Editorials
5 Things We Learned From The New ‘Godzilla’ Trailer!!!
Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ just unleashed the official trailer for their new take on Godzilla a few hours ago and man does it look pretty f*cking awesome!
Seriously, I was so prepped to be disappointed. But I love it. That group dive through the lower levels of the atmosphere is an absolutely perfect, stirring way to introduce us to the film’s tone.
Monsters‘ Gareth Edwards directs the all star cast including Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Johnson, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, Richard T. Jones, Sally Hawkins, Akira Takarada, Victor Rasuk, Yuki Morita, and C.J. Adams. “An epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure pits the world’s most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.”
The film hits theaters May 16, 2014. Head below for 5 Things We Learned From The Godzilla Trailer!!!
This film seems to have a real respect for both Godzilla’s majesty and the majesty of nature. Since the lizard is a metaphor for the havoc man has brought upon itself, this seems appropriate. But, after countless chintzy versions of this story, it’s surprising and refreshing to get something so visually striking.
With Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe and Aaron Taylor-Johnson spread out among what looks like different continents, it looks like we’ll be following several different intercutting stories (though the focus seems to be on Johnson).
In a welcome change from Matthew Broderick and Hank Azaria running around New York, this time around it seems that we’re getting a more realistic idea in terms of the world’s response to a giant lizard destroying everything. Even Cranston seems to be involved in some capacity with the military-industrial complex.
Godzilla has always been a comment on the atomic threat, but this still of Juliette Binoche in what seems like a vaguely Silkwood scenario implies that we’ll be getting a more intimate look at its effects.
Granted, we’ve been fairly sure of this since teasers started leaking out. Still, it’s refreshing to see something so course-corrected from the 1998 Roland Emmerich film.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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