Godzilla Is Ready For His Closeup In New Picture, Plus Concept Art And A Badass New Poster

Nice piece of tail.

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

GodzillaWe haven’t seen the big guy on screen in a while, but Godzilla is finally back. And from the look of this first photo of the giant, destructive lizard in his latest incarnation, he’s plenty pissed off. Also something of a peeping Tom. Director Gareth Edward’s Godzilla reboot doesn’t stomp into theaters until May of 2014, but Legendary Pictures has revealed the first peek at the titular monster, as well as some concept art, and a cool new poster at San Diego Comic-Con.

The photo looks like a view of Godzilla from through a screen, or perhaps some blinds, and he looks like he’s staring back, like maybe he’s just creeping outside your window one night, hoping to catch a glimpse of you in your skivvies. What a perv. This is apparently not actually from the film itself, it was just displayed as an example, to give all of us an idea of what the creature will look like. And I have to say, this actually looks a lot like big Godzilla toy that a friend of mine had when we were kids, at least in shape, texture, and color. You know, it actually looks like the King of the Monsters, and not just a leftover reject from Jurassic Park like Roland Emmerich’s 1998 interpretation.

Godzilla Concept ArtThen there’s this piece of concept art from Godzilla, which is best described as epic, or awesome of you’re feeling hyperbolic. Having grown up in a Navy town I am well aware of just how god damned big an aircraft carrier is. They’re like floating towns. So when Godzilla emerges from the depths and dwarfs one of these metal behemoths, you know the scale of this film is going to be rather huge, just as it should be.

There’s a fine line with how much of Godzilla I actually want to see before the movie comes out. My only real beef with Pacific Rim was that by the time I actually saw the movie, there had been such a deluge of marketing—from posters and photos to trailers and video clips—I had seen almost everything there was to see, so I lost out the pleasure of seeing the monsters for the first time. While I want to see the monster, I want to see him on the big screen, like he is meant to be.

My hope is that Edwards (I know it’s not necessarily his call to make) plays things a little closer to the vest from a promotional perspective. We’ve seen the damage Godzilla leaves in his path, as evidenced by set videos and photos (and the fact that part of downtown San Diego is apparently set up to look like he’s been there), hopefully the creature will be a little camera shy. Out of everyone, Edwards knows the value of keeping things hidden from view and a well-timed reveal. His last foray into the creature feature, Monsters, keeps the beasts out of sight for most of the film, and when they are finally shown in full, it has a greater impact because of this. I know this is a different scale—a different kind of monster if you will (sorry, couldn’t help it)—and we’ll have to see Godzilla sooner than that, I just hope there’s at least a little bit of carryover from then until now.

This does seem to be the thought process behind this new poster. You see a piece of the monster, and though it is enough to make you realize how humungous he is, it leaves the bulk to your imagination. It’s like they read my damn mind.

I’m sure we’ll know more after the Godzilla panel in Hall H on July 20, but we’ll have to wait until May 16, 2014 to know for sure.

Godzilla Poster