The technology of the time necessitated that it was shot in black and white, but it’s hard to imagine this one being in color it’s a stark, urgent, and tragic film that probes the destruction, chaos, emotional scarring, and regret that hovered above Japanese society even as it rebuilt. It was made less than a decade after the United States dropped nuclear warheads on the country and just shortly after the exit of American troops, which had occupied it and oversaw a strict rebuilding plan after World War II. Anyway, that movie came out in 1954, while an American recut of the film, which included dubbed dialogue and added in a newscaster to explain the events, was released as “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” in 1956.īoth versions of the movie are available on HBO Max, and despite the exuberance of the American recut’s title, I’d recommend watching the Japanese original. It’s easy to remember this one: The first Godzilla movie was simply titled “Godzilla.” Well, kind of - in Japan, it was titled “Gojira,” the Japanese name for the monster, which in turn was a combination of the words for gorilla and whale. Where should you start? Which ones should you make sure to watch? Well, Baragon and (sometimes) Mothra, we’re here to help you tackle this very big task. Toho itself has produced 29 live-action Godzilla movies of its own in Japan, and if you want to really want to be kaiju conversant by March 26th, you’ll want to watch at least a select number of those installations. While officially licensed by Toho, the MonsterVerse presents Americanized iterations of kaiju movies. Maybe “adequately” is overselling it - if you watch just the MonsterVerse films, you’ll understand the storyline of the new one, but you’ll miss a whole lot of context, a metric ton of old school references, and sly Easter eggs. The three prior MonsterVerse movies - Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island(2017), and Godzilla: King of Monsters(2019)- have all been building up to this one, so you’ll absolutely want to watch those flicks to make sure you’re adequately prepped for this giant new chapter. Most of those movies have been made by Toho Studios, the Japanese studio that has pioneered the genre, but this new release is actually a part of Legendary’s MonsterVerse series.

The new movie, produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros., is a bit different than a majority of Godzilla films.

Free godzilla movies to watch