Modern thin film industries require precise tailoring of thin films properties to have excellent performance for specific applications intended. Thin film mechanical behavior and stress presents a technological challenge for material scientists, physics, and engineers. Atomic-scale understanding of the microstructure of thin films is a crucial aspect for the control and manipulation of the film properties for a wide range of industrial applications. Thin film growth of thin films influences the crystallographic orientation of grains, grain shape and distribution thereby affecting their reliability and performance of the material. This article reviews the present understanding of the mechanism(s) determining the microstructural evolution of thin films, defect formation, and the related failure modes. General trends in microstructural evolution, grain morphology, and texture formation mechanisms are briefly discussed in terms of their respective kinetic processes. The temperature dependency of the film microstructure evolution is described using the structure zone models.