Godzilla1954

99/100 Seventy years of this franchise, at nearly forty films, and the original is still one of the best not only among its franchise contemporaries, but of its genre. The story here is incredibly handled. The trope of holding out the monster for the first half hour is basically required for a 1950s monster flick, but the way it's executed here is genuinely tense, with small glimpses of Godzilla before he finally arrives. Even when he does, it feels like the powder keg's been lit, burning down until it finally explodes in his attack on Tokyo. However, what really fuels this story is the themes the filmmakers had in mind and never let you forget, with the looming threat of Godzilla basically being the H-Bomb reincarnated. However, the film has an even more direct parallel for the themes it presents in Dr. Serizawa's story with the invention of the Oxygen Destroyer, letting the story show the horrors of weapons of mass destruction both from the side that is attacked by them and the side that creates them. The characters are also all great here, thanks in no small part to the actors. Every single one of them does great, especially our four leads seen on the poster, making sure that the film is engaging even when Godzilla isn't on screen. Momoko Kochi and Akira Takarada do great here especially. However, the highlights of the film are Akihiko Hirata as Daisuke Serizawa and Takashi Shimura as Kyohei Yamane. Both take characters already endowed with good scripts and heighten these scripts through immense acting skills to fully immerse the audience in these complex characters. Godzilla himself is also great in this film, and I personally think it's still one of the greats in terms of interpretation of the character. His design holds up surprisingly well for such an old movie, and he's displayed as a proper character, showing curiosity to the city around him, anger at its flashing lights and noises and a mindless rage after being attacked. However, the movie also remembers to humanize him in its ending, which is a great conclusion to all the threads built throughout. Serizawa's sacrifice in particular, fueled by both his desire for his invention not to be misused as well as his realization that Emiko doesn't love him, is still powerful all these years later, with Ogata trying to save him till the end while Emiko already knows what's coming yet still grieves. In a way, there is a parallel between Godzilla and Serizawa, with both holding great power in their hands, yet the destruction arising from such power seeming almost inevitable, preventable only by their tragic death, unnecessary in a better world. This is a film where you can feel the raw passion and emotions of the filmmakers while making it, and it results in a similarly raw and powerful film, a true masterpiece of the Kaiju genre and film overall.