Godzilla took almost a decade off after that final bout with Mechagodzilla, but he came back with a vengeance in 1984 with a much more fearsome new look that gave new life to the franchise.

Such is the case with 1984's The Return of Godzilla, a reboot and sequel that starts the franchise over as a direct follow-up to the original film. In The Return of Godzilla, like its 1954 ...