'Godzilla'

As shown in the June 4, 2014 edition of the 'Monroe County Reporter':

Does Plant Vogtle in Burke County, Georgia have a contingency plan if a Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Object (MUTO) attacks?  In the latest adaption of Ishiro Honda's 1954 "Godzilla", the 'King of the Monsters' is not the only creature who is innately connected to substantial quantities of nuclear power.  There are other creatures wreaking havoc.

The film begins in the year 1999 and a giant skeleton is unearthed during a mining operation in the Philippines.  Scientists working on the classified Monarch Project arrive at the site, headed by Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe).  In this massive skeleton, they discover two egg-shaped pods.  One has recently hatched and a light at the end of a tunnel reveals an exit trail.

The very next setting is Tokyo, Japan where the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant is monitoring unusual seismic activity in the region.  On the morning of his birthday, American plant engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) and his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche) run out the door and say good-bye to their son Ford as they head to the plant for work, uncelebrated.  On his way to the plant, Joe expresses caution to his wife.  Joe states he has recommended to his peers they shut down the reactors to avoid a catastrophic meltdown.  However, before this is done, a team led by his wife is assigned to inspect the core for damage.  The film's audience have come to theater to watch a Godzilla movie, and they know during this sequence of events this is no natural earthquake.

The Godzilla folklore has been a story of man versus nature in the context of nuclear energy.  The latest adaptation depicts the collision of two nuclear families, one monster and the other human.  We learn as the film's story develops that Godzilla is hunting a male and female MUTA who both feed from and mate utilizing nuclear power.  After the film's opening sequence, Brody's son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is met in the present as a military explosive ordinance disposal officer, and has a wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and son of his own whom he leaves frequently while on duty.  The nucleus of their family and thus the movie is drawn by Ford's own longing to not abandon his loved ones.

Just as the 1954 "Godzilla" served an emotional metaphor for the nuclear terror felt in the aftermath of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Lucky Dragon 5 catastrophes, I can only imagine so too can this recent adaption lead its audience to places of similar reaction.  "Godzilla" reminds us that ultimately humans may strive to be God-like but are never God.  The film also invites us to feel the terror of abandonment, when nature overcomes and God does not intervene.  Las Vegas' destruction in the film is an allusion to human greed.  I wonder what it must've been like for those who endured real disasters, especially the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.  When the Golden Gate Bridge is the scene of monster destruction one can only remember the horrific scenes from the 1989 earthquake.  The first responders in the monsters' destructive wake lets us keep in mind the heroes of 9-11.  Seeing the wounded and homeless find shelter at Candlestick Park bears resemblance to the Superdome following Katrina.  The Hawaiian beach party interrupted by a Godzilla tsunami provides terrifying visual thought of what it might have been like along the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004.  How ready can we be?