Godzilla: King of the Monsters is just three weeks away now, that's only three weeks that I don't need to die or go blind so that I can do that from seeing the sheer awesomeness that I so desperately want this film to be. I guess that tells you how I feel about this film, as if you didn't already know. But as I've expressed before, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a film that I've been looking forward to seeing for my entire life; I've been in love with Godzilla from my earliest years, having grown up on his epic brawls with the likes of Gigan, Mechagodzilla and of course, Ghidorah. But while the superhero genre has exploded in popularity in the past two decades, the Kaiju genre still remains much more fringe, even with financial big hitters like 2014's Godzilla and 2013's Pacific Rim. But now, in 2019, we're getting a Godzilla film that I never thought would happen; Godzilla facing off against some of his oldest and most iconic foes, in a Hollywood blockbuster with hundreds of millions in American money behind it, and if that wasn't enough, next year he's throwing down with King Kong for the first time in fifty eight years, it's fucking Christmas. That and Japan's making Godzilla films again too, but their recent track record's a bit naff, so what can you do.
For the past couple of months, since the release of the last trailer, Warner Bros. has released about half a dozen TV stops for the film, some of which showing new footage, some not, not that it matters because I'm insatiably hungry for this film, it's not healthy. These TV stops alone weren't enough to dive back into the topic for me though, I needed more, and one night, as I walked out of work and checked my YouTube notifications, I got that very thing, the Final Trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In this post, I'll be discussing this new trailer as well as the TV spots, the two songs from the film's soundtrack that are now on YouTube, as well as the Shazam! IMAX footage, which, thanks to Reddit, I managed to see, thank god for Reddit. So let's start with the TV spots, which are very straight forward to sum up; interesting and cool music, some new footage that is expectedly badass, and that's about it. The most notable ones are the Beautiful one and the How many are there one, the latter because of the number apparently being "seventeen and counting," and the former being for its interesting choice in music. Seventeen though, keep in mind that we know four of them for sure; Godzilla, Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan, Dougherty also alluded to the film referencing Kong, which makes him a possible fifth monster, though that's a complete unknown. That's still twelve that are unaccounted for, which is very interesting purely because of how big a number it is, it makes it sound like this film is going to be some Destroy All Monsters type shit.
I'm not sure how that'll work to be honest, as with such a huge roster, you have the two-fold issue of the new monsters being overshadowed by the big four, and/or taking some of the limelight away from the big four, and back in 2017 I wondered if this film would be crowded with just four. It's also possible that not all of them are in the film, but that we'll be getting a taste of them before they get expanded on in future Monsterverse films. The latter option is the smarter one in my opinion because they surely want to world-build for this cinematic universe and this would be a good way of doing it, but also because I want the big four to take centre stage, and would consider it a disservice to them if they didn't. Then there was the Beautiful TV spot, which was interesting because of its use of, of all songs, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a song that is used again in the Final Trailer. This isn't a bad choice, but if you're expecting me to explain why in an eloquent fashion, you're in the wrong place, I'm not a musical expert, I wouldn't call myself much of an expert in anything if I'm being honest. I like the song, I don't think anyone doesn't, and the soft, melodic tone of it, when infused with a bit of Hollywood bombast, replaces the dread of the first film's marketing with a feeling of awe. This reflects a change in tone that the film looks to be going for; whereas Gareth Edwards's film was clearing going for a sense of horror and dread about the kaiju, this film seems to be going for something almost magical, portraying them less as eldritch horrors for us to fear, and more as god-like beings for us to marvel at.
The rest of the TV spots were not all that different from the trailers. there's some new footage, like Godzilla slamming one of Ghidorah's heads, which is awesome, and Mothra taking Ghidorah's gravity beams to the face, which is probably a spoiler as Mothra has a habit of dying in self-sacrifice. The TV spots did also suggest something that I'm not sure about, and that's comedy. A lot of the TV spots have jokes in them, which raises the obvious issue of the film having too much comedy, but I'm not going to be too worried, I highly doubt this will be another The Predator or Halloween. After the TV spots came the IMAX footage, which showed before screenings of Shazam!, and this footage is very simple to sum up, it's an edit comprised of several scenes from the film, most prominently the scene where Ghidorah wakes up, which is the highlight of the footage, obviously. The first minute or so of the trailer feels a lot like the teaser trailer for the 2014 film, with a similar monologue by David Strathairn about the apocalyptic scenario the characters are faced with. Then we get what is presumably a condensed version of the scene where Ghidorah emerges from the ice. The scene has a lot in common with the scene in the first film where the male MUTO wakes up, like that scene, the action is always framed alongside the human characters to emphasise the size of the monster. But what I love about this scene is the dread; Ghidorah's heads emerging from the ice one by one is menacing as shit, as is that sinister arse grin that he has on his faces.
Ghidorah in this film looks terrifying, which is exactly what I wanted, those faces are so filled with malice, and there has yet to be even a single shot of him in any of the marketing that doesn't convey his sheer presence, he literally is the apocalypse. It's actually funny that this Ghidorah is just a monster, but just from the marketing, is already more frightening than his Anime Trilogy counterpart, despite that Ghidorah being an interdimensional, cosmic horror that eats planets, that and the fight in that film was awful, whereas this fight is going to the coolest fight in film history, and I'm not even kidding. I also absolutely love the way Ghidorah sounds; this Ghidorah's roar is new, certainly less recognisable than Godzilla's but it fits the look of this Ghidorah and is familiar enough to Toho Ghidorah's roar, which was always more of a scream than a roar. The footage only features glimpses of the monsters throwing down, and the scene ends with Godzilla and Ghidorah facing off as they did in the second trailer. And Godzilla's entrance is going to be absolutely epic, as the ice around the helicopter glows blue before exploding to reveal the big G himself, who looks at Ghidorah with a hateful glare, ending with that mouth-watering shot from the second trailer of Ghidorah and Godzilla facing off in the snow. The rest of the footage is cut together similarly to the trailers, and isn't all that remarkable, minus a brief glimpse of Burning Godzilla, brief enough to confirm his presence in the film, but not enough to really know what he looks like, which is how I'd rather it be.
And then there was the Final trailer, released five weeks before the film, and what needs to be said, it was another trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters; I fucking love it. For the most part, this final trailer is an amalgamation of all the previous TV spots, featuring footage and lines of dialogue from them, as well as the music from the Beautiful TV spot; Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Once again we get that ace song, as well as an even better listen at Ghidorah's roar, which sounds amazing. But where the trailer really picks up is after the comically cheesy "My God", "-Zilla" quip, because then this trailer becomes the most beautiful and badass shit this marketing campaign has produced yet. Before that though, and going back to a previous point about how this Ghidorah looks so mean and evil, that squint when he looks through the window at Millie Bobbie Brown is pure malice, it's terrifying which, as I keep saying, is what Ghidorah needs to be. But then the trailer kicks into high gear, giving us yet more shots of Rodan as he crawls out of an erupting volcano and turns the town upside down, but why the fuck not. We then get Serizawa in that scene from the last trailer where he's in the thermal suit, only now it appears that he's arming a bomb, which is weird. Especially when you consider that this is obviously the same scene where he comes face to face with Godzilla, and Serizawa is a character with an immense amount of respect for Godzilla, being one of the few characters that doesn't see him as just a big mean lizard that needs to die.
So why would he be arming a bomb in this scene, unless said bomb was going to be beneficial to Godzilla in some way. We know from the first film that nuclear bombs can't kill him, we see it in the first two minutes of that film, but is this film going to suggest that nuclear bombs make him stronger, because that'd be a stretch, that'd require a great degree of suspension of disbelief in this film about God dinosaurs and God bugs. Do you know what though, I grew up watching Toho's Godzilla films, I'm pretty used to Godzilla being weird and dumb. I've always said that a bad idea can be saved by good execution, and since I'm also a massive fanboy, my personal experience and bias with this series will almost certainly stop me from taking issue with narrative shortcomings, provided of course that they don't take the piss. But I'm not the general movie going public, most of them know very little about this franchise outside of its titular Kiaju, so what does this film look to be selling itself with. Well, firstly, Millie Bobbie Brown's in it, which is sure to bring in fans of Stranger Things; that other, other, other Netflix show that everyone was obsessed with at one time or another. There's that, and there's also the monster madness; the simple draw of seeing giant monsters beat the piss out of each other. This trailer has that; it has a lot of fast cut shots of Ghidorah and Godzilla clashing, including that awesome demon hickey you see pictured, which, since it's cut to the beat of the song, is completely cool, manipulative, yes, but so cool.
The trailer also shows something very strange, that being Godzilla falling from space. In a previous trailer, there was a shot of something falling to Earth in a fireball, with my guessing at the time being that it was Ghidorah, but that shot is in this trailer too, an it's followed by another shot of what's clearly Godzilla falling in a fireball. So here's my guess, this is how Godzilla becomes Burning Godzilla; Ghidorah flies Godzilla up to space and drops him, which, as it would with most things, completely fucks him up, but Mothra sacrifices herself to save Godzilla from a killing blow, while also giving her power to Godzilla, which is something that's happened in Godzilla films before so it isn't that bonkers, at which point with Mothra's power, Godzilla goes super-Saiyan. If you think that's a weird idea, you've never seen a Toho Godzilla film; there was one where Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra had an argument about saving humanity while a pair of fairies translated for the human characters, and there was that one time he could fly, which is true, I promise. But this is where the fanboy's mind goes when presented with a trailer, the point is this film might be weird, which I'm not going to mind at all, and given the response to Avengers: Endgame, I can also assure you that weird isn't much of a turn-off on its own. But the film is clearly selling itself as a badass monster brawl, and in keeping with that, in addition to the neck biting, we get the clash from the second trailer, as well as Godzilla lighting up Ghidorah with his atomic breath, a shot that conveys the power of Godzilla atomic breath very effectively as Ghidorah is thrown back by it, which is badass.
That pretty much sums up the trailer, there's not really anything else I can say that can't be boiled down to 'it's badass', but as usual, the awesome doesn't stop as not long after the trailer dropped, WaterTower Music uploaded two tracks from the Godzilla: King of the Monsters soundtrack to YouTube; Old Rivals and Godzilla, the latter being a cover of the Blue Oyster Cult song composed by Bear McCreary with System of a Down's Serj Tankian doing vocals. Let's start with Old Rivals since it's the more straightforward, and from a title like Old Rivals, there's a lot you can infer, like how Godzilla and Ghidorah probably know each other, which explains the face Godzilla pulls in that IMAX footage, but outside of that, the track is a thundering march that homages Akira Ifukube's music while doing something a little different with it. This track sounds like a lot of ideas getting mashed together; you've got Ifukube, obviously, but there's also some Alexandre Desplat in there, which I like a lot because I both love his score for the 2014 film and the consistency this has with that score. One very noticeable change is the chanting, which is very different from the 2014 film's score, but it fits with the film's apparent shift in its representation of the kaiju as gods and demons rather than mere animals, and the chanting gives this epic and brutal piece of music an almost religious aspect. As I said before, if you want an eloquent breakdown of music, you're not in the right place, but to sum it up, Old Rivals is an epic piece of music that homages Akira Ifukube and Alexandre Desplat nicely and, in doing so, creates an even more perfect score for a Godzilla film, one that I'll absolutely be getting the CD of, because I'm too much of a dinosaur to go digital but not enough of one to go Vinyl.
But then there was the other track they released, the Blue Oyster Cult cover with Serj Tankian on vocals, and now we are talking, what a banging tune. Weirdly, despite loving Godzilla and enjoying the odd Blue Oyster Cult song, mostly Don't Fear The Reaper, I was never a huge fan of their Godzilla song, I never disliked it, I just never really listened to it. However, it took all of five seconds to figure out what it was that I was listening to, and I've listened to it many, many times since. My apathy towards the song melted away when I heard this, it's suddenly an awesome song that I love. I'm listening to it right now, in fact, and I can't keep my head still, yes, it's one of them. There's just something so cool about the song's mashing together of the film score's orchestral, epic style with the Hard Rock of Blue Oyster Cult, the chanting choir along with Tankian's vocals, as usual, I can't describe how or why I feel the way I do, but I can tell you how I feel, it's awesome. Unlike Old Rivals, this song will probably play during the film's end credits, because films these days have made a habit of using animated credits accompanied by a song. And it's not like there's a better song they could use, there is no song on Earth that's more fitting than Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla, and there is a satisfaction in it actually being in a Godzilla film, especially this one; Godzilla's epic return to the big screen. It occurs to me that Godzilla: King of the Monsters will probably have a post-credits scene, I mean, Kong: Skull Island had one, and this is the Monsterverse, one of the many film franchises now trying to be like Marvel and the MCU, so this song being in the credits will make that wait a lot easier, not like I'll be able to stand up when the film ends anyway.
The Return of Titans
So in conclusion, no one has learned anything new today, I am still losing my mind over this film, but that's not new, and the new developments regarding this film have done nothing but make me even more excited. There is one bummer I didn't mention, NECA apparently has no plans to produce a Ghidorah figure, which is only a little heart breaking. Box office tracking for the film is also not great; with current numbers putting its opening weekend at a worryingly low fifty-five million dollars, but on the plus side, we only have three weeks to wait before we know the actual numbers, and I hope they're higher than that. Having been there for the opening weekends of both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, I can say it sucks to not have anyone to talk to about a film, especially one that is as much fun as Infinity War and Endgame. But this is Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it's a film that I've dreamed about for my entire life, and I want this film to get as many butts in seats as possible, just so that as many people as possible learn what I and many others have known for our entire lives; that history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man, go go Godzilla.
The trailer also shows something very strange, that being Godzilla falling from space. In a previous trailer, there was a shot of something falling to Earth in a fireball, with my guessing at the time being that it was Ghidorah, but that shot is in this trailer too, an it's followed by another shot of what's clearly Godzilla falling in a fireball. So here's my guess, this is how Godzilla becomes Burning Godzilla; Ghidorah flies Godzilla up to space and drops him, which, as it would with most things, completely fucks him up, but Mothra sacrifices herself to save Godzilla from a killing blow, while also giving her power to Godzilla, which is something that's happened in Godzilla films before so it isn't that bonkers, at which point with Mothra's power, Godzilla goes super-Saiyan. If you think that's a weird idea, you've never seen a Toho Godzilla film; there was one where Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra had an argument about saving humanity while a pair of fairies translated for the human characters, and there was that one time he could fly, which is true, I promise. But this is where the fanboy's mind goes when presented with a trailer, the point is this film might be weird, which I'm not going to mind at all, and given the response to Avengers: Endgame, I can also assure you that weird isn't much of a turn-off on its own. But the film is clearly selling itself as a badass monster brawl, and in keeping with that, in addition to the neck biting, we get the clash from the second trailer, as well as Godzilla lighting up Ghidorah with his atomic breath, a shot that conveys the power of Godzilla atomic breath very effectively as Ghidorah is thrown back by it, which is badass.
But then there was the other track they released, the Blue Oyster Cult cover with Serj Tankian on vocals, and now we are talking, what a banging tune. Weirdly, despite loving Godzilla and enjoying the odd Blue Oyster Cult song, mostly Don't Fear The Reaper, I was never a huge fan of their Godzilla song, I never disliked it, I just never really listened to it. However, it took all of five seconds to figure out what it was that I was listening to, and I've listened to it many, many times since. My apathy towards the song melted away when I heard this, it's suddenly an awesome song that I love. I'm listening to it right now, in fact, and I can't keep my head still, yes, it's one of them. There's just something so cool about the song's mashing together of the film score's orchestral, epic style with the Hard Rock of Blue Oyster Cult, the chanting choir along with Tankian's vocals, as usual, I can't describe how or why I feel the way I do, but I can tell you how I feel, it's awesome. Unlike Old Rivals, this song will probably play during the film's end credits, because films these days have made a habit of using animated credits accompanied by a song. And it's not like there's a better song they could use, there is no song on Earth that's more fitting than Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla, and there is a satisfaction in it actually being in a Godzilla film, especially this one; Godzilla's epic return to the big screen. It occurs to me that Godzilla: King of the Monsters will probably have a post-credits scene, I mean, Kong: Skull Island had one, and this is the Monsterverse, one of the many film franchises now trying to be like Marvel and the MCU, so this song being in the credits will make that wait a lot easier, not like I'll be able to stand up when the film ends anyway. 
No comments:
Post a Comment