Godzilla (MonsterVerse)

"We call him... Gojira."

- Dr. Serizawa

"Nature has an order. A Power to restore balance. I believe he is that power."

- Serizawa on Godzilla

Godzilla' is one of the two main protagonists (alongside Ford Brody) of the 2014 film of the same name as well as one of kaijus featured in ongoing MonsterVerse series. He is an incarnation and version of Godzilla who made his presence known to the public in 2014 during his hunt for M.U.T.O.s and the very kaiju whom existence kickstarted foundation of MONARCH, secret governmental organization and main protagonistic forces of the series.

Godzilla
In the film, Godzilla is a prehistoric amphibious monster who fed off of Earth's natural radiation. Over the years, however, as the radiation emitted from the planet gradually declined, Godzilla retreated to the ocean depths, where it could absorb radiation from the Earth's core. For an incredibly long, albeit unknown amount of time, Godzilla remained dormant in the ocean, appearing occasionally at various points in human history, inspiring the mythologies of several cultures. That's until 1954, he was awakened by a nuclear submarine due to sensing nuclear energy in it. Drawn by nuclear energy that utilized by humans to powered their submarines, Godzilla attacked and fed on American and Soviet nuclear submarines in the South Pacific Ocean, with each nation believing the other was responsible for the attacks.

After being discovered, the U.N. tried to keep him secret and destroy him with atom bombs under guise of nuclear testing, all of which failed to do so. During that time, another giant monster, made and appearance and fought Godzilla until both were bombed under the guise of Bravo Tests. As result of the emergence of both monsters, an organization called Monarch formed to keeping him secret and studying him as well as to prepare with emergence of another giant monsters (which later confirmed with discovery of King Kong).

However in 2014, one of his ancient enemies, known by humans as M.U.T.O., hatches after 15 years of absorbing nuclear radiation from a power plant in Japan. Godzilla begins listening as the M.U.T.O. lets out a mating cry to his recently hatched female counterpart, and attacks the creature as he is laying waste to a Hawaiian airport, though the M.U.T.O. escapes by flying away.

After this, Godzilla retreats into the ocean once again, hunting the M.U.T.O.s while they're lured to San Francisco with a nuclear warhead by the American military. Godzilla surfaces just before hitting the Golden Gate Bridge, and the military opens fire with tanks and gunfire. This has little to no effect, however, and Godzilla descends into the ocean once again, but not before clearing his path by destroying the bridge during the confusion.

Godzilla surfaces once again in San Francisco to confront the recently arrived male M.U.T.O., and the two battle all the way into the night, while a bomb disposal squad led by Ford Brody is sent in via HALO jump to defuse the bomb that was placed to lure the M.U.T.O.s to San Francisco. Shortly after their arrival, the female M.U.T.O. arrives, and both creatures take on Godzilla, who is quickly overwhelmed by the two of them.

Before either of them can kill Godzilla however, they're distracted by Brody, who destroyed the female's recently-laid egg sacs. While the female is distracted by Brody, Godzilla rises up again and pummels her with his atomic breath. Before he can finish her off, the male M.U.T.O attacks Godzilla once more, but Godzilla fights back and manages to kill it by slamming it into a skyscraper with his tail. The impact, however, brings the entire building down on Godzilla, and he collapses to his hands and knees, extremely weak. He briefly looks Brody in the eyes, before being consumed by smoke and debris.

Brody then escapes to the pier, where the rest of his unit is trying to send the bomb out into the ocean where it can detonate without risk of fallout hitting the city. The female MUTO, still alive from her encounter with Godzilla, follows the radiation and kills the rest of the squad, leaving Brody alone to send the boat out to sea with the bomb. As the MUTO closes in on the bomb and Brody, Godzilla emerges from behind, grabbing her and blasting her in the mouth with his atomic breath, making her neck explode, before tearing her head off and letting it fall into the water.

With both MUTOs killed, Godzilla then collapses from exhaustion in the city, seemingly dead. When morning comes, however, Godzilla rises up from the ashes around him and lets out a triumphant roar as the humans below cheer and applaud for their supposed "savior", proclaiming him "King of the Monsters." With both of his enemies dead and with balance in nature restored, Godzilla descends back into the ocean to become dormant once again.

Kong: Skull Island
Although Godzilla doesn't physically appear, the monster can be seen in two of the cave paintings during the post-end credits scene of the movie.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Editing begins after the film is released.

Godzilla vs. Kong
Editing begins after the film is released.

Personality
Unlike his more aggressive and misanthropic incarnations whom often at odds with humanity, this version of Godzilla had no interest with humanity nor having any malicious intentions toward them: Instead, he prefer to avoid any confrontations with their military forces and chooses to spare them once his business with M.U.T.O.s done as seen in the end of the film. Not only that, he also noticeably less destructive if compared with other incarnations and also attempted not to provoke human military forces to attacked him as much as possible: When having himself surrounded by navy ships in close proximity during his pursuit for M.U.T.O.s, he carefully (and cautiously) swim near them and even carefully dive below the said ships to escape instead of ramming them. While responsible for some human deaths over the course of the film, the said deaths and destruction were actually result of Godzilla's own size and collateral damage that he left behind after battle against M.U.T.O.s. Also, when destroying Golden Gate Bridge, it was because he reacting when his gills being blasted by artillery shots.

While his personality still far from typical Gentle Giants and therefore more like territorial animal, Ishiro Serizawa theorized that he is the driving force to restore balance to nature whenever that balance is disrupted, suggesting that he essentially considers the entire Earth to be his territory. The theory proved to be correct, as had Godzilla not stopped M.U.T.O.s, M.U.T.O.s' progeny would overrun the world and no one can stop them from disrupting the balance. It's also suggested that Godzilla considered entire planet to be his territory, which explained his tenacity to chase M.U.T.O.s through long distance pursuit.

In indirect way, Godzilla is the most powerful ally that humanity ever had.

Personality
In response of failed Hollywood incarnation that Toho denounced as separate kaiju called Zilla, Hollywood filmmakers, whom later worked on ongoing MonsterVerse series, eventually recreated the Hollywood version of the character that more faithful with Toho's Godzillas where this Godzilla designed to be resembled his original counterparts. Even so, this Godzilla was given more natural physiology than the rest of his incarnations because in MonsterVerse series, he was the last known member of ancient reptillian kaiju of the same name who naturally evolved to gained their nuclear-based powers due to in prehistoric times where his kind roamed the planet, radiation at that time was higher than in present day, and thus not gained his powers from humans' nuclear tests and therefore, lacked keloid scars other incarnations usually possessed.

For MonsterVerse's incarnation of the character, his face is shaped very squarely, with a broad neck and possesses gills that enable him to stay underwater indefinitely. His eyes are a yellow color, and his teeth are small and not nearly as straightly lined up as many previous Godzilla incarnations. His nostrils are more separate than previous incarnations, with them being in opposite sides of the snout. Godzilla's head and neck seem to lean forward more so than any previous design. His dorsal plates are smaller than the previous designs, but they still retain the core maple-leaf shape, although straighter and very sharp, somewhat like the Godzilla from Godzilla 2000: Millennium. His claws are a black color, and his feet are wider and resemble an elephant's foot more than the other Godzillas' feet do. His skin is more reptile-like and crocodile-like as opposed of resembling keloid scars and rougher than the other incarnations, and is a blackish color. His body and tail are very wide as well, making him look somewhat bulkier than other Godzilla designs.

Legendary Pictures has confirmed that their Godzilla's tail is 550 feet and 4 inches long, his height is 355 feet, there are exactly 89 dorsal plates running down his back, the palm of his hands are 34 feet and 4 inches each, and that his roar can be heard from three miles away.

Physical Appearance
In response of previous deviating Hollywood incarnation that Toho denounced as separate kaiju called Zilla, Hollywood filmmakers, whom later worked on ongoing MonsterVerse series, eventually recreated the Hollywood version of the character that more faithful with Toho's Godzillas where this Godzilla designed to be resembled his original counterparts, particularly 1954 version to keep his character in Hollywood movies consistent with Toho's. Even so, this Godzilla was given more natural physiology than the rest of his incarnations because in MonsterVerse series, he was the last known member of ancient reptillian kaiju of the same name who naturally evolved to gained their nuclear-based powers due to in prehistoric times where his kind roamed the planet, radiation at that time was higher than in present day, and thus not gained his powers from humans' nuclear tests and therefore, lacked keloid scars other incarnations usually possessed.

For MonsterVerse's incarnation of the character, his face is shaped very squarely, with a broad neck and possesses gills that enable him to stay underwater indefinitely. His eyes are a yellow color, and his teeth are small and not nearly as straightly lined up as many previous Godzilla incarnations. His nostrils are more separate than previous incarnations, with them being in opposite sides of the snout. Godzilla's head and neck seem to lean forward more so than any previous design. His dorsal plates are smaller than the previous designs, but they still retain the core maple-leaf shape, although straighter and very sharp, somewhat like the Godzilla from Godzilla 2000: Millennium. His claws are a black color, and his feet are wider and resemble an elephant's foot more than the other Godzillas' feet do. His skin is more reptile-like and crocodile-like as opposed of resembling keloid scars and rougher than the other incarnations, and is a blackish color. His body and tail are very wide as well, making him look somewhat bulkier than other Godzilla designs.

Legendary Pictures has confirmed that their Godzilla's tail is 550 feet and 4 inches long, his height is 355 feet, there are exactly 89 dorsal plates running down his back, the palm of his hands are 34 feet and 4 inches each, and that his roar can be heard from three miles away.

Strength
In addition with his great size, Godzilla is incredibly strong, capable of smashing through the Golden Gate Bridge (though it was mostly accidental), outpowering the Eight-Legged M.U.T.O. with ease, manhandles both the M.U.T.O.s  and also has a strong bite, he also killed one of the M.U.T.O. with his huge tail, which also can bring down a huge building.

Atomic Breath
Like his Japanese original counterpart, Godzilla posseses Atomic Breath. Godzilla's atomic breath is a powerful, concentrated blue beam of pure radiation blasted from his mouth. It is strong enough to bring down the Eight-Legged M.U.T.O. in two shots. The atomic breath that he demonstrated so far may not released in full strength unlike his counterpart due to him often used it as last resort, but still

Amphibiousness
Using his gills, Godzilla is capable of living and breathing underwater. He is also a great swimmer. As this version possessed gills for swimming underwater, it's possible that he could swim far longer than his other incarnations.

Durability
Godzilla is immune to Conventional Weaponry and is tough enough to survive constant beatings from the M.U.T.O. But the only body part that least durable was his gills, as seen when he became panic when one of the missiles hit his gills and forcing him to retreat and destroyed Golden Bridge in accident.

Trivia

 * In the trailers, Godzilla was thought to be the main antagonist for the film, but in the Japanese trailer, he was revealed to be a protagonist. This was likely done to hide the true main antagonists that he actually hunted down before returning to the ocean.
 * This Godzilla's recent design is based on the original 1954 design, the ShodaiGoji suit from the original Godzilla film, as director Gareth Edwards wanted to create a Godzilla design that's very modern, but still respect and resemble the design from the original Toho films.
 * This version of Godzilla's fighting style mostly after the bear's and is reversal of his incarnations' fighting style: Whereas Godzilla in previous film uses his atomic breath more often than close combat, Godzilla in Legendary series uses his teeth, claws, and tail more often and only uses his atomic breath as last resort weapon.
 * Unlike his Japanese counterpart, this Godzilla is not a misanthrope.