Godzilla Movies: Worst to Best 20-16

We have arrived at the lower half of the middle-of-the-pack. This portion includes overrated (but still really good) and underrated (that I wish I could have rated higher). Starting off the list is the first movie of the Millennium (2000s) series.

#20) Godzilla 2000: The first of the Millennium series and the first Japanese Godzilla following the American ’98 version. The focus of 2000 was to create a Japanese Godzilla movie with excellent special effects, an unstoppable Godzilla, and a lot of Godzilla. One of its primary goals was to revive the traditional Godzilla that had been assassinated by G98. Throughout the movie you will notice jabs at G98, but in some respects the jabs are self-defeating because the movie also attempts to recreate scenes from G98 but inserting G2000 instead. Another bone the creators of this movie sought to pick was with G’s box office rival Gamera that had just come off of an extremely successful trilogy that concluded in 1999. Some might say that G2000 attempted to settle too many scores to go down as a truly great Godzilla movie.

Despite the fact that the effects failed in some respects, this was an entertaining Godzilla movie. He faces off against a giant spacecraft and a new foe, Orga, who was created from Godzilla’s own cells. G2000 is far from perfect, but it was a decent attempt to rekindle the fire of the original Godzilla series.

#19) Godzilla v Mechagodzilla: Towards the end of the original Godzilla series, Toho thought it would do something special for their iconic character. They introduced a mechanical doppelganger known as Mechagodzilla. All in all, GvMG is a highly entertaining movie. In its own right. Aside from the monster action, featuring Godzilla, Anguirus, Mechagodzilla, and the first appearance of King Cesar, the scenes featuring humans is fast paced and exciting as well. I would offer the opinion that GvMG featured the most interesting alien race since Godzilla vs Monster Zero.

My number one problem with this movie is it features one of the cheesiest soundtracks in a Godzilla movie. Let me rephrase that: one of the cheesiest soundtracks for a serious Godzilla movie. Other movies got away with ridiculous soundtracks because of their light-hearted nature. GvMG doesn’t get that pass. The plot and progression of the film is excellent, but the soundtrack makes it difficult to take it seriously at times. It’s not enough to ruin the movie, but it probably would have landed this one closer to the top of the list had it been as serious as the tone of the movie.

#18) Godzilla v Destoryah: There is a lot to like about Godzilla vs Destoryah, but a lot to not like as well. This film was made famous for being the last of the Heisei Series and for its ending where Godzilla dies. In a word, this movie is intense.

Let’s start off with the elements that take away from this movie’s greatness. The special effects could have been a lot better. Certain scenes that could’ve been spellbinding became ho-hum because the creators did not capitalize with the effects. This movie introduces the third incarnation of the Super X battle plane known as the Super X3. Super X3 is pathetic. Instead of continuing with the traditional Super X look, Toho decided it would be better to make it an oversized fighter jet. But where this movie was lacking, it made up for with its positive elements.

Destoryah is a truly unique enemy that has multiple forms and can actually appear as a legion of human size creatures which results in a battle scene inspired by Aliens (but lacking in the effects department). He instantly became a classic Godzilla foe at the conclusion of this movie. The Baby Godzilla from the previous two movies had grown into an adolescent form and became one of the most positive elements of this movie. They referred to him as Junior and he endeavors to take on Destoryah himself in a few sequences and appears to be killed by him before Big G engages in his climatic final battle. This movie also introduces a form of Godzilla that has become known as Burning Godzilla because his core temperature had become so hot that his body has begun to melt from the inside out.

The most disappointing aspect of this movie was that it wrapped up the series so well, but left room for more sequels after revealing that Junior had been resurrected by Godzilla’s radioactivity. G2000 should have been Junior’s first solo adventure.

#17) Godzilla Raids Again: The first sequel to Gojira and one of the most underrated of the Godzilla movies. Granted, the human parts are somewhat difficult to make it through, seeing how the characters are not that interesting, but the monster action is over the top amazing. Godzilla’s first monster battle in the series takes place in this movie as he takes upon a future fan favorite known as Anguirus. The monster action in this movie is as good as any and better than most, but that is in large part because the series was still scene as a Kaiju Horror Movie and not a good monster vs bad monster scenario.

#16) Godzilla v King Ghidorah: Often times known as one of the most popular of the Heisei movies. King Ghidorah’s design in this movie is awesome and the overall plot, although complicated, provides a wonderful excuse for bringing the two monsters together for a colossal battle and renewal of their rivalry. One of the most popular elements of GvKG is the creation of Mecha-King Ghidorah that defends Japan from Godzilla at the end of the movie.

This movie could have strayed away from politics but decided to go down that route and really tarnished its name in my sight, at least. Although GvKG is hailed for its special effects, it loses some points in my book for that very reason. Instead of avoiding embarrassing effects sequences (which there aren’t very many) they dared go where their believability prohibited them from going.

Nonetheless, it was fun to see the creation of Godzilla from his previous form, known as Godzillasaurus, and his reincarnation as a bigger and more powerful version of himself. Naturally, Ghidorah was created to destroy Japan and Godzilla temporarily assumes the role of the hero to defeat King Ghidorah and liberate Japan from the clutches of the futurians (did I mention there is time travel in this movie?).