Only 3 Giant Monster Movies Are Better Than 'Godzilla Minus One'

2 days ago 10

Published Sep 8, 2026, 7:15 PM EDT

Jeremy has more than 2800 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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Godzilla Minus One is not super recent, at the time of writing, or not like a new release at least, but it is pretty recent in the overall scheme of things. Giant monster movies go back to the silent era, if you want to count The Lost World (1925) as paving the way for things to come, but there was a certain movie about a giant ape in 1933 that was even more significant, and then the first movie in the series that Godzilla Minus One belongs to also did a lot for this whole genre in 1954. Kong might be king, but Godzilla is the King of the Monsters. Either way, both are legendary, and now both are part of Legendary's MonsterVerse. The MonsterVerse is one of many different series that Godzilla has been a part of, so calling Godzilla Minus One part of the whole series isn't quite accurate. Godzilla is more of a franchise, and there are different continuities/series within that decades-spanning franchise.

And sure, Godzilla Minus One is recent, but it does feel like a high point for giant monster movies, or kaiju films, if you want to use the cooler genre name. There’s a good bit of hype building around Godzilla Minus Zero, which is slated to come out in 2026 and continue the story that was told in Godzilla Minus One, while the MonsterVerse is still trucking along in its own continuity, with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova set to come out in 2027. It’s a good time to be a fan of Godzilla, King Kong, or giant monsters in general. Anyway, Godzilla Minus One… back to it again, but it’s almost as good as giant monster movies get. Or it would literally be the peak, if not for the following three movies. Also, only properly giant monsters are included below, but if things were a bit broader, and it wasn’t just kaiju films being looked at, then the likes of Jaws and Jurassic Park could potentially also count themselves as even better movies than Godzilla Minus One.

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

At the time of writing, the most recent trailer for Godzilla Minus Zero features the classic King Ghidorah cry (or screech?), though that iconic foe of Godzilla’s isn't actually seen. But anyone who’s seen just a handful of Godzilla movies has likely seen one with Ghidorah, so the tease (and the sound) of him is exciting enough. Usually, Ghidorah is a villain that a heroic Godzilla has to take down, or if Godzilla’s in antihero mode, he’ll be the lesser of two evils while battling Ghidorah. The one time this didn’t happen was in 2001’s Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, which played around with expectations of the series and some of its monsters by having Godzilla be more of a supernatural entity (haunted by those who died in World War II), and King Ghidorah be more of a legend from a folk tale kind of thing, rather than having his usual science fiction origins.

King Ghidorah and Mothra are summoned as beings that can defeat this especially ruthless Godzilla, who’s pretty much at the evilest he’s even been in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack… or it’s comparable to how he is in Godzilla Minus One. Also, though he’s not in the film’s title, Baragon does play a role in the film, as one of the guardian monsters that goes up against Godzilla. Guess the title was already too long to include another monster’s name in there, but still, justice for Baragon. Anyway, this 2001 film is almost as good as Godzilla has ever gotten, and it holds up well in the sense that it still feels like a singular take on the series and its recognizable elements. Those elements are twisted around in some interesting ways, and then Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack also makes sure that the human (or non-monster) side of things remains dramatically engaging, too.

2 'King Kong' (1933)

There are two other movies called King Kong that were made decades after the original, and that are more or less remakes or reboots. With 1976’s King Kong, you’ve got something that isn't awful, but it is a little forgettable, and then 2005’s King Kong is better, but suffers from feeling more than a little drawn out. Peter Jackson made it right after The Lord of the Rings, and it felt a bit like he could do whatever he wanted, and no one would tell him “no” with any number of big sequences he’d planned. Circling back to the 1933 original, though, it is pretty much great the whole way through, and it can mount a pretty good argument for itself being the most important giant monster movie of all time. There is the Godzilla series, and Godzilla is traditionally a bit bigger than Kong as he was depicted in this original film, but still, it would be sacrilege to not give praise to King Kong (1933) here. It came out first, and so King Kong as a character has technically endured for longer than Godzilla, even if the latter has been in far more movies. The third movie Kong appeared in was also the third movie Godzilla ever appeared in: 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, where Kong famously (or infamously?) ended up winning.

There are a fair few movies that are coming up on a century old that feel sluggish and a little difficult to get through, but King Kong certainly isn't one of them.

Talking about King Kong as a series and/or character is arguably more interesting, just because this first movie… it’s sort of like, what else is there to say? It does things perfectly for an adventure/horror film of its era, the special effects were absolutely groundbreaking at the time (and much of it still looks cool), and then the pacing is excellent as well. There are a fair few movies that are coming up on a century old that feel sluggish and a little difficult to get through, but King Kong certainly isn't one of them. It earned about 15 times its budget upon release, and then the legacy of the whole series is further undeniable, because even if you’ve somehow never seen a King Kong movie, you're surely aware of the character and some of his basic traits. Meeting someone who’d never heard of King Kong would be like meeting someone who had never heard of Dracula or Frankenstein (well, Frankenstein’s monster, yada-yada-yada). Your mind would be racing. You'd be wondering whether the rock they’d been living under was visible from space.

1 'Godzilla' (1954)

Similar challenges arise when trying to talk about the original Godzilla as happened with King Kong (1933). The original film about the king of the monsters, from 1954, is as important as they get. If it had just started a series and then proceeded to not really hold up all that well, it would still be worth celebrating for all it got the ball rolling on. That it’s actually a great film alongside being greatly important? All the better, and more surprising. And yet somehow, even with all that, it’s still hard to talk about. It started something big, it inspired real horror about the nuclear age, and it elevated the whole monster movie genre, or sub-genre, or whatever you want to call it. If someone told you they were only ever able to watch one giant monster film in their entire life, for whatever reason (a horrible predicament, but oh well), then it would make sense to recommend Godzilla (1954) to them.

There’s also the fact that the premise here is simple, because Godzilla emerges not long after the end of World War II, and Japan has to deal with this creature that wreaks the kind of devastation that the two atomic bombs dropped on the country at the war’s end did. That’s a big reason why Godzilla (1954) is still horrifying, and would remain eerie even if the special effects didn’t hold up. Honestly, though, the special effects still look good. Godzilla is obscured by objects or darkness a lot of the time, and so it feels easier to believe his presence, and the charming goofiness of some other Godzilla movies (namely, the ones where there’s one man in a rubber suit fighting another man in a rubber suit) isn't found here, because Godzilla (1954) is just about Godzilla and the people fighting to stop the destruction he’s causing. It’s a remarkable film in general, and therefore more than worthy of acclaim beyond “just” being a great (and important) monster movie.