Part of the problem with the perception of the Big G is that after the first couple of movies emerged in the ’50s, the franchise began to degenerate steadily into safe kiddie fare. By the time Godzilla vs. Megalon emerged in the mid-’70s, the series had been completely neutered as Godzilla turned into mankind’s buddy. But its gnarly resurrection in 1985 — plus subsequent series in the early ’90s (the Heisei Series) and the ’00s (the Millennium Series) with great effects-laden entries like Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) and Godzilla 2000 (1999) — transformed Godzilla from our savior back into the lean, mean (and, for these two films, green) fighting machine who topples over Japanese skyscrapers and rumbles with other giant rubber beasts. Even better, in the epic series’s swan song, Final Wars (2004), 15 of the creatures in the then-50-year-old franchise returned to decimate urban centers across the globe. But, hey, it’s our fault anyway for dropping bombs and tampering with Mother Nature, right?

It seems that, for a time, the idea of a destructive behemoth had lost its appeal or ability to frighten us. We became so obsessed with the human monsters lurking in our midst that we forgot how something larger and more devastating could befall us at any moment. A recent slew of disaster films playing on our fears of global warming, tsunamis, and giant meteor impacts has proven that man isn’t the only thing that can harm us today. Mirroring recent world events, the concept of Godzilla, essentially the personification of a deadly nuke pummeling us into oblivion, is all too real again.

Welcome back to the A-list, G-Man, even if you’re a dark omen for the world.