First of all, if you are expecting the stereotypical monster movie where the point of it is just watching a monster destroy stuff and watch people running around, you WILL be disappointed. The majority of this film takes place in offices and meeting rooms.
Japan just went through a nation-wide Earthquake that took more than 15,000 lives, and triggered the second worst nuclear meltdown in history, both just five years ago. And this is a clear satire on the sociopolitical events since.
The film takes us through what goes on in the government when a unprecedented crisis hits the nation. It's a bunch of long meetings, finger-pointing, paperwork, and slow decision-making. It is the epitome of dysfunctional bureaucracy.
On top of all that, you start to see the US government and other UN nations start to poke their heads into the matter, treating the hometown of 15 million Japanese people like just another battleground for just another war.
There are no clear-cut heroes; Just a group of normal people who are experts in their own fields, doing their best to contribute and put this disaster to an end. They have to fight the politics more than the actual monster.
The reality of all of this is astonishing, and completely believable. It starts to feel like a crisis simulation film.
But of course, the center of it all is Godzilla:
Godzilla himself is truly awe-inspiring in this film. What they have done with the monster is totally new, different from any of the Godzillas in the past (be careful of spoilers out there on the web if you want to experience the amazement). It's personally my favorite by far. Throughout the film, Godzilla is dubbed as "The truly perfect organism", "The most evolved being on the planet", and "A god". So that is the level which you should expect. His crazy power is far beyond belief, so you can safely immerse yourself into this fictional monster.
The tag-line for "Godzilla Resurgence" in Japan reads: "Reality(Japan) V.S. Fiction(Godzilla)". So you are witnessing the fault line between reality and fiction.
When Godzilla is turning the city of Tokyo into rubble, the Japanese don't see fiction. They see the events of 2011/03/11. The director clearly took measures to parallel the tsunamis, the rubble, and the fear of radiation to the events in real life.
Put that together with the bureaucratic mess, the international politics, and terror/awesomeness of the devastating monster Godzilla; The result is this masterpiece. It's a movie clearly wouldn't have come out from the Hollywood scene.
It does have it's faults (like Satomi Ishihara's cartoonish character), but the impact and significance of the film far surpasses its faults.
A must-watch.
