Ranking the ENTIRE series...

[eabaker]

[jellydonut25]

[O.Supreme]

[MekaGojira3k]

[O.Supreme]

How was the IMDB list even compiled? based on fan votes? or just some random writers opinion? -I've learned a long time ago never to give any legitimacy to any online rankings, polls etc... This is just another example.

[MekaGojira3k]

I think the imdb.com list is just whoever votes and then the films ranked by that score.

[jellydonut25]

pretty sure it's just their rank based on their IMDb score.

[Jorzilla]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

Well I guess we know what the general public would rank the series now...

Weird.

[Giganfan]

I've often wondered how the standings would look if we (meaning the entire MZ community) voted on each film, using a "scale from one to ten" system of ranking. G-Fan used to do an annual "Readers Poll" that decided that very thing among its readers, but it also included non-Goji films like Rodan, Matango, the Gamera movies and even American monster movies like King Kong and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

You think we should do something like that? I for one am curious, but have no idea of how to organize such a poll. Any thoughts?

[jellydonut25]

i think we would probably just run one poll for each film...or just do it manually...

I'd be down.

[Gman2887]

[klen7]

[DannyBeane]

I think the Heisei films are ranked so highly because the showa films have a reputation of cheesy effects (strings showing, cardboard box buildings, zippers exposed on suits) as well as bad dubbing. This is despite the fact that the Heisei films easily have the worst dubbing and some of the films like G vs SG have embarassingly bad spfx. Its still the perception of older movies suck and new ones rock! Even if that is a flawed argument.

[Jorzilla]

I did a quick dirty analysis and found out the following average score for a Godzilla movie based on IMDB.

Based on all IMDB movies:
Millenium Normalized Score - 6.47
Heisei Normalized Score - 6.06
Showa Normalized Score - 5.61
American Normalized Score - 5.2

I wasn't really surprised. The Millennium series has the best special effects which makes sense that it would be the most popular. I was surprised by how well Heisei did, but the shocker was Showa. I'm assuming it's because it is because there's a greater range of movie quality (Gojira compared to Megalon).

What really surprised me was how MY score came out.

Based on all movies:
Mellinium Normalized Score - 6.5
Heisei Normalized Score - 5.86
Showa Normalized Score - 5.67
American Normalized Score - 1

I was shocked. If I were to rank the film series I'd certainly put it in the order of Showa, Heisei, Millennium. Again, I think the score is such because despite the amount of "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" the Millennium series gets, Toho produced competent (arguably uninspired) movies with least amount of stinkers. I mean the I think worst of the series is GFW and Megaguirus. Everything else ranges from decent (G2K), above average (GxMG) and really good (Tokyo SOS and GMK). In the end I don't think there was enough films to produce anything completely terrible like Heisei or Showa (thinking Megalon and Space Godzilla specifically). Heisei's score also surprised me given how much I dislike the movies in general.

To account for the "worst of the series" skewing the results. Here's a score analysis for the top 15 movies.

IMDB top 15 movies:
Top 15 Millennium - 6.62
Top 15 Showa - 6.4
Top 15 Heisei - 6.375

Again, not really surprised by Millennium series being first given my comments above. I'm glad to see that by only looking at the Top 15, the general public has a greater appreciation of the classics.


My top 15 movies turned out better as well.

Based on top 15 movies:
Top 15 Showa - 8.423
Top 15 Heisei - 7.75
Top 15 Millennium - 7.5

I'm surprised how well Heisei did once again. Without Mechagodzilla 2 (my number 16 movie), Mothra and Space Godzilla, I have to admit that the series is pretty average, to great (for Return of Godzilla and Biollante). I'm still not going to admit that I like Heisei more than Millenium, but doing this dirty analysis did open my eyes to which Godzilla series I may too harshly criticize (Heisei), or praise more that I actually may believe it deserves (Millennium and Showa).


It also showed me that non-Godzilla fans have no taste in Godzilla movies.

[lhb412]

Don't usually go for numbered lists, but the challenge got to me. As you can see, it's skewed towards the Showa era - because in my opinion none of the revivals have really come close to the talent of Honda, Fukuda, Tsuburaya, the wonderful casts, ect. ect. Those older films have a great style that stays fresh decades later while the newer films are somehow more dated.

Gojira
Mothra vs. Godzilla
Invasion of Astro Monster
Son of Godzilla
Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster
King Kong vs. Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Terror of Mechagodzilla
Godzilla vs. Biollante
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster
Godzilla vs. Gigan
Godzilla's Revenge
Destroy All Monsters
Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Godzilla Raids Again
Godzilla vs. Megalon
Godzilla 2000
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
Godzilla 1985
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Godzilla Final Wars
Godzilla: Tokyo SOS
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
Godzilla x Mechagodzilla
Godzilla vs. Mothra
Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

[Gman2887]

[eabaker]

[klen7]

Wow, thanks for the analysis Jorzilla!!!

i think IMDB scores tend to skew a bit high for anything newly released. 10 years ago a score over 7 would have been considered really good, whereas now most movies get a 7.2 opening weekend (Oddly enough both "Riddick" and "We're the Millers" are sitting at 7.2)... Man of Steel (a movie that is commonly described as polarizing) has a 7.6 and only one Ray Harryhausen movie has above a 7. So i think its kind of hard to use IMDB as a basis... although i am surprised by how well Heisei films faired. It's interesting.

[Legion]

I also think more younger fans - many of whom seem to prefer the Millennium series for some reason - are more likely to head over to IMDB and rate the movies.

[Jorzilla]

I'm not sure if I'm still considered a 'younger' fan given that I'm in my mid-20s. However I consistently see people praising the Heisei series, particularly Godzilla vs. Destroyah on sites like reddit, and I just don't get it. The later Heisei series had some of the worst stories and boring fights, but they are held in higher regard than a lot of better written Showa films.

[klen7]

Maybe it has to do with the order you saw the movies. I grew up on Showa (and G85) but I had seen most of the Millenium series before i saw the Heisei series so that's pretty much how i rank the films. Really Trendmasters was my only hint that Heisei films existed when those toys were released, but I think I saw up through Tokyo SOS before i saw Ghidorah, Mothra, SpaceGodzilla and Destoroyah

[Jorzilla]

That's probably true. Growing up I only had the Showa stuff except for G85 and Biollante (I never understood how Godzilla shifted between being a bad guy and a good guy arbitrarily). I didn't see the rest of the Heisei series until TriStar go the rights and released GvsKG - Gvs.MGII. SpaceG and Destroyah came later. G98 was a disappointment. A lack of internet meant that I didn't know about G2K until it was released in Japan. I didn't find out about Megaguirus until I read about GMK, but by then I was in lock-step with the franchise.

That basically means, with the exception of the Showa series, I watched the Godzilla franchise in order of release. Not exactly the same as fans who were 4 or 5 when Final Wars was released, and are now young teenagers.

[Jorzilla]

Not surprisingly in preparation for the new movie I've been making my way through the Godzilla films. I've had some interesting things shake out, probably most noteably is the solidification of the first 2 Heisei films as my favorite Godzilla movies of all time (aside from the original). I'm about half way through watching all of the movies, but I'm expecting Gigan, and Sea Monster to move up more, and Hedorah to move down further as I comparatively watch them. I also continue to rank GFW worse and worse. I really tried to like this film as the last Godzilla movie. Now that's no longer the case it's getting harder to justify. I am seriously starting to despise it.

Without further ado, here's my new ranking and a list of how positions changed since last time!

1.       Godzilla (Godzilla, King of the Monsters) [1954] +1
2.       Godzilla vs. Biollante [1989] +1
3.       The Return of Godzilla (Godzilla 1985) [1984] +2
4.       Mothra vs. Godzilla [1964] -3
5.       Terror of Mechagodzilla [1975] +1
6.       Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack [2001] -2
7.       Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla [1974] -
8.      Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster [1964] -
9.       Invasion of Astro-Monster (Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) [1965] -
10.   Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. [2003] -
11.    Godzilla 2000: Millennium (Godzilla 2000) [1999] +1
12.    Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla [2002] -1
13.    Destroy All Monsters [1968] +6
14.    Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah [1991] -
15.    Godzilla vs. Destoroyah [1995] -
16.    Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2 [1993] -
17.    King Kong vs. Godzilla [1962] +3
18.   Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) [1971] -5
19.    Godzilla vs. Gigan [1972] -2
20.   Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster) [1966] +3
21.    Godzilla vs. Megaguirus [2000] -3
22.   Godzilla Raids Again [1955] +2
23.   Godzilla vs. Megalon [1973] +4
24.   Son of Godzilla [1967] +1
25.   All Monsters Attack (Godzilla's Revenge) [1969] +1
26.   Godzilla: Final Wars [2004] -5
27.   Godzilla vs. Mothra (Godzilla & Mothra: The Battle for Earth) [1992] -5
28.   GODZILLA [1998] -
29.   Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla [1994] -