I'm sure much to my friend's delight, I'm being converted to Godzillaism

You need to watch the original '54 Gojira.
The historical significance can not be ignored, as it was filmed 9 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Read about the background on this film.

The opening scene of the small ship that is destroyed is taken from an actual event, where a small fishing boat got too close to a bomb test and was exposed to the fallout. The ship was the Lucky Dragon....not so lucky in this instance.

I always wondered why his enemy was a giants moth???

I'm more of a traditionalist and go with Gojira-ism.

Godzilla 2000 is the best of the lot

Good start.

Fun fact: every version of Godzilla is considered canon by the creators, who embrace multiverse theory.