One of the biggest (pun definitely intended) debuts this past weekend at Comic-Con was that of Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla. Not only was a poster unveiled but footage was shown in the form of a short teaser (possibly a test reel) – which came as a huge surprise to everyone given the release date is not until 2014.
The poster itself is pretty simple. It’s just the name ‘Godzilla’, in both English and Japanese. But even still the kid inside me is excited to see that name on a film poster again. Yes, we all know what happened the last time a major Hollywood studio got hold of the Godzilla franchise, but there are several encouraging reasons why things will be different this time around. One of the biggest is director Gareth Edwards. His last film, the incredible low-budget indie Monsters, showed the world exactly how to make an intelligent and character-driven monster movie. At Comic-Con Edwards talked about how passionate he is to make this the Godzilla film we all deserve to see – and, interestingly, how little studio interference there’s been with his vision for a more grounded, realistic film.
Hopefully we’ll see the footage online soon because pretty much everyone who was there says it’s fantastic – albeit short. Despite only seeing Godzilla at the very end (and in profile), the image is nicely set up by an almost apocalyptic vision of a city in ruin, along with a glimpse of a huge multi-armed monster lying in the debris. The famous and haunting speech by J. Robert Oppenheimer (the father of the atomic bomb) acts as the voice–over – “…I am become death. The destroyer of worlds.”
No wonder people got chills… and apparently Godzilla’s trademark roar was so loud it vibrated through every chair in the enormous Hall H convention centre. Now that would have been cool.
Are you excited for Godzilla?
