I Binge-Watched All 33 ‘Godzilla’ Movies

[CyHunter]

Mods - I hope it's cool to post a link to something I wrote offsite.

After being a Godzilla fan most of my life -- I used to be a big poster on here in the early 2000s -- I finally sat down and watched all the movies in order, for the first time, rather than just cherry-picking whatever I had a whim to watch. I essentially gave myself a course syllabus. I'd read the respective chapter of David Kalat's totally indispensable "A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series" and then I'd sit down to watch whichever movie I'd just read about. Doing so gave me a socio-cultural perspective on each movie that I don't think I'd otherwise have, as us Western fans are watching these "cold" so to speak. I highly recommend that book to any fan who hasn't given it a read. But anyway, here were my thoughts after going through the series, just figured I'd share it.

Kaiju movies resist easy categorization. They’re usually broad, fun popcorn movies billed as entertainment, yet they’re pathologically fixated on the ills of society. They’re about monsters, but they rarely act as horror movies. They employ the language of science fiction, yet most of the time it’s of a kind so absurd that they’re not to be taken as sincere speculation. The best term to describe them might be “modern urban fairy tales”: stories rooted in allegorical, emotive narrative that on the surface seems naïve, but which uses that simple sense of wonder or horror to dig at something deeper.

In anticipation of Godzilla’s 35th* big screen appearance headlining Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019, I watched every installment of the Toho series — and its Hollywood spin-offs — to date. Here are my rankings, and what I learned along the way:

https://medium.com/@garyiacobucci/i-bin ... b24e7aa1d0

[lhb412]

Dang impressive. I'm gonna have to bookmark this to read the whole thing, but what I've read is really cool.

I think we need more good articles and video essays and such for new fans becoming interested in the franchise.

[JordanGLC]

Hey, I remember you. I'm surprised Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla isn't #1, lol.

[CyHunter]

[angilas]

Nice,
The shocker for me is the anime trilogy (well the first two) above GTTHM and Monster Zero. Even after the third comes out in the west, I’m sure few in the fandom willl feel similarly. Also Gigan below megalomaniac is a bit surprising, as is GvMG and ToMG below all of MGs other appearances. It’s cool getting insight to your perspective. I like seeing where G14 ranks and am curious how King of the Monsters 2019 will fare.

[Gwangi]

While I clearly do not agree with your G rankings, I like the effort, and you did something I could never think of dreaming off - binge watch all 33 movies!

I don't know if this one counts, but you did leave one film out, the 1977 Luigi Cozzi re-working of "Godzilla" (which I understand is a real odd curio).