5. The Military Vs. Science Exchanges Are Incredibly Stupid
"Please don't do this!" mutters Ken Watanabe as army general David Strathairn states the only way to protect mankind is to nuke the enemy monsters, thereby removing their unpredictable nature as a threat when they decide to, oh we don't know, do anything. This is well before Godzilla proves he's not out to do TOO much damage - apart from him emerging from the water is like some elephantine figure getting out the bath, except when Big G tries to come up for air he ends up capsizing a handful of aircraft carriers along the way. But of course the scientist character wants to study the biology of the creature just for the sake of science, alluding to the notion that what the army are being forced to do is wrong, yet not being able to even remotely come up with a suitable alternative for monsters that can have the entire Eastern seaboard for breakfast. In a pretty great expository scene between Taylor-Johnson and scientists Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins we learn all about the history of the creatures that spawned from "when the planet was more radioactive", a logical enough backstory to which when Johnson realises what the scientists have been doing (reviving/feeding one of the creatures for the purposes of studying it) he obviously questions their motivations. However rather than provide a suitable reason for why these creatures should be allowed to roam free, they never come, and instead Watanabe's 'nature must be left alone' shtick comes across as laughable - particularly as we can only assume the monsters are turning major cities into paper maché in the background.