As one of the year’s most anticipated films, we’ve heard very little about Godzilla. But with the latest teaser trailer, we finally have a glimpse at the second American-produced version of the Japanese franchise, the first being the 1998 version, directed by Roland Emmerich.

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These teaser posters allude to the franchise's Japanese origins

And, as if the Godzilla name needed any more hype attached to it, further attention is being paid due to the presence of Bryan Cranston – a long-time comedy actor, who became everyone’s favourite dramatic actor with his turn as Walter White in Breaking Bad, which came to an end late last year.

Gareth Edwards directs, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Juliette Binoche star alongside Cranston. The trailer depicts a ravaged Manhattan, whose population relies on a rally of inexperience troops that ‘HALO’ jump into the area.

The damage is self-inflicted; though. Nuclear chemicals have mutated the local wildlife while man’s quest for destruction continues. An enormous, mutated reptile – Godzilla – is now loose in New York, causing death and obliteration everywhere it walks.

Watch the Godzilla teaser trailer

As an iconic franchise, Godzilla demands a certain ‘legend’ status in cinema. But the 1998 version didn’t exactly take the world by storm, garnering negative reviews and just about made the top ten highest grossing films for that year, behind Saving Private Ryan and Armageddon.

But the big-budget blockbuster has been figured out. It could be a period of throwback filmmaking, but Hollywood and its audiences seem ready to accept grandeur and overtly re-trodden thematic structures in return for stunning visuals and a compacted story.

Godzilla promises to build on this, and like recent big-budget action films – see The Dark Knight trilogy – it promises imbue a wider, moralistic picture to the otherwise vacuous nature of the blockbuster. Gearing up for a big summer, Godzilla is released in May. Let us know what you think of the trailer below.

Godzilla posterGodzilla - Coming in May