Godzilla’s Redemption

Recently I had a chance to catch the current reboot of Godzilla, and I really enjoyed the whole story. Loved the roar and nuclear breath effects! I say it made amends for any shortcomings in the1998 movie. One of the interesting twists in the 2014 plot is the exploration of irony, particularly human attempts to destroy the very thing that would save them from their own destruction.

In the current reboot, Godzilla is awakened by man in 1950s, and man tries to exterminate the behemoth with nuclear weapons. Man’s attempts fail and Godzilla goes into hiding. Man is unable to control this massive force of nature.

Two other Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism (MUTO) are also awakened—one male and one female with the impulse to reproduce. They feast on nuclear radiation, attack with electromagnetic pulse bursts, and threaten the existence of man. It is Godzilla who come out of hiding to battle and destroy the two MUTOs, which brings balance back to nature.

The irony is that man in his own hubris attempts to control nature through using his most powerful weapons of mass destruction to destroy that massive force of nature called Godzilla but man fails. But, Godzilla in a twist comes to destroy two MUTOs that would bring about man’s extinction.

Life is funny in that way, as many times the thing we resist the most is the one thing that can save us from our own destruction.

~ WGN