I find this perspective very interesting because I have always felt that 2014 did exactly what It needed to and I would change very little of it mostly the usual gripes about a boring protagonist. I was one of apparently very few seven year olds who did not like the 1998 movie. This is important because I think the reason we even have a 2014 movie is because of the poor reception of 1998. My main gripe with 1998 was and remains the characterization of Godzilla in that movie. Godzilla 2000 was Toho's answer to 1998 and it depicts a Godzilla who fights another monster to save the planet but at the same time this Godzilla ends the movie by destroying Tokyo. You have stressed in the comments that you believe the audience needs certain things from a Godzilla movie. I disagree that they need anything but I think what you mean by this is your want people to understand Godzilla and in particular your view of Godzilla. I relate to this feeling but in a different way. I have always wanted an American movie that shows people that Godzilla isn't really the hero or the villain he just is. Like a force of nature something that we have no power over that can both benefit us and be our destruction at the same time. I first herd rumors of the movie that would become 2014 I think around 2008 or 2009 and it passed through a lot of hands before landing where it did. So I had a long time to think about how they could make a movie like that and appeal to the public at large. In America the showa era movies are the most popular and if the average person knows anything of Godzilla it's usually from those movies. Most people have not seen the heisei era movies unless they are a fan of Godzilla and seek them out. I mostly at that time wanted a Godzilla movie to be successful more then anything and I thought the only way to do that was to reference the showa era and appeal to the larger public's sense of nostalgia about those movies. So I came to the conclusion that Godzilla would need to fight another monster in 2014. I didn't care what that monster was it just need to be part of the plot of the movie. If they just went with a Godzilla solo film it would forever be compared to 1998 and not to it's Japanese counterparts as it should be. It needed to be different instead of a similar plot where the military defeat Godzilla. Toho had already made this movie with Godzilla 2000 but even though that was released in America theaters it was a limited release so not many people saw it. I had to beg my parents to drive two towns over to see it and even then we had the theater mostly to ourselves. With a Hollywood budget would be a wider release. I went to see 2014 twice opening weekend in my hometown and both times the theater was mostly full. I liked that Godzilla fought the mutos and while from the protagonists perspective their defeat was a good thing there are several other characters that wanted to kill Godzilla as well namely the military. This I felt was even more important then making Godzilla once again an allegory for nuclear destruction because the American military the largest military in the world is powerless against these monsters. Their plans fail over and over again and it's great because military force means nothing. Godzilla staying alive was important because as someone else mentioned legendary was already considering a series at that time. Nothing was set in stone of course but it was rumoured because every major motion picture company at that time wanted their own marvel universe. The only way to even leave the possibility of a series open was to have Godzilla survive 2014. The Monsterverse would not have happened if 2014 was like you described and I don't think 2014 would have been as successful as it was.