Why Do We Keep Coming Back to Godzilla?

A critical shift started somewhere in the last decade. Toho ostensibly shelved Godzilla with 2004’s Final Wars, a grand finale that was the big-budget equivalent of a child smashing toys. (That is a compliment.) Godzilla LLC boasts enough films and ancillary products to be financially solvent until the sun burns out (or an indomitable monster rises from the sea), but that retirement was short-lived. Toho resurrected the franchise in aggressive form with…