10 personal favorite giant monster movies

A quick definition. A true giant monster movie involves a gigantic
creature (or being of some sort) removed from its natural environment
and invading human territory for whatever reason. Most of these
critters if they are at home not bothering anyone or being themselves
bothered by invaders are not monsters, just critters.

1. King Kong (1933) My earlier review contains much of my thoughts
about this film. Suffice it to say that it is deep and wide as well as
marvelously entertaining.
2. Twenty Million Miles to Earth (1957) A creature from Venus escapes
on Earth with our environment throwing its metabolism badly out of
whack. Its growth is out of control, it has never met another of its
kind. Then it gets loose in Rome. Weird and tragic.
3. KRONOS (1957) An advanced machine drops from the sky to steal
Earth's energy. It is some sort of intelligent weapon. It grows bigger
as it absorbs more power. Awesome!
4. Mothra (1961) Easily one of the weirdest mainstream films ever made.
Islanders worship a huge egg. There are two tiny singing twins, an evil
agent from a western nation that seems strangely familiar. A giant
caterpillar in Tokyo that becomes a giant moth who's wing beats make
cars fly around. Does it get any better than this?
5. King Kong (2005) A loving tribute to my all time favorite film that
doesn't insult the original in any way.
6. Gojira (1954)(Japanese language version) This is not only a classic
giant monster, but a revealing look into the Japanese national
consciousness. It is like a weird nightmare born of the experience of
nuclear war and is very telling in that a new ultra deadly technology
is employed in the end. Much of this is lost in the English language
version that has Raymond Burr wedged into it.
7. Godzilla (1998) French nuclear testing in the south seas effects a
lizard who shows up as a giant, dinosaur like monster being more than a
bit of a nuisance to shipping. It ultimately ends up in New York and
lays about a thousand eggs in Madison Square Garden. Things go from bad
to worse before they get better. The hero is a biologist specializing
in worms with a difficult to pronounce Greek name. The French secret
agents who are the political damage control team are great comic
relief. Except the leader (who does a good Elvis impression) all are
named Jean-something, Jean-Paul, Jean-Luc, etc.
8. The Lost World (1925) So far as I know, this is the first live
action film to feature a giant monster running amok in a city. In this
film are the seeds of so many films to come. It was the first major
feature worked on by Willis H. O'Brien who is the father of fantasy
stop-motion animation in Hollywood.
9. The Blob (1958) It came down in a meteor. I guess it was just some
sort of slime mold from space. It ate and got bigger. It had no agenda
save for hunger. Most giant monsters saw humans as annoying bugs or
even not worthy of notice. What does some great hulking Kaiju care
about a dark swarming mass flowing away from it exclaiming in Japanese?
Not the Blob. To him we were food! You can hide from Godzilla and he'll
tromp on by. The Blob wants to find you.
10. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms(1953) Man's intervention awakens a
creature that had been frozen in the arctic. The sound of a foghorn
becomes its clarion call and ultimately it finds its way to New York.

Honorable mentions: The Black Scorpion, THEM, The Giant Behemoth,
Rodan, Tremors, The Iron Giant.

-Seth Kallen Deitch