a stomping, skronking catastrophe that tore the city to pieces. He was designed by director Ishiro Honda and his creative staff as the quintessential symbol of the nuclear holocaust that destroyed the country at the end of World War II.

“If Godzilla had been a dinosaur or some other animal, he would have been killed by just one cannonball. But if he were equal to an atomic bomb, we wouldn’t know what to do. So, I took the characteristics of an atomic bomb and applied them to Godzilla.” -Ishiro Honda

The film was a success and spawned a sequel, then another and another. (To date, there are 31 films in the series, two of which were made by Hollywood.) Eventually, Godzilla began to be portrayed as a hero and defenderof the country against other kaiju (monsters).

That brings us to 2014 and the announcement that a new Japanese-produced Godzilla movie was in the works. Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi were named to helm the project. The film was to be a reboot of the franchise. Godzilla would return to his nefarious ways.

The Film

Pardon the pun, but this movie has teeth. Of course, it is jam-packed with the action and devastation that one expects from any respectable kaiju picture…but there is more. In between requisite scenes of havoc and destruction, the film revisits the idea of Godzilla as a metaphor for horror and tragedy. On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered a major calamity when a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami that precipitated the meltdown of three nuclear reactors. In