Godzilla wouldn’t be who he is if it wasn’t for that first film, or any of these films, and that’s why they hold up as the gold standard of what audiences should expect from the Warner Bros. MonsterVerse, and any other giant monster movie that should come after.
While the modern world saw Godzilla’s playbook reinvented by films like Cloverfield, Pacific Rim and even the newer Godzilla movies that came in 2014 and beyond, the history that precedes our modern understanding is still sacrosanct.