When I sat down to watch 2010’s Monsters, it was in the quiet comfort of my own home via Netflix. But what I saw was absolutely captivating, even without the benefit of a proper theater screen or sound system.

The directorial debut of Gareth Edwards, this small UK film - made for roughly half-a-million dollars - gave an incredible feeling of scale and scope while being focused on two individuals making their way through a world changed by giant monsters.  Even without the budget of the massive summer blockbusters, you got the feeling that Edwards knew the very key to leave an audience in awe, even when he couldn’t show them the entirety of what he wished to communicate.

Now, four years later, Edwards has been given the extremely difficult task of producing the first true good American Godzilla film - and it’s only his second film.  Nothing to worry about, right? It’s not like we continue to mock the last attempt and hold it up as one of the worst films ever made.

The story of this new American take on the classic Japanese franchise takes place at the cross section of two worlds - that of the Brody Family and a mysterious organization called Monarch.  Both the life of this family - and the goals of this organization - came together in 1999, even in two very different places.  Monarch stumbled upon a massive underground dwelling, containing gigantic remains. While concurrently, the Brody Family lost a mother - and a father lost his sanity - shortly after a dramatic event at a nuclear facility in Japan.

The movie quickly picks up in current day, with our focus and entry point being the young boy of the Brody Family, now a full grown adult, Lt. Ford Brody, played by a completely unrecognizable Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass). He has become a family man himself, with a nurse wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and a child of his own.  However, it is the actions of his father (Bryan Cranston), desperate to still find answers about his wife’s death that brings Lt. Brody to Japan, and sets everything into motion.

What happens from there has been - generally - kept quiet, and I’ll hold to the promises of the marketing and not reveal what occurs. But the movie that follows is easily the greatest American Godzilla film yet. True to the 1954 origins of the character, the Godzilla found here is a large, grumpy force of nature. Serving as a walking, growling, destroying version of checks-and-balances, the film showcases the power of nature above man, even for as much as we choose to ignore it.

Edwards brings the same knack for scope and scale found in Monsters to his version of Godzilla, giving the audience only the after effects, or brief glimpses, of the incredible wake of this just as incredible creature. The movie follows in the footsteps of Jaws and Jurassic Park by delaying the gratification, before ending in a remarkable third act that delivers pure popcorn perfection.

While a very different film from last year’s Pacific Rim, Godzilla delights in the same joy in being a blockbuster film. While the toll is heavier here, there is a fantastic eye and a palpable joy throughout the film, even in it’s grimmest moments.  There are some truly stunning set pieces here, including a beautiful HALO jump - and as bizarre as this is to say, it’s nice to see areas such as Japan, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Honolulu get wrecked, instead of your standard New York or Washington, DC.

One could easily argue the weakest part of the film is - surprise - the cast. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Lt. Brody is pretty much a blank slate, Olsen and Cranston aren’t given many moments to shine, Ken Watanabe basically just gets to say cool things and looked shocked as the head of Monarch - but what if this was the point? As the movie proposes, humanity is secondary to the unleashed rage of nature. And Godzilla is it - and he’s rarely been better on this side of the world.

Godzilla marks the first great film for Summer 2014. I believe long time Godzilla nuts and those just looking for an incredible action film will find joy alike in this new take on the character. More than anything else - this is where Gareth Edwards has definitively delivered on his promise. Godzilla roars in the cinema - and a new top director has been left in his wake.