Reviewers and some fans even criticized that the movie went too far on the escalation, both on the action front (as some deem the scenes border sensory overload ), and the plot, which goes from a simpler "monsters emerged, better stop them" to a much more complicated one even featuring ecoterrorists that want to use the monsters for their purposes. On the American side, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) remedied a common criticism that Godzilla (2014) didn't have enough Godzilla, while also adding Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah, even more destruction, and revealing that the world is full of monsters (including a tease for a giant ape that will fight the Big G in a sequel).However, 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla, while still had aliens, was given a far darker tone, and while the film has been well-received by critics, the film failed at the box-office, leaving Godzilla on a 9-year hiatus. The films from the seventies were filled with aliens and monster, and had over the top stories, and very light tones.
The next film, brought the series to a whole new level, gearing it towards little kids, and having Godzilla be portrayed as a fictional character. Destroy All Monsters, originally intended as the finale, not only had aliens, but 11 monsters, and a fun, light, tone. The following two had no space elements, but were still very light in tone, and featured many monsters. The next two films featured beings from space, and the tone on the two was light. Godzilla was bit darker, but the film did explore into fantasy elements. Godzilla not only gave the series a much larger scale, and a bigger budget, but it was a lot lighter than the previous two.
The sequel added another monster, but the realistic tone remained for the most part.
Terminator 2 had a Voluntary Shapeshifting Killer Robot, who could imitate almost anybody and form it's appendages into sharp weapons, sent to kill that future hero himself when he was still a kid with a reprogrammed Terminator (of the same model as the Big Bad in the first film) protecting him despite being an obsolete design. The Terminator (1984) had a Killer Robot in human disguise, with a punch strong enough to penetrate you, assigned to kill the mother of a future hero before he was even born with only a Badass Normal sent to protect her. Terminator 2: Judgment Day had the highest film budget at the time and is widely considered as good or better than the first film.But he did not let that get in the way of the suspense, even with turning it into part action film. James Cameron decided to escalate the numbers of Aliens when he made that sequel, but since one was dangerous enough, the characters would have to be soldiers just to have some kind of chance.In The Matrix Revolutions, Super-Neo fights Super-Smith who (almost?) kills him. In The Matrix Reloaded, Super-Neo fights dozens of Agent Smiths who almost kill him. In The Matrix, Neo fights Agent Smith who (almost) kills him.What the Wachowskis missed was that the martial arts were mixed with suspense, and the philosophy was mixed into the story, not just spouted out of nowhere. The sequels seemed to choose the right elements: the Wuxia martial arts and the philosophy.Parodied in Machete: "Machete will be back in.
Which is brough back in the fourth, Avengers: Endgame, which in the climactic battle has the good side with all the heroes ◊ (including the two absent, plus two heroines introduced in the year between movies), reinforced by four armies, note to wit: the Asgardians from Thor, the Ravagers from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Masters of the Mystic Arts from Doctor Strange, and the Wakandans from Black Panther to show it's one hell of a Grand Finale for what was estabilished in 22 movies.