Lima

22) GODZILLA vs SPACE GODZILLA – HEISEI SERIES 1984-1995. The role of Godzilla has changed somewhat over the years. While at the beginning of the franchise he was clearly a threat to the world, in this episode he takes on the role of protector of some kind. A group of scientists is developing a project to allow Godzilla to be controlled by telepathy. The military, on the other hand, builds a machine called Mogera, which looks like a robotic toy from the Power Rangers series, to disarm Godzilla. Throw in the cute little Godzilla kid, and a new monster called Space Godzilla, created by a mutation of Godzilla cells caused by starlight radiation and stardust. The cards are dealt and everything is heading towards the final half-hour climax at the Fukuoka metropolitan demolition site. In the very end Godzilla returns the sea, after leaving behind half of the country destroyed, and the main characters say a loving goodbye to it, accompanied by a wistful tone, as if to say "Thank you Godzilla, for destroying half of Japan again". The Japanese are just beautifully crazy. This visually successful episode for me fulfils the meaning of the phrase "guilty-pleasure".

23) GODZILLA vs DESTOROYAH – HEISEI SERIES 1984-1995. This time, Godzilla is a walking nuclear bomb. It all revolves around the oxygen destroyer, the device that killed Godzilla in the first 1954 classic. Scientific research has determined that the destroyer has caused nuclear fusion at Godzilla's heart, resulting in a gradual rise in its body temperature and the threat of an explosion equivalent to the detonation of every nuclear weapon on planet Earth. So yes, script-wise it's sweetly stupid again. The film returns to the classic first one with flashbacks, even the mother of the young scientist in this movie is played by that film’s leading lady. There are plenty of references to the first legendary episode, and there is at least some sense of plot coherence. Of course, there has to be a showdown. Earth is attacked by one monster with a face that is a copy from Predator and another with a second retractable jaw like Alien. Both monsters concentrate their power into a mega-monster called Destoroyah, and the final battle can begin. The icing on the cake is the discovery at the end that Godzilla does not explode after exceeding the critical body temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius, but instead melts. Godzilla does die here, but this fact has not deterred the filmmakers from making a sequel.

24) GODZILLA 2000 – ALTERNATE REALITY SERIES 1999-2001. Close Encounters of the Third Kind a-la Godzilla. A little awkward. Godzilla is largely absent, three quarters of the way through there is a not-so-engaging contact with a spaceship of an alien civilization that settles on one of Tokyo's skyscrapers and hacks government data, and only in the last 20 minutes or so the film delivers what has made the franchise so iconic. And that is action, which is scarce here, and although the alien monster with powerful front tentacles is indeed an "ugly motherfucker", its disposal is too quick and trivial. I enjoyed the ending, it was interesting. Only the philosophising of the protagonist, that Godizlla has protected us because he’s in each of us, sounds stupid with a shot of a destroyed city.

25) GODZILLA vs MEGAGUIRUS – ALTERNATE REALITY SERIES 1999-2001. Here comes Godzilla and with a bag of problems. The imagination of the writers of Toho is boundless, sometimes it seems like they are competing to see who can come up with the craziest stuff. Godzilla has a really tough opponent here: a government project in the form of a special cannon that fires – ahem – black holes that are supposed to "consume" Godzilla and wipe it off the face of the earth. And as if that wasn't enough, the carnivorous dragonfly-like beasts born in Tokyo's sewers and their mother, the giant Megagirasu, come into the picture and give Godzilla a hard time. There are also human emotions, here in the form of a young soldier whose boyfriend is killed by Godzilla at the beginning during one of the military actions, and she wants revenge (as in the following episode). Godzilla doesn't resemble a man in a rubber suit anymore and there’s plenty of digital effects, which negates the charm of the original Showa series, but you can't stop progress.

26) GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK – ALTERNATE REALITY SERIES 1999-2001. One adversary is not enough for the screenwriters; three is a much better number. The story features a mysterious old man who brings to life three monsters that protected Japan in ancient times. The first is Baragon, the representative of the earth, a four-legged monster with funny ears who "undermines" his opponents, the second is the good old Mothra, the representative of the air, an overgrown moth, and the third is the three-headed dragon King Ghidorah, the representative of the water, who fights in a "bite and don't let go" manner. The opening 30 minutes set the stage for the big clash, then suddenly Baragon comes out of the ground and the visual orgy can begin.....Yes, really an orgy, because this episode is visually very successful. The models of the buildings and the landscape no longer look like made of carboard and the fight between Godzilla and Ghidorah in the city is accompanied by beautiful fiery explosions. The special effects aren’t as stupid as they used to be, but then, this is 2001, it was about time. But the monsters are still funny and puppet-like, which I welcome. Converting Godzilla to digital form would lose its lovely naive charm.

27) GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA – NEW GENERATION SERIES 2002-2004. You might get the impression that they are recycling ideas from episodes from 1974 and 1993, but that’s not quite true. This episode is actually kind of innovative in its approach to the franchise as a whole. Godzilla is referred to for the first time as "the next Godzilla", the first being the one that was killed by the oxygen destroyer in the first 1954 film, with the current one being its successor. The previous films seem to have been erased because there is clearly talk of a "second Godzilla attack on Japan" and the myriad of other attacks in the previous instalments are completely ignored. The government's defence project Mechagodzilla is referred to as 'Kiryu', and consists of a robotic skeleton and biological material made of computers powered by Godzilla DNA (a fact that plays a crucial role when Kiryu disobeys because of the biological components). Kiryu is equipped with a powerful weapon, the Absolute-Zero Gun, which fires a beam that destroys the opponent's atoms freezing them at a temperature of -273 C. Otherwise everything remains the same. The emotions are clumsily projected through the dilemmas of a scientist's daughter and the sparse tension through the pilot Akane and her manual control of Mechagodzilla. The fights themselves are a little shabby, but whatever.

28) GODZILLA, MOTHRA, MECHAGODZILLA: TOKYO S.O.S. – NEW GENERATION SERIES 2002-2004. A straightforward episode with a hint of nostalgia. This nostalgia is provided by the character of the uncle, who in a flashback of a few seconds goes back 43 years, to the time when he met Mothra. It’s nice that the filmmakers don’t forget their former heroes. Otherwise, this penultimate episode doesn't bring anything substantial, the storyline is bogged down by side-plots, everything really revolves around a 55-minute(!) duel between Mothra, the government project Mechagodzilla and Godzilla, in Tokyo. As a little twist, Mothra finally dies in the Godzilla series and gives birth to twin larvae that join the fight by squirting sticky secretion and biting Godzilla's tail. It must be said that the filmmakers have come a long way in terms of execution and effects, some of the pyrotechnic sequences were really excellent. In an explosive conclusion, Mecha Godzilla spirals out of human control and decides to drown himself and Godzilla in the Japanese trench. The grand finale will come next year.

29) GODZILLA: FINAL WARS – NEW GENERATION SERIES 2002-2004. The final farewell may feel cluttered, but it's not boring. There are references to Star Wars (the spaceship of hostile aliens looks like the Death Star), The Matrix (stopping bullets with Neo's hand movement) and previous episodes (especially in the numerous Godzilla opponents that take turns), and there are also kung fu fights of "mutants", samurai sword fighting, motorcycle chases, etc. The production design is lavish, as befits a farewell to an overgrown lizard, and die-hard fans will be pleased to know that the filmmakers didn't resort to CGI, Godzilla still gives that cute, clumsy impression of an actor dressed in a rubber costume. Godzilla may not have as much space as I would have expected, as its revival from the ice floe doesn't come until the 2nd half of the film, but otherwise I'd say it walks away with its head held high in his farewell.

It is almost admirable how Polanski managed to create a small cinematic treat out of a seemingly dull, shabby and not very exciting premise. Everything from the actors to the pleasantly old-fashioned direction works like a Swiss watch, the tension is not created by flashy moments, strained dialogue or, God forbid, action, but by an omnipresent paranoid atmosphere, the distant setting and the eternally cloudy weather. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by the final twist (although the film doesn't stand on it) and I applaud Polanski for the ironic slap to the unprepared viewer at the very end. 4,5*.

A forgotten, little B-movie gem. The premise is properly wacky: the main character, Dr. Chapin, has a theory that if you don't let your emotions out and scream in the moment of greatest fear, your fear will materialize into a worm about 30 cm long with legs that will settle under the skin on your neck and kill you. Watching the demonic Vincent Price pronounce his wacky theories with an icy expression is a pleasure. The dialogue is often downright Dadaist, and the colourful passage with a bathtub full of blood and a dead hand above the water is a beauty. And then there’s the puppet of the worm with clearly visible strings. Ideal stuff for an evening with B-movie fans with a beer in hand.