Is the forthcoming “Godzilla” reboot an “anti-monster movie”? Not quite, says star Bryan Cranston – but it does have a human element that many similar films lack.
“It was a foundation of plot, a really intricate plot, and also character development, and then as the bonus you have the monsters,” Cranston told me while promoting the film at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday. “It’s like, ‘Wow!’ It’s like you have it all. It’s really terrific.”
Aside from the script, what really sold Cranston on the film was director Gareth Edwards, who made a mark with his excellent ultra-low-budget 2010 sci-fi film “Monsters.”
“He wanted me to do this, and I said ‘I don’t know if…I don’t wanna do something silly, I don’t wanna do something kind of raucous and…I kinda don’t wanna do that after ‘Breaking Bad,'” said Cranston. “And he said ‘It’s not that. Have you seen my movie ‘Monsters’?’ I said ‘no.’ He said ‘please see that, I’ll send you a copy.’…And I saw ‘Monsters’ and I was astonished because for a miniscule budget he was allowed to focus on the things that really matter. The foundation of a film are characters…am I invested? Do I care about these people? And I really did. In that movie, I cared about them.”
All of that said, when it comes to “Godzilla” it doesn’t hurt to have an even bigger goal in mind. To that end, Cranston hopes the film can capture the wide-eyed spirit of the original.
“The original version of ‘Godzilla’ goes way back, you know?” he told me. “That’s the one I saw when I was a kid. And it opened my eyes. I mean, it was for its time, it was amazing because it was stuff we’ve never seen before. …We hope to have that eye-opening experience with younger generations who are seeing ‘Godzilla’ for the first time and have no relationship to the past ‘Godzillas.'”
To check out the rest of my interview with Cranston, click on the video above.
“Godzilla” is slated for release on May 16, 2014.