10 Best Godzilla Movies To Watch First: Where To Start

The Godzilla series is the longest-running movie franchise of all time, and has gone through so many revitalizations that it provides plenty of entry points for moviegoers who might be new to the franchise. Beginning with Godzilla in 1954, Toho has produced 34 different Godzilla movies, and had a hand in the distribution of five American-made movies as well. Godzilla began his movie career as a villain, acting as a violent metaphor for the horrors of nuclear destruction, and over time he has oscillated between being a destroyer and a protector of humanity.

With so many different iterations of the radioactive lizard on the table, there are plenty of different introductions to not only Godzilla himself, but the other monsters he has fought and teamed up with throughout his career as well. For newcomers to the franchise, there are a few movies that truly encapsulate Godzilla’s personality and role in the larger world at the different stages of his career. They range from outright campy to dark and terrifying, but they all show different sides of one of the most versatile characters in film history.

10 Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

The debut of Godzilla’s doppelgänger

As important and famous as Godzilla has become over the decades, some of the monsters that he has battled against have become almost as iconic in their own right. One of the most significant opponents that Godzilla has ever blasted with his atomic breath is Mechagodzilla, the heavily-armed robotic reflection of Godzilla himself. Mechagodzilla (who has been redesigned and reintroduced multiple times himself) has proven to be one of the most dangerous enemies for Godzilla, and has caused some of the worst damage that Big G has ever suffered.

Mechagodzilla debuted in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, appearing to be a flesh-and-blood twin of Godzilla before revealing his true metallic form. The movie features cameos from fan-favorite monsters Anguirus and King Caesar, and also includes the one-time use of one of Godzilla’s strangest attacks, during which he turns himself into a magnet to draw Mechagodzilla in. Mechagodzilla’s reveal is an iconic moment in the franchise, making this one of the best movies for Godzilla beginners to check out.

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

One of the scariest villainous versions of Godzilla

The 26th film in the Godzilla franchise ignores everything that came before it with the exception of 1954’s Godzilla. In the movie referred to by Godzilla scholars as “GMK” in lieu of its incredibly long title, Godzilla is at his most evil and dangerous. While he was a walking warning against nuclear destruction in the original movie, in GMK he is the embodiment of all the souls lost during the Pacific War, unleashed to seek vengeance upon Japan and the world at large.

The movie is heavy with lore, but it isn’t complex or inaccessible in any capacity. It’s unique in the franchise for inverting the roles of Godzilla and King Ghidorah; in GMK, King Ghidorah is a guardian dragon of the Earth as opposed to an evil extraterrestrial monster, while Godzilla is the destructive enemy of humanity. Ghidorah teams up with Mothra and the minor (but beloved) monster Baragon to end Godzilla’s reign of terror before it can start, and it’s a fun, well-executed twist on the more common Godzilla-as-a-guardian formula.

8 Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

The perfect encapsulation of the campy final stages of the Showa Era

After being a villain for his first four movies, Godzilla fully transitioned into a guardian of the world by 1964. For the next 11 years Godzilla movies were more family-friendly, with Godzilla becoming more anthropomorphic and “cuter” over time. The peak of that family-friendly end to Godzilla’s Showa Era was 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon, in which Godzilla and his robotic ally Jet Jaguar team up to fight the subterranean beetle god Megalon and the alien Gigan.

The monster action is downright campy throughout the movie, with a number of silly moments highlighted by one of Godzilla’s coolest moves: a gravity-defying running dropkick. The entire movie is perfect for Godzilla newcomers who are looking to understand the different iterations of Big G over the years. A big part of his popularity and nostalgia can be traced back to the Showa Era, and Godzilla vs. Megalon is the best example of Godzilla’s softest side.

7 Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)

The first appearance of Godzilla’s arch-nemesis, and his first team-up

Godzilla’s first turn as a hero came in 1964’s Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, a transition forced by the appearance of his archnemesis, the alien dragon King Ghidorah. In the movie, Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra are forced to team up to save humanity from the destruction of the gravity-beam-spitting three-headed dragon. While they are reluctant allies (and in Godzilla and Rodan’s case, enemies) at first, the three monsters eventually work together to defeat King Ghidorah and banish him back to outer space.

There are, of course, convoluted human plots involving aliens, meteors, prophets, and fairies, but the movie is largely cited as one of the better movies of the Showa Era. It’s an ideal movie for a newcomer to the Godzilla franchise for its depiction of the personalities of the four monsters at its heart. Mothra is shown as a peacekeeper among the monsters and ally to humans, while Godzilla and Rodan are both reluctant defenders of humanity; however, all are willing to put aside their differences to get rid of the ultimate evil, King Ghidorah.

6 The Return of Godzilla (1985)

Godzilla’s dark return after a long hiatus

The Return of Godzilla isn’t particularly high on any “best of” Godzilla lists, but it’s important given its place in the overall franchise. Following 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla, Toho gave Big G a rest. No Godzilla movies were produced anywhere in the world for nine full years, which to this day is still the longest hiatus Godzilla has ever taken from the big screen.

At one point, the American release of
The Return of Godzilla
was reportedly going to be a comedy starring Leslie Nielsen (
The Naked Gun
) in which the dialogue was all dubbed over to make the entire plot a tongue-in-cheek affair.

He re-emerged in 1984 with a brand-new, sharper design and a bad attitude. The Return of Godzilla was intended to represent a reversal of the campy, family-friendly Godzilla that had dominated the lates 1960s and 1970s, and it once again made him a walking metaphor for nuclear destruction. The movie flopped in Japan, and yielded another five-year hiatus for Godzilla, but it still stands up as a valid entry for anyone wishing to familiarize themselves with Godzilla as he was originally intended.

5 Godzilla (2014)

The adventure that kicked off Legendary’s Monsterverse

After the disastrous American debut of Godzilla in 1998’s GODZILLA, Toho took back the atomic lizard for what would come to be known as the Millennium Era, and produced six Godzilla films in short succession. Godzilla resurfaced in America in 2014 with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, which featured a new, massive form for the monster that took notes from the Millennium and Heisei Eras. The movie was well-received by both critics and the box office in the United States, and it spawned the ongoing cinematic universe known as Legendary’s Monsterverse.

While the more recent Monsterverse movies featuring Kong have received criticism for becoming almost like superhero films in tone and style, the 2014 Godzilla is a stripped-down introduction to the eponymous monster. Edwards truly manages to capture the humongous scale of Godzilla and his fellow Titans (what kaiju are known as in the Monsterverse timeline), which creates a new level of majesty and strength for Big G. It’s also a great starting point for anyone who might struggle with the tokusatsu practical effects style of the Toho films.

4 Shin Godzilla (2016)

A unique take on Godzilla as a destructive force of nature

Toho quickly responded to 2014’s Godzilla with their own modernized version of the atomic lizard in a movie known as Shin Godzilla. Shin Godzilla represented a major pivot for Toho in how they depicted Godzilla; the monster began in a much smaller form, and steadily evolved across eight different forms, each more deadly than the last. At the time, the final form of Shin Godzilla was the largest that the monster had ever been in a movie.

What made Shin Godzilla truly unique was the horror lean that the monster’s various evolved forms had. Not only were the designs gruesome to look at, they were unsettling in their abilities. The final, bipedal form of Shin Godzilla was also the most destructive that Godzilla had ever been, with the typical blue atomic breath replaced by a purple, laser-like blast that could be ejected not only from his mouth, but his tail and dorsal plates as well. Shin Godzilla represents a return to Godzilla’s roots as a destructive force of nature, this time dialed to 11.

3 Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

The debut of the Queen of the Monsters

After being introduced in her own solo movie, Mothra, in 1961, the benevolent kaiju known as the Queen of the Monsters was tasked with stopping a rampaging Godzilla in Mothra vs. Godzilla. Mothra may be second only to Godzilla when it comes to the significance and fame of Toho’s various tokusatsu monsters, and both her larval and adult forms appear in the 1964 classic. It’s an important movie for the franchise, as Mothra is one of Godzilla’s most steadfast allies (when he was on the side of humanity, that is), so her introduction is significant.

2 Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The modern return to Godzilla’s terrifying roots

Godzilla Minus One features maybe the most destructive version of Godzilla ever put on the big screen, despite his smaller stature (compared to Shin Godzilla and Monsterverse Godzilla). His atomic breath mimics a literal nuclear bomb blast, and he is also able to heal and regenerate after virtually any injury he sustains. He seems truly unstoppable throughout the movie, rendered even more psychologically devastating considering he attacks Japan just as they began recovering from World War II.

Godzilla Minus One features what many consider to be the strongest human story, and as an Academy Award-winning movie it has to be considered one of the best places for any Godzilla newcomer to start. It perfectly captures the destructive, villainous version of Godzilla, perhaps to a level never achieved since the first movie in the franchise.

1 Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla’s original appearance

The original Japanese version of Godzilla in 1954’s Godzilla still reigns supreme when it comes to portraying the radioactive monster as a nuclear holocaust metaphor. As the origin of the franchise, it features many of the key elements of the character presented for the first time, including the earliest iteration of his atomic breath, the Oxygen Destroyer weapon that has reared its head multiple times in the franchise, and the concept of Godzilla’s regenerative abilities. The black and white style of the movie elevates the terror and overall dread that Godzilla conjures.

Any newcomer to the Godzilla franchise should start with the 1954 original, as it’s the basis for every other version in the franchise. Many versions of Goji throughout the years make direct reference to the original, with multiple iterations acting as direct sequels, ignoring all other films of the franchise except that. Godzilla beginners have plenty of choices when it comes to familiarizing themselves with the franchise, but the original should always be the first stop.