Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:34 pmFavorite to least favorite:
1. Godzilla 2000- First Japanese Godzilla film I saw in theaters and it was absolutely amazing! Not to mention it was awesome seeing "The End ?" at the very end of the movie. It got my brother and I all excited about possible sequels. Even now I still enjoy the movie and feel it to be one of the top two better made films in the era and one of the most overlooked films in the franchise. I have always been a fan of Takao Okawara and felt it strange he was never brought back to do anymore Millennium films. Definitely a great film!
2. GMMG: Tokyo S.O.S- MUCH better than GMG! The characters are more enjoyable and we don't have kaiju standing around taking a beating from the others. The bringing back of Hiroshi Koizumi made the film that much better, I feel, as well. What was so great about this movie, however, was that half of the movie consists of the kaiju battling. Can't get much better than that! Tezuka's best Godzilla movie.
3. Godzilla Final Wars- I wanted to put this at number two but felt that GMMG was more entertaining due to longer kaiju scenes. Either way, this can enter the number two spot at almost any point. Yeah, the film tried to do too much and it pays homage to various other films, but it is really fun. Once Godzilla is released, it's mainly kaiju action from that point on. GFW was supposed to be nothing more than a fun movie; and I feel it succeeded.
4. GMK- Really well made film and it's a lot of fun too. It is tough for me to put the film this low on the list but I feel that, while it does a lot of things right, I still am not 100% sold on the mythological storyline of Godzilla and his co-stars. It worked for Gamera, but it doesn't seem to work as well with Godzilla. Such a storyline has grown on me over the years, but I still don't think it works as well here.
5. GMG- Fun movie but the way Godzilla was treated (standing there and accepting a beating from Mechagodzilla) was just preposterous. The characters are slightly memorable but nothing special. The final battle was much better but it became a massive hugging match. It had it's moments of fun, though. Better than Godzilla X Megaguirus that's for sure.
6. Godzilla X Megaguirus- If there was ever a Godzilla movie I came close to hating, it would be this one. I've watched this one about three times within the last year in hopes of trying to fall in love with it, and it has gradually grown on me but I still think it's the weakest out of the era. Tezuka, in my opinion, isn't that spectacular of a Godzilla director and it baffles me that had him for two movies in this era and didn't even bother to bring back Okawara who could actually make good Godzilla films. The cast of characters here are easily forgettable and the Megaguirus prop is way too stiff. Godzilla's scenes are pretty low as well and the storyline just isn't all that exciting. I was very disappointed in this movie when I first saw, and, to a certain extent, still am. Believe me when I say that I don't want this movie to be consistently avoided by me, but this movie seemed to have so much more potential and it didn't even really live up to any of that potential. Nevertheless, this is the film that I am going to continuously watch more often in hopes that I do fall in love with it.