Shin Godzilla essentially boils down to “What if we made a Godzilla movie that played like a Scott Z. Burns procedural?” and it gets an impressive amount of mileage out of that premise. This film takes the real-world toll of a kaiju attack very seriously and watching the bureaucracy scramble to respond to Godzilla’s carnage is, for the most part, way more entertaining than it has any right to be. But this movie is two full hours and that aspect wears out its welcome by the end.

Fortunately, Shin Godzilla makes up for that with some incredible visual effects and a legitimately terrifying Godzilla. This is easily the scariest Godzilla movie I’ve seen and that’s partly because it does such a good job of communicating the human cost. When the city is set ablaze by Godzilla’s breath, you really feel the full weight of the horrible spectacle.