SDCC Trailer Discussions
San Diego Comic Con has come and gone, and with it, a boatload of new nerdy trailers to gawk at. I myself didn’t go (cause I’m too poor), so I’m watching a few trailers to get me hyped for the future. I won’t cover everything, but I will discuss all that stood out for me. So let’s begin.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Gotta talk about the Big G here. Recently, Legendary has been making an MCU-style saga with all of the famous Kaiju of Japanese Cinema. While the recent films have been decent enough, introducing Godzilla and King Kong, this film is where the big kaiju appear. We have Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. We’re set for some incredible chaos that’s sure to be memorable.
The plot goes that the only way to stop this kaiju war is to summon the three great titans, who are the aforementioned three kaiju. This does seem to be counterintuitive at first. In order to stop these kaiju, we need to release more kaiju. Surely there would be an obvious downside to having so many giant beasts roaming the world, but we’ll see where that goes.
This will eventually culminate in the biggest battle of them all. Godzilla vs. Kong. The first time in a long while and they’re hyping this up pretty big. The visuals look amazing, especially with Mothra. That guy’s always been a sight to see and seeing Legendary take a shot at the big moth itself, I’m sure they’ll do it justice.
I haven’t seen the films yet, but I might watch them just to get myself prepped. Fortunately, it’s not like the Marvel universe where I have to watch 15 or so films just to figure things out, though I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually, this turns out the same. These monsters are pretty popular, after all.
Aquaman
Poor Aquaman. One of those misunderstood DC superheroes that’s nothing more than a punchline. Now, as sort of a primer, we have Wonder Woman getting her first movie to critical acclaim, which I thought was a little strange that it took so long. She’s sort of that “third pillar” to the DC Icons. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. All three of them had a TV series, but Wonder Woman never had a movie of her own.
I always found that odd. Sure she might not be as iconic as the two of them, but with a little marketing, she could be. And it wasn’t like there weren’t super amazing female protagonists back then, either. She could have fit amongst them.
But that’s Wonder Woman, who now has a respectable film amongst the DCEU. But Aquaman’s different. Simple white, male superhero. So what gives? The stereotype that he’s useless. This is in part to the infamous Superfriends cartoon which solidified his stance by making him only talk to fish. Superman flies and shoots laser beams out of his eyes, Batman has all these cool gadgets (let’s not forget his sweet ride), Wonder Woman as the Lasso of Truth and her armor, and Aquaman? He can speak with the fishies. Yay.
So now we have a film for him, but I at least appreciate in recent times trying to destroy that stereotype once and for all. Granted, their success with it is debatable, but perhaps this movie might put a stop to it with a new generation of comic book geeks.
The trailer involves a war between Aquaman and his half-brother who wants to declare war on the surface world. There is that “talking to fish” stuff, but how they handled it was amusing enough. Guess they want to drive it home that he means business now.
As for the trailer itself, it looks pretty good. The visuals are nice, it doesn’t try to be silly, and the plot looks interesting enough. DC has had a hit or miss record with their films lately, but we’ll see if this can pick up the pace. They have a lot to do to get comic book fans interested in DC’s films.
Shazam!
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the other “Captain Marvel.” The kid who can shout the sacred words to become an adult superhero. For the record, the title doesn’t help his name out any. His name is Captain Marvel. It’s also the title of the upcoming Marvel film with the superheroine of the same name.
Now, clearly, they couldn’t use Captain Marvel as a title (likely to avoid a lawsuit. I doubt they’ll call him that in the film). But I also doubt they’ll call him Shazam, either. It’s his power, the phrase he uses to become an adult superhero.
Anyway, with all the dark and gritty that DC’s floating around, it’s nice to see an “Ant-Man” style film where it’s humorous fun. The kid has to deal with bullies, but becomes a superhero and even goes to school like that. I love the stark contrast to the other movies where it’s violent, dark, and mature, unlike Marvel where, yes there’s adult moments, but it’s still comical in nature.
This might be interesting enough to see provided it’s not him being a weirdo and getting in trouble. Those aren’t my favorite plot lines because it’s too predictable. I like it where things are perfectly normal despite being out of place, and perhaps we get that here.
I might check it out when this releases, so we’ll see.
I may do a part 2 to talk about the other stuff, like the TV shows, but what do you think? Excited? Do you hope the DC films are making a comeback? Or is it too early to tell? Let me know in the comments below.
That’s all for today. Take care, and remember, the inn is always open.
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My Japanese Mythology-inspired short story, Do Not Stare Into The Eyes Of A Kitsune, is finally available. You can buy it on Amazon or wherever ebooks are sold. Help a debut author make his debut worth it.
My next work will be titled “City of Kaiju,” a tale about an unlikely alliance between a young girl and her gigantic dog-dragon monster, as they survive chaos and disaster from a gigantic kaiju invasion. Part of a new Short Novel initiative, intended to fill in the gap between releases. Set for release within the Fall 2018/Winter 2019 period. Read more about it here.
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