: I've seen this film a couple of times now and I have to say I've really warmed to it, it is one of the very best. |
| 28 | Godzilla - Tokyo SOS | The follow-on to the previous film and it is very enjoyable. It is very well-directed and has good action scenes in it. I liked the cast and I like the Godzilla who appears in this and the previous film. |
| 29 | Godzilla: Final
Wars (2004)
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Beware: spoilers included. It took it's time in being released but it was very much worth the wait. This is the most expensive-looking Godzilla film bar the 1998 US one and I was surprised at just how good it was. Right from the start you are drawn into it and it moves along at fantastic speed. Knowing virtually nothing about it before watching it, it was a nice surprise to see that, among the monsters, was the creature who appeared in the 1998 movie. I was gripped on the edge of my seat when the two monsters met, only for the US monster to be wiped out in seconds. I would have liked a proper battle between the two, but to be fair, the Japanese Godzilla has always been the superior creature so in a way the intended humour/point was well and truly made. I can't work out where this film ties in continuity-wise, it's probably best not to think about it anymore, but I would like to think it follows on from either 'Godzilla VS Destroyer' or 'Godzilla 2000'. TOHO stated that this was likely to be the last Godzilla film for ten years and it is a brilliant one to go out on. I would probably be happy if they never made another Godzilla film again. |
My other favourite movie 'monster' is Jason Voorhees |
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