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A wily mix of blackly comic satire and spectacular kaiju destruction, Shin Godzilla tears apart Tokyo while offering incisive commentary on the Japanese government's handling of the 2011 Fukushima disaster. In the film, the iconic titular creature is powered by mutation derived from radioactive waste dumped into the ocean.

First noticed causing havoc in Tokyo Bay, Godzilla takes to the shore to use its ever-growing roster of powers to cause mass destruction in the heart of the metropolis. Meanwhile, American military officials threaten to engage a nuclear military response while the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the Japanese emergency services struggles to untangle itself in time to deal with the monstrous problem.

The scenes of bureaucratic circularity are biting – situated somewhere between Kafka and Dr. Strangelove – with endless hierarchies of politicians and civil servants engaging in inane debates and buck-passes while the city crumbles in Hideaki Anno's spectacularly realised action sequences. The creature design is eye-catching and singular, with its changing form constantly adding more threats to its arsenal. Shin Godzilla is a major new entry in the series that has come to represent, more than any other, the impact of the nuclear age on modern society.