Today's News: the big G stomps his way into a new teaser

Not done with MS news posting just yet:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150606/teaser_trailer_remake_godzilla_online

Seems a solid teaser trailer. We get to see enough of this film to get us interested - if your interest is ever at all piqued by this type of film - in the usual death and destruction Kaiju-monsters tend to cause, ending on the big reveal of the main antagonist, without showing him off too much, thus keeping us intrigued as to his total form. It seems Gareth Edwards (who previously directed the low budget guerilla shoot Monsters as an homage to Godzilla and similar creature features) has the utmost respect for the big beastie, judging from his all too similar appearance compared to his Japanese counterparts, as opposed to the previous American Godzilla, which was and looked too much like an overgrown iguana. Also, Edwards makes it clear this movie is all about Godzilla himself; there's no human characters in sight here, despite the cast boasting such names as Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Juliette Binoche and the regular go-to Japanese guy for Hollywood flicks, Ken Watanabe. In fact, even the voice-over is not from any of the movie's standard cast, but a historical citation from Robert Oppenheimer. His chilling, haunting quote referring to the Bhagavad Gita is always a good choice when speaking in terms of nuclear holocaust, and in cinematic fiction, the offspring of such human folly, the giant monsters out to get mankind for its hugely irresponsible ways. Speaking of monsters, the teaser also indicates Godzilla is not the only big boy in this film. At least one other giant creature is visible, though it doesn't appear to be in perfect health anymore, undoubtedly having been knocked to smithereens by the big G's fire breath (you'd think after nigh on sixty years other Kaijus would know better than to mess with the King of Monsters!). Seems we can expect some decent Kaiju on Kaiju action - in terms of fighting, I mean! - besides Godzilla thrashing puny humans, as he also does best.

Overall, I'm teased. One thing's for sure: it can't actually be worse than the 1998 American attempt.

Today's News: Neil Marshall will hunt trolls after Game of Thrones

Posted this on MS the other day:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150227/neil_marshall_maakt_remake_troll_hunter

As with any successful European movie, the Americans are not far behind with their remake. Even though the Norse film The Troll Hunter (original name: Trolljegeren) was only a moderate hit, it was apparently good enough for a US studio to try its luck with it. It may not be a bad thing, since some American remakes of Euro-flicks end up rather good movies (Let Me In, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), even though I'm generally averse to the entire concept of remaking. In this case less so (call me a hypocrit if you must!), since I sadly missed out on The Troll Hunter when it was running its all too brief course in Dutch theaters. I wanted to see it, but it didn't do well enough here to allow it to run for more than two weeks unfortunately. Like I said, it was not a smash hit, only a minor one. I was actually surprised to see it at my local theaters at all.

As for Neil Marshall: great choice! First of all he's British, so we'll be getting a bit of that much needed European sensitivity in this US remake (only enhanced by the fact the original producers of Trolljegeren are on board as well). Second, Marshall makes my kind of movies. The Descent, Doomsday, Centurion; solid, dynamic action/horror flicks all, demonstrating great craftsmanship on a fairly low budget - and 25 million dollars could be labeled as such - to excellent results in terms of good fun. Plus, Marshall doesn't take his own movies too seriously, which is also a plus when dealing with the likes of trolls. Furthermore, the director who gave us Blackwater on Game of Thrones is a guy we owe the benefit of the doubt. Especially now that he's supposedly working on another epic episode of GoT: so far all clues point to the Wildling attack on the Wall, which under Marshall's direction is something I have no hesitations about in terms of final quality. It's gonna be awesome. And I am rather convinced the same will be true of Marshall's Troll Hunter in time. I won't miss this film a second time, that's for sure.