7 films to watch before the 'Godzilla' sequel

After a five-year-wait, 'Godzilla, the King of the Monsters' is returning to the big screen in Warner Bros. and Legendary’s 'MonsterVerse', and he’s bringing with him the three biggest pop culture icons in monster movies: Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah. But before you watch these Titans duke it out for supremacy, here are seven Godzilla films you should watch.

Gojira (1954)

The one, the only, the original. Gojira is a seminal piece of filmmaking born out of the horrors of the post-WW2 nuclear age. It was a time when every country was stockpiling their arsenal after the 1945 bombings showed off the awesome power of the atom, at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Inspired by both the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings and the many nuclear tests that took place after it (most specifically, the Lucky Dragon 5 incident and Castle Bravo), Gojira served as an allegory for the death and destruction that nuclear weapons could bring in the form of the titular monster: an ancient dinosaur horribly mutated and scarred by nuclear weapons. The film proved to be successful among Japanese with its stark, gloomy imagery and hauntingly effective music, and was given a heavily edited release in the US, which launched the franchise into many directions.

The film also introduced the Oxygen Destroyer, the first and only weapon to have truly killed Godzilla in the franchise.

Mothra vs Godzilla (1964)

What is this, a crossover episode? Godzilla returned to the front in 1964 with two major films that featured other prominent Toho monsters: Mothra and Rodan, and introduced the three-headed golden dragon, King Ghidorah.

Mothra vs Godzilla, the first of these, featured a redesigned Godzilla, still an evil beast bent on destruction, which put him into conflict with Mothra, an ancient Moth monster who was worshipped as a goddess. After her egg washed over into Japan following a storm, the greed of men drew Godzilla to it, forcing Mothra, and eventually her children, to do battle with the nuclear juggernaut.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was yet another film featuring multiple classic Toho monsters. This time it was Mothra and Rodan alongside the newly-created King Ghidorah, a towering dragon with a golden body and three heads, who could spit lightning-like gravity beams from any and all of them.

In the film, Ghidorah was credited with the destruction of all life on Venus and the film revolved around Godzilla and Rodan’s rivalry even as Ghidorah threatened to lay waste to Earth.

Godzilla vs Biollante (1989)

Between 1964’s Ghidorah and this, there were nearly a dozen films in the Godzilla franchise, which had changed its USP to being a more kid-friendly franchise with slapstick comedy. 1985’s Godzilla changed it all, and Godzilla vs Biollante doubled down on it, with a heavier focus on the ‘nuclear terror’ reputation of Godzilla, and mixed it with a spy movie sub-plot, involving multiple groups gunning to get their hands on Godzilla cells.

The film was also famous for having the only other female monster in the franchise in Biollante, a Lovecraftian horror born from a mix of Godzilla cells, roses and the dead daughter of a scientist.

Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995)

The Oxygen Destroyer returned in Godzilla vs Destoroyah in the form of Destoroyah, a colony of Precambrian crustaceans that were mutated by the weapon that killed Godzilla, turning them into living, breathing Oxygen Destroyers themselves.

On the other hand, we had Godzilla, himself dying because of radiation overload and would take the entire planet with him, no matter how he died – be it an explosion or a meltdown. This resulted in one of the tensest Godzilla films of all time as the human characters were forced between a rock and a hard place, with almost no options to choose from.

Perhaps it was necessary to kill Godzilla for Toho, but it would not be the end, for he returned just four years later with 1998’s American reboot, Godzilla, which was utterly and completely torn apart by critics and fans of the character and franchise.

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

Yes, it’s a mouthful of a title. GMK for short, the film was a more mystical take on the franchise, with Godzilla being a heartless destroyer – made obvious by his lifeless, white eyes, empowered by both the nuclear weapons that birthed him and the souls of those who died in the Pacific conflict.

On the other hand, we had Mothra, Baragon and Ghidorah, three guardian monsters, who rose to combat this menace. For the first time in his history, Ghidorah took up the mantle of a protector rather than a destroyer. The film teased an eventual possible sequel, but it never came to pass.

Godzilla (2014)

Needless to say, there’s little value in watching King of the Monsters if you haven’t seen the first one, because it introduces everything in the MonsterVerse: Godzilla, the ancient alpha predator who basically rules over the Earth as his domain, Monarch, the crypto-zoologist organisation that studies Godzilla and others like him and has since taken over the job of containing the Titans, of which there are many.