King Ghidorah Movies

Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster

King Ghidorah falls to earth and can only be opposed by three already established monsters: Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan. This sprawling story has destruction, huge battles, and lots of spy intrigue. It also has a hilarious real-sounding-but-made-up country called Selgina and conversation between the various monsters, who can understand each other's roars.

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

Aliens offer to help us with our monster problems by taking Godzilla and Rodan to their planet to fight King Ghidorah. The twist is pretty easy to predict these days, of course. The aliens are lying and soon all three monsters, under alien control, are trashing Japan.

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero is pretty silly by any standard, but it is fun. You have to love the aliens' fashion sense and light-up saucers. There's more than enough monster action, and the cast features lots of faces familiar to anyone who watches Japanese fantasy.

Destroy All Monsters

Destroy All Monsters was probably the last great Godzilla movie. In the year 1999, all of the world's monsters have been imprisoned on one island. Aliens release the monsters and demand all governments surrender to them. Earth's scientists release the monsters from alien control, but the aliens retaliate by unleashing King Ghidorah. The climactic monster battle is the most ambitious kaiju scene ever filmed.

Godzilla vs. Gigan

For the umpteenth time aliens try to take over Earth, but this time they try to do it with an amusement park with a tower in the shape of Godzilla. This fails. So they go to their backup plan, which is Gigan and King Ghidorah. Meanwhile on Monster Island, Godzilla talks Anguirus into heading to Japan and kicking the two space monsters' butts.

The human element of this film is particularly poor, as it presents us with a cartoonist as the hero, includes some atrocious acting, and forces us to endure even more atrocious wardrobe. The monster action isn't bad, exactly, but by this movie the Godzilla suit in question had been through three outings and pieces of it fly off during some of the battles. Another cause of some disappointment is the fact that most of Ghidorah's scenes are compiled of stock footage from other movies.

Review: Stomp Tokyo.

Zone Fighter [TV Series, 1973]

Alien super heroes, disguised as the race car driving Sakamori family, defend earth from Garonga and his monster army. Zone Fighter was just another Ultraman rip-off, more juvenile than most, but it was produced by Toho. This meant that the TV series could draw from Toho's stable of film monsters, so Godzilla was in five episodes, Gigan appeared in one, and King Ghidorah appeared in another two.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Godzilla and King Ghidorah are both given revamped origin in this, their first solo match. People from the future come back to the present day, saying they want to "uncreate" Godzilla. They take a journalist back to WWII to find the dinosaur that will be Godzilla and move him out of the way of the atomic bomb that will mutate him into an monster. But it's a double-cross, and the future people actually create King Ghidorah to subjugate Japan in the present. Luckily, Godzilla was created anyway, bigger and meaner.

Rebirth of Mothra III

King Ghidorah comes to Earth and kidnaps a bunch of children. Only Mothra can come to the rescue, and go back in time and fight King Ghidorah as he kills off all the dinosaurs. (Stupid palentologists, always miss the obvious stuff!) While the first two movies in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy have been released on DVD in the U.S., Rebirth of Mothra III has not. It appears on the Sci Fi Channel occasionally.

Godzilla , Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

It's a giant monster jamboree! In this new continuity Godzilla attacks Japan after leaving the island alone for nearly fifty years. His reappearance triggers the return of Japan's guardians; Mothra, Baragon and Ghidorah!

Despite bringing some of the most vibrant incarnations of the classic Godzilla monsters to the screen, director Shusuke Kaneko was unable to give the same life to this series as he did to Gamera in the 1990s. Although the "mystical guardians" element puts an interesting spin on the old characters, it makes one wonder if Kaneko has any other plot ideas. We can see the reasons for casting Godzilla as the villain, but after so many years of rooting for him, it feels kind of weird.

Still, GMK features some of the scariest Godzilla moments we've seen in a long time (especially the kitchen sequence), and some of the slickest giant monster battles yet. Definitely worth watching.

Reviews: Stomp Tokyo.

Godzilla: Final Wars

Allegedly the last Godzilla movie for the foreseeable future, Godzilla: Final Wars is a big budget blow-out with Godzilla and twelve other monsters.It was supposed to be in honor of the 50th anniversary of Godzilla (1954) but it's more in line with the 30th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) in terms of goofy tone.

Giant monsters appear all over the world, overwhelming the Earth Defense Forces. Earth's salvation comes in the form of aliens from Planet X, who make all the monsters disappear and warn humanity that an astral body called Gorath is on a collision course with our planet. Are the aliens sincere? Of course not! When the aliens' true motives are uncovered the only force on earth that can stand up to them is Godzilla!

Among the classic monsters appearing (at least briefly) are Anguirus, Ebirah, Gigan, Hedorah, Kamacuras, King Seesar, Kumonga, Manda, Minilla, Mothra, and Rodan. There's also a new monster called Monster X which is revealed to be a new version of King Ghidorah.