As Godzilla's 30th anniversary approached, Toho decided to reboot the franchise, with the original film serving as a starting point. The resulting film was The Return of Godzilla, which introduced a meaner Godzilla to a new generation. It is arguably the most realistic portrayal of Godzilla's presence the series has ever depicted. We see the reaction of various groups of people, including the government and the press. While toyed with in earlier films, the idea of Godzilla as a force of nature is formally introduced in full here. For all the fun to be had with the sillier films, Godzilla is his most compelling when he is treated seriously as a metaphor for our contemporary fears. Seeing as how Cold War tensions still pervaded the atmosphere when this film was released, fear of atomic power was still as high as ever, making The Return of Godzilla quite topical. The film also has some fantastic suitmation and model work. Godzilla is given a threatening new look, and there are numerous sequences where he shows off his destructive power. He even goes up against a fancy new weapon called the Super X, which has the ability to turn his radioactive abilities against him. When released in the United States, it was retitled Godzilla 1985. Again, American actors shot new scenes to be inserted, and even Raymond Burr was brought back to reprise his role as Steve Martin. While this cut has its faults, it must be mentioned that one of the best speeches of the entire series was delivered by the Steve Martin character in the closing of the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGBeeDo-06s Good stuff.
