Metacritic reviews

Though special-effects experts in Japan and around the world have vastly improved their craft in the last 30 years, you wouldn't know it from this film.

A trashy Japanese production with special guest Raymond Burr. [27 Sep 1985, p.25]

New World Pictures has been promoting the film not so much as a fright show but more as a campy romp (the comic trailer was more entertaining than the picture); unfortunately, it doesn't work very well on either level. [01 Oct 1985, p.E1]

The fatal flaw in Godzilla 1985 is that it is a bad movie with aspirations of being a good bad movie.

The dialogue tries to give Godzilla some higher meaning, but it doesn't know what it wants that to be.

Heavily laden with antinuclear messages, bad dubbing and worse dialogue, Godzilla 1985 is a pale imitation of the original film, a calculated bit of cinematic nostalgia that leaves one yawning. [20 Sep 1985, p.J]