Godzilla is So Last Year

One of the big cinematic events of this year was the release of the latest remake of the classic monster movie “Godzilla.”

The original Godzilla, of course, dated back to the 1950s and was a cautionary tale about nuclear power gone awry in the person of an enormous lizard, awakened by nuclear testing, that breathed atomic fire and flattened Tokyo.

Now, I’ve written about Godzilla before, and he’s a great monster and all, but you’ve really gotta admit that – as monsters go – Godzilla and other giant monsters are kind of passé.

Just think about it … when was the last time you felt existentially threatened by a gigantic lizard with thermonuclear halitosis? How often does a giant ape climb the Empire State Building with a beautiful girl squirming in one hand? And it’s been a while since giant tripods from Mars menaced the Earth with heat rays and poison gases.

Nah, giant monsters are out. Smaller, yet more terrible monsters are in ...

Hamas crazies lob missiles at Israeli towns, knowing full well that the Israeli retaliation will kill dozens, if not hundreds, of the people they claim to fight for;

Ebola virus ...

Anti-vaccination zealots who would rather see children die of preventable diseases than allow them to be inoculated;

Climate change*;

Politicians who are more interested in scoring cheap shots against the other party than they are in working to solve the nation's problems;

Pedophiles;

Lawyers more interested in big settlements than in justice;

Religious bigots who condemn (often violently) everyone who doesn't share their absolute beliefs; and,

Businesses that routinely jack up their prices "to cover increased costs of doing business," while their customers go years on end without raises that will cover their increased cost of living.

He may be passé but I'll take a good old-fashioned monster like Godzilla - one that we can actually kill (even with difficulty) over the newer and smaller, yet more fearsome, ones any day.

Have a good day. Remember that, sadly, "here there are monsters" isn't just an annotation on an old map. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Okay, this is a big one, even bigger than Godzilla ... but give me some license, here, okay.