There are countless things that make the Godzilla series great, of course, but one of the main ones is just how versatile the titular character is, and how varied the movies can be, partly as a result of this. He was introduced as something of a tragic villain, standing in for nuclear weapons and the devastation they can cause. Whenever he shows up in a movie without other monsters to fight, he’s usually also at least an obstacle, sometimes pitiful as like, a force of nature, rather than something malicious, yet at other times, certain versions of Godzilla do seem more outwardly villainous.

Also, in the 1960s and 1970s, Godzilla was mostly a hero, and other monsters tended to be villainous more often than not, and then throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, he was kind of an anti-hero; something that could sometimes help humanity, and sometimes threaten it. But those movies where he’s either a hero or an anti-hero? Make like a stereotypical movie gangster and fuhgeddaboudit. What follows is a look at some of the best movies where Godzilla is kind of a bad guy, including those where he’s a tragic force of nature (like a natural disaster with legs) and those where he seems genuinely evil, and thereby especially terrifying.

7

‘Mothra vs. Godzilla’ (1964)

Image via Toho

Mothra was introduced in a solo movie of her own before appearing in a Godzilla film, with their first crossover being the appropriately named Mothra vs. Godzilla. That title kind of suggests Mothra is the protagonist, too, or at least the more heroic of the pair, because the plot here involves humanity turning to Mothra to stop Godzilla’s latest rampage. Also, in 1964, Godzilla made his first turn toward somewhat heroic territory in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, which was released later in the year and introduced King Ghidorah as an antagonist who required the teaming up of Mothra, Godzilla, and Rodan to take him down.

And then the Showa era of Godzilla got a little goofier post-1964, and Godzilla mostly stayed heroic, getting his name placed at the start of a bunch of titles that included his name and “vs.” Mothra vs. Godzilla is interesting for being the last Godzilla movie in a while to have him as, essentially, the bad guy, and it’s also a fairly popular one on Letterboxd, though there’s a chance the person writing this watched it, like, six or seven years ago and doesn’t remember it all that well. Sorry.

6

‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ (1962)

Image Via Toho

Before Mothra vs. Godzilla, there was King Kong vs. Godzilla, and it was actually the first to feature the word “vs.” in the title of a Godzilla movie (though in 1955’s Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla did battle Anguirus, in a film where it’s a little hard to single out a “villain”). This one isn’t quite as classy, since it’s packed full of schlock, but what wonderful schlock it is, almost feeling like a parody of Godzilla and “vs.” movies at a time when Godzilla had only been in a couple of movies, and crossovers of this size were rare (outside the Universal Monsters series from the 1930s and ‘40s).

So, sure, King Kong vs. Godzilla is silly, being pretty silly if you watch the Japanese version and being outright laughable if you check out the English dub (which is also a little re-edited), but it’s fun silliness. These two monsters were well-known in 1962, but not legendary or borderline-mythical the way they are now, so the irreverent approach taken to depicting them clashing is surprising and weird in a funny way, in hindsight. Also, it’s like Mothra vs. Godzilla in that the monster whose name is placed first in the title is the closest thing to a protagonist (King Kong being the underdog and the monster who, being a giant ape, is closer to humanity), and the monster whose name is placed second (everyone’s favorite giant scary lizard thing) is the villain… sort of. Mostly.

5

‘The Return of Godzilla’ (1984)

Image via Toho

The first movie of Godzilla’s Heisei era was The Return of Godzilla, and it really was the king of the monsters’ return after almost a decade since the Showa era ended. Also, it was a return to Godzilla as the antagonist, since, as mentioned before, he’d spent about a decade as a fairly endearing hero who battled more dangerous monsters attacking Japan and/or the world at large, from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster until 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla (you’ll never guess who was the villain in the latter!).

The Return of Godzilla is admirably intense, doing mostly what the first movie did exactly 30 years earlier, only with more advanced special effects and a bigger version of Godzilla, the increase in size necessary so that the relatively new skyscrapers around him didn’t run the risk of dwarfing him. It’s pretty no-nonsense as a Godzilla film, and while you might think you’ve seen it all before (and it, admittedly, doesn’t leave quite the same impression that the 1954 original did), there’s enough of a twist on things to make The Return of Godzilla interesting. Like, the Cold War stuff explored here is great, and feels like a logical way to raise the stakes while keeping things focused on nuclear weapons and fears of nuclear war, in line with the original movie.

4

‘Shin Godzilla’ (2016)

Of all the Godzilla movies, Shin Godzilla might well be the one that feels most like a disaster movie. It recalls imagery and fears surrounding the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, in a fairly honest and also not exploitative way, reminiscent of how the first movie’s scenes of devastation were intended to reflect the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Shin Godzilla, you do also feel a bit sorry for this version of the monster, even though he’s terrifying.

There’s pathos in taking down the version of Godzilla who appears in the original movie, too, but Shin Godzilla’s Godzilla seems like he’s in more pain, and much of his rampage looks like he’s just spiraling out of control, much in the same way a natural disaster might wreak a horribly neutral and/or random sort of destruction. So, calling him a villain here could be a stretch, but this version of Godzilla is the antagonist, or, like, the obstacle that the human characters have to deal with, so the Godzilla in Shin Godzilla is close enough. He’s being counted here. Deal with it.

3

‘Godzilla’ (1954)

Image via Toho

After talking about the original Godzilla in relation to both The Return of Godzilla and Shin Godzilla, it’s only right to give a shoutout to it, itself. It’s obviously the one that started it all, but what’s impressive about Godzilla (1954) is that it doesn’t feel quaint or in any way underwhelming compared to most of the films that followed it. There’s a horror to this one that was surely intense back in 1954, as it still stands as pretty damn creepy even today.

Narratively, it does what you’d expect a movie just called Godzilla to do: have the titular monster emerge, then follow humanity’s attempts to defeat it and stop a whole heap of destruction. It’s great, and can still be appreciated to a great extent for what it represented at the time, and for the series it ultimately birthed. Oh, and it is still pretty great as a horror/sci-fi movie, even if you don’t want to take into account the whole ultimate legacy of the Godzilla series.

2

‘Godzilla Minus One’ (2023)

Image via Toho

And then there’s Godzilla Minus One, which famously goes back in time to before when the original Godzilla was set, doing something new with the whole series, even if that sounds paradoxical. It’s just a particularly lean and mean Godzilla movie, as well as a great enough horror movie that you can enjoy it, even if you’re not particularly wild about giant monster movies specifically. It’s very approachable, and if you’re a fan of the series, then it’s easy to admire because of what it does with Godzilla.

He emerges here and proves a threat to Japan, which sounds like business as usual, but he’s more vicious than he usually is, and there’s really only one other Godzilla movie where he feels more ruthless than he does here. Godzilla Minus One having this approach to its titular monster serves to make the whole story particularly intense and exciting, with the film doing a remarkable job at getting you to really care about the human characters, too, to the point where the Godzilla-less stretches of Godzilla Minus One are still incredibly engaging.

1

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

Image via Toho

That one Godzilla movie with a definitively meaner Godzilla than the one found in Godzilla Minus One is the version of him that appears – and terrorizes Japan – in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. Technically, this one’s a follow-up to the 1954 original, though a standalone sequel that doesn’t reference any of the other movies directly. This allows it to have different origins (than usual) for the other monsters featured here, with Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Baragon ultimately being the heroes.

They’re fantastical beings here, and there’s further novelty in this version of Ghidorah being heroic, in contrast with all the other depictions of King Ghidorah seen in previous films (which, again, don’t exist in the continuity of this movie). So, in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla is mean and especially powerful, and the movie itself is also a highlight of the whole series, not to mention one of the most thrilling, since, like Godzilla Minus One, the human side of things is also pretty compelling and emotional here. It just does everything right, and though the original film and Godzilla Minus One are more popular and maybe more broadly appealing, this one is still as worthy of being checked out if you’re even slightly interested in Godzilla, as a series.