Where Ishirô Honda was using the kaiju to make a social comment about post-war Japan and the hellish consequences of nuclear fallout, Godzilla Raids Again is pure schlock: going for the entertainment jugular with a fast, cheap, and out of control installment that would become a template for most of the episodes moving forward. Inexplicably renaming the movie Gigantis, The Fire Monster (we weren't as into IP then as we are now, apparently) even though it was only the second Godzilla movie ever made, the initial sequel squares King G off against another big bad beast for the first time. Because there's a lot of Godzilla out there to consume, and you're gonna need some help deciding which chapters to devour first.Īmerica made a habit out of f***ing up the King of the Monsters throughout the years – for starters, just look at the Raymond Burr-starring English redux of the original. So, with that in mind, it seemed like as good a time as ever to present you with the entire series, ranked from worst to best, acting as a guide to your kaiju viewing pleasure. Recently, the Criterion Collection bought the rights to many of Godzilla's sillier franchise entries, and last year's Shin Godzilla proved that there was still dramatic weight to be considered when bringing the big guy back to the big screen. Yet that doesn't mean there isn't a ton of enjoyment to be mined from the franchise. Strangelove as a defining piece of pop art derived from the utter devastation of the nuclear bomb. Like most successful franchise front-men, the magnitude of Godzilla's first appearance has been diluted by subsequent sequels, to the point that many now overlook the iconic monster's original metaphorical meaning: a walking mushroom cloud, the otherworldly symbol of holocaust. Ishir? Honda's colossal work of Japanese filmmaking still stands as one of the greatest filmic responses to the psychosomatic suffering caused by war, ranking with Stanley Kubrick's Dr. To the average moviegoer, King G is an icon of combative campiness a monolithic figure akin to a green Hulk Hogan, wrestling other goofy kaiju for 90 minutes while tiny people point and scream "the monster is attacking the city!" What do you see?įor many, the image is elementary - men in elastic monster suits brawling with one-another amidst a shoddily built train set, stepping on miniature cars willy-nilly in the hopes of conveying a sense of obliteration on an apocalyptic scale.
Take a minute to picture Godzilla in your head.
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