Godzilla: Trailer Myths and a Review

So, like billions of other people. I went to see Godzilla this weekend.

How was it? In a nutshell, "meh".

There are going to be a few spoilers in here, so please bear with me and you may want to bypass this post if you have plans to see it.

Although, come on, the Godzilla movies are 60 years old so isn't the whole premise of a Godzilla movie a spoiler? It's not like things are going to seriously change and all of a sudden Godzilla is on a ruthless mission for belly-rubs.

The film itself was ok. The special effects were better than I expected. Although, I must admit, I was a fan of the original Godzilla films as a child so I might be comparing the modern day special effects to the robotic tricks they had in the 1950's.

The original Godzilla in 1954.

As for plot, it was about what you'd expect from an action film: Pretty thin.

I expected better because of Bryan Cranston's involvement in the film. (More on that in a moment). Really, I guess knowing it was Godzilla with no major changes to the premise occurring other than the country being "attacked", I probably shouldn't have set the bar so high and just have entered the theater expecting a popcorn movie. That's my fault but I do feel like the trailer misled me to expect a few things I didn't see in the film itself.

So, What's Deceiving About the Trailer vs. the Actual Film?

There are a few things that'll get you if you enter with expectations set by the trailer.

1.) This movie isn't about Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston). This movie is about Joe Brody's son, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, which is too bad. In the trailer embedded below, Cranston's voice or face is featured for about 20 seconds total. Taylor-Johnson --- only about 4 seconds worth of coverage. I'd say Taylor-Johnson is on camera or a major part of the action about 10x more than Cranston in the film itself.

Cranston, featured in front of Taylor-Johnson on set of the film.

2.) While a significant portion of this film is set in the United States, a lot of the story takes place in Asia. You'll see the devastation left behind in the United States throughout the trailer but the movie starts out giving a lot more background about how Godzilla "feeds".

Screen grab taken from the Godzilla trailer.

3.) There are certainly a lot of special effects in the film but the cinematography was outstanding. I expected to see a ton of flash and bang done by computer animation but there was a lot of beautiful shots throughout the film that I really enjoyed as a hobbyist-photographer.

Did you see it? What'd you think?