In 2014, Legendary and director Gareth Edwards brought Godzilla back to the big screen in America, returning the giant monster to stardom after the absolute disaster that was 1998’s Godzilla. Little did we know then that the triumphant return would not just be the kickstart to a series of Godzilla films, but the beginning of one of the few cinematic universes to survive the decade. Those watching the original film may have gotten hints that the studio was looking to go bigger but it wasn’t until 2017’s Kong Skull: Island that we learned that an entire kaiju universe was being built with Kong and Godzilla at the center. With a new Apple TV+ show called Monarch: Dawn of Monsters releasing this year and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire landing next year, the MonsterVerse is alive and kicking into its highest gear yet. With that in mind, we’ve ranked every MonsterVerse entry so far — film and TV show — to see just where the Godzilla and King Kong flicks land.
All MonsterVerse Movies and Shows Ranked from Worst to Best
5. Godzilla vs. Kong
Despite what many might think, the MonsterVerse films on the whole are not just dumb movies with giant monsters destroying things. That, of course, happens but as we’ll see in this article the films and shows like to subvert expectations and deliver films with relatively strong storylines — at least for fare where the last quarter of every film is indeed just monsters destroying things.
That, however, is not true of 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, which is not just a dumb movie with giant monsters but a mostly bad one at that. While the previous films have plenty of cliches in them, this one is all cliche as if written by an early version of an AI bot with the parameters that the red-hot Millie Bobby Brown had to return in it, it had to feature a trip into the Hollow Earth, and it had to end with Godzilla and King Kong fighting Mecha Godzilla.
The King Kong side of the story, featuring a trip to the center of the earth is at least tolerable but Godzilla’s story arch features the worst kind of action movie cliche: kids and a hapless adult finding themselves in the middle of everything through dumb luck and bad guy stupidity. That half of the film is unbearable to watch and sidelines Godzilla until the final battle, which is, in fairness, a ton of fun. Director Adam Wingard handles the two big Kong/Godzilla showdowns well but the dud of a screenplay delivers the only MonsterVerse film/show so far to be truly bad, earning it the lowest spot on this ranked list.
Related: Is Pacific Rim in the Same Universe as Godzilla?
4. Skull Island
No, not Kong: Skull Island. That will come later in the list. Here we’re talking about Netflix’s Skull Island, an anime series that takes place between the events of Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla, giving us a look at what Kong’s life was like before Monarch put him in a dome but after the Island was discovered by Monarch. Produced by powerhouse animation studio Studio Mir (The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, The Legend of Korra), the show would honestly be ranked higher on this MonsterVerse list if it wasn’t for the fact that a second season hasn’t been greenlit yet and its first season ends on a cliffhanger.
Taking place in the ’90s and following a small group of kaiju hunters and a group of trained mercenaries looking for a missing girl, the story is a chance to not only learn more about Kong’s past but explore Skull Island and its natives a bit more as well. There’s plenty of bloody monster fighting too, including a Kong showdown with a giant squid thing. There’s a streak of sarcastic humor throughout the proceedings that makes the show feel tonally different from the films but it all works… it just doesn’t look like we’ll be getting more of it right now.
3. Godzilla
You could pretty easily swap Godzilla and its sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters on this list depending on what you’re looking for in your Monsterverse movies. Godzilla is a surprisingly giant-monster-fight-free movie that still works, making it the “thinking man’s” Godzilla film.
Director Gareth Edwards makes the surprising choice of basically cutting away from any and all monster fighting until the final battle scene, turning the battles into either street-level catastrophes or literal blink-and-you-‘ll-miss-it moments. This subversion of expectations (along with the surprise killing of Brian Cranston’s character) helps turn the film into something far more than just a monster movie, though the rest of its characters often wallow in half-hearted cliches. The directorial choice also means that when the final showdown between Godzilla and the breeding MUTOs occurs it is truly a triumphant return for the King of Monsters. It’s made all the better by the debut of Godzilla’s new design being the perfect execution of realistic and “man in rubber suit.”
Related: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Revealed in Ominous Teaser Trailer
2. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
There are those who would argue that Godzilla: King of the Monsters is just too much. Too many monsters, too much world-building, too many cliches. But if you’re looking for giant monsters absolutely wrecking each other over and over again then this is the film for you.
In contrast to Godzilla, King of the Monsters literally throws Godzilla’s cadre of monsters onto the screen and while we don’t get to see all of them fight, the battles between the ones that do are great. There’s also more subversion of expectations with Vera Farmiga’s character turning evil and, unlike Godzilla vs. Kong, Millie Bobby Brown’s role is at least somewhat excusable. Throw in a pretty heart-wrenching end to Ken Watanabe’s Godzilla-loving scientist and it all ends up working more than it should. King of the Monsters is all about more and bigger and it delivers on that front for better or worse, but mostly for better.
1. Kong: Skull Island
Japan’s original Godzilla was more than just a movie where a man in a rubber suit stomped on buildings, it was a reactionary metaphor to World War II and the dropping of the atomic bombs. The film deeply impacted Japanese audiences before being whitewashed for American release. However, it is not the Godzilla films that brought back this social commentary to the franchise but King Kong’s.
Kong: Skull Island, set in 1973 as the Vietnam War ended features not just a well-executed version of the traditional tale of Kong being a misunderstood monster but a metaphorical deconstruction of the U.S.’s role on a global scale as an intervening war machine. Shot by director Jordan Vogt-Roberts as if he was filming Full Metal Jacket, the film deftly weaves action movie tropes, a giant gorilla, and actual heart, creating a movie that is far more than the sum of its parts. It all concludes with an ending that is more man versus monster than monster versus monster. It helps as well, that the movie has done almost all the heavy lifting for the MonsterVerse, establishing Monarch and the hollow earth theory in one go and truly launching the entire franchise. A perfect example of how the MonsterVerse films can be both trope-filled and original, Kong: Skull Island proves that, for now, Kong is King, earning it the highest spot on this ranked list.
