Let's cut to the chase, this trailer actually shows Godzilla. and I feel I no longer need to hold judgement on the 'radiation burns' the leaked photos showed, now we can see quite clearly throughout this trailer that not only are they more extensive than the pictures suggested, but they glow. I actually like that more as I think about it, that last Godzilla movie where he glowed was one of the best ones Toho ever produced, and it goes quite well with the fucked up look of the guy, having the same raw, un natural texture he had in the leaks. But the way this trailer portrays Godzilla is very inconsistent. the first thing we see of him is a close up of his face as he roars, in which he's very animated, moving in a way that's very comparable to the Legendary Godzilla, the effects look great in this 1 shot, though it's clearly all CG as opposed to the CG suitmation hybrid they'll probably be going for in the film. The roar is also a peculiarity, it's another classic roar, and while I like it, I don't think it matches the new Godzilla look, there's custom Godzilla roars on YouTube that I think fits this design far better, it being a more monstrous design, I expected a more monstrous sounding roar. Again though, I doubt he will actually sound like that in the film, I'll bet he will have a more monstrous roar, one that either isn't ready, or that they're holding close to the chest. The very next shot is equally good and equally as animated, a low angle shot of Godzilla's tail sweeping some rooftops, similar to Gareth Edwards' portrayal of the monster, I think that very effectively conveys his size. But then we see a shot of Godzilla that's more conventional, and he is far less animated, in fact looking almost robotic, this looks more like the CG suitmation hybrid I was expecting, but it's also a confirmation of my biggest issue with the leaked photos, his arms are completely pathetic, they're tiny. I really hoped that that would change from the leaks, and it hasn't, and I now like it even less. On the plus side, I've very much warmed to his ridiculous neck. And, now for some hard awesomeness, for me a big part of the Godzilla is his spines, and this Godzilla has some great looking spines, they really do look great, stunning, even. But an issue I didn't expect to have is the tail, which is ridiculous; the tail really is stupid looking both in its length and in its girth. It looks like some kind of compensation, it's so enormous, and I don't like that, like the tiny arms, it just looks funny. back to the inconsistency however, what worries me now is the film will be inconsistent with Godzilla, having times when he's entirely CG, moving in a very animated manner similar to Legendary, but it will then have hybrid shots where he moves far more robotically, these things won't go well together if they go this route, and that does strike me as a possibility.
The rest of the trailer is equally mixed in my opinion, consisting largely of the film's characters talking, but having no dialogue, while these dialogue scenes look cool, the lack of talking makes them feel a bit hollow in the trailer, and the lack of motivation or story in this lack of dialogue is an issue I have, other than that though, the rest of the trailer stands out to me for its cinematography, which looks very interesting. There are some very interestingly haunting shots, such as a shot of a road packed with cars and people running at night, a beautiful shot of presumably one of the film's characters standing in the wake of Godzilla. And a completely haunting landscape of the city with Godzilla on his rampage, which, in addition to highlighting one of my biggest issues with the new Godzilla design, is just a spooky and brilliant shot. And the trailer also goes out of its way to show a bit of action, with the Japanese military mobilising and attacking Godzilla, with a very familiar looking tactic of just lining up a few hundred tanks and building a fire wall against Godzilla, this is cool to look at, not just because it's tanks, but because Toho has, again, become more creative with it's camera shots, including a great shot that I included as my taster image, and a very cool shot of a rotating tank turret firing at Godzilla. The music in the trailer is pretty good though, being pretty standard, but also fitting the tone of the trailer quite nicely, since the film looks to be going for a more grim, grounded take on Godzilla, more in line with films like the Original Godzilla, The Return of Godzilla, and Legendary's recent reboot. I tend to like those more serious Godzilla films, so that makes me happy. All in all this is a far better trailer than the one Toho released in December, but I still have my issues with it, I like the new look of Godzilla, but then those arms still look crap, and now I don't like the tail, I like the new effects and the CG suitmation hybrid, but I fear the inconsistency this could lead to. The rest of the film looks good, and my issues are probably limited to the trailer, like the lack of motivation or story. But I still like the look of this film, and I still have confidence in this new Japanese reboot.
No comments:
Post a Comment