On 10 December, the trailer for next year’s much-needed Godzilla remake came out online along with a new poster for the film. The somewhat campy 1998 American remake of the tokusatsu classic was more of a whimsical adventure featuring baby Godzillas and the cast of The Simpsons.

However, this new attempt helmed by Gareth Edwards looks to be a much darker and grittier portrayal of the carnage that a giant monster such as Godzilla would create in the real world. One of the stars, Hollywood-go-to Japanese actor Ken Watanabe also insists that this film keeps true to the original 1954 version. Let’s take a look:

The trailer was posted on YouTube and shows us a squad of soldiers skydiving over what appears to be a devastated San Francisco.

Then from one of the soldier’s point of view you can just barely make out the signature scutes running down the back of the iconic monster.

Form here we can breathe a sigh of relief that Edwards kept Godzilla’s image intact rather than that Jurassic Park reject used in the ’98 film. This is confirmed in slightly clearer shot at the end.

This cast also looks promising with Brian Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson joining Watanabe, along with a cameo by Akira Takarada who starred in the first Godzilla movie 59 years ago.

Watanabe also stressed that this script, penned by David Callaham and Max Borenstein incorporates contemporary issues while keeping in the spirit of the first film. It was filmed from March to July this year in Vancouver and Hawaii.

This remake is due to be released worldwide in May of next year except Japan where true to form it will be released later – 25 July, 2014. You might think it’s something of an outrage for the birthplace of Godzilla to get screwed on the release date. However, for the first half of next year, previous Godzilla movies (including the original we can safely assume) will be released in Japanese theaters to get fans hyped up and perhaps turn on a younger generation to these timeless films.

So far everything for the new film looks great, Edwards doesn’t seem to be pulling any punches with the body count according to the trailer. The only concern I do have is that they pull that annoying Hollywood move of shrouding the monster in darkness or smoke for 70 percent of the movie before finally revealing it. Our fingers are crossed!

Source: Sanspo via Hachima Kiko (Japanese)
Godzilla (2014): Official Site (English), Official Site (Japan), Facebook
Trailer: YouTube – Godzilla
Original Poster: Wikipedia