Above all else, the MonsterVerse has become well-known for its amazing trailers. Even when these Kaiju-centric movies underwhelm, audiences can always expect them to be preceded by truly remarkable trailers full of bold music and editing choices. Godzilla: King of the Monsters, for instance, was a gravely disappointing enterprise but its trailers still register as something extraordinary. Kong: Skull Island was a much better movie overall, but it too had trailers that were better than the final product, particularly a final trailer set to “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.”
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However, the MonsterVerse’s track record of extraordinary trailers peaked right out of the gate with the very first official glimpse that the general public (and not just San Diego Comic-Con attendees) received of the saga back in December 2013. The very first Godzilla teaser trailer was like a shot heard round the world, a mesmerizingly evocative glimpse into what modern kaiju movies could look like. Years later, it still stands as the pinnacle of the entire MonsterVerse franchise.
What Was This Godzilla Teaser?
Originally playing in front of fellow Warner Bros. blockbuster The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this Godzilla teaser begins with Admiral William Stenz (David Strathairn) addressing a battalion of Navy troops. Strathairn’s innately momentous voice is a perfect way to immediately alert audiences to the gravity of what’s happening, as his character tells his troops that humanity is under immense distress. This means calling on these men to do something drastic to save humanity, which involves a Halo jump over a dangerous zone. “Your courage will never be more needed more than it is today,” Stenz declares as these soldiers leap out of a plane, a trail of red smoke billowing behind them.
All the while, György Ligeti’s “Requiem” (famously featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey) plays on the soundtrack and gets only more intense as the soldiers get closer to Los Angeles. The striking wide shots in the early portion of the teaser give way to POV shots from one soldier as they descend onto their landing spot and a silhouette of Godzilla begins to become clear. Combining this immersive camerawork with this needle drop makes Godzilla’s towering presence inescapable. Truly, this is a Godly beast among men.
From there, a 60-second montage of Godzilla footage unfurls, largely playing out to silence except for occasional grumbles and intense whirring noises. There’s a sparseness here suggesting the sheer majesty and might of Godzilla. The emptiness also accentuates the human emotions displayed throughout this montage, like Bryan Cranston being visibly emotionally shaken. After a few years of early 2010s trailers dominating by blaring “bwam” noises mimicking the Inception teaser, the more unique auditory sensibilities of this Godzilla teaser were like a gift from God(zilla).
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A Different Kind of American Godzilla Movie
Most importantly for Godzilla fans everywhere, this Godzilla teaser reaffirmed that this Gareth Edwards directorial effort would be correcting many flaws of the last time Americans tried making a Godzilla film. The 1998 Roland Emmerich disaster was chastised for, among other things, a schlocky tone, as well as a Godzilla design that did not resemble the famous kaiju. Right from this teaser trailer, Edwards emphasized that Godzilla would be a story with emotional weight to it while the closing silhouette signified that this creature would look familiar to longtime franchise fans.
As a piece of marketing circa 2013, it was a stroke of genius. This Godzilla teaser immediately put the movie on people’s radar and eradicated all memories of past American Godzilla movies from their brains. Over a decade later, though, the teaser still registers as an impressive feat of editing and especially in music choice. This teaser doesn’t deploy a slowed-down version of a popular tune but rather a classical composition in all its original haunting glory.
That commitment, not to mention the effective evoking of 2001‘s towering majesty, works like gangbusters in accentuating an apocalyptic atmosphere to Godzilla that still stands out and impresses years later. Later MonsterVerse movies and marketing materials, particularly the ones related to Godzilla and Kong duking it out, would embrace zippier lighter tones fitting for those stories. However, Godzilla’s original teaser from 2013’s final weeks still stands out as the MonsterVerse’s greatest triumph simply for how chilling it is. It’s a piece of brief filmmaking that truly makes the power of Godzilla feel tangible.
Godzilla is now streaming on Tubi.
