Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope all of you are having a wonderful day! If not, then I hope your day is at least decent because the newest trailer for Godzilla Minus One has arrived today! You have most likely watched the trailer at least ten times and I have to say that this movie looks awesome, so far. On top of that, we got the official character/cast list of who plays whom in the movie. So we will be going over that.
The trailer opens up similarly to the first teaser where we see crowds of people running away in terror from something and we see the same little girl looking around for her parents. We get a little bit of dialogue here where someone asks, "What is it?" and someone else responding, "I don't know! Something big!" Then, we see two train conductors screaming as they see a train car thrown into their direction. Already, the trailer has that same vibe from Cloverfield, which the trailer does not show Godzilla right away. It is building up to Godzilla while also building up the tone for this movie. We also established that the one that threw the train car was Godzilla as we see in the next couple of scenes we do see Godzilla picking up that same train car with his mouth.
The next shot we get is Godzilla appearing from a dust cloud followed up with our first main character Noriko Oishi (played by Minami Hamabe). According to her character bio, it reads, "A strong woman living alone in a burnt-out post war Japan. She meets Shikishima on her way home from the war." It could be she was a military nurse that helped aid the Japanese soldiers with their wounds and was on her way home until Godzilla arrived, which we see through the reflection of the window Noriko is peering out from. What makes this even more terrifying is the thought that Noriko could be inside that same train car that Godzilla grabs with his mouth and tosses it towards the oncoming train. Before we cut away to Godzilla grabbing the train car, we hear Noriko asking herself if the monster walking towards her is Godzilla. Of course, we do know that this is Godzilla, but this is just a reactionary response of staring at a creature so large and powerful that it becomes impossible to comprehend something like Godzilla exists.
We see more of the civilians running for their lives, but we get an extended version of this scene as we see Godzilla actually stomping on the people fleeing from Godzilla marching further in-land towards Tokyo. This is followed up with a massive explosion in the likeness of an atom bomb. In the foreground, we see people staring at the explosion caused by Godzilla as if they know they cannot escape their grim fate. I really love the ground up shots as it makes the scenes feel more personal. It's as if we are witnessing this tragedy along side these civilians.
We see a shot of Tokyo in the aftermath followed up with Godzilla swimming underneath a battleship. We then get our next character, Koichi Shikishima (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki), looking at the bodies of people laid in front of him. This is the same Shikishima that Noriko meets up with in a devastated Japan. According to his character bio, it reads, "Although he survived the war, he lost his parents and met Noriko in a devastated Japan." We see a fishing trolly and Shikishima fishing. Through out this transition in the trailer we hear him asking, "Why were we called out here?" There is probably a scene where he is called to action to fight for country once again, this time out in the Pacific Ocean to fight Godzilla. However, there is more to him later in the trailer.
We then see a slide of microfilms provided by the United States war office suggesting the United States will be playing a role in this film in some form. It would not be too surprising if the film does show some US armed forces and government agents suspected to be already aware of Godzilla's existence much like Dr. Serizawa and Monarch in Godzilla (2014) and Kayoko Ann Patterson in Shin Godzilla. We then get our next character Kenji Noda (played by Hidetaka Yoshioka) who seems to be debriefing about the latest Godzilla activity and whereabouts. We also hear him saying, "There is something the government is not telling us." This makes the suspicion of the US government hiding information give a bit more credence. Or perhaps he is referring to the Japanese government that maybe they know something about Godzilla that they are not telling the public. This is followed up with someone saying, "Somebody's got to do it." This is implying someone is going to volunteer themselves to make the biggest sacrifice.
In the following scenes, we see Kenji Noda on a shipping vessel standing next to our next character revealed to be Akitsu (played by Kuronosuke Sasaki) who are observing what could be Godzilla attacking the navy fleet possibly sent to kill him. We see this happening in the next shot with Godzilla's hand reaching out grab the command deck of Japanese naval ship after the shot of Shikishima groveling at seeing his home town destroyed. We see more of Godzilla's destruction as we see his atomic breath fired from beneath the waters destroying one of the battleships similarly to Godzilla vs Kong when Godzilla blew up the aircraft carrier sending Kong diving for the water.
Then, we get a traumatized Sosaku Tachibana (played by Munetaka Aoki) screaming, "Everyone's dead!" followed with a shipping vessel toppled over and we see Sumiko Ota (played by Sakura Ando) telling Shikishima in a fit of rage that he is a disgrace. We see a boat tossed in-land and the scene fades to Shikishima heavily injured with him saying, "That monster…will never forgive us." Then, we see Godzilla make land fall and the military either dead or scattered running for their lives.
We see the title card Godzilla Minus One and then we see Godzilla charred and scaly as he roars in pain and the trailer ends there. From what we can tell, this is Godzilla in the middle of his painful transformation as a side affect from the nuke that was dropped on him on purpose. I say on purpose because I honestly think the United States will play a role once again knowing the monster existed and Godzilla wants revenge on the ones that deformed him. That is why we hear Shikishima saying the monster will never forgive them. Godzilla felt he was wronged and has a need for payback. This is harking back to the idea of the original 1954 film that Godzilla is also a victim of the atom bomb only this time we see the result of his transformation right before our very eyes.
Overall, the trailer looks terrifying. There is definitely a lot of influence from the Monsterverse put into this movie as well as some Shin Godzilla here and there. Godzilla certainly has more personality to his movements and the special effects look amazing. Since Toho has been working with Legendary Entertainment in making Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, it would make sense if they learned a few tricks for this movie while working on the TV show and if that is the case it looks a lot better than it did with Shin Godzilla. Godzilla does not look stiff at all. His body is conveying a lot of animalistic characteristics in this one, which I really like. It also looks like there will be a character driven story that will resonate with people more. My previous issues with the Reiwa era movies have been that the characters were really stale and most of the time there is no main character for the story to focus on. So it was hard to really figure out what the point of the story was if there were no characters to care about. From what I am seeing for Godzilla Minus One there will be characters that we will get to know on a personal level and care about. I hope that is the case. This trailer I give a thumbs up for getting me excited.
What are your thoughts on the trailer? Did this make you excited for the movie? What did you like or didn't like about the trailer? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on the new Godzilla Minus One trailer. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.