Can a monster movie be about something other than the monsters? Well Gareth Edwards' previous film (and the one he blew everyone away with thanks to in-home created visual effects that rival anything Hollywood does with island-owning budgets) Monsters purported to do exactly that. Despite your feeling on that movie and its portrayal of a burgeoning romance flowering in the wake of some bestial destruction, Edwards proved that he loves two specific things about writing a story with apocalyptic world-ending beasties as the backdrop: 1. He wants to focus on the humanity of the world, and what the battle against these creatures does to the people we're following, and 2. He likes to show that the monsters themselves aren't just mindless creatures out for blood and armageddon. In reference to the second point, Monsters culminated with a scene whereby two of the skyscraper-sized creatures seemed to be coming after our protagonists, only to end up showing affection for each other and then going their separate ways after a bit of a cuddle (literally). It's a moment that's mirrored in Godzilla when the two Muto's (they're called a M.U.T.O's in the film - henceforth referred to as Muto for ease of writing) meet up in the centre of the city away from the military constantly drilling away at their derrieres, only to again share a moment of intimacy before departing. It is slightly awkward when you realise the scene was that of the larger female Muto becoming pregnant by way of a nuclear bomb that'd been armed (in more ways than one) by its time with the male Muto - to which the former then rubs itself with, bringing about the creation of a few hundred more creatures. God help any parents explaining the birds and the bees to their kids after this one.
