There has to be some hesitation in saying so right now, but things are on track for the 2020s to be the greatest decade to be aGodzillafan. There’s an argument to be made that the greatest film in the series came out way back in the 1950s, sure, and the 1960s was a decade during whichGodzillamovies were coming out most steadily. Also, for those who like variety in theirGodzillafilms,the 1990s was a pretty great timeto be a fan, given that decade saw the release of five Heisei era films, one American blockbuster, and then the first movie of the Millennium era.
But the 2010s was also a good decade forGodzillaand, in many ways, laid the groundwork for the 2020s, which saw the release of films likeGodzilla vs. Kongand the excellentGodzilla Minus One. But the 2010s marked the start of theMonsterVerse, and saw the release of the first JapaneseGodzillamovie in more than 10 years. There was also a trilogy of animeGodzillamovies and, though not great, they were admittedly interesting.All six feature-length movies featuring Godzilla released in the 2010s are ranked below, including both Japanese and American productions.
6’Godzilla: The Planet Eater' (2018)
Directors: Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita
Between 2017 and 2018, there were three anime movies featuringGodzillaand, to be perfectly blunt, each one was a little worse than the last. That inevitably means talking about them in reverse order, for present purposes, which is very messy, but at the same time, this whole trilogy is a mess.No film in this bunch is particularly well-thought-out, coherent, or entirely satisfying, so maybe it’s fitting to provide some rambling and difficult-to-follow commentary about them. Rambling and preamble aside,Godzilla: The Planet Eateris the third in the trilogy and, yes, comfortably the worst.
It’s a shame, because a title likeGodzilla: The Planet Eatersounds pretty awesome, and the version of Godzilla seen here is very large. All these movies are set in the distant future, and you’d think that would allow the filmmakers to go nuts, but everything’s very tepid, especially in this movie.The Planet Eaterevenhas the guts to squander King Ghidorah, a monster who Godzilla fans will be well aware isusually awesome, and Godzilla’s main nemesis. The two barely fight here, the boring characters from the last two movies are even more boring here, and the film farts around doing next to nothing for 91 minutes before mercifully stopping. It’s bad. It should be, at the very least, dumb fun, but it kind of sucks and feels unfinished.
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5’Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle' (2018)
Director: Kōbun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita
ToGodzilla: City on the Edge of Battle’s credit, it’s a little better overall thanGodzilla: The Planet Eater, but not by much. In the end, it still qualifies asa pretty bad giant monster movie, and one that even the most forgiving appreciators of the genre might struggle to find redeeming qualities within. The distant future is once more as boring as the human characters featured throughout this anime film, and the monsters don’t even fare that much better as far as interesting things go… and that’s even with Mechagodzilla being here.
How do you screw up Mechagodzilla? Traditionally, this foe is like Godzilla, but mechanized. And here, even more enticingly, Mechagodzilla is technically a new version of the character dubbed Mechagodzilla City.Godzilla fighting a version of Mechagodzilla thousands of years in the future, and that version of Mechagodzilla is somehow also a city? How could that possibly be dull?WatchGodzilla: City on the Edge of Battleto find out! (But in all seriousness, don’t watchGodzilla: City on the Edge of Battle).
4’Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters' (2017)
Directors: Kōbun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita
The onlyGodzillaanime movie worth a damn, to the pointwhere you could almost call it underrated,Godzilla: Planet of the Monstershas some things to offer and is, admittedly, a film that shows potential. It sets things up that should’ve been explored and expanded more in two extra films (you know, because they had about three hours of runtime to continue the story that was started here),but, as mentioned before, those two 2018 movies didn’t do much of anything. So, in hindsight,Godzilla: Planet of the Monsterscould be a bit harder to defend.
But for what it is (something that starts a trilogy that goes in a radically new direction for the overallGodzillaseries),Godzilla: Planet of the Monsterskind of works.The animation is a little stronger herethan in the other two movies, and the premise – which sees humans trying to recolonize a world overtaken by monsters thousands of years in the future – is intriguing, and leads to some mildly engaging conflict. Nothing came of it, but as its own thing, and one piece of a larger story, this film does kind of do its job in an almost decent way. Potential was squandered the following year, but hey, faint praise is still technically praise.
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
3’Godzilla: King of the Monsters' (2019)
Director: Michael Dougherty
AnotherGodzillamovie defined by ups and downs, there are things to love aboutGodzilla: King of the Monsters, as a fan of the series, and things to be kind of frustrated by. Principally, it’s too long and bogged down by especially uninteresting human drama. The bestGodzillamovies – and, really, the best giant monster movies – findcompelling things for the non-monster characters to do. Plenty of good giant monster movies just find serviceable things for the humans to do, and that can also be okay. ButKing of the Monstersis one of those unfortunate giant monster movies where the human-centered scenes fluctuate between eye-rolling and dull.
As for the giant monster stuff, the way you feel the scale of all the monsters here (many of themappearing in an AmericanGodzillafilmfor the first time) is impressive, and certain set pieces have striking imagery. Things can get a little dark and murky, visually speaking, but the spectacle on offer here does provide thrills.Godzilla: King of the Monstersis horrendously uneven, anda lesserMonsterVersemovie overall, butthe highs here do make it worth watching for fans of the world’s most popular kaiju series.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2’Godzilla' (2014)
Director: Gareth Edwards
In 1998, there wasan attempt to make an AmericanGodzillamovie, and it was… not great. Like, some people will defend it, and I guess everyone has the right to feel the way they do about a movie. But it was messy and, at best, a decent giant monster movie, rather than a trueGodzillamovie. 2014’sGodzillawas better, and though it had some bloat and wasn’t a perfect encapsulation of the character, it still largely worked and felt respectful to Godzilla overall.
The plot here is simple stuff, featuring a couple of monsters new to theGodzillaseries overall threatening humanity, all the while Godzilla emerges and also proves a possible threat to humanity, but, at the same time, something that could conceivably take down the other monsters.It takes a while for the showdown to happen, and the movieengages in a little too much teasingbefore the climax, butthe wayGodzillawraps up– and a few key scenes before that point – make it a pretty good watch, in the end.
1’Shin Godzilla' (2016)
Directors: Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi
There are some less-than-stellar JapaneseGodzillamovies (a couple have just been mentioned, a few entries back), butthe best films in the seriesdo hail from Japan. That’s where the character was birthed, and that’s also where the bulk of theGodzillamovies have been made; it all makes sense.Shin Godzillais therefore, not too surprisingly, the cream of the crop when it comes toGodzillamovies that were released in the 2010s, and also the only live-action Japanese film in the series released that decade.
It takes an almost darkly comedic and satirical look at what would happen if Godzilla emerged during the 2010s, featuring some spectacle and action, sure, but also a lot of behind-the-scenes drama/uneasy comedy regarding how high-ranking people fail to deal with the threat at hand. It’s almostBrazil-esque in its takedown of bureaucratic baloney, and also proves memorable because ofhow grotesque, pitiful, tragic, and uniqueits take on Godzilla looks (and the way the creature itself evolves).Shin Godzillais unusual, but admirably bold and undeniably effective, standing as one ofthe better 21st centuryGodzillamovies to date.
