Though Godzilla: King of the Monsters has generated a lot of hype off the back of two pretty terrific trailers, some of you may recall that 2014’s Godzilla managed to wow a fair few filmgoers itself with its promotional footage before coming out in cinemas to a relatively divided response.
Director Gareth Edwards’ surprisingly restrained approach to depicting the clash between giants certainly has plenty of fans and defenders, but it’s clear that there were also a lot of viewers who felt let down whenever the camera cut away from the titular character. For those detractors, Michael Dougherty’s statements in a recent interview with Total Film will offer some reassurance that King of the Monsters will offer all the onscreen action that its trailers imply.
“We have a lot of monsters,” the filmmaker said. “I think Gareth [Edwards] had a lot of fun playing cat-and-mouse and I love the slow-build he created. But we definitely take the gloves off for this film. No holding back.”
This more direct approach certainly has its potential pitfalls, not least that these magnificent beasts risk losing their sense of awe and mystery if they’re on screen for too long. But if Legendary Pictures is serious about making a sustainable cinematic universe out of these creatures, then perhaps it’s inevitable that a little subtlety is sacrificed as we get used to the presence of Godzilla and his similarly large peers.
In any case, it’s clear that the film’s promotion is doing its job in getting people pumped, and while it remains to be seen whether the movie can follow through on the hype well enough to get audiences coming back for Godzilla vs. Kong, Dougherty certainly sounds like he has every intention of giving viewers what they want. We’ll find out if he’s up to the task when Godzilla: King of the Monsters hits theaters on May 31st, 2019.