Ten of The Very Best Monsterverse Films In The 21st Century

Well, the series wasn’t called Monsterverse until Legendary pictures took it up but Godzilla And Kong have had their fair share of fights and alliances. Together, the two were Monsterverse long before Legendary picked up the name. While 1955’s Gojira remains the best film of the entire series, times have changed and we have no option but to settle for what modern effect-filled studios bring us. Most of the Monsterverse films of the last decade have been underwhelming but some such as the 2014 Godzilla received positive reviews as Legendary invested in both the storyline and the action. Here are 10 more Kong and Godzilla films since 2001 that you should watch if you love the series.

Shin Godzilla: 2016

Toho was trying to recreate Godzilla in the image of the traditional dangerous monster that could breathe apocalypse onto Tokyo. The film came at the right time when remakes of the franchise were performing poorly and it really did rewrite the story bringing in more active human characters and a more powerful Godzilla. The video follows the reemergence of Godzilla as the destructive monster that breathes radiation all over Tokyo and destroys property making it unlivable. Just when the UN threatens to nuke what remains of Japan, a group of US and Japanese scientists come up with a way to stop Godzilla.

Godzilla Mothra And King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack: 2001

This is another display of the antagonistic face of Godzilla that earned its place at the top in the franchise by building directly in the original Godzilla film. Godzilla is still a monster that threatens Japan and once again, the human effort has very little success in defeating it and that is where the team of what elders call the guardian monsters come in. They wake up causing a mess of their own but Japan and the planet face a bigger threat from Godzilla and the three-team up for what went down as one of the best duels in the Millennium Godzilla series.

Kong: Skull Island: 2017

This was the second film of Monsterverse but fans were no strangers to King Kong since the legendary ape had been around since 1933. The film introduced more active human characters including a group of Iwi natives on Skull island which increased the importance of King Kong to more than just a mysterious ape roaming on an island. The film follows the trip of a team led by seismologist Houston Brooks seeking to ma the island and prove his theory about the existence of the Hollow Earth. The film got many positive reviews and played a big role in 2021’S Godzilla VS Kong.

Godzilla Final Wars: 2004

Being released during the golden jubilee of the Godzilla franchise helped popularize this film which is largely one of Toho studios’ best before it became Monsterverse. It comes years after Godzilla is buried under ice and now has to resurface and save the world from a group of Aliens called Xaliens who have a group of monsters and a major one called Monster X fighting for them as they try to convert humanity into food. It is one of the best expressions of protagonist Godzilla with fewer effects and more story and real action.

Godzilla Vs. Kong:2021

Godzilla VS. Kong was bound to be a big hit after two years of waiting and up to $200 million worth of production investment. It became HBO Max’s most viewed film in 2021 and grossed nearly $500 million in the year. It reinvented the Kong VS. Godzilla war with a better chronology of action scenes and effects that received positive reviews from critics setting it on the path to becoming the highest-grossing Godzilla film.

The film follows Kong as he travels from Skull Island to the Antarctic to reach hollow Earth when his journey is interrupted by Godzilla whose reason for awakening is not known until a group of Godzilla fans look into Apex Corporation’s secret project which reveals a greater threat to humanity than Godzilla and Kong.

Godzilla: 2014

The success of this film was the eye-opener to Toho and Legendary to come up with better storylines, action and more active human characters as opposed to the previous millennium Godzilla films which had very little to offer in terms of storylines. The film is about a soldier returning home from war only to be caught up in a fight between Godzilla and MUTOs. The battle puts many major cities including New York in danger and a team of scientists team up with the soldiers to put an end to the Rampant MUTOS but Godzilla’s help is key.

Godzilla King Of The Monsters: 2019

What do you do when you are a doctor studying titans with the Monarch Organization and feel that humanity is the Earth’s biggest problem? Well, according to Dr Emma Russell, you release all the Titans onto the Earth and wipe out humanity. Well, Godzilla loves humans enough to come to our aid with the help of Mothra and a few well-wishing biologists. This was Legendary Studios’ first sequel to Godzilla 2014 which they also used to usher in Godzilla VS. Kong. It wasn’t a Box Office success but it is still one of the best Godzilla films in the 21st century with a storyline that involved more active human characters and great visual effects.

King Kong: 2005

This one won the academy awards for the best visual effects and sound editing back in 2005 and remains one of the best sequels of the original 1933 Kong film. It is about a struggling filmmaker who decides to change his fortunes by secretly filming the creatures on Skull Island and later decides to kidnap Kong himself so he can make some money for him in the theatre. It ends badly as it always does since Kong doesn’t do well whenever he is forced to leave his sweet island.

Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters: 2017

This is a Toho production with Godzilla as the villain. Being the first animated film, it performed really well on Netflix and in the initial releases around the world leading to the release of the two accompanying sequels in 2018. The film follows the lives of a group of humans who are aboard a spaceship having been forced to flee the Earth because Godzilla took over. They are forced to come back when they can’t find any other inhabitable planet but killing Godzilla is not an easy task.

Godzilla: City On The Edge: 2018

This is the most viewed sequel of Planet of Monsters released in 2018 whose storyline follows the humans that survived Planet of Monsters led by Captain Haruo. The survivors have another way of keeping themselves and a race of natives that are on Earth from the terror of Godzilla. They recreate another battle between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla and may well have the final weapon that saves the earth from the death breathing monster.

Would you recommend any other Monsterverse movies to add to this list? Why not tell us about them in the comments below.