A few months ago I blogged about how excited I was that they are working on a new Godzilla movie. Yes, I know the most recent remake/reboot was pretty poor and, to add insult to injury, it spawned a load of terrible cartoons that saw Godzilla essentially becoming a pet (slave?) to humans, but the original concept remains fricken awesome (a giant dinosaur that can turn up and cause mass destruction on a whim).
Finally, Hollywood has decided to put some real money into Godzilla… They’ve decided to stop messing around with trying to make it ‘family friendly’ and, instead, gone with a concept that seems to be far, far darker than the Western world has attempted before. The two trailers – one of which was released today (and both of which are below) – seem to suggest the movie will have an apocalyptic feel to it and the suspenseful atmosphere of the thing seems reminiscent of a movie like the original Alien. Most importantly, for this kind of movie, it looks like they have capable writers and a very good special effects team on the case ready to give us some incredible videos of Godzilla’s inevitable destruction!!!
Trailer 1:
Trailer 2:
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, and Juliette Binoche are set to star in this version of the movie, along with David Strathairn and Bryan Cranston.
As I remarked in an earlier article, “Most interesting of all is that the plot summary of the film suggests that one of the original Japanese ‘monster vs monster ‘story lines will be used as opposed to the ‘humans vs monster’ story lines that are more typical in the Western world. Check this out: ‘An epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure pits the world’s most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.’ I’ve heard rumours of it being Godzilla vs. Hedorah (the Smog Monster from a 1970’s movie storyline).” I don’t think Godzilla’s going to be anyone’s pet in this interpretation though…
I truly love the idea of Godzilla as, as one director sees him, ‘a representation of the wrath of nature’.
Anyway, the movie comes out May 16th, do you guys think there is any possibly it could end up being America’s first great Monster movie?
Jennie Ivins