Godzilla is one of those beloved icons of pop culture, whose rich history is often glossed over by Hollywood in favour of the delivery of more ‘bang for your buck’. The 1998 Roland Emmerich version, for example, reduced this mighty beast to being little more than a cartoon villain, employed to inexplicably destroy New York City. Little was included to hark back to Godzilla’s true origin in the Tokusatsu film series – where he made his first appearance in Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla in 1954.

By contrast, Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla fully embraced the way in which the monster had originally been conceived – as a metaphorical response to the Japanese experience of the devastating effects of nuclear bombs. This version – which has since been designated as the foundation...

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