We have seen these scenes, and talked to Gareth Edwards, and this is how much we can tell you: The initial scene takes place in a nuclear power station in Tokyo. Something goes wrong, and nuclear physicist Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is able to avert a disaster. However, he has to deal with a personal loss. 15 years later we return to the same nuclear power station. This time the physicist in charge is Daisuke Serizawa (Ken Watanabe). Brody is sitting in an interrogation room.

He is accusing colleagues from the power station as well as the government to hush up something… The reason for the incident 15 years ago was not an earthquake. It was something much worse, something they created that is returning. Moreover, Brody wants his son Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-
Johnson) back. Bryan Cranston delivers these emotional scenes convincingly.

As we have already learned watching the trailers, Ford is part of a special unit of the army in charge of delivering a certain radioactive load by train that is supposed to have an effect on the monsters or the threat they are posing. We cannot tell you what effect, however, you have read this correctly: the monsters! plural! Edwards kindly asked us not to reveal what their appearance.

The skydiving sequence from the trailer was also shown in Hamburg, but with additional scenes and edited differently. The additional footage contained something enormous, or to put it in Gareth Edwards’ words: “When you want to watch a movie with a kaiju like Godzilla, you don’t just want to see it fighting humans.” Gareth Edwards also mentioned being a huge fan of Pacific Rim and Guillermo del Toro, who told Edwards how much he enjoyed Monsters. According to Edwards, they have met before and are exchanging ideas constantly. Just think of a crossover: Godzilla vs Gipsy Danger! The rumor mill starts here… Edwards stressed that his monsters will be more detailed than the ones in Pacific Rim thanks to Weta. Moreover, he put a lot of attention on not using impossible camera perspectives in the movie, i.e. “Each shot looks like there is a camera team on the ground, on a roof or filming from a plane. Since you can place CGI cameras anywhere, you tend to select impossible perspectives, and therefore quickly lose any tangible connection to the action,” said Edwards.

We were impressed by the gloomy and grim pictures. They reminded us a little of Cloverfield – only better. Seeing Godzilla, the monster itself, on the big screen in all its magnificence calms our skeptical Godzilla-fanboy hearts. “The mixture of the heads of a bear and a dog in connection with the majestic eyes of an eagle” so Edwards, that make up Godzilla’s head, come close to the original,and transports the monster to present day.

Production on the movie is in its final phase now, we were told. On Monday (March 3rd) sound recording will start, while the last CGI shots are being finished right now, and the 3D conversion
process is starting. The 3D trailer was also screened in Hamburg, and looked great even without or because it was lacking forced pop out effects. Fans can look forward to a dark and monstrous Godzilla without the silliness that plagued the version of Roland Emmerich’s ‘T-Rex-Godzilla’, which “was no real Godzilla” as Edwards pointed out.

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And what a treat we were in for. We're now going to describe what we saw - but be warned, this comes with a massive SPOILER warning. Because we know that some people can't help themselves, we're not going to give any MEGA SPOILERS away (we saw something wonderful that we won't be ruining here) but if you want to go in completely cold, please ignore the below.
Our favorite section of footage opened with Aaron Taylor-Johnson on a monorail train that has just stopped dead because of a power failure. Just as he's reassuring a young boy that everything's going to be okay, we cut to a party scene on a beach - where it's quickly revealed that everything is decidedly not okay. Not by a long shot.

An explosion in the mountains resonates through the trees, and a siren goes off. A small child watches the waves, and we start to see movement.

Eventually, we see Godzilla's iconic ridges move through the sea - looking for all the world like Jaws' fin, multiplied and super-sized.

A huge tidal wave starts to build, and we follow a crowd as they flee through the city. This sequence is pretty powerful - almost resonant of news footage, reminding us all of the natural disasters we've been forced to to witness in the real world in recent years.

In one incredible shot, we see bodies caught in the water pass by a glass door, shot from the viewpoint of people safe inside. It's sickening to see the bodies tumble past, caught in the current.

Then we cut to the big guy. Godzilla himself. We see his hands - they look fantastic, ridiculously canon - then his broad midriff, then onto his huge tail as it sweeps through the city. Soldiers shoot, but to no avail.

Then, we're back on the train, as the lights go on and it starts to move, and then… we cut this description dead, because something pretty darn mind-blowing happens, and we want you to experience it in the finished feature.

So, we're now going to go to a MISSING REEL... before coming back to reveal that the footage ended on a panning shot of Godzilla, from feet to face and he looks ASTONISHING.

Our jaws dropped, and as the roar hits it's a huge goosebump moment that'll be having audiences whispering "Wow" when the finished film hits.

But that's not all we saw.

At one point in the Q&A, Edwards said he was pleased to have secured sound designer Erik Aadahl, who "Did Transformers with Michael Bay and Tree Of Life with Terrence Malick, which was kind of what we wanted to do with this - a combination of those things."

We'd say they've succeeded. The event opened with an intense sequence centered around Bryan Cranston that featured the sort of powerful emotion you get from the best of Malick, whilst also squeezing in a lot of frantic running / sonic booms.

It opens with Cranston walking through a power plant in a tweed jacket and glasses, being briefed on some huge seismic activity. Then, something hits the plant, setting off a chain reaction and transforming Cranston into an action hero, as he runs to rescue his wife (Juliette Binoche) who's caught in the calamity.

Smoke - turned red by warning lights - envelopes a corridor, as Binoche stumbles to safety.

Sadly, the exit is also the barrier to disaster - and Cranston is forced to - REMEMBER KIDS, THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE - shut the door, essentially killing his wife and creating another major goosebump moment as the smoke covers her.

It's beautifully shot by Edwards, who swoops in on Cranston's desperate face through the porthole of the door as it closes. His reaction is up there with his best work on Breaking Bad, so it may come as a surprise to hear that Edwards hasn't really seen that particular show (though he has caught a few episodes).

"The real reason I wanted to work with Bryan was Malcolm In The Middle and an episode of Airwolf from 1986," he said during the Q&A to big laughs.

Next, we saw Cranston being interrogated following the disaster. It was basically the full footage of that incredible speech we celebrated when we reported on the trailer.

According to Edwards, he'd had lots of fancy shots planned for the sequence, but Cranston's performance was so impressive from the get-go, they went with the first take. We can certainly see why - any Walter White fans in the crowd won't be disappointed by what they experience here.

We saw two more major scenes, both involving soldiers. In one, a small group of US marines are investigating whether a bridge is safe enough to deliver "some important cargo." It's a tense, beautifully shot sequence - and one we can't really go into any more detail on. You'll find out why in May.

We're also hampered by our honor code when it comes to describing the final sequence we saw. It was the full halo jump from the trailer, except here, we saw the soldiers landing in the ruined city instead of just dropping towards it - falling straight into SOMETHING INCREDIBLE YOU'LL THANK US FOR KEEPING A SECRET WE PROMISE.

mothra