Godzilla reboot a CGI colossus

GODZILLA, the monster that only a mother (and millions of devoted B-movie fans) could love, is back for a big-budget Hollywood reboot 60 years after first towering over the Tokyo skyline and giving lizards everywhere a bad name. It's a welcome return to the big screen as the king of the kaiju (monsters) goes into battle with a pair of fellow beasts while cutting a destructive swathe through America's Pacific Coast.

Gojira, the 1954 Japanese original directed by Ishiro Honda, was created partly in response to the country's wartime experience, in particular the use of atomic bombs on its cities. Six decades on, the perils of nuclear proliferation remain a significant theme in Godzilla - even more so given the ongoing fallout from the Fukushima disaster of 2011.

The new movie, the latest in a long line of Godzilla sequels and remakes, is directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Max Borenstein from a story by David Callaham. It's a respectful reboot and stays true to the spirit of its Japanese origins while forging a 21st-century identity of its own - a US$160-million budget can do that for you.