Toho Kingdom

Two from each era? That sounds fun. I'll do one personal and one historical list.

Personal:
Showa - Megalon and Monster Zero
Heisei - 1985 and King Ghidorah
Millenium - G2K and GMK
Resurgence - Shin and G14

Historical:

Showa - G54 and Mothra vs. Godzilla
Heisei - 1985 and Destoroyah
Millenium - G2K and GMK
Resurgence - Shin and G14

The last two eras really don't have much deviation. Maybe GXMG can take the place of one of the Millenium films, but other than that they're mostly the same. It's too early in the Resurgence era to pick anything other than Shin and G14, unless we finagle Kong: Skull Island in there by way of cinematic universe connectivity. The anime films just wouldn't fit in historically since you'd need to save all three of them to make any sense of it.

Zarm wrote:I notice that for a lot of people, there is a single Heisei, and single Millennium, Shin, and the rest are Showa. And fair enough- based on the popularity rankings, that is pretty proportionally accurate.

But as an experiment, if anyone's up for the challenge, I think it would be very interesting to re-jigger this a bit, to change the eight to two from every era; namely, 2 Showa, 2 Heisei, 2 Millennium, and 2 2014-and-beyond (a.k.a. Shin, and your other pick. ). Which would force people to be a lot more choosy between their Showa options.

For me, that would break down to:
Showa: Mothra vs. Godzilla and Son of Godzilla (and yes, there are at least two that it is painful to leave off of here)
Heisei: vs. Biollante and 1985 (and yeah- that is actually a more altruistic choice than personal preference, because I'm going to be more selfish later)
Millenium: 2000 and Against MechaGodzilla
2014-and-beyond: Godzilla (2014) and City on the Edge of Battle

Showa: Gojira & Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster
Heisei: Godzilla 1985 & Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Millennium: Godzilla 2000 & GMK
2014+: Shin Gojira & Godzilla (2014)

Two from each era....

Showa: Gojira and Mothra Vs. Godzilla, easy.

Heisei: Gets a little tricky here. I'd say definitely Godzilla Vs. Destroyah, and then I'd flip a coin for either Godzilla Vs. Biollante or Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah.

Millennium: GMK and then flip a coin for either Godzilla 2000 or Godzilla Tokyo SOS

Resurgence: G14 and Shin, easy

Showa: Gojira and GTTHM
Heisei: Godzilla vs Destoroyah and Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
Millenium: GMK and GFW
Resurgence: G14 and Shin. Though if KOTM is as good as the leaks say, it might bump G14

Zarm wrote:I notice that for a lot of people, there is a single Heisei, and single Millennium, Shin, and the rest are Showa. And fair enough- based on the popularity rankings, that is pretty proportionally accurate.

I much prefer the Showa films, so maybe consider me biased here, but I think there will likely always be more Showa films on these lists simply because there are 15 of those compared to 19 in all series since combined. (Actually 18 if you consider that one of those is G98 and that's not making any rational fan's list.) Ideally, a top 8 list would look at all 33 released films as a whole and not based on the traditional Showa/Heisei/Millennium/Modern groupings. For most of us though, it's probably difficult to construct a list without thinking, "I have a lot of Showa films, I should start looking at the later series too." (Honestly if I saved 8 Godzilla movies without restrictions the list would be composed entirely of Showa Godzillas.)

I do like your 2 of each idea, although I think it's unfair to the Showa series, not only for the reason I just explained, but also because the Showa films were made over the span of 21 years and can easily be broken into at least two sub-groups of its own: the "golden age" of '54-'68 and the "Matsuri era" from '69-'75. (And you could definitely argue that the first two films are different enough from the '62-'68 films that they might constitute their own sub-series.) Even split like that, the golden age Showa films outnumber all individual series made since. (Note too that the Matsuri era, while maybe not deserving of a slot at all, has as many entries as the Millennium series and more than the modern series as of today.) So in practice, you're basically choosing to ignore one of those groups entirely or limiting your selection to one apiece while the later series get two each. YMMV but I can't get behind giving a slot to G14 (which I enjoyed) over some other more deserving Showa film.

My problem, I guess, is that I don't think the modern series is worthy of two selections. Hell, I think there are only two good Millennium films (G2K and GMK) and I wouldn't want to save both of those either. So I guess what I'm saying is that I like the idea, Zarm, but I'm gonna have to break your rules to make this work better for me:

Godzilla - Essential. This is a great movie, absolutely the best Godzilla film. I don't even watch this all that often but I couldn't possibly leave this behind.
Mothra vs. Godzilla - My choice for the best Godzilla sequel. Another no-brainer.
Ghidrah - I'd like to break from Mothra while still representing Ghidorah and Rodan, but I like this one more than Monster Zero. And it's my favorite Godzilla movie, so duh.
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster - I wanted to choose one of the Jun Fukuda island movies, but again I wanted to break up the Mothra "dynasty" I've got going. However, I prefer this to the more diverse monster cast in Son of Godzilla, so more Mothra and Shobijin for me...
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla - My only Matsuri era pick, I regret leaving Gigan out but I have to if I want to include later films. Unfortunately Gigan covers a lot of the same ground that Ghidrah does. Hedorah would be a good pick too because it's unlike any other Godzilla film, but I like Fukuda's '72 and '74 entries more.
Godzilla vs. Biollante - The best Heisei flick. If I had to do 2 of each series I'd include Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, which on a good day is on the edge of my top 10, but again, if I'm limiting myself to one I have to take the better movie and the one that features a unique monster opponent.
G2K - GMK might be the better Millennium series film but like Biollante, G2K features a one-off kaiju and the film is structured somewhat differently than all other monster vs. monster entries.
Shin Godzilla - I liked LPG but this is far and away the best Godzilla movie since maybe the '60s so it gets the nod.

Zarm wrote:I notice that for a lot of people, there is a single Heisei, and single Millennium, Shin, and the rest are Showa. And fair enough- based on the popularity rankings, that is pretty proportionally accurate.

But as an experiment, if anyone's up for the challenge, I think it would be very interesting to re-jigger this a bit, to change the eight to two from every era; namely, 2 Showa, 2 Heisei, 2 Millennium, and 2 2014-and-beyond (a.k.a. Shin, and your other pick. ). Which would force people to be a lot more choosy between their Showa options.

Hm…. Interesting idea, I guess I'll give it a go.

Showa:
Gojira/Godzilla, King of the Monstetrs!
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

Heisei:
Return of Godzilla/Godzilla 1985
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

Millennium:
Godzilla Millennium/Godzilla 2000
GMK (I actually don't love this one as much as most, but it really is the second best of the Millennium films)

Modern:
Shin Gojira
Godzilla 2014 (Although, if Godzilla: King of the Monsters ends up being as good as it looks, it would take this spot)

Showa: 54, Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster

Heisei: Godzilla vs Destroyah, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2

Millenium: 2000, GMK

Modern: Shin, 2014


And now a much better solution to the original prompt

Only save Godzilla's Revenge. Let everything else sadly be destroyed.

Then, keep a vague record about what's the series was. Multiple monsters in Japan, started in the 50s, lasted until 2010s.

Proceed to leave the film in a secure location and laugh beyond the grave as confused future historians try to figure out what exactly the series was on nothing but Revenge and vague notes.

Okay Zarm. I accept your challenge:

Showa:
Gojira 1954 and Mothra VS Godzilla

Heisei:
Godzilla VS Biollante and Godzilla VS Destoroyah

Millennium:
Godzilla 2000 (American Cut) and GMK

Other:
Shin Godzilla and Godzilla 2014 (You can swap this one with KOTM if you want....)

1. Gojira
2. Mothra vs Godzilla
3. Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster
4. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla
5. Return of Godzilla
6. Godzilla vs Biollante
7. Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack
8. Shin Godzilla

This might seem lazy and not very inclusive but I'd go with the 8 films Honda directed (Godzilla, King Kong vs, Mothra vs, Ghidorah, Astro-Monster, DAM, AMA, TOM). You get a nice overview of the original series, where pretty much everything after has been derived from, the top 5 monsters, Godzilla's change in character, there's something for everyone I think. You also get to enjoy the work of Godzilla's other key cocreators including Tanaka, Tsuburaya, Ifukube, Sekizawa, Nakajima. So looking at the big picture, if only a few had to be preserved, I think those are important and vital.

This wont be easy

Here are the 8 films I would save (I'm excluding the original to make things interesting)

King Kong vs Godzilla
Terror of MechaGodzilla
Godzilla vs Biollante
Godzilla vs Destoroyah
Godzilla against MechaGodzilla
Godzilla: Final Wars
Godzilla Resurgence
The other one, I would go with either Godzilla (2014) or Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), but I'll know once the latter is in theaters.

Godzilla (1954)
Godzilla vs Hedorah
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla
TOMG
Return of Godzilla
Godzilla vs Biollante
GMK
Godzilla 2000

Logic would only be my favorites aside from not being able to include Shin, which after nearly a few years now I think would be on here.

Pre-LPG list:

1. Gojira (because the obvious answer)
2. G1984
3. GvB
4. GxMG
5. SOS
6. G2000
7. GTTHM
8. GvKG

Full lineup list:
1. G2014
2. KOTM
3. Gojira
4. G1984
5. GvKG
6. GTTHM
7. G2000
8. Godzilla 1998 (because I'm a troll and I love trolling people)

Giratina93 wrote: 8. Godzilla 1998 (because I'm a troll and I love trolling people)

A troll with the power of a mod, this is something else.

I would honestly, have to agree with tbeasley's choice of saving Honda's Godzilla films. Saving eight out of so many films is such a hard choice, but if I just had to, that's the choice I would make.

Do I go selfish or do I go with the best entries? Maybe a little of both?

1. Godzilla 1954
2. Mothra vs. Godzilla
3. Invasion of Astro-Monster
4. Son of Godzilla
5. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
6. The Return of Godzilla
7. Godzilla vs. Biollante
8. GMK

A lot of painful losses there, in particular with Godzilla vs. Hedorah being gone. Son of Godzilla might be an odd choice, but it's largely based on it being one of the few films my fiancee likes in the franchise.

Gojira
Godzilla Raids Again
Terror of Mechagodzilla
Godzilla 85
Godzilla VS Mothra
Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla II
Godzilla VS Destroyah
Godzilla 2000

I’m very sad I can’t include Godzilla Tokyo SOS!

1) Godzilla (1954)
2) Mothra vs. Godzilla
3) Destroy All Monsters
4) Godzilla vs. Hedorah
5) Terror of Mechagodzilla
6) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2
7) Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
8) GMK

• Gojira
• King Kong vs. Godzilla
• Mothra vs. Godzilla
• Ghidrah, The Three Headed Monsters
• Monster Zero
• Son Of Godzilla or All Monsters Attack
• Destroy All Monsters
• Terror Of Mechagodzilla

Leaving a lot to rot but tbh, Honda’s films are the only ones that deserve to be saved- those are the true treasures of the franchise. I wouldn’t mind much if the Heisei and Millennium films just disappeared.