Godzilla Feature And Stills Get Up Close And Personal With The Beast
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At this point there’s not much to say about Godzilla that hasn’t already been said. Damn near every day we’re getting a new TV ad or poster or still or look at new toys. If you’re after movie news you have to wade through the Godzilla promotion just to get to anything else. And today we’re back with more, including a new feature and two up close and personal photos of the King of the Monsters himself.
Usually when you get this much marketing you wind up feeling like you’ve seen the entire movie before you even sit down in the theater. Pacific Rim was especially bad about this. As much as I enjoyed that movie, we had seen so much in the build up that there were no surprises left. For the massive onslaught that has been the Godzilla promotion, they’ve kept the spoilers in check for the most part. Almost every TV spot is the same footage cut together in a different order, with a slight touch of something new thrown in, usually at the end, in order to keep you watching. You don’t feel like you already know everything, and you still have questions going in.
This feature doesn’t show you any new footage, but it does provide a solid look at director Gareth Edwards’ approach to making Godzilla. His goal is to look at this story from an “imagine if this really happened” perspective, and all of his decisions have gone towards furthering that end. The vast majority of the movie was filmed on actual locations to ground you and provide a sense of reality, the monsters had to move and look like something that could actually exist, and every element is meant to feel as natural as possible.
To take this even further, Edwards employs imagery that we’re already familiar with. With instant access to new from around the world, we, as a society, are well versed in the visual language of destruction and disaster. We watch terrible things unfold almost in real time on TV and on the Internet, and Edwards put that in his film. You see the aftermath of a traumatic event, the medical tents, the rubble, the chaos, and it feels familiar. Even the footage of the tsunami brings to mind that harrowing footage of the tragedy in Japan from a few years ago. Edwards hopes to use this collective knowledge to elicit the emotional response that he’s after. We’ll have to wait and see how that turns out for him.
These two new still photos give you your best look yet at the Godzilla himself, and he is just as impressive as you hoped. How can you not giggle a little bit when you see him tower over that building? But you also see what Edwards is going for, the monster feels natural, like he is fully integrated into the scenery, and that’s going to be important to help sell the action.
Godzilla stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, and David Strathairn, and opens everywhere May 16.
