Monday, February 24, 2014

Godzilla (2014) Promo

This is nothing new. I tend to place my focus on the classics and the past as you know, but I continue to enthusiastically throw my support behind Gareth Edwards Godzilla (2014).

As I noted in Godzilla-Building, the marketing team behind this picture, along with Edwards, appears to be generating just the right amount of buzz and just the right look for a film that continues to mount excitement. So far, so good.



I'm not certain the new Godzilla feature will endure for me like the Japanese classics. To pull that off will be tough. It's hard to compete with them in my mind. Literally, I mean, my mind has those uniquely Japanese pictures on a pedestal.

Surely Edwards Godzilla will be a technical triumph and I expect to marvel at this picture lovingly this summer, but will it rest high atop the pantheon of Japanese greats? Probably not. Gareth Edwards is British for bloody sake. I'm joking of course.  It doesn't mean he's not capable.

The only reason I temper my expectations to be realistic is the same reason I always temper them for a J.J. Abrams Star Trek film. My childhood has so emotionally connected me with Star Trek: The Original Series it is near impossible to get there, to that apex, for anyone.  Even the Star Trek films with the aged, original cast never quite hit the same notes for me.  It was a different time. It was a different place and I was different.

How Star Trek: The Next Generation managed to pull off an epic coup in the pantheon of greats is nothing short of a miracle. It's surprising, but that series resonated as deeply with me as ST:TOS and that is no easy feat in my book.



Abrams' films are technically proficient and superior on an effects level in every way.  They also certainly capture the spirit of Star Trek for a new era nicely, but they never quite endure with me on an emotional level. It's not their fault. I'm just beyond that place in my life. My exposure to the 1970s and the 1980s essentially sealed my fate. I was doomed. As I've said before, these things simply are a matter of fact for me.  I am a prisoner of my past. Any and all pop culture by way of home, Britain or Japan set the bar. It's difficult to look at things without that prism of excellence, in my mind.  Everything is constantly held to that expectation. It's exactly why Godzilla Vs. Megalon is still something of a minor classic. I'm kidding, but I'm not.

Seriously though, I am over the moon with anticipation for the new Godzilla picture and like Star Trek I always have my older series and my older films to fall back on regardless of any new output that falls short. It's nearly impossible for pop culture to go back and ever get that feeling absolutely right again. Pacific Rim (2013) struck a chord.

So I will still enjoy the new pictures and hope for excellence, but like the new Star Trek films, will the picture endure with time or be a Roland Emmerich dud? I surmise it won't be the latter, but, as always, for someone out there it will be the former.

We will continue to watch the development of this film with anticipation.

4 comments:

Cannon said...

"Abrams' films are technically proficient..."

Technically proficient at being cosmetically flashy, and nothing else. As a cinematic storyteller, Abrams blows. Or, at the very least, his filmmaking is so completely generic and uninteresting it’s not even funny. As a dramatist, he can only manage to offer up mawkish, TV-level platitudes. Sorry ...bit of a mini-rant there.

As for this upcoming Godzilla, I honestly don’t know what to think. In one sense, I wonder if they’ll only sour the 'monster rampage' movie experience with a cast of blandly young, American(ized) leads who slog through the proceedings with excessive po-faced seriousness. Conversely, I find promise in, what appears to be, the attempt to render this version of Godzilla wholly, disturbingly apocalyptic in tone. Sidestepping summer pop-corn fun and going balls-out with a nightmare depiction of the now classic premise. I’m halfway hoping they do.

Oh, and it's okay to make fun of the British: they're British.

SFF said...

Cannon

You are always incredibly funny, smart, witty and unfiltered. I love it! Love reading your input here and elsewhere my friend.

There was a time when you could joke about things and not feel like you were standing under a white hot politically correct light.

Everyone should know I was kidding about the Brits. I do love the Brits and their films and television. In fact, look forward to my next post of the British-based film Code 46.

I more than make fun of myself which is why I think I can have a little fun once in awhile.

I'm hoping for the latter in your comment regarding Godzilla. I really am.

I like Abrams but I do see your point. There's a bit of that to why I'm never head over heels in love with Star Trek films.

I know having him helm a Star Wars film is all the rage but I'm not really all that excited.

Anyway your point is well taken.

But man you are a classic!

Cannon said...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc

SFF said...

I saw it, experienced it and remain optimistic! Wow.