Programmed July 2024

Heisei-Era Godzilla

Following a nine-year absence from the screen, the King of the Monsters roared back with a vengeance in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla , inaugurating a new era in the romping reptile’s mythology. The ferociously entertaining kaiju spectaculars of the 1980s and ’90s—which brought back familiar favorites like Mothra and King Ghidorah and introduced a new adversary in the genetically engineered mutant Biollante—reestablished Godzilla as a fearsome force (after previous Showa-era films that had recast himself as a benevolent protector), while taking the series’s political commentary and vaunted special effects in bold new directions.

Still watchable end to end