Director: Michael Dougherty

Most notable Films and my biggest worry: Krampus, X-men Apocolypse (Terrible, terrible film.), X-men 2, and Superman returns (2006).

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If you know me you know that I am a HUGE fan of Kaiju films. Also known as “Giant monster movies. ” (Cloverfield and Godzilla 2014 both being my favorites) The day I saw the first trailer for Godzilla: King of monsters I was in Barnes and Nobles and nearly screamed out loud from excitement. Really. My passion for these films runs deep. Let me explain…

At a young age I would  watch Godzilla movies on VHS’ whenever I had the chance. The intrigue these movies had for me, I feel at the time, were the fact that two giant creatures were battling it out to the death and “man” could do nothing about it. Humans stood at the mercy of these Goliaths and that was and is a cool thing to imagine for me. Also, I think at that time, I found the monster battles akin to an action packed National Geographic episode on steroids.

These films had it all with a wide cast of wonky characters that included: giant karate bugs, woolly dog men, a three headed alien dragon, cyborg’s with jet packs, pterodactyls, space monsters with buzz saws for hands, plant things with teeth, a Godzilla mech with laser eyes, and of course the beloved moth most (not me!) have come to know and love nearly as much as Godzilla himself. But the best parts of the films were not only the cast but the methods in which Godzilla beat his enemies down by any means necessary: tail whips, combo fists, buttocks, boulders, atomic breath. And the drama was there for those that craved it too! Gang fights. Love. Friendships on the brink of destruction, and baby godzilla running around the wilds unsupervised, getting into trouble and forcing big Godzilla to muster up his”dad strength” and serve a three course meal of whoop *** to a family of spiders. There were comical monster summoning dances and even super special attacks so outlandish you couldn’t help but laugh.

The old films are an experience that could never be forgotten and should forever be cherished. And though they are treasured in our hearts I am glad these new films, Japanese ones included, have taken a much more serious and darker direction.

Quick note: Before I get into the trailers I’m going to state here and now that the Matthew  Broderick’s Godzilla of 1999 does not exist in my mind. I’m not sure what they were trying to do with that Jurassic Park looking gecko but I think the world learned their lesson from that movie. (They did have great trailers and a cool Taco Bell promotion though!)

Trailer 1: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVDtmouV9kM

Ok! So Godzilla King of monsters trailer# 1 opens up with an immediate “somethings not right here”atmosphere. Two flags are shown blowing one direction when suddenly the winds die and shift and the flags reverse violently with the change of the air. This is my FAVORITE part of the trailer because it tells the viewer to be afraid of the unknown force  coming in the distance and creates in the viewer an immediate connection with this young girl even though we don’t even know her name yet. Wonderful.

Then we are met with a wide city-scape shot, storm clouds on the horizon -suffocating,  warping, shifting like a growing horror and in comes a clap of thunder followed by an unsettling, continuous vibration sound  that increases in volume as storm clouds rush in on the helpless young girl. This was also a big thumbs up for me.  Already, I know the movies roots are built upon the most important things for a “Kaiju” film , A Godzilla film. Brooding atmosphere, mystery, and a strong sense of power and at this point of the trailer they haven’t even shown one monster yet! Very good sign.

I must say I did not expect the Clair De Lune composition that started playing soon after. I expected something more gritty, more intense, but to my surprise the song pleasantly fit the mood. It played well off the muted action flashing across the screen. Kudos to whomever’s idea it was to include it.

We’re shown some military personnel next, an introduction to the characters we’ll be dealing with in the film, whom two I noticed appeared from the movie wolf on wall street. (Not important. Just something I noticed.) They’re peering into a large pane of glass that looks  into a watery darkness. Its evident the characters are in some deep sea facility. From out there in the waters center Godzilla’ uses his spines to give a flickering neon wave to the characters inside the facility which made me smile.  I felt that was a very cool way to introduce him in the trailer. Since we saw a lot of him in the last film I figured it would be hard make him still feel mysterious and intriguing to us viewers but this scene seems do an excellent job of it. To find a different and refreshing introduction to a monster that’s been around since 1954 must not have been an easy task for the movies writers and director.

We then get a quick Glimpse of Ghidora’s shadow, the movies main antagonist, frozen in some ridiculously large, giant ice wall. (I mean, come on- the ice chunk looks the size of a small country!) I’m really curious as to how he is introduced in the movie and how he ended up in all that ice.  Also, I’m glad they decided in the first trailer to only show him as a shadow in both of his reveals and nothing more. They also did something similar with Rodan, all shadow, no closeup-  which I too liked. It made seeing them in the second trailer that much more exciting.

Next we see Mothra pushing her head out from a cold mist to be pet by the protagonist of the film. Which, ok , is alright to see.  Honestly, it’s not that cool visually but I figure this must be a pre-cocoon state because Mothra’s head is reminiscent of a sea turtle. No antennae, no fur, like we see later on, but scenes soon after this show her wings spreading in full bloom, encased in a blinding white light which looks awesome. So, yes, I am slightly excited for Mothra but also at the same time I am not because most likely (even as a child I hated Mothra for this in the movies) she will come and save the day with some outrageous ,over the top,  hidden power or something at the end of the film which will overshadow all of Godzilla’s hard work to protect the world. Hip hip hooray for Mothra -_-

I digress…

Then comes the real meat of the trailer. Godzilla surfaces from a frigid sea like the true king of monsters he is, a storm pouring over his glowing scales, all the while a supercharged sound building up. And then he roars a fire canon of blue flame into the clouds and everyone gazes in awe, forced to behold his wonder. The king is back and ready to go!

After that comes a mirage of scenes showing soldiers shooting. Planes being chased by a pair of giant talons. Washington getting pummeled by some bad weather… few tornadoes here and there…lightning , a jet flying by… and oh yeah- King GHIDORA’S massive shadow hiding behind the clouds while Rodan soars by bringing destruction upon everything in sight! The scene bleeds chaos.  There’s so much destruction occurring that you have to pause the trailer just to get a good look at everything happening. This is exactly what I was hoping for as a sequel to the first film. A joy ride of carnage.

The next scenes don’t show too much more other than Rodan flying over the ocean, dodging jets in the sky with some neat aerial maneuvers. And at the end of the trailer we get a cool shot of the protagonist’ grinning face drenched in rain, staring ahead to a stomping Godzilla who emits a final “let’s get it on” roar as a fleet of American jets fly over his shoulder. I think it’s pretty cool that Godzilla will be forced to team up with humans and ( 99.8% sure) Mothra to take down King Ghidora. It pays dues to the fact that Ghidora is Godzilla’s greatest nemesis of all time.

Trailer 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kUyJzdiwFQ

Trailer 2 opens up with a view the film’s protagonist like the first trailer.  This time she is sitting in an empty radio room. She fiddles with a radio dial and asks into it if anyone is there. We hear a return broadcast of men’ yelling then gunfire but it is taken over by the haunting roars of an unknown monsters. Scenes from other parts of the film flash across the screen then showing crowds of people running for their lives through a city. Then it cuts back to the girl and she covers her ears, overwhelmed with fear by what she is hearing.  Again, like in the first trailer the tone is set early and set strong. This movie is not painting these creatures in a good light. They are to be feared. All of  these creatures, Godzilla included, are outside of human control and that is a threat to mankind.

The scene changes to a shot of a volcano/mountain erupting and we see Rodan’s wings breaking out from it. The melancholy music from the first trailer is long gone and we are instead met with strange, short but loud, roars, followed by short shots of claws/spikes rising out of the ground which does not resemble any of the monsters in the movie. Then it shows  another creature rising from the earth, looking similar to a mountain, which also does not resemble any of the known monsters in the movie. But I will discuss more on that at the end of this post.

Scenes to follow are some we saw from the first trailer but then it changes back to a new shot of the volcano. Rodan rips out of the peak spreading his molten wings and roaring. The whole time we are shown this through the perspective of a helicopter which make sit feel real. This scene is quite amazing, solely due to the lifelike scale of Rodan if he were real. HE’S MASSIVE and imposing to look upon. It really makes me feel sorry for the pilots of those helicopters. This is a perfect example of why I and many others love Kaiju films.

Again, there are more scenes from the first trailer. Godzilla underwater, Mothra’s wings glowing with heavenly light, people looking confused and amazed. Then Rhodan (my second favorite by this point) steals the show once more. He is shown flying over a city and due to his massive size the laws of physics take hold and people below are caught up in his wake, the winds sending them skyward. Excellent detail here. It properly displays the power and threat this creature will bring throughout the film.

Then big boy Ghidorah shows up with quite the entrance. He stomps a giant clawed foot down on top of what appears to be a sports stadium and shatters the cement beneath his weight. The camera then pans up to a swinging tail that pushes out some scary black  spikes and the scene continues to rise, showing three 100+ foot dragon necks also covered in black spikes.  The shot back out to a far distance away and we’re shown Ghidora in his entirety, still partly shrouded in shadow. His design looks amazing – wings are gigantic and he spreads them wide giving a formidable, almost dracula-esque, impression of a king, or overlord reminding their subjects just who they are. He is the villain I wanted for this film and i cannot wait to see what he can do!

The scene switches to underwater view of submarines traversing through what looks to be a sunken temple or kingdom, then it shows a man walking through some roman like construct and approaches the face of a sleeping Godzilla. The humans have found his lair it seems. Which I think is cool. We always see Godzilla leaving at the end of his films but never know where he goes. Now we know.(I think :O) This should provide us fanse a  peek into Godzilla’s world which is something I’m always on board for.

What follows are more shots from the first trailer which is not a bad thing. It goes to show that the films creators are really holding back, not wanting to reveal too much, which is a breath of fresh air in today’s movie industry. The king kong movie, Skull Island, showed way too much in their previews. By the time you watched the movie you’ve already seen most of the action scenes and the awe, wonder, and mystery that carries these Kaiju films is totally lost which, in the end, creates a bad experience for the viewers and a bad film overall which Skull Island ended up being. (In my opinion)

Next we see Godzilla and Ghidora facing of for the first time amidst the heavy wash of a dark hurricane, both poised like ancient, mythological titans . Honestly, it’s quite a thrilling thing to see. Never before has a monster movie looked so good!  The movie SEEMS like it will end up being a Godzilla fans dream come true. (fingers crossed)

One neat thing I did notice was in the next scene we catch a glimpse of a black soldier staring up to the sky speaking his “Oh Shi#!” one liner. This man is the same actor from Straight out of Compton. Ice cubes son, O’Shea Jackson Jr. Pretty cool. The casting from what I’ve seen looks pretty diverse. Just hope the acting doesn’t fall to Nicolas Cage levels.

Finally, at the end of all of this we see Godzilla and Ghidora again this time roaring at each other across a city and they both charge in for each others necks. This final scene once again brings home the message of the film. This will be Godzilla’s biggest fight and from the looks Ghidorahs  size and offensive capabilities, Ghidora has the upper hand.

So that is my overview on both trailers.

My overall takeaway is that the film looks amazing. Visuals are dark like I like them. They are not showing too much in the trailer, the audio of the monsters sounds incredible, the creatures each appear to have pretty distinct personalities, and other than my assumption of Mothra’s ex machina  victory at the end I cannot predict where this film will go. This is probably the biggest thing for me in terms of positives because usually I can pick apart a trailer and see all three acts and where they’re heading. This one I cannot. Bravo!  This film is my #1 movie I’m anticipating for 2019. Make sure you see it in IMAX!

(SECRET Semi spoiler? about FILM BELOW. Keep scrolling)

THERE ARE MORE THAN 4 Monsters in the film. Possibly 17!!

( I made a Reddit post But Ill condense it here. ((Slight Edits.))

From watching trailer 2 I noticed these two things:

Trailer 2:58 seconds https://youtu.be/KDnKuFtdc7A?t=58

Trailer 2:47 seconds: https://youtu.be/KDnKuFtdc7A?t=47

Fact’s we know:

• Rodan is already  shown breaking free from a volcano

• Mothra is being kept by the humans in some base

Possible explanations:

• For the scene at 58 seconds: Godzilla is actually underground and breaks free from his place of hiding?

• For the scene at 47 seconds: Ghidora wings? Maybe the base was built underground in that remote oil field?

My problems with all of these explanations:

• For the scene at 58 seconds: Whatever is coming out of the ground…the rocks seem to be part of its body as if it’s been there a long while.Another reason I’m skeptical is because other scenes in the trailer show the humans looking for Godzilla (I presume) underwater in submarines and even walk up to him sleeping. Why would he be buried underground in a midwest looking place? Also the shape of whatever it is does not seem like it fits any profile of the movies monsters. I’m thinking King Caesar.

• For the scene at 47 seconds: I am struggling to grasp what this could be. Definitely not Mothra as she doesn’t have mandibles similar to theses. The tips look like scorpion tails. Possibly layers of Ghidorash winged tips but its strange how they are coming out of the ground. If it’s not Ghidoras wings is looks like the rising of some bug creature or something. Maybe Kumonga ? Anguirus ? (im reaching on that last one)

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My post got a little attention and a few die-hard fans responded:

Response 1:

Response 2:

According to the plot leaks that have been confirmed as fact at this point, there are about 17 monsters in the film total. Most of the visual effects weren’t completed in the test screening the leaker’s saw so we don’t know exactly what they all were, but we do know one is a giant mammoth.

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I watched the video linked above and what I’m gathering is that it is confirmed by the movies creators that the two odd creatures I noticed in Trailer 2 are not any of the four Main monsters. What their exact roles will be , I don’t know but I am very excited for this news. They are opening up the world of Godzilla which means only one thing…more Godzilla Movies! And I Really hope the giant mammoth rumor is true. Would be very cool to see on-screen.

Thanks for reading. See you on the next post!