So, for some reason, my oldest son and I have been watching the Godzilla: King of Monsters trailer a few times today. We’re both super excited about the upcoming film and are ready to buy our tickets for the movie as soon as they are available online. We’ve even gone back and watched the 2014 Godzilla film a few times this past week just to get all hyped up for it. Maybe we’re hyping ourselves up a bit too much, but we can’t help it – we’re both really huge Godzilla fans. To be honest, we’re kaiju fans in general. Cloverfield, King Kong, Gamera, Rodan, Anguirus, Mothra, Baragon, Jet Jaguar, Pulgasari, Pacific Rim… we’ve spent the last few years, since he was old enough to understand and appreciate kaiju films, watching as many as we can when we get the chance.
And that’s what led to a pretty interesting and fun conversation. Talking purely in fantasy, we thought about which kaiju we would like to see go up against Godzilla in a true “King of the Monsters” type battle for it all. Which of our other favorite kaiju would make for some fun and entertaining enemies for Godzilla. Whether it be for a whole new film or even just a quick YouTube short, we bounced the idea around of having Godzilla these monsters because, well, why not? This is pure fantasy and something we had a lot of fun toying around with and that’s why I thought it would be something fun to share.
So, please keep in mind, this list is coming from the mind of a hardcore Godzilla and kaiju movie fan. And if at any point it seems like I am geeking out, please do try and forgive me for that. Also, this list is in alphabetical order, so don’t take their ordering for anything other than being in alpha sequence.
Cloverfield
Here is one fight I have wanted to see ever since Cloverfield debuted in theaters back in 2008. Actually, before I first knew the film was about Cloverfield, I thought it was some kind of teaser for a new Godzilla film. But after more information came out about the film I knew this wasn’t so. Still, I thought that Cloverfield was a nicely done monster movie and that the monster itself was a pretty interesting design. Though the Cloverfield monster demonstrated no kind of defensive or offensive weapons other than its massive size, I still believe that a Cloverfield/Godzilla fight would be an interesting battle. Well, until Godzilla decided to utilize his atomic breath to finish off Cloverfield. I am sure that once the fighting commences it will be a short fight, but the lead up to it could be pretty interesting.
Gamera
If you were to ask me to list who I would consider to be the three most popular kaiju in film history are, it would probably go Godzilla at number one, King Kong at number two and Gamera at number three. Originally created in 1965 by the Daiei Company after the success of Toho’s Godzilla, the character now belongs to the Kadokawa Company, and there lies the problem to having any kind of battle between the two. Neither company would like to see their respective kaiju lose to the others. That being said, what is wrong with having the kaiju end their fight in a draw… almost the way the original King Kong vs. Godzilla film ended. I figure that with both companies unwilling to let their respective kaiju lose, a jointly created new kaiju could be used to have both kaiju stop fighting each other and then focus on the new kaiju as the main adversary. That could be one way to make this happen.
Jaeger
I know there was some talk about Guillermo del Toro wanting to do a Pacific Rim and Godzilla crossover film, since both films are being handled by Legendary Pictures, but I really don’t see any real way of making this work. Either Godzilla will totally destroy the Jaegers or a team of Jaegers will defeat him. Still, this would be a fun fight to watch. Watching these massive mechas battling it out with the baddest kaiju to ever walk the Earth – now that would be an epic movie. Knowing that del Toro would like to make that kind of film, and that fans would probably want to see it as well, this mainly falls on whether Toho would allow a crossover film to be made using Godzilla. They have a history of crossing over kaiju in their films that they own, but aside from King Kong vs. Godzilla, with King Kong being licensed by Legendary… well, that is a confusing story that I will discuss some other time…
Power Rangers
I know that the Power Rangers are essentially a tokusatsu series, but seeing as how most of their enemies are, in essence, giant monsters, it can be argued that the Power Rangers in their Megazord form would be a great and fantastical enemy for a kaiju such as Godzilla. It would be an awesome scene to see Godzilla and the Power Rangers, especially the Dinozord variants, battle each other as the Power Rangers would try to stop a rampaging Godzilla from accidentally destroying a city while Godzilla himself is just acting out, trying to defeat an enemy that the Power Rangers are unaware of in a classic mix up between the good guys until they finally team up to defeat a greater enemy. But for that time when they are fighting each other, imagine how much destruction they would cause across a city as they use all their abilities while fighting each other. That would be one hell of a movie and I would, for one, would be really interested in seeing it.
Zilla
Okay, I know that Toho owns the rights to the Zilla kaiju; you know, that stupid giant lizard monstrosity that Sony created for the horrendous 1998 film – but after seeing the monster destroyed quickly and convincingly by Godzilla in Godzilla: Final Wars and the comment that the lead Xilien says when Zilla is destroyed – “I knew that tuna-eating monster was useless!” – it was without a doubt known how Toho felt about this particular creature and the possibility of it ever being used in a film again. Still, I think that this would make for a fun 10-minute YouTube video simply for the enjoyment of fans to watch Godzilla not just trounce this horrible imposter quickly, but to completely tear him apart limb from limb and finally atomize the wannabe with his atomic breath. Yeah, this is more of a fantasy than the others on this fantasy list, but I sure would love to see Godzilla put down this weak doppelganger for good.
