Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Embassy Pictures | Release Date: April 27, 1956 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Godzilla is still the most awesome of tacky movie monsters — a Jurassic knockoff of King Kong whose ritual stomping of Tokyo never quite lets you forget that you’re watching a man in a lizard suit trash a very elaborate toy train set. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan Ng
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is the story that began it all, laying the themes of Japanese kaiju that would endure for decades. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
While much of Godzilla, King of the Monsters is second-rate, there's no doubt that you're watching a star being born. Read full review
70
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
This ballad of destruction reveals itself as one of the most exciting, enjoyable and moving of them all. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is the one Godzilla movie in which the title character plays second fiddle to the humans. While the film's moral and ethical situations are interesting, they are not as compelling as the film's adherents would have us believe, and their resolutions are simplistic. Read full review
60
The GuardianRick Moody
The Americans got hold of the much superior Japanese original, Godzilla, and edited into it 20 minutes-worth of Burr, with his vacant and oddly stiff expression, in order to spice things up. Still, without Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, the awesome cinematic hero might have remained a merely regional success, a giant Japanese lizard confined to its own country. Read full review
40
Film ThreatStaff (Not Credited)
The 1956 film, which adds Raymond Burr as reporter Steve Martin, feels like watching the original version through a foggy window. The end result is the feeling that something is missing. Read full review
30
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
The whole thing is in the category of cheap cinematic horror-stuff. Read full review
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