Pacific Rim and Godzilla Take Over SDCC

Yesterday afternoon, the denizens of San Diego Comic-Con bore witness to footage from two of the most potentially awesome monster films ever created: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, and Gareth Edward’s Godzilla.

Del Toro released highly-anticipated footage from his upcoming kaiju vs. Jaeger mash-up, Pacific Rim, to a room full of eager fans. The montage, though brief, featured two scientists happening upon a deserted Jaeger in the arctic, followed quickly by glimpses of colossal monsters inciting mass destruction. Shots of humans preparing to pilot the Jaeger were tailed by footage of the gargantuan creatures fighting in the classic kaiju style.

Of the film, Del Toro said that all the effort he put into this movie stemmed from his love of old Japanese monster flicks, and he wanted to inspire a similar awe in his audience. One of the more notable qualities is the sheer size of the film’s creatures. There are even moments where the camera cannot even capture the entirety of the kaiju. The towering beasts and their rival robots brawl on an almost unbelievably realistic scale.

I don’t know about you guys, but this film is now officially on my radar. There’s something absolutely terrifying about the thought of these creatures destroying entire blocks with minimal effort. It’s been ages since a good monster movie has decimated our cinemas, and Del Toro seems fully aware. He’s made sure to give this film it’s own presence, taking care to establish nine awesome kaiju that will be featured in the movie.

“We have approximately nine types of kaiju, each with its own ability. We designed about 40 kaiju’s and we did an American Idol on them. We would do a pageant and everybody would vote. Punches were thrown. The better kaiju are in the movie, the ones that won. Every time you think you know what a kaiju can do, something else happens.”

The fun didn’t stop there, however, as the footage for the film was followed by a terrifying teaser featuring the king of all kaiju, the incomparable Godzilla. Director Gareth Edwards, whose film Monsters I highly recommend, was urged on stage by boss-man Thomas Tull after the teaser for the film was dropped, only to find himself near the point of tears at the unanimous excitement to his upcoming flick. Edwards promises to bring real terror to Godzilla, aiming to show what it would really be like if a 400-ft tall monster were to terrorize the Earth.

The teaser for Godzilla was short, but effective. Brief glances at a dusty, decimated city were followed by J. Robert Oppenheimer’s chilling quotation of the Bhagavad Gita: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Cut to the vaguest shots of Godzilla’s legendary tale and spiked spine, followed by a full-on glimpse at the beast himself. His roar ripped through the room like an atomic wave, and the word Godzilla slowly rose to the screen. It’s okay if you just got chills. I did, too.

Friends, if 2013 is set to be the year of astounding monster movies, then only good things can follow suit. I have full confidence that both Pacific Rim and Godzilla, which has no official release date as of yet, will be blowing fans out of the water.

What say you? Does the thought of two-ton monsters frighten you from the cinema, or will you be lining up to see these creatures duke it out on the big screen?