10 Monster Movies No One Was Ready For
2. Godzilla Minus One
You could argue that, after appearing almost countless times since its debut in 1954, Godzilla has become the ultimate movie monster, at least by longevity and legacy alone.
Recent years and appearances have largely been dominated by the beast's coming together with King Kong in Legendary's MonsterVerse. It's been a fun era of popcorn flick success, with the studio eventually getting to its Avengers moment with Kong riding Godzilla into battle, but it hasn't exactly been the pinnacle of the cinematic landscape.
With this in mind, who could possibly have seen the unmitigated success of Godzilla Minus One coming? Almost 70 years after Godzilla first appeared comes arguably its greatest ever outing, and separately from the concurrent mainstream and commercial success of western cinema's take. The film had no right to be as good as it was, as it truly focused on one of the typically underutilised aspects of the creature feature.
Yes, Godzilla attacked Japan at its lowest point, just after World War II, but the monster was almost a secondary factor behind the human element. The characters and the story were phenomenal and would have made a compelling film alone, but add the King of Monsters into the equation, and audiences were treated to one of the best and most unexpected monster movies in recent memory.