Now, don’t get me wrong – I greatly enjoyed Gareth Edwards’ 2014 reboot of the Hollywood Godzilla franchise. While it was most certainly not perfect, it captured enough of the essence of the history of the pop culture icon to be moving and compelling. However, anyone that truly wants to experience the phenomenon of Godzilla has to have an appreciation of the original Toho movies, and the Japanese studio has now released a teaser trailer for its first Godzilla movie in a decade – Godzilla: Resurgence.
Godzilla first appeared in Ishiro Honda’s movie, Godzilla, in 1954, and has since gone on to star in 28 films for Toho. Godzilla: Resurgence will be the 29th instalment in the fan favourite franchise, which is built around this enormous, misunderstood, prehistoric creature that appears from the sea having been awakened by nuclear radiation. He has been the bad guy, and he has been the hero, and he has battled such foe as Mothra, King Ghidora and Mechagodzilla. Whichever plot line he is following, however, he is always formidable.
As is the Hollywood way, Legendary has sought to capitalize on the success of 2014’s Godzilla by planning a cross-over universe designed to generate an epic monster clash. 2017 will see the release of Kong: Skull Island, with Godzilla 2 appearing in 2018. 2020 will see a showdown between the two – titled Godzilla Vs Kong. While these are bound to be entertaining, nobody does Godzilla like Toho does Godzilla.
The teaser for Godzilla: Resurgence is simple. People are running down a city street, screaming and panicked. This footage has the look of some hand-held, first-person perspective, and it is interspersed with silent text, detailing the movie. Then, the infamous, spine-tingling Godzilla roar can be heard. We don’t see him, but we know he’s there – just as we know he’ll be in cinemas in Japan on July 29th, 2016.
