Thanks to the recent successes of Legendary's Monsterverse movies and Toho's Japan-produced movies, Godzilla seems to have more momentum than ever. It seems like there's a new major movie in the franchise every couple of years, and all of them are stomping their way to huge takes at the box office. It's been 70 years since everyone's favorite radioactive dinosaur's first appearance and he's showing no signs of slowing down. If anything, Godzilla is consistently reaching a bigger audience all around the world than ever.
So far, there have been four main eras of the Godzilla movies — in Japan, at least; the American movies tend to be considered separate, and the Monsterverse movies constitute a distinct sub-franchise with their own canon. With one exception, the Japanese periods of the franchise are named for the reigning Japanese Emperor's era name, though there is some overlap between the different periods of the franchise and the different Emperors' reigns.
• The Shōwa era (1954-1975)
• The Heisei era (1984-1995) .
• The Millennium era (1999-2004)
• The Reiwa era (2016-)
Here's the Bam Smack Pow team's list of the most important entries in the venerable franchise that make essential viewing for any and all Godzilla fans.
Destroy All Monsters (1968/69) is a celebration of the world of classic Godzilla
A quick glance at the franchise makes it clear that it exactly takes, but 1968's Destroy All Monsters(released internationally in English in 1969) was intended as a possible grand finale for the entire franchise. For that reason, Destroy All Monsters features appearances from basically every kaiju Toho ever put to film — though thanks to some of the costumes being at the point of falling apart, a fair few of them don't really do anything. Still, Destroy All Monsters features the most abundant and most intense kaiju action of the classic era of the franchise.
The plot is pretty standard for a 1960s Godzilla movie: an alien invasion, mind-controlled kaiju ultimately breaking out of the aliens' control, a final battle between Godzilla and allies against the primary kaiju antagonist — in this case, basically everybody vs. King Ghidorah. Yes, it's cheesy and hard to take seriously, but it's serviceable as a delivery system for Godzilla action, especially on a scale that really hadn't been seen before or since in that era of the franchise. If nothing else, the movie isn't lying when it promises All Monsters.
The Return of Godzilla is a triumphant revival of the series
The Return of Godzilla brought the entire Godzilla franchise out of a long period of dormancy. The last Godzilla movie to be released was 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. Godzilla's first outing in almost a decade shed a lot of the goofy, cheesy tone that had came to define the franchise in the 60s and 70s — with the possible exception of the Super X, an overtly Sci Fi-influenced flying vehicle built to combat Godzilla — and returned to the tone of the very first Godzilla, though with the benefit of 30 years' worth of advancements in movie special effects technology and animatronics.
Godzilla is once again a destructive force of nature, and the plot is driven by the human characters' desperate attempts to defeat Godzilla, with a brilliant scientist once again playing a major role. Just like the original Godzilla, The Return of Godzilla was also released in English in a recut version with a modified script and extra footage featuring Raymond Burr reprising is role as Steve Martin (no, not that Steve Martin), an American reporter once again conveniently finding himself in Tokyo to narrate Godzilla's destruction for the benefit of international audiences, as he had done 30 years in the recut of the original 1954 movie, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) is the best Godzilla movie of the 90s
Famous as perhaps the single darkest entry in the entire franchise, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah closed out the era of the franchise that spanned the 80s and 90s. The movie is regarded as a high point of both that era and of the entire franchise. Despite only appearing in this one movie, Destoroyah has become a fan favorite, both for boasting an awesome design and for being one of Godzilla's strongest and most vicious opponents.
In addition to closing out the 90s, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah also ties into the very first Godzilla movie. In the original movie, Godzilla was killed by a weapon called the Oxygen Destroyer, which Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (it's not an accident that "Destoroyah" is the English word "Destroyer" written in Japanese) establishes mutated certain aquatic lifeforms into a colony of crab-like creatures that ultimately coalesce into a single, incredibly powerful kaiju. Meanwhile, Godzilla is undergoing essentially a nuclear meltdown, gradually overheating and threatening to explode and destroy the entire planet.
The movie ends on a pretty bittersweet note: Destoroyah is defeated in spectacular fashion by a joint between Godzilla and the human military, although Godzilla himself dies shortly afterwards. However, Godzilla Junior, hatched in 1993's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, absorbs the original's power and evolves into the new Godzilla.
Godzilla x Kong (2024) is peak Monsterverse action
While it could be argued that Legendary's Monsterverse series over-corrected on criticisms from their 2014 Godzilla movie that the story focused too much on the humans that didn't provide enough kaiju action, the kaiju action in the subsequent Monsterverse movies has been getting increasingly more prominent, more intense, and more absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way. For context: if you've ever wanted to see a giant, radioactive dinosaur hit a big gorilla with a vertical suplex worthy of a WrestleMania appearance, you are going to love Godzilla x Kong.
The Godzilla fanbase has noted that while the Japanese entries in the franchise have been returning to Godzilla's root as a serious, threatening figure ripe for allegorical and metaphorical storytelling, Legendary's series has been going in the opposite direction: getting progressively less grounded, more action-oriented, and actually doing a pretty good job of channeling the goofy Sci Fi spirit of the 60s era of the franchise, but with a hundred-million dollar budget to do the kaiju action justice.
The humans in Godzilla x Kong make one of the better human casts in the Monsterverse. Though it has to be said that the Monsterverse has wasted both Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe by killing off their characters too quickly or unceremoniously.
Godzilla Singular Point (2021) turns Godzilla in a Quantum monstrosity
Netflix's Godzilla Singular Point is one of the most unique entries in the franchise. For one thing, the anime series makes the most of its medium to get some really visually striking character designs on-screen, both human and kaiju. It also delivers one of the most unprecedented depictions of Godzilla himself. Godzilla is normally a metaphor for nuclear weapons or power: the Godzilla of Singular Point has more in common with an alien, unknowable monster in the vein of Cthulhu or Warhammer's Chaos Gods.
The plot of Singular Point makes the most of the rules of Quantum mechanics to portray Godzilla as an abomination from another dimension, who can seemingly exist in multiple points of time and space simultaneously, and who unravels the laws of physics just by existing. Granted, how this is explained in the series itself, is highly dependent on long-winded, very technical explanations delivered at length by the characters, and it is easy to get lost in what's actually happening. Even so, Singular Point is worth a just for how unlike anything else in the franchise it is — and though it might not really make sense, this version of Godzilla is one of the most genuinely unsettling and scary depictions in the franchise.
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) is the franchise's buried treasure
Another fan favourite of the 90s-era of the franchise, Godzilla vs. Biollante is another notably melancholy and thoughtful entry in the franchise. The story includes terrorism, a grieving father trying to preserve his daughter's soul, the perils of genetic engineering, with those three storylines converging to give rise to the titular Biollante, a giant plant monster. Biollante herself is fondly remembered both for her unique design and technically complex and impressive kaiju suit.
Previously, although it was one of the most acclaimed movies in the franchise, Godzilla vs. Biollante has been infamously difficult for North American fans to find, with official releases being sparse and only available for short periods of time. Luckily, this has now been remedied by a March 2025 4K release from the Criterion Collection, which previously put out a collection of the classic Godzilla movies from 1954-1975.
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) has a surprisingly thoughtful and powerful story
As one of Godzilla's most popular enemies, it's no surprise that Mechagodzilla has appeared as an antagonist in so many of the franchise's movies — Mechagodzilla has appeared in five of the live-action Japanese movies, two of the three movies in the 2017-2018 anime trilogy, Godzilla vs. Kong and two Japanese spin-off TV shows.
Mechagodzilla's best outing is probably Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, both for giving Mechagodzilla the spotlight and turning him into a legitimately interesting character, rather than a mindless enemy or simply a human-piloted vehicle. This version of Mechagodzilla, known as Kiryu, is constructed from the bones of the original Godzilla and seems to still possess some memories of its past life, rebelling against its programming to fight the current Godzilla. Despite being a giant cyborg dinosaur, Kiryu is one of the most sympathetic and humanized characters in the franchise and provides a mirror for the ongoing struggles of the film's human lead, his pilot, Akane.
Shin Godzilla (2016) is Godzilla brought to you by an anime icon
Like Singular Point, Shin Godzilla's take on Godzilla is both unlike any other in the franchise, and incredibly disturbing. That's hardly surprising, given that it was written and directed by Hideaki Anno, whose most famous work is the artistically vivid and psychologically unsettling mecha anime Neon Gensis Evangelion. Inspired by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, this version of Godzilla is portrayed as a walking natural disaster.
In Shin Godzilla, Godzilla himself is less a character and more of an event. Much of his destruction is caused simply by him moving in a straight line and as undeniably impressive as his use of the Atomic Breath in this movie is, it's only unleashed in the first place as a defense mechanism against the military attempts to stop him. The meat of the drama and conflict comes from the government's attempts to respond, such as they are. Anno portrays the government as ineffectual, indecisive and mired in red tape. It's a metaphor that, if anything, has only become more poignant and relatable since the movie's debut.
Godzilla Minus One (2023) set a new bar for the franchise
Godzilla Minus One was a major milestone for the Godzilla franchise in a number of ways. Released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original 954 movie, Minus One quickly became a runaway favourite in the franchise. It's the highest-rated movie in the franchise with critics, and it was a success at the box office in Japan and throughout the world, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla movie. It also won the franchise's first Academy Award, taking home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Without feeling like simply a mindless retread, Minus One evokes a lot of the spirit of the original Godzilla. He's once again a force of destruction ushered in by the dawn of the Atomic Age. His rampage through Tokyo is depicted with vivid, horrifying sound and visuals. Ultimately, Godzilla's defeat — although it's implied by the movie itself to only be temporary — is an affirmation of human resilience and ingenuity.
A direct sequel with director Takhashi Yamazaki returning to the helm was recently confirmed by Toho. However, specific details remain sparse.
Godzilla (1954) is the classic that started it all
Although Minus One is now generally held up as the best movie in the franchise, the original 1954 Godzilla still remains fondly remembered. After all, this is the movie that not only introduced Godzilla himself, but the movie that basically established the Platonic Ideal of giant movie monsters for movie-going audiences that has endured for seven decades. It's also still a legitimately powerful drama that has stood the test of time.
While its undeniably true that some of the special effects haven't aged gracefully, the original Godzilla suit is still well-done enough that some of Godzilla's appearances, particularly the audience's first glimpse of him, are still genuinely scary, helped by the fact that the original version of Godzilla's trademark roar is a genuinely disturbing sound. The human drama is still powerful, and the scenes of destruction and the innocent population struggling in the aftermath are still moving and upsetting.
Even after 70 years, the original Godzilla is still an excellent piece of cinema. However, it's also priceless piece of cinematic history, because without it, none of the other nine things on this list would even exist in the first place.