Batten down the hatches and brace yourself because the new Godzilla movie is coming to a theater near you on May 16th. The action/science fiction film is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars several stars including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, and Elizabeth Olsen. Over the years Godzilla has been in over 30 films with several makeovers ranging from claymation to suits. The movies were never made as comedies but a lot of people considered them to be anyways. Thanks to modern age CG and effects for the first time Godzilla gets serious.
Godzilla has been an icon of mindless destruction since he first wandered out of the ocean in 1954. The early films are broken down into three categories: the Shōwa series, Heisei series, and Millennium series. After nearly a decade since its last production, Taho’s Godzilla: Final Wars, Legendary and Warner Bros studios made a new film. Early films were remarked as crude, but considering the concept a lot of productions were ahead of its time graphically. A top animation team, lead by Lord of the Rings’ Jim Rygiel, got the task of redesigning the character. Common critiques on the design, claim that Godzilla looks too “fat” or “top heavy”. On the contrary it could be the best interpretation yet. The new look is lot more realistic and convincing for the dinosaur like creature Godzilla is known to be, versus previous designs, which could not help but look outrageous.
So how did Godzilla come to be? Credit for the creation of the beast goes to Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishiro Honda, and Eiji Tsubaraya. The concept originally pegged Godzilla to be the effect of mutations from the hydrogen bomb aftermath. The first film was released at a time when Japanese media was berated with news and fear of nuclear contamination. Godzilla came into the market at a perfect time and grew fame as a product of a generations fear for the worse. Early films depicted him as an enemy sent to destroy but over time he became more of defender by fighting off several other giant creatures. Its clear from the trailer that this time around Godzilla is attacking the states with no signs of being stopped. As every true Godzilla fan knows he does not ever die, so perhaps fans will be seeing more of him after the May 16th release date.
Although the post war fear is long gone fans still can’t help but love giant monster battles. American media has long been an example of that fact, having large fan bases for other similar movies such as Transformers and Pacific Rim. If you add some decent writing to the picture Godzilla could blow them both out of the water. Godzilla became a cult classic being a cheesy and over the top film, from the production down to the storyline. Although the new release is much darker toned viewers can be certain it will contain all the mayhem and destruction a monster movie should. Fans can find out for themselves when Godzilla is hits theaters May 16th.
By Morgan Louchen
