Ranking the ENTIRE series...

[lhb412]

Tinkerin' with my list...

1. Godzilla (1954) (best, not necessarily most enjoyable - that would be the next few spots on the list)
2. Mothra vs. Godzilla
3. Invasion of Astro Monster
4. Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster
5. Son of Godzilla
6. King Kong vs. Godzilla
7. Godzilla vs. Biollante
8. Godzilla (2014)
9. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
10. Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster
11. Godzilla vs. Gigan
12. Destroy All Monsters
13. Terror of Mechagodzilla
14. Godzilla vs. Hedorah
15. Godzilla's Revenge
16. Godzilla 1985
17. Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
18. Godzilla Raids Again
19. Godzilla vs. Megalon
20. Godzilla 2000 (American version)
21. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
22. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
23. Godzilla Final Wars
24. Godzilla: Tokyo SOS
25. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
26. Godzilla x Mechagodzilla
27. Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla
28. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
29. Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

I'll no doubt come back to and revise this a hundred times. I'm having a real time with spots #16-20. They keep shifting around, hard to pin down.

[king_ghidorah]

Yearly update of my list.....this is probably the biggest switch of my life in my overall rankings. My tastes in G Films has really changed this past year for whatever reason.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)

Son of Godzilla (1967)

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

Return of Godzilla (1984)

Godzilla's Revenge (1969)

Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

Godzilla 2000 (1999)

Godzilla Tokyo SOS (2003)

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993)

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)

Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla (1994)

Godzilla Final Wars (2004)

Godzilla 1998

[jellydonut25]

Astonishingly low ranking of GRA for you.

[king_ghidorah]

I really started to appreciate the more colorful ( in more ways than 1) entries in the series this year. G 85 and Raids again took the biggest hits

[Legion]

My list, in terms of favorites....

The entirety of the Showa films come first. Period. Don't really care to order them.

As for the rest of the Toho films, it's something like this, give or take...

Godzilla vs Biollante
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla '93
Tokyo SOS
Godzilla vs Destroyah
Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
Godzilla X Mechagodzilla
Godzilla vs Space Godzilla
Godzilla vs Mothra
Godzilla 1984
GMK
Godzilla X Megagiras
G2K
Final Wars

GINO and G'2014? Eh, whatever. Don't care for either.

[Dr Kain]

Oh god, I don't know if I can really rank the all, but I'll give it a try.

29. Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla
28. All Monsters Attack
27. Godzilla vs Megalon
26. Godzilla vs Mothra 92
25. Godzilla x Megaguirus
24. Godzilla Raids Again
23. Godzilla vs Hedorah
22. Ebirah
21. Son of Godzilla
20. Godzilla vs Gigan
19. Godzilla vs Destoroyrah
18. Final Wars
17. Godzilla vs MechaG 93
16. Godzilla 84
15. Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
14. Godzilla 2000
13. Destroy All Monsters
12. Godzilla 2014
11. King Kong vs Godzilla
10. Tokyo SOS
9. Terror of MechaG
8. Godzilla vs MechaG 74
7. Godzilla vs Biollante
6. Invasion of Astro-Monster
5. GMK
4. Ghidorah TTHM
3. Godzilla Against MechaG
2. Mothra vs Godzilla
1. Godzilla 54

Now 12-23 is kind of interchangeable. I'm not exactly sure if that is the exact order I will always put them, but it is pretty close.

Also, 1 and 2 can be changed depending how you look at it. Mothra vs Godzilla is my favorite of them all, but Godzilla 54 is the best in the franchise.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Jorzilla]

I find it ironic that you list Godzilla 2014 near my rankings...

Anyways, I checked my list and this thread and I have replied with a ranking in the last 2 pages. I did this list by ranking each series first, using that as a guide and to keep me honest. I did a final full preference check using my previous ratings as tie-breakers.

10/10
Godzilla (1954)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

9/10
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Return of Godzilla (1984)
Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

8/10
Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
Godzilla Tokyo SOS (2003)

7/10
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
Godzilla 2000 (1999)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

6/10
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

5/10
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
Godzilla's Revenge (1969)

4/10
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)

3/10
Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla (1994)

2/10
Godzilla Final Wars (2004)

1/10
Godzilla 1998

Participation Medal
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

[Benjamin Haines]

[Dr Kain]

Yeah, how can you give 2014 a 6? That makes it just above average when it was a lot better than that.

Love the "participation medal" though.

Legion, how can you like Revenge and Megalon over some of the best movies from the Millennium series?

[eabaker]

[king_ghidorah]

I'm deffinetly one of those people. I'll watch SOS occasionally but that's about it. I much prefer the Heisei series as a whole. Nothing in the Millenium series hits the same highs for me that Biollante and King Ghidorah do.

[Jorzilla]

[Dr Kain]

[Jorzilla]

Godzilla movies also have interesting action, good characters, coherent stories without gigantic plot holes, a monster more relevant than only motivated to kill the opposing creatures, lots of destruction, good acting, a tight focus on the titular character, etc.

Also comparing it to the original is laughable.

[klen7]

[Dr Kain]

[Jorzilla]

[klen7]

[Jorzilla]

Those movies can and are entertaining as one offs, but in terms of having a strong Godzilla character or being a template to base the franchise on? No way.

Lets be clear, I do enjoy the 1970s films but they are hardly what I consider a gold standard to base future movies off of. I enjoy those for nostalgia and their craziness as the Godzilla equivalent of an exploitation cult film, but they are not good film making. The 1990s films are significantly worse overall, but I think the portrayal and character of Godzilla in those films are generally very good, in contrast to the children friendly monster of the 1970s.

I think that's the same mistake Kitamura did for Final Wars.

[Dr Kain]

[Jorzilla]

Godzilla is not a disaster in this movie, though his present certainly causes destruction. Even if I concede that the intention of the tsunami scene was to have him represent a disaster, the fact remains this is really the only time where onscreen deaths are heavily implied to be caused Godzilla when the MUTOs blatantly kill people and the military directly. They city cheers for Godzilla as he leaves. The US government tried to kill him in the 1950s and 1960s with nuclear weapons....seems like a good motivation to take a queue from the Japanese series and unleash fury on humanity. Except he doesn't. Because he's the hero of the picture. He only is in the movie and interacts with people to kill the bad guys. If it wasn't for the MUTOs he would have been content to stay in the Pacific Ocean not bothering anyone.

Saying that the original movie is invoked because of disaster element completely misses the point of the original with Godzilla as a man made creation and personification of an atomic bomb. The Legendary Godzilla isn't. The MUTOs personify 95% of the anti-nuke message. Even when the military decides to use missiles to attract the monsters, the audience is straight up told that it's to attract the MUTOs who will in turn attract Godzilla.



But this is just one element of the film that I don't like. It doesn't scratch the surface of how boring it is, the plot holes, the awful performances, the un-compelling story and an un-interesting cast of characters. This film is saved by it's visuals and not much else.

[DannyBeane]

Since I watch all these films all the time and truly don't hate any of them, I have to rank them based on watchability. These are in no particular order outside the tier they're in.

God Tier Best of their decade (G2k is shoehorned into the 2000s)
Gojira
Ghidrah
Godzilla vs Gigan
Godzilla vs Biollante
Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
G2k

Epic Tier Super quality films, these are films I almost always have playing
Godzilla vs The Thing
Godzilla vs Monster Zero
Godzilla vs the Sea Monster
Son of Godzilla
Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla 74
Godzilla 85
GMK
Godzilla 2014.

Good Tier These are films I really enjoy but only really get played when I need a break from the previous two tiers.
Godzilla Raids Again
King Kong vs Godzilla
DAM
Godzilla's Revenge
Godzilla vs Hedorah
ToMG
Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla 93

Okay Tier I watch these when I remember I haven't seen them in a while.
Godzilla vs Megalon
Godzilla vs Destroyah
GXMG
Tokyo SOS

Bad Tier These are movies I tend to struggle through. When I do put them on, its mostly as background noise while I'm doing something else.
Godzilla vs Mothra 92
Godzilla vs Space Godzilla
GXMegaguirus
GFW

[Legion]

[eabaker]

Okay, I've commented on this thread a few times, but never posted a list. I'm definitely going to have to do it by tiers, with each tier just listed chronologically, and a lot of the placements are fluid, so some of today's tier 4 might be on tomorrow's tier 3, of this weekend's tier 5... In fact, while cutting and pasting chunks of this list from Word to the board, I reclassified a few.

Tier 1 - pretty much immutable, these are the Godzilla movies that I am flat-out in love with
Gojira
King Kong vs. Godzilla
Return of Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Biollante

Tier 2 - permanent unless a new movie comes along that matches or beats one
Mothra vs. Godzilla
Monster Zero
Son of Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
GMK

Tier 3 - movies that I am pretty much always in the mood for, but don't quite love
Destroy All Monsters
Godzilla vs. Gigan
Terror of Mechagodzilla
Godzilla 2000

Tier 4 - movies I very, very much dig aspects of, but just don't always feel like watching
Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
Godzilla vs. Destroyah
Godzilla (2014)

Tier 5 - movies I enjoy, but can also be bored by if I'm not in exactly the right mood
All Monsters Attack
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Godzilla vs. Mothra
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

Tier 6 - movies that typically won't hold my interest for their whole duration
Godzilla Raids Again
Godzilla vs. Megalon
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

Tier 7 - movies I consider pretty bad, but which I don't consider abject failures
Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Tier 8 - movies I consider abject failures
Godzilla (1998)
Tokyo SOS
Godzilla: Final Wars