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"Shin Godzilla" is, in that sense, about damage control. There are singular heroes, like Disaster Prevention bureau analyst/leader Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa) and consulting biologist Ogashira (Mikako Ichikawa). But for the most part the film's human-driven segments are walls of dialogue/consultation between various superintendents, supervisory committees, ministers, scientists, bureau chiefs and cabinet secretaries. Politicians scramble to take care of their end of the Godzilla situation regardless of their reasons. Some are careerists looking to get ahead. Others are civil servants looking to serve the public. Writer/co-director Hideaki Anno (creator of the anime cult classic "Neon Genesis Evangelion") makes it easy to tell which characters are the real good guys are and which are ineffectual bureaucrats. But every human politician must work together to stop Godzilla regardless of their intentions or skill sets. There's no "I" in this team.

Like a quasi-Aaron Sorkin-esque civics lesson that happens to be about a giant monster, "Shin Godzilla" is about how the really good politicians are accountable for their actions, a message that American politicians should heed. And it's about adaptability, which we see when we look at the new creature design for Godzilla. The last shot of the film is an admiring shot of Godzilla's monstrous tail. Rapidly evolving from a belly-crawling, moray-esque sea creature into the dinosaur-like creature we know and love, this Godzilla is in a constant state of flux. His arms grow bigger before our eyes, and he stops breathing through gills once he reaches land. Like the xenomorph in "Alien," this Godzilla, a computer-generated special effect performed by a real actor in a motion-capture suit, is referred to as "a perfect organism surpassing man." In order to stop him, Japan's leaders must evolve with Godzilla. This movie is a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but only indirectly. It concerns the lessons that politicians can learn from such a nuclear disaster and how they can move forward with a minimum of finger-wagging and chest-thumping.

By now I'm sure you can tell that "Shin Godzilla" is different than other Godzilla films. It's probably drier, and more dialogue-centric than fans may want. But Anno and co-director Shinji Higuchi's (anime/manga hit "Attack on Titan") idiosyncratic emphasis on the endless discussions and politicking that precede the Japanese military's involvement is genuinely exciting. Their vision of the character is thoughtful and clever without straying too far from the Godzilla formula established in films like the original 1954 "Gojira." Fans of what Godzilla have become might be upset to see Godzilla treated like a villain again, after years of seeing him fight against less sympathetic "kaiju" monsters like Hedorah, Biollante and Gigan. But they should be excited at the thought of seeing a modern monster movie that isn't just the same ol', same 'ol.

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