'Godzilla: Resurgence' - New TV Spots And Images Revealed

Well, we are now only 9 days away from the late night showings of 'Godzilla Resurgence' premiering in Japan. Super exciting! Toho seems to have finally jumped on the marketing train with some new footage in the form of three 30 second long TV Spots and a couple of new promotional images.

The first of the three TV Spots is honestly nothing to write home about, as it only uses footage from the official trailer. The other two are a different story entirely. We get some really nice glimpses at never before seen action shots, and a few good profile shots of Shin-Goji's head. I think what really needs to be said about these three spots is that this film is going to have a really unique style, and the cinematography is going to be of a quality never seen before in a Toho released Godzilla film. That shot of him walking from the prospective of a car driving by is particularly great.

I have been very vocal with my dislike of the Shin-Gojira design as a whole, and unfortunately these spots really do not change my mind. Everything we have seen of the full body looks super awkward and stiff (which is saying something since this creature is created mostly through CGI), save for his tail which moves every chance it gets. The head looks pretty fantastic from a side profile but from the front it still appears goofy, since he apparently can't close his gaping mouth. The design does look like it is going to shine at night (pun intended), a true sight to behold with all of his glowing red spots. His eyes definitely still evoke 54, and that's fine by me (though I still wish they were about 10% bigger). I'm still holding out for some great body movement from Godzilla himself in the full film, but for now there is still a lot of awkwardness to this design. 

Toho has also been shoving 'Godzilla: Resurgence' articles into every magazine possible within the last few weeks, and, as such, we have gotten a few more glances at this design in action. Both of these covers give a nice look at what this design will look like when he finally turns his head.

I do wonder what Toho was thinking with the marketing of the movie. Why did they wait until the last second to do all this awesome marketing? I know they were probably trying to do something akin to 'Godzilla (2014)'s marketing which managed to keep a lot of secrets for the film, but I think they missed the mark. The thing that was so great about 2014's marketing was the constant trickle of new info. A new TV Spot here and a new poster there, it kept people talking about the film up until the release. I'm very interested to see how well the film does in Japan with this super last minute marketing blitz.

'Godzilla: Resurgence' releases in Japan on July 29th.

Is This Shin Godzilla's Roar?

I woke up this morning in a usual routine which includes checking in to see what the Godzilla community was up to late into the night, and I was pleasantly surprised. Fans were discussing and arguing about whether or not a part of the soundtrack had been leaked and included a snippet of Godzilla's new roar from the upcoming 2016 film. The video in question and the answer to our click-baity headline is below.

If that is the roar for Shin-Goji, I actually wouldn't mind at all. Not because it sounds particularly good, but because it would show that they're going even further with setting their Godzilla apart, without throwing tradition out the window. 

Unfortunately, this is definitely a fake. The Japanese title reads "My idea for Shin Gojira's roar." Also, if you listen, the dialog in the clip is from a much older film, and the roar itself is a heavily modified sound bite.

I still wanted to post it because the discussion around Godzilla's new roar and the possibilities are endless, and I want to know what noise you think will come out of this undead behemoth.

Hopefully, we'll get another trailer that actually answers this question before Shin Godzilla releases on July 29th in Japan.

'Godzilla Resurgence' News Round-Up, Massive Plot Detail Emerges

These last few weeks have been peppered with tiny pieces of information about 'Godzilla Resurgence' and we thought there might be enough little bits of info to warrant a full breakdown of the new stuff. These news bites range from marketing info to huge plot details, so let's get to it!

'GODZILLA RESURGENCE' SOUNDTRACK UP FOR PRE-ORDER

The soundtrack for the new films has shown up on the Japanese Amazon and is showing the same release date as the film (July, 29th). The coolest thing about the release is the new image of a snarling Shin-Goji that looks amazing! This picture really stands out and kind of proves my point that this Godzilla design will look good from some angles, but not so much from others. My co-host Coleman pointed out that it looks like he may be a bit more regenerated in this image, but I think that may be just hopeful thinking.

'GODZILLA RESURGENCE' PLOT DETAIL AND NEW IMAGES

The biggest news of the last few weeks has been relayed by Sci-Fi Japan. This article not only revealed some great new hi-res photos of the film, but also gave an interesting (but crucial) plot detail that was not known until now. 'Godzilla Resurgence' is not connected to the original 1954 'Gojira' and will be the first appearance of Godzilla in the film's universe. This is the first time that a Japanese-made Godzilla film has tried to separate itself from the original, and makes this movie a reboot of the franchise instead of a sequel. I personally don't like that we don't have a baseline for how this Godzilla will act, but I do see how this may free Toho to make some pretty radical changes to the formula we know Godzilla to adhere to. I mean, the design itself is a decently large departure from what we have seen from Toho in the past.
 

CROSS MARKETING EVERYWHERE

The last few pieces of "news" really just show how hardcore Toho is marketing the new film in the hopes to make it a smash hit over the summer. First we have a little commercial for a cross-promotion with the company PARCO. In the ad, Shin-Goji seems to be going up against the companies giant Koala mascot. There are actually a couple of quick new shots for the film which makes the 30 second ad worth a watch.

Lastly, we have a interesting little event going on at Umihotaru which is an artificial island that is apparently a huge tourist spot.  The full breakdown was done by our friends over at the Gormaru Island facebook page, but it looks like there is going to a 1/60th scale Shin-Goji image put up and some activities like a Godzilla photo session and a talk show interview with Shinji Higuchi. I doubt we will get much more information from the event but at least we got the super silly image out of it right?

Hopefully, we'll be getting some more substantial news in the near future! Maybe a final trailer soon or an actual US distributor will rear their head? A fan can always hope and dream.

Another Distributor Steps Forward To Release 'Godzilla Resurgence' Outside Of Japan

A new trailer for 'Godzilla Resurgence' just dropped, but don't get too excited. As far as I can tell, there isn't any new footage shown and a lot of what we've seen already actually got cut. The trailer is actually out to promote the Chinese release of the film, and we've just got our first news of who will be handling it. Foreign distribution news. Is this what we're supposed to get excited about nowadays with the drought of information that Toho has been greedily keeping to themselves? No, I think there is a larger story to this trailer release than just the back end of a film's business model. Check out the most recent trailer below and my thoughts on why this matters to you seeing 'Godzilla Resurgence' as soon as possible.

Here's the "new" trailer:

Right there at the beginning you can see who will be distributing the film to Chinese audiences: Intercontinental Film Distributers (H.K.) Limited. They've handled some major film distribution for the country that includes: 'Transformers 4,' 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' 'Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,' 'Terminator: Genesis,' 'The Wind Rises,' 'World War Z,' etc. Their home video distribution arm includes 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' if that helps give you an idea of how massive a company this is and what that means for 'Godzilla Resurgence.' It looks like the film is going to get a wide theatrical release in one of the most important film markets in the world.

Is it starting to make sense why I'm treating this as major news? If Toho has sought out a distributor of this size in the second largest movie market in the world, it is now ridiculous to think that they don't have major plans for an American release. They're not going with a smallish company just to push this into another Asian country and make a quick buck, they accepted the bid of a huge distributor based in an integral region. Legendary's 2014 'Godzilla' was the number one movie when it opened in China and it did great business during it's run. The only place the film did better? Domestically, here in the United States.

I can't imagine a scenario after hearing about this where a major distributor like Sony doesn't pick up the film for an western release at some point. There's no guarantee that we'll get a day and date theater opening with Japanese audiences, but I think we'll see it in theaters and definitely in homes carried by a large company we know and trust. That's a lot more than we could say even yesterday.

Sorry New World Cinemas. 

'Godzilla Resurgence' will release in China on August 25th, 2016.