Godzilla: 9 Ways It Will Surprise You

This is really not the film you thought it was.

By Scott Tailford /

It feels like an age since that first teaser trailer dropped for Godzilla back in December, yet for once the marketing department behind the film haven't gone hog-wild and ruined the reveal in the lead-up; something that way too many films are incredibly guilty of these days. No, instead we saw flashes of teeth gnashing through a variety of vehicles, a heap of people staring past the camera at something that was clearly very large and imposing, and lastly a brilliantly redone 'Godzilla roar' that took the classic soundbite and added in a much more menacing, siren-like noise at the end of it. All-in-all it managed to awaken what we all love about monster movies, and with Godzilla not only being the King of the Monsters in real life but also in the movies themselves, Monsters' director Gareth Edwards had a very tall order delivering on a property whose last foray into realisation was the godawful half rom-com-with-a-lizard of 1998. In the end it's a bit of a mixed bag with a handful of scenes that end up being more laughable the more you think about them, but with an incredibly enjoyable showdown between man and beast(s) to balance things out, the main problem is that the stuff you really came to see i.e. Godzilla himself, doesn't really happen until that final showdown, adding up to a monster movie that at times really doesn't feel like it wants to be one. Spoilers will follow for the film.