Trailer Trashin’: The King of the Monsters Returns in Godzilla

Hollywood is being good to us this December, dear readers. This past weekend brought us The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – which is a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend it – and this week sees the release of American Hustle and Saving Mr. Banks, both of which I’m quite looking forward to. And in even more good news, this week’s Trailer Trashin’ column is one I’ve been looking forward to writing for a long time, because we finally have our first look at my most anticipated movie of next year – Godzilla.

Premise: An epic rebirth of 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.

My take: As I’ve written about before in this column, I have loved Japanese monster movies ever since I was a kid. And among those films, the Godzilla series produced by Toho Co., Ltd. has always been my favorite. I consider the original Godzilla (1954) one of the finest examples of allegorical science-fiction in film history, and both it and many of the twenty-seven subsequent films played a huge role in developing my love of cinema. For a long time, there were stories of attempts at a completely American-produced take on the King of Monsters. That first attempt at an American Godzilla finally hit theaters in summer 1998, brought to us by TriStar Pictures and the team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. While that film made a good amount of money, it was torn apart by fans and critics alike, and plans for sequels were abandoned. In 2009, rumors surfaced that Legendary Pictures was in talks with Toho to produce a new American Godzilla film. Those rumors turned out to be true, and the new film – simply titled Godzilla – will come out in theaters next summer, courtesy of Legendary, Warner Bros., and British filmmaker Gareth Edwards, who directed the acclaimed sci-fi indie Monsters (2010). The teaser trailer for the new Godzilla is finally here, and it looks like it might be everything I’ve hoped for.

One of the reasons I feel so optimistic about the film is the high quality of the onscreen talent. Please note that a number of roles in the film have yet to be named or specified, so I’m basing my thoughts here on what I currently know. Our main character is Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lieutenant Ford, the soldier who gets the big closeup just before the HALO jump. Taylor-Johnson is best known for playing the titular character in Kick-Ass (2010) and its sequel, although he was also a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy (2009) and will appear as Quicksilver in the upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Elizabeth Olsen, who starred in the critically acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) and will play Scarlet Witch in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, plays Elle Brody, who is either Ford’s girlfriend or wife. Taylor-Johnson and Olsen are both great actors, and I look forward to seeing them work together. The great Bryan Cranston, currently best known as Walter White on Breaking Bad, plays Joe Brody, the father of Elle. Cranston is a truly amazing actor, and I’m sure that, however many scenes he ends up having, he’ll be great in them.

Appearing briefly in this teaser is Ken Watanabe, from The Last Samurai (2003), Batman Begins (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and Inception (2010). For me, the most intriguing thing is that his character is named Daisuke Serizawa, which is the same name as the scientist in the original Godzilla who created the experimental weapon used to destroy the monster; I’m eager to see just how far the similarity goes. French actress Juliette Binoche, who starred in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), The English Patient (1996), and Chocolat (2000), among many other films, plays Sandra Brody, Joe’s wife. Binoche is not someone who does big Hollywood films, so I think the fact that she’s here is a mark in this movie’s favor. The guy we hear speaking and briefly see at the beginning of the trailer is David Strathairn as Admiral Stenz. I’ve been a fan of Strathairn even since I saw Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), and he’s an actor whose work I always enjoy watching. Not seen in the trailer are Richard T. Jones and Victor Rasuk, both of whom play military officers, and Sally Hawkins, who plays a character named Dr. Wates. And in a nice bit of casting for fans like me, Japanese actor Akira Takarada, who made his screen debut in the original Godzilla and went on to appear in five other entries in the series, will be making an appearance here, although his role has yet to be revealed.

The thing that impresses me the most about this teaser is how incredibly moody it is. The filmmakers have repeatedly said that they want to get back to the style of the original 1954 film, and it looks like they’ve nailed it. The shots of the destroyed San Francisco skyline are apocalyptic-looking in a way that’s absolutely beautiful. The quick glimpses of destruction look as intense as they should be. There’s that great moment of Joe and Sandra, both clearly in emotional distress, looking at each other from opposite sides of the glass, which makes me think at least one of them is not going to survive the film. The scene of the soldiers performing the HALO jump through the cloud above the city and landing around/on Godzilla is an amazing cinematic image, and unlike anything I’ve seen before in movies. And for anyone who’s wondering, yes, that is the monolith theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) you hear during the jump.

And how awesome are those brief looks we get at Godzilla himself? Obviously, we can’t assess all of the new design yet, but what we see here indicates that they’re keeping the iconic elements of Godzilla while still creating something that is clearly distinct from the classic look from the Japanese films. In particular, I can’t wait to see just how big he actually is. This teaser also doesn’t even hint at the other monsters we’re going to see. Reports from San Diego Comic-Con this year described a scene of an airport being attacked by an arthropod-like beast, which was alternately said to resemble a beetle, a scorpion, or a mantis. And the fact that the official plot blurb specifically refers to “malevolent creatures” means that there’s at least one other enemy monster which we haven’t seen anything of yet.

Honestly, my only complaint it that I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait until I get to see more of this. We’ve got a great cast, a good moody tone, and what looks like a great new take on the Big G himself. This summer, Pacific Rim showed how amazing Japanese-style monster films could be on a Hollywood budget, and I sincerely hope this film will reach those same heights. Come the middle of May, I will absolutely be checking out Godzilla at my local theater on opening weekend.