Mandy Griffiths
Moviehole was recently invited to a press event to see exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming Warner Bros blockbusters “Godzilla” and “Edge of Tomorrow”. Without the franchise history to fill in the blanks (or at least no recent ones), here’s five things we learnt about each film:
“Godzilla”
- Giant creatures capable of destroying cities and nuclear power plants don’t mix. Luckily the only American in Japan, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), is there to warn them. Unluckily no one listens to him, and Joe’s wife (Juliette Binoche) subsequently gets fridged. Sadly not in the fun Indiana Jones kind of way, but in the ‘male lead is tortured by the loss of his female love interest to further his character arc’ way. But hey, this is Godzilla, destroyer of cities, let’s not get too feminist just yet! RIP Juliette, you were great in the “Three Colours” trilogy.
- Bryan Cranston’s performance will still make your heart bleed, and he’s the good guy in this one! So basically bleeding to the power of ‘nooooo’.
- Let’s not waste too much time in this sad sad period, the film jumps ahead 15 years to when Aaron Taylor-Johnson can believably play Bryan Cranston’s army enlisted son at the forefront of the battle, and giant creatures are about to hit the bridge. Possibly the fan as well, it’s hard to confirm with all the mayhem, but – statistically it’s very likely. RIP fans.
- If you thought the creatures from “Pacific Rim” were big, well, these guys are…about the same size. If not a bit bigger. So yeah. Big.
- While the film was not 100% completed, the effects and filming style give a much needed gravitas to this serious take on a campy classic, and the initial teasing of the beast is very effective at establishing the high stakes of their foe.
Overall impression: Watching so many cities get destroyed on film in the last couple of years, it’s hard to be too blown away by…cities getting destroyed. But the calibre of talent present for this film and the genuine passion behind bringing it to life may help it rise above the standard ‘family torn apart by catastrophic events’ film. The scale of the film present in the sneak peek was also impressive. We have hope.
“Godzilla” hits Australian cinemas 15 May.
“Edge of Tomorrow”
- Tom Cruise has seen “Swingers”. I know, right? In a specially recorded message introducing the sneak peek, Tom manages to credit everyone involved in the film and show unbridled enthusiasm for the project like a pro, but really, when he mentions what a fan he is of director Doug Liman’s previous work, I spend the rest of his presentation picturing him watching “Swingers” in his private cinema and wondering if he laughed. “Swingers” is so money.
- Not knowing anything about the film (except that Emily Blunt looks amazing) before going in, it seems “Edge of Tomorrow” is basically a nightmare version of “Groundhog Day”. Which I suppose was already a nightmare for Bill Murray’s character, so let’s go with a “Starship Troopers” version of “Groundhog Day.” Tom Cruise’s PR man turned army deserter, Bill Cage, begins the film out of his depth as he is forced into a last stand battle against invading aliens, only to be killed…and wake up again to face the battle again. And again.
- I was worried this format would get tiresome quickly, there’s really only so many scenes of people getting killed in the same beach battle that you need to see over and over again, and if you have to do that it’s much more fun to experience in video game form where you can work on your mad shooting skillz. But once Bill connects with Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who immediately understands the time loop Bill is experiencing because she had experienced it before, the narrative picks up steam and we progress quickly from the ‘beach of doom’.
- Despite the scenarios I have just described where people die constantly, it actually seems like a pretty funny film, and Cruise is his usual charming self as he progresses his own mad skillz at the threat of being shot by Rita. Which she does quite often (I heart Rita).
- At the point where they cut off the sneak peek Bill admits to Rita that she always dies at the same point of their journey. Opportunity for character development!
Overall impression: The visual style and characters are strong, and the premise more original than your typical ‘end of the world via alien invasion’ film, I have to admit the sneak peek successfully piqued my interest and I’m genuinely curious to see how the complete film turns out.
Check out the trailer here. “Edge of Tomorrow” is released in Australia 15 June.
