Giant Monsters Attack!

Great Showdowns of Giant Monsterdom

2012-01-27T19:53:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across a very cool Tumblr account by artist Scott Campbell which profiles rival characters from various films by way of awesome, cartoony portraits. With Mr.Campbell’s permission, I’ve uploaded a bunch of entries that pertain to the theme of this blog, but I recommend visiting the site for all the non-giant monster stuff too. Check it out here: Great Showdowns

A Musical Interlude

2012-01-08T20:59:00.000-08:00

Alas... friendship between giant monsters and humanity is seemingly a doomed exercise, as illustrated in this music video for the song “Aberdeen” by Cage The Elephant:

Cage The Elephant - Aberdeen (dir. Isaac Rentz) from More Media on Vimeo.

Holiday Hibernation

2011-12-23T07:32:00.000-08:00

Without fail, the month of December is never kind to this blog with respect to posts and this year has been no exception. Work and holiday preparation is just too much of a demanding mistress, unfortunately. At any rate, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year- try to keep the spiked egg nog consumption within reasonable limits! Or don't. It's all good.

See you all in 2012!

Two Trailers with Giants

2011-12-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

While browsing the Dread Central website over the weekend I came across a couple of relevant trailers and figured that I’d post some links to them (I couldn’t seem to embed them directly on the blog, unfortunately). First up is the trailer for Bunyan, a horror spin on the folk character of the same name who prefers chopping up impudent teenagers instead of trees (click on each picture to go to the site):

The second is Jack the Giant Killer, which seems to be a re-imagining of the original Jack and the Beanstalk story verses a remake of the 1961 movie of the same name:

Admittedly, Bunyan looks like typical horror fare with a huge, axe-wielding mutant dude standing in for a machete-carrying maniac wearing a hockey mask. Hard to tell what to make of Jack, as the trailer’s kind of all over the place.

Sunday Funnies: A Somewhat Familiar Story

2011-11-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

From the 2nd issue of Sergio Aragonés Funnies:

Separated at Ultra-Birth?

2011-11-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

This March, a new Ultraman film will be released to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the franchise. The movie will also serve as an introduction to the newest Ultraman character- “Ultraman Saga” who... reminds me of someone... hmmm. Perhaps watching the trailer again will jog my memory:

Is it just me or is this new Ultraman taking fashion tips from a certain dark lord who hails from a certain Middle Earth?

Rampage: The Movie

2011-11-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

It seems that the 80’s coin-op arcade game Rampage is being developed into a live-action film, according to the Hollywood Reporter site:

New Line Cinema has put into development an adaptation of the classic 1980s video game featuring apes and monsters destroying cities.

John Rickard, who has acted as a co-producer on a wide range of New Line movies from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination to Horrible Bosses and next year’s tentpole Jack the Giant Killer, will produce and is meeting with writers to develop a story for the project.

The game comes from Midway Games, which was acquired by New Line's sister company Warner Bros. in 2009 for $33 million.

The concept of the game revolves around a trio of mild-mannered humans who are mutated into a giant Godzilla-like lizard, a werewolf and a gorilla, respectively, and fight the military while destroying buildings. Players controlled the monsters and moved up levels when a city was destroyed. The project aims to take advantage of the title and the visuals of the game.New Line isn’t usually in the tentpole business (the Lord of the Rings trilogy being the big exception) but the studio believes that technology has advanced enough that the possibility exists to make a smartly-budgeted monster movie in the vein and tone of Ghostbusters and Independence Day.

Well, it may not be a shining example of unbridled originality but if Hollywood is keen on making a movie out of an old video game, at the very least they’ve got their sights set on the one about giant, mutant beasts wrecking cities. The last line of the article struck me a little odd, however; the development team is aiming create something in the vein of Ghostbusters AND Independence Day- which are pretty distinct from each other, tonally-speaking. So... it’s a comedy... but not really?

"Sand Sharks" Movie Trailer

2011-11-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

So, how long before someone makes a flying shark movie? (note to self: write script for flying shark movie)

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 15)

2011-10-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

It’s officially autumn: leaves are changing color, horror movies abound on television in anticipation of Halloween and a new issue of Space Magazine Uchusen has hit Japanese bookshelves. The art spotlight this time around has focused on Toho’s 1958 prehistoric flying squirrel-dinosaur film Varan The Unbelievable.

Monsters Ate My Condo

2011-09-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here’s a quick commercial for Monsters Ate My Condo! from Cartoon Network games, which is now available from the iTunes App store. It’s hard to tell from the footage but the gameplay seems be a sort of Tertis-style deal of linking up similarly-colored blocks.

Additional information is available at the game developers’ site, PikPok.

Thanks to blog reader Benjamin for the head’s up!

Misleading Giant Monster Movie Posters (Part 2)

2011-09-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the wait between posts- busy personal schedule and all that. Let’s continue onward, shall we?

Godzilla vs. Megalon

The Poster:

Godzilla and his new rival, Megalon, have both climbed to the top of the World Trade Center towers and are about to commence in a battle that will probably flatten New York city!

The Movie:

Godzilla nor Megalon get anywhere near New York. At the time of its production, the Godzilla franchise was at a low point, budget-wise, so a fight in the middle of a city with plenty of collateral damage was definitely out of the question. So where do the monsters have their skirmish in the film? Why, in a big, nondescript patch of countryside with nary a skyscraper to be seen.

It’s commonly believed that the choice to depict the two monsters atop the World Trade Center towers was most likely a shallow attempt to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the Dino De Laurentiis’ remake of King Kong, which was to be released that same year.

The Wasp Woman

The Poster:

A hapless (and shirtless) man has fallen into the clutches of an abomination with the body of a humungous wasp and the head of a human woman! Judging by the pile of skeletal remains underneath her, she has an voracious appetite for humans and will undoubtedly move on to that city in the distance for the main course!

The Movie:

This particular poster achieves a two-punch deception in that the monster in the movie:

1) Isn’t giant-sized.

2) Sports an opposite arrangement of animal/human body parts.

In the film, Wasp Woman is the owner of a cosmetic corporation who, through overdosing on a serum derived from the royal jelly of a queen wasp, periodically undergoes a crazy transformation. The change doesn’t make her any bigger or mutates her from the neck down, but it does give her the head of a wasp...

... that kinda looks like a Pokémon.

Godzilla vs. the Thing

The Poster:

A rather elongated Godzilla is facing off against some spiky, tentacled horror that cannot be fully seen! What could it be? There’s nothing in Toho’s pantheon of daikaiju from that period in time (1964) that even looks remotely close to this unknown creature! I’m perplexed but intrigued! Mostly perplexed, though.

The Movie:

The Thing? It’s Mothra.

Apparently the American distributor, AIP, had concerns that Western audiences might be less than enthusiastic about a movie about a mutant dinosaur fighting an enormous moth and decided to play up Godzilla’s opponent as part-mystery, part-thorny octopus. Even the title alone is confusing; when I first saw this on TV as a wee, impressionable youngster, I kept waiting for the mysterious “thing” to show up, even long after Mothra made her appearance in the film.

Arguably, this particular poster- out of all the ones mentioned on this list- is the worst offender of the lot. Although the previously mentioned entries play fast and loose with exaggeration, they still all stem from some kernel of truth at their respective cores. Godzilla vs. The Thing is only one that flat out lies by prominently advertising something that simply isn’t in the movie.

You win, Godzilla vs. the Thing- your poster is the most misleading of all! Here’s a cake to celebrate your victory:

A Brief Musical Interlude

2011-08-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

As I'm still working on the second half of my misleading posters article, I thought that I’d keep things active in the meantime by sharing this odd little music video sent along to me by blog reader Benjamin. The song is from the band “Kidda” with the visual end of things handled by a London-based illustration/animation collective called Colour Club. It may not look like it from a cursory glance, but the video does star giant monsters, albeit by way of a graphic design style reminiscent of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time series.

KIDDA TOUR VISUALS from Colour Club on Vimeo.

Misleading Giant Monster Movie Posters (Part 1)

2011-08-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

I absolutely adore old sci-fi and horror film posters. In this age of internet tubes and knowing everything about a film before it even hits the theaters, it’s easy to forget that once upon a time, posters were used as a legitimate device to entice unsuspecting patrons into buying an admission ticket. And, as is the case with advertising, there was always a certain amount of... embellishment present. After all, the only way you were going to get an audience to pay money to see something like this:

...was to market it like this:

That being said, there are cases where the level of exaggeration went a little TOO far and what the poster artwork promised veered straight into the territory of outright dishonesty. The following are some of my favorite examples.

Yog, Monster from Space (a.k.a. Space Amoeba)

The Poster:

A trio of humongous, mutant sea creatures are squaring off in a three-way rumble! Awesome! And look- the original Japanese version of the poster features a similar image, thus confirming that said brawl will happen!

The Movie:

The brawl doesn't happen. In fact, the cuttlefish monster is killed off before the other two even make an appearance. Granted, the turtle and crab get into a brief altercation at the very end of the movie but it just doesn't make up for the anticipated triple beat down. However, the deception didn’t end with the poster. Check this out:

Seemingly, in an attempt to perpetuate the poster’s deception, the promotional photographs for the movie also featured the three monsters fighting each other!

Oh, Toho... when will the lies stop?

Reptilicus

The Poster:

An enormous dragon is destroying the Golden Gate Bridge! San Francisco is screwed!

The Film:

While the movie is about a dragon-like creature and does feature a scene with a bridge, that's pretty much where the similarities end. Much like the poster for The Giant Claw, using an image of Reptilicus as it appears in the film wouldn’t be a very good idea. Unfortunately, the artist’s attempts to punch up the monster’s appearance was, perhaps, a little too effective as the end result is something legitimately cool-looking when compared to the actual thing:

And the Golden Gate Bridge? It’s a nice example of “localization” so as to make the movie (or the poster, anyway) more relatable to an American audience. Reptilicus takes place in Denmark and while there is a scene involving a bridge, it’s actually the Langebro bridge in Copenhagen:

For the record, it doesn’t get destroyed either.

The Crater Lake Monster

The Poster:

A Tyrannosaurus Rex has somehow survived to modern day and is about to make a meal of two hapless boating enthusiasts! I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it wanders into a nearby town or resort and goes all Valley of the Gwangi on the locals!

The Movie:

Here's a riddle: when is a T-Rex not a T-Rex? When it's a plesiosaur.

That's right- not only is the actual monster of the movie is an entirely different creature than what’s advertised but it also operates in a completely contrasting environment. It's like making a film about a murderous killer whale but then adorning the film’s poster with an image of a grizzly.

The poster was eventually corrected, but you have wonder what the movie’s producers were thinking the first time around. Perhaps they REEEALLY liked Tyrannosauruses or something.

More to come in part two!

How To Train Your Dragon... For Broadway

2011-08-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that Dreamworks is taking another stab at the theatre circuit (I say “another” because there was apparently a Shrek musical a couple years back) with a stage production of How To Train your Dragon, which will supposedly open next March in Australia. As part of some (super) early promotion, the local press got a sneak preview of one of the huge puppet dragons that will be used in the play:

That scary muppet is pretty neat. It’s realized by way of a technique used in the Walking With Dinosaurs- The Live Experience stage show (plug that title into the YouTube search engine and you’ll see what I’m talking about) which, with proper lighting and smoke effects to hide the support stand, can make the creature look eerily real at times.

I’m curious though, if the story will be a direct adaptation of the animated film- given that the movie version was about flying dragons and flying on dragons, would the stage version even attempt such a thing? Let’s not forget that the Spider Man musical repeatedly demonstrated what can happen when you mix theatre and complex wire-work stunts...

Source: io9

I Am The Brute That Walks!

2011-07-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here’s one of the stories from the first issue of Marvel Comics’ Where Creatures Roam (the comic itself is actually a reprint of Journey Into Mystery #63). Written by Stan Lee with artwork by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, the story kinda starts out like the old Charles Atlas print ad about the skinny weakling being harassed by a muscular bully on the beach. However, instead of sending away for Charles’ bodybuilding book, the protagonist turns to... mad science!

What I learned from this comic:

1. When fleeing from an enormous beast that’s chasing you, try to escape to an amusement park and get on one of the rides.

2. If you’ve transformed into a towering monstrosity, your clothes will magically reappear once you revert back to normal.

3. When a violent creature bursts out of an apartment building, goes on a rampage and then suspiciously vanishes into thin air, a subsequent police investigation isn’t necessary.

4. Becoming a monster and terrorizing your girlfriend is a great way to win her love.

Links of Note and a Two-Eyed, One-Horned, Six-Armed Purple People Eater

2011-07-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

A Turok: Son of Stone cover from Dell comic artist, George Wilson. Native Americans sure had it rough back in the day...

David Goyer will be providing the script for Legendary Pictures’ upcoming Godzilla reboot. Perhaps you know his work from such films as Dollman vs. Demonic Toys and Jumper. Also, The Dark Knight. (Fused Film)

Prehistoric wombats were bloody enormous and dangerous... so how long before the SyFy Channel makes a made-for-cable movie starring one? (io9)

Host “Shadow Raptor” dishes out some giant monster video reviews. (Kaiju Krossing)

Some Monsters vs Aliens development sculptures by Damon Bard- I actually prefer his earlier designs of Insectosaurus to the one that appears in the finished film. (Bard Sculpture Studio)

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 14)

2011-07-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

The summer issue of Space Magazine Uchusen has arrived and the art feature this time around is Invasion of Astro-Monster, a.k.a Monster Zero, a.k.a. Godzilla vs Monster Zero, a.k.a. Invasion of the Astro-Monsters. Enjoy!

Contemplating Compositions concerning Colossal Creatures

2011-06-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

Since giant monster-themed blogs (or websites, for that matter) aren’t exactly common, I thought that I’d make mention of the newest kid on the block, Monstrous Fiction. According to the blogmaster (is that the correct term? It sounds like Dungeons & Dragons slang), the site will be mostly focused on literature pertaining to the giant monster genre as well as essays and reviews. The blog is also kicking things off with a short story-writing contest, so for those of you with ambitions of composing a tale about city-flattening behemoths, you’ve now got your outlet. You can check out the site here:

Monstrous Fiction

Links of Note and Poor Zoo Planning

2011-06-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

When will zoo curators learn to not put anything directly beside the alien squid pens? It’s just a recipe for disaster. (Art by Franco Brambilla- you can see the full image on his website)

Media Blasters has acquired the rights for Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon on region 1 DVD and Blu-Ray. (Sci-Fi Japan)

More cool-looking and supah-posable daikaiju figures from Revoltech. Dammit, Japan- where were these toys when I was eight years old?! (Revoltech)

Artist Michael Bukowski draws H.P.Lovecraft monsters. Not all of them are of the “giant” variety but the blog is just too nifty not to mention (Yog-Blogsoth).

Turner Classic Movies Drive-In Double Features

2011-06-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

I hate hectic work weeks. I was all set to give everyone a nice, advanced alert about Turner Classic Movies' Thursday night lineup of classic, atomic-era monster movies running all month... and then promptly forgot about it. What ended up jogging my memory was turning on the television about an hour ago and coming across the last fifteen minutes of the original 1954 Godzilla. Sigh.

If you’re an insomniac or can record your television programs, you can still check out the remainder of tonight’s line-up, including an early morning (2:45 am- ugh!) showing of Dinosaurus!- the stop-motion dinosaur movie that answers the age-old question: what wins in a fight between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a steam shovel?

Here’s the list of what’s playing for the rest of the month:

June 9

Insects!

8:00 PM - Them! 1954

9:45 PM - The Cosmic Monsters 1958

Arachnids!

11:15 PM - Tarantula 1955

12:45 AM - The Black Scorpion 1957

Wings!

2:30 AM - The Giant Claw 1957

4:00 AM - The Wasp Woman 1959

June 16

Giant People

8:00 PM - Attack of the 50 Foot Woman 1958

9:30 PM - Village of the Giants 1965

Ladies of Sci-Fi

11:00 PM - Queen of Outer Space 1958

12:30 AM - Mars Needs Women 1968

Mutant Men

2:00 AM - The Cyclops 1957

3.30 AM - The Manster 1962

June 23

Out of the Deep

8:00 PM - It Came From Beneath the Sea 1955

9:30 PM - The Monster that Challenged the World 1957

Appetite for Destruction

11:00 PM - The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms 1953

12:30 AM - The Giant Behemoth 1959

Monsters from the Sea

2:00 AM - The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues 1955

3:30 AM - Creature From the Haunted Sea 1961

June 30

Blobs

8:00 PM - The Blob 1958

9:30 PM - The H-Man 1958

Radioactive Monsters

11:00 PM - The Magnetic Monster 1953

12:30 AM - X: The Unknown 1956

Killers from Space

2:00 AM - The Thing From Another World 1951

3:30 AM - It! The Terror From Beyond Space 1958

(a special thanks to Raf who first brought this to my attention)

As the Worm Turns

2011-05-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

Anyone dabbling in browser-based Flash games back in 2007 may have run across Deathworm, wherein you control a giant, uh... deathworm as it assaults the surface world in a Tremors-inspired fashion. An updated version featuring spiffier visuals was just released last week and can be found over at the Kongregate website. A little bit of advanced warning, though- the control scheme takes some getting used to, as the “up” cursor arrow is for moving the creature forward, regardless of which way it’s pointed.

Play Deathworm

Possibly the Greatest Movie Concept, Ever

2011-05-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

I decided to wait for a little bit before posting about this movie news tidbit, as the idea in and of itself is so outlandish that I half-expected it to be eventually revealed as some sort of internet hoax. According to various sources online, filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black, Wild Wild West) is collaborating with comics writer Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman, Batman Incorporated) to create a graphic novel and feature film called Dominion: Dinosaurs vs. Aliens. To quote Mr. Sonnenfeld from Deadline (an entertainment-based news site):

“Growing up, my fascination was all things dinosaur, and as an adult, I’ve had some success making films about aliens, so this is a dream come true,” said Sonnenfeld, who first met Liquid Comics founder Sharad Devarajan when he wrote a forward for one of Liquid’s graphic novels. “We’ve been trying to do a project ever since.”

The graphic novel will chronicle a secret prehistoric world war battle. When an alien invasion attacks Earth in the age of the dinosaurs, the planet’s only hope is the giants that roam the planet with, it turns out, a lot more intelligence than previously realized. Sonnenfeld, Rifkin and Devarajan will produce, while Liquid cofounder Gotham Chopra will be executive producer.

Just so we’re clear- while this is definitely an oddball concept, the ten year old in me is doing a glee-filled, double backflip just based on the title alone. I imagine that the aliens will be able to talk but will the dinosaurs? (featuring comedian Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of the T-Rex!) Maybe the dialogue from both parties will be subtitled.

Could this movie mark the beginning of a new Hollywood franchise? Will we eventually see a Dinosaurs vs. Robots? Dinosaurs vs. Ninjas? Dinosaurs vs. Pirates vs. Dracula?

Trailer for Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie

2011-05-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Well, not exactly... but you’d swear it was, had the actual title not been mentioned. I was going to make a reference joke to Robot Jox, but the Filmdrunk site beat me to it. Anyway, be forewarned that this is one of those “abridged movie” trailers that plays like a condensed version of the film- just in case you’re the kind of person that prefers their boxing robot movies to be spoiler-free.

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 13)

2011-04-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

What comes to mind when you think of spring? It would seem that the editors of Space Magazine Uchusen turn to thoughts of the film Godzilla Raids Again (a.k.a. Gigantis the Fire Monster), as evidenced by the theme of the April issue’s art feature.

Links of Note and Why Car Insurance is Important

2011-04-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

I don’t know what it is about parking lots but they attract giant crabs like picnics attract ants. (Painting by John Brosio)

Kill All Monsters web comic. When Earth becomes plagued by monsters, humanity fights back using giant robots. Yes, please! (Kill All Monsters!)

The good news? A giant squid invasion could be easily averted with sound waves. The bad news? It turns out that human-created noise pollution might be doing severe damage to the ocean’s cephalopods. (iO9)

Battle hydras, griffins and (of course) dragons in the upcoming game, Dragon’s Dogma. Check out the teaser trailer: (Gametrailers.com)

Move Over, Sharktopus

2011-03-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here’s a photo that’s been making the rounds on the internet featuring the disembodied head of the titular creature from the upcoming Syfy film, Piranhaconda. I must admit, I do like the design- it’s pretty neat. The movie is being produced by Roger Corman and is a follow-up to his earlier effort, Sharktopus... and by “follow-up”, I mean another film featuring a giant monster that’s the composite of two, unrelated animals.

I really should get around to hammering out that Dinobear script...

Man vs. Giant Bug

2011-03-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Once again, aliens are attempting to take over the planet and obliterate mankind in the upcoming video game, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, a follow-up to 2007’s Earth Defense Force 2017. It seems that this time around, the invaders may have drawn some inspiration from the 1960’s Mars Attacks! trading cards; specifically, where the Martians dramatically enlarge Earth insects then unleash hordes of them onto the helpless population.

In Insect Armageddon, the players will take the role of armored troopers that battle colossal ants, spiders and hornets, as well as giant robots. Don’t take my word for it- check out the trailer:

Video Games | Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon | GDC 11: Co-Op Preview Trailer

Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

It seems that the human forces have access to robot vehicles in some missions as evidenced by the two-legged mech that briefly appears in one shot; a logical strategy, considering that robots are the most effective weapon against giant monsters. It’s a scientific fact.

(Special thanks to blog reader Benjamin for the trailer links)

2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

2011-03-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

Given the specific theme of this blog, I’ve never bothered to post articles about real world events but considering what’s happened to Japan in the last couple of days, I thought that I’d make an exception. I suppose it’s because Japan has been a significant contributor to the giant monster genre as a whole and there’s a certain grotesque irony in that the country is now experiencing the kinds of devastation commonly portrayed in Godzilla movies and the like. However, it’s one thing to present such events in a harmless fantasy film but there’s nothing more grim than seeing it happen in reality.

I was relieved to find out through emails that a Japanese friend of mine and a former teacher who had returned to the country years ago were both safe, along with their respective families. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the thousands of people still suffering in the aftermath of this horrible ordeal. I hope and pray that things improve in the days (and months) to come.

Movie Review: The Troll Hunter

2011-03-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

Did you know that transmission towers in Norway actually double as electrical fences to keep enormous mountain trolls confined to certain territories? Why do some trolls turn to stone when exposed to sunlight while others messily explode? What's the difference between a Raglefant and a Tusselad? Thankfully, The Troll Hunter film is here to answer all your questions concerning these previously assumed folklore creatures.

The latest entry in the “found footage” genre, the story finds a trio of Norwegian students on the trail of a suspicious individual, Hans, whom they suspect to be a bear poacher. They soon find out, however, that Hans is actually a government-appointed agent whose job is to covertly keep the indigenous troll population in check whenever they venture into human-populated areas. Realizing that they potentially have an historic expose on their hands, the students decide to follow and record Hans' daily routine, despite his concerns of a recent surge in troll activity.

Keeping in step with other films of its kind, the plot falls into the usual framework: a group of people (at least one of them armed with a camera that is almost NEVER put down) encounter something fantastic but threatening, try their best to survive the experience and ultimately have their story abruptly terminated at the film's end, leaving the audience to ponder the characters' fates. That being said, The Troll Hunter takes a slightly different approach to this formula and structures itself along the lines of a guerrilla-style documentary: think something along the old Crocodile Hunter television show but with humanoid beasts replacing the crocodiles and poisonous snakes.

It’s a direction not without consequence, however, as the three film students chronicling the events of the movie are reduced to mostly personality-free, interchangeable human props. Hans, the hunter himself, fares much better by comparison and the movie does a good job of portraying him as a savvy but weary individual whose job has (figuratively and literally) beaten him down to a husk. Honestly, though- if you’re watching a film called The Troll Hunter, chances are it’s not because you’re looking for an exercise in deep character development. Thankfully, despite the conservative budget, there is still a decent amount of monster-related content. This isn’t to say that the trolls are onscreen constantly- they're not- but things still remain interesting even when the protagonists aren’t being chased around. Just watching Hans in a diner explain the particulars of trolls and his profession ends up being an enjoyable watch in and of itself.

The computer animation effects are solid throughout and I liked how the trolls themselves look as if they’ve stepped right out of old Scandinavian fairy tale illustrations, complete with gangly proportions, thick brow ridges and large, bulbous noses. It really helps the “old school” feel that the filmmakers are trying to convey with regards to the monsters; slick, video game-esque designs would have been nowhere near as effective.

The Troll Hunter is a good example of how to pull off a “shakey-cam” monster movie without resorting to usual nonsense of shamelessly jerking around the audience. It’s hardly a groundbreaking endeavor, but still satisfying and entertaining- other films of this kind (*cough* Monsters *cough*) could certainly learn a thing or two from it. Four out of five.

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 12)

2011-02-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

Godzilla’s Revenge (a.k.a. All Monsters Attack) is the theme of Space Magazine Uchusen’s art feature from the January issue. I would have posted this earlier (almost three weeks ago, to be precise) but the two-page spread ended up being a nightmare to stitch together without showing some sort of blatant seam. Thanks, Photoshop- you’ve done it again!

How Gamera Works

2011-01-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

The Pink Tentacle website (not to worry- the name only makes it sound naughty) has put up a post featuring scans from a 70’s Japanese book that details the anatomical workings of the various Daiei monsters. Curious as to how a prehistoric turtle is capable of rocket-powered flight? Wonder no more!

Illustrated Anatomy of Gamera and Foes

The Great Bear (Danish trailer)

2011-01-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

The Danish animated film The Great Bear seems to be nearing completion, as it has just released an official trailer. In case you don’t recall the story from waaaaay back when I had made brief mention of it here on the blog, it’s about two children that visit their grandfather and the younger of the pair ends up abducted by a humungous, mythical bear.

The Twitch website is hosting the video which, unfortunately, doesn’t have any english subtitles. All the same, if you keep in mind of what I just wrote as a synopsis, you can roughly follow what’s going on. What’s weird though, is that the trailer seems to come across as a condensed version of the entire film. Of particular note is the final shot in the trailer which, I have a rotten suspicion, happens at the climax of the movie... or am I just over-thinking things?

Movie Review: Monsters

2011-01-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

There’s a brief scene in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, wherein a customer visits a grocery store shortly after Gamera has first appeared in Japan and complains about the inflated price of fish. The cashier explains that the added expense is simply the result of low supply, as the local fishermen are reluctant to go out on the ocean for fear of running into the creature that might still be lurking in the general vicinity. It’s one of those little mundane things that are often overlooked in movies of this kind but adds a welcome, if not subtle, bit of flavor to overall setting. When the rampages of gigantic beasts are a constant danger that looms over humanity, how would the everyday aspects of the world change in response?

In the setting of Monsters, the threat comes not from overgrown bugs or reawakened dinosaurs but a horde of enormous, extraterrestrial octopi which spawned from the micro organisms contained in a probe that crash lands in Mexico. Six years later, the U.S. has walled off its borders and routinely bombs the territory claimed by the aliens in an attempt to curb their numbers with little regard for the people that still live near the area. An American photographer, Andrew, is contacted in Mexico by his employer to escort his daughter back home by ferry before the aliens’ breeding season begins (which will leave them stuck where they are for months if they don't leave in time). As expected, their initial plans go awry and the pair find themselves with no choice but to cross through the “infected zone” in order to return to America.

Let’s just cut to the chase here; if you’re hoping for a cinematic monster mash, prepare to be disappointed. It’s not that Monsters is an entirely bad movie, but the squid thingys are basically peripheral decoration in a film that’s focused on something else entirely. This is really a road trip story about two somewhat selfish characters who come to understand each other in a parable concerning globalization and the strained relationship between Mexico and the United States.

So do the octopus creatures really need to be there? Not really. All things considered, with some slight tweaks, the movie could have just as easily taken place in some war-torn part of our normal world. The problem here is that the film is built around a high concept idea that it dangles in front of the audience like a carrot then turns around and mostly ignores. During the course of the story we get to see the aftermath of the aliens’ handiwork (the remains of boats that have been thrown up into hillsides, decimated urban patches) and while there are plenty of scenes where the characters tense up at offscreen noises, the trek across what we’ve been told is supposedly dangerous territory is otherwise relatively incident-free (as far as the monsters are concerned, anyway). Only at the very end of the film do two aliens finally appear for a brief sequence but it’s just not enough of a payoff to offset the previous near-hour and a half of waiting.

I do realize that some reviewers would argue that I’ve entirely missed the point about the monsters in Monsters and that their inclusion, however minimal, is merely meant to aid an allegory about a deeper issue- sort of like the way District 9 used aliens to punctuate a theme about social segregation. The difference here, however, is that District 9 was a movie about the nature of humanity by way of a story specifically about aliens. Monsters is a movie about two Americans experiencing the adversities of an impoverished Mexico... by way of a story specifically about two Americans experiencing the adversities of an impoverished Mexico with tentacled creatures lurking in the background.

It’s unfortunate that the film didn’t gel with me on a story level as I found it actually quite nice from a purely visual standpoint. There are some really nice shots throughout, especially for a guerilla-style, “hand cam” movie. The performances of the two leads are also solid, although the people they play are not so much endearing as they are self-centered twits. I suspect, however, that this may have been on purpose in order to play up the have/have-not dynamic between the American and Mexican characters.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, the scene in the grocery shop from Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is a neat little spin on an idea. In the case of Monsters, I imagine that budgetary limitations is what kept the movie confined to the store, so to speak. It’s not that the core concept was lacking by any means, but its execution is what made the finished film come across feeling like a missed opportunity. Two and a half out of five.

'Tis the Season for Nazi Dinosaurs

2010-12-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

Humbug. I was trying to get one last review out before the Christmas break, but work has been more far demanding than accommodating over these last couple of weeks. Oh well. As this is probably my last post for 2010, I give you a trailer for an upcoming video game release that mixes a World War 2 shooter with dinosaurs because, y’know- Christmas. Happy holidays, all!

Video Games | Dino D-Day | Exclusive Newsreel Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Know What Repels Sea Monsters?

2010-12-07T22:10:00.001-08:00

I came across mention of the upcoming Irish monster movie, Grabbers, on Twitchfilm.com and have to admit that I chuckled at the synopsis. From the site:

An idyllic remote Irish fishing village - replete with twinkly-eyed eccentric Waking Ned Devine characters - is invaded by enormous, tentacled creatures from the sea who are picking off the villagers one at a time. The inhabitants learn that the one thing the creatures don't like is alcohol, it makes people taste horrible, so they realize that in order to stay alive, they're going to have to get as pissed as possible.

You gotta give the filmmakers credit- drunks verses monsters is something that nobody has tackled yet. Apparently the film is wrapping up production in the next month, then plans to spend almost a year (!) on post-special effects.

Mega Shark Returns

2010-12-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hey look! It’s the trailer for the latest adventure of Asylum’s incorrigible, prehistoric shark monster: Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus! Mind you, if this turns out to be anything like the previous outing, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, there’s a pretty decent chance that we're seeing all the best parts in the film. No Debbie Gibson this time around, though...

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 11)

2010-11-15T21:08:00.001-08:00

Here’s a trio of Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Hedorah)-themed paintings from the fall issue of Space Magazine Uchusen. Enjoy!

Links of Note and What Really Killed the Dinosaurs

2010-11-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

That’s right: giant robots. What did you think was responsible? A big meteor? Puh-lease.

Japan continues to create toys that I would have killed for as a kid. Case in point: a supah-posable, Showa-era Anguirus figure. (Tomopop)

A gallery of classic Ultraman illustrations. (Pink Tentacle)

Science being a killjoy: why giant bugs can’t exist (currently). (Science In My Fiction)

Monster Island: The Game That Never Was

2010-10-28T21:54:00.001-07:00

Irrational Games (the studio responsible for the BioShock titles) recently posted an old, unused pitch idea for “Monster Island” on their website: an action strategy video game wherein the player could control a city-demolishing monster OR the hapless humans attempting to survive its destructive spree. Some of the proposed ideas included:

- Twenty different playable creatures as well as the option to create an original monster.

- Three different times periods/locations: Ancient Greece, Medieval Europe and 1950’s Japan.

- Resource management-based gameplay if playing on humanity's side.

- Multiplayer mode for four players.

Having read through the document (which you can download as a PDF here) and lamenting that this project never went into production, I can’t help but suspect that a significant reason as to why it never saw the light of day was due to the fact that it was too large in scope for the game systems that existed at the time of the pitch. As awesome as the outlined concepts sounded, I can't imagine a PS2 or X-Box being able to accommodate the extent of what the developers were considering.

That being said, I could totally see the current generation of game systems handling said ideas just fine. C’mon, Irrational Games- just because you passed on the opportunity ten years ago doesn’t mean you have to abandon the idea forever! I’m still waiting for something to fill the void left by the non-existent sequel to Playstation’s War of the Monsters...

Movie Review: Mega Monster Battle- Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie

2010-10-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Allow me to start off this review with a quick question. Would you consider your knowledge of all things Ultraman to be:

A) Thorough

B) Casual

If you’re like me and fall into the “B” category, then Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie might be a bit of a mixed viewing experience. When it comes to the Ultraman movies, it’s been explained to me that the films (for the most part) are aimed strictly at young fans, so being only peripherally familiar with the franchise made Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie a tricky film to review.

The movie begins with the introduction of the Land of Light; home planet of the Ultramen. The inhabitants’ peaceful daily routine goes sour when Ultraman Belial, an incarcerated renegade who previously attempted to overrun the world with an army of monsters, escapes from his space prison. Belial heads straight for the Land of Light, knocks around the locals and successfully makes off with the “Plasma Spark”- the power source for the whole planet- leaving behind a frozen wasteland. Now the only hope in stopping Belial and returning things to normal lies with a powerful Ultra named Zero, who is away training in a remote galaxy.

While what I’ve explained up until this point, story-wise, seems straightforward enough, things get a little more convoluted once the cast of characters from the television series Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle appear and drop into the story with the assumption that the audience is completely up to speed with the show. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t watching a stand-alone, self-contained movie; this was a massive crossover exercise showcasing the entirety of the Ultraman franchise. To make use of a geeky analogy, imagine if Marvel Comics decided to make a film that featured Spider-Man, The X-Men AND The Incredible Hulk AND The Avengers AND Blade the Vampire Hunter as they team up against a selection of popular super villains. Would this make Marvel comic fans happy? Probably. Would there be time in the movie to explain all the details and nuances of said characters for the uninitiated viewers? Probably not.

While I couldn’t appreciate the movie on any sort of nostalgic level, Mega Monster Battle does move along at a decent pace with no shortage of rubber-suited, monster-brawling antics, so I was never bored. It is kind of weird, though, that all the various creatures from the Ultraman rogues gallery which make appearances are are mostly reduced to the level of cannon fodder; being easily knocked around with an ease that I can’t help suspect is probably contrary to the challenge that they presented in their original television appearances.

Admittedly, the film does reach a numbing point by the story’s climax, as you might expect from sitting through an hour and half of interchangeable silver and red characters punching stuff. As I had mentioned in my previous review of the original television series, Ultraman himself is a rather uninteresting individual- basically a deus ex machina plot device used to defeat the giant monster antagonist at the end of an episode. Teaming up a bunch of them together does little to solve this shortcoming but it’s not as if the movie was ever intended to be a deep character study.

Overall, Mega Monster Battle can be best summed up as a harmless “popcorn” film. You’ll probably get more out of it if you’re an Ultraman fan, but even as an outsider looking in (like myself), there’s still enough entertainment value to make for an amusing watch. Three out of five.

City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

2010-10-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Something to look for next time you’re at a book store, City of the Gods is a newly-released novel from author Patrick Garone. The plot summary:

When an enormous UFO appears over Mexico City and begins broadcasting instructions in the ancient language of the Aztecs, anthropologist Sandra Ramirez is sent in with a team to establish contact with the ship. Instead, her assignment goes horribly wrong and she soon finds herself drawn into the invader's plans to violently transform our world and its history. Earth's only hope lies with Quetzalcoatl, a reawakened Mexican god who holds the power to either defend our planet or to assure its destruction.

Alien invasion + mexican mythology + giant monsters? I like that math!

The Troll Hunter (English) Trailer

2010-10-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

This film has been on my radar for for a while but I’ve been hesitant to post anything about it up until now, as it mostly amounted to a teaser trailer and a couple of fragmented clips. However, blog reader Benjamin brought to my attention that Twitchfilm.net has posted an english-subtitled trailer. Looks pretty cool!

Hava Nagilah Monster by .357 Lover

2010-09-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

Up until today, if you had told me that the 1959 film, The Giant Gila Monster, would eventually be used as the subject of a rock song, I would have said that you were crazy. Or drunk.

Robotman vs Godzilla

2010-09-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

Back in the 80’s, the Robotman comic strip first appeared as a tie-in to a rather saccharine mass-marketing/toy concept. While the toy failed to catch on with consumers, the strip continued to run in newspapers and was slowly re-imagined as a means to parody pop culture, films and television- particularly those of a science fiction persuasion. Below are some scans from a storyline spoofing Godzilla movies. I really can’t picture any currently-running comic strip embracing subject matter like this nowadays.

The Terror of... Paul Bunyan?

2010-09-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

If horror movies subscribe to one rule, it’s that any concept or character can be made the subject of a horror movie. No exceptions. This certainly explains Kinetic Film Works’ upcoming project, Bunyan, due out in 2011:

The movie is a dark, contemporary take on the legend of lumberjack Paul Bunyan. Kids at a first time offender's boot camp in Minnesota discover that the legend of Paul Bunyan is real, but much more horrifying than they could have imagined. They incur the wrath of the 15-foot monstrous giant, who was banished from town 100 years ago and thought dead.

I wonder how those kids end up incurring Bunyan’s wrath? Do they hit his blue ox “Babe” with their car on the way to the camp or something?

Source: io9.com

Spooky Monsters

2010-08-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

Check out these really cool and creepy sketches by artist John Kenn, which he does entirely on yellow post-it notes. The drawings have a nice Edward Gorey vibe to them as well as a bit of a Lovecraftian undercurrent. I really like how Kenn’s giant monsters feel very “folklorish”; they seem like dark, ancient things that have awakened from a long slumber and are encountering humans for the first time. Very awesome stuff! Check out the blog here.

Eat Them!

2010-08-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

This December will see the release of Eat Them! for the Playstation Network. Watching the trailer, I’m very much reminded of the old Movie Monster game for the Commodore 64. The “build a monster” concept could be potentially interesting, although the various creatures shown in the video seem to be kinda similar to each other, design-wise (granted, being that this is an early trailer and all, the finished game might offer more visual variety to the monster parts).

Thanks to Benjamin for the head’s up!

New “Monsters” Trailer Contains Monsters

2010-08-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

When I had first heard about the British film, Monsters, I was a little wary about committing to posts on the subject, simply because I wasn’t certain if the film had any actual monsters in it. It’s a strange assumption to make, admittedly, but from what little that had been revealed about the story at the time (a good chunk of Mexico is quarantined after alien life forms set up shop in Central America, leaving the infected areas uninhabited by humans) I seriously wondered if the plot might contain some sort of dopey twist ending: It turns out that the aliens had died off years ago and the U.S. continued to play up them up as an active threat in order to stem the tide of illegal immigrants! NOOOOO!

Okay, so now you know why I’m not writing scripts for Hollywood. I suppose that my initial suspicions were influenced the movie’s relatively conservative production budget coupled with a slew of teaser stills mostly featuring shots of the lead characters wandering through empty, decimated areas; my cynical side figured it was going to be M.Night Shamalan’s The Village all over again. Thankfully, a new trailer for the movie has surfaced which does show fleeting glances of the aliens, thus putting my idiot theory to rest:

How Graboids Work

2010-08-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

Check out this cool “educational” video by creator Frank Robnik explaining the biology of the creatures from the movie Tremors. I would absolutely love to see more of these Monstrous Wildlife videos!

Monstrous Wildlife from Frank Robnik on Vimeo.

The Gift of Baragon

2010-08-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

I would have posted this much earlier but I was suffering a technological brain freeze in the form of trying to figure out how my digital camera works. Anyway, this vinyl model of Baragon, the dog/dinosaur creature from Frankenstein Conquers The World (and one of my favorite Japanese giant monsters), arrived in the mail recently from a friend of mine in Japan. I have total admiration for anyone who can paint up a model as nicely as this, especially given my personal track record of screwing up every model I have ever tried to assemble and/or paint in my lifetime. It’s nice, eh? Thanks again for your awesome gift, Koichi!

***

On an unrelated note, a number of people have brought this picture to my attention: it’s supposedly the proposed design for the Legendary Pictures version of Godzilla, which appeared at the recent San Diego Comic Con. The Godzilla 2012 blog has done a pretty comprehensive post on the subject, which you can read over here. Again, it’s a neat picture and if this is indeed the direction that Legendary Pictures is taking with the film, I’m certainly all for it, HOWEVER... I’m still of the opinion that it’s far too early in the game to be treating “teaser images” like this one as any sort of definitive example of what the character’s final interpretation will be in the finished film.

Sym-Bionic Titan Details Emerge

2010-07-21T17:05:00.001-07:00

IGN.Com recently posted some details about Cartoon Network’s upcoming “giant robot guy fights equally gigantic monsters” animated series Sym-Bionic Titan:

“The series follows the lives of Ilana, Lance and Octus, three alien teens that crash-land on Earth while attempting to escape an evil General who has taken over their home planet, Galaluna. Ilana, princess of Galaluna, Lance, a rebellious but capable soldier, and Octus, a bio-cybernetic robot, must now blend into everyday life in Sherman, Illinois (sound familiar, John Hughes fans?). Posing as high school students, Lance and Octus work to conceal Princess Ilana from General Modula and his hideous space mutants sent to harm the sole royal heir of Galaluna. When called into battle, our Galalunians are outfitted with individual armor that provides more than ample protection. It's when the gravest of danger appears that Octus activates the sym-bionic defense program and Ilana, Lance and Octus come together to form the spectacular cyber-giant Sym-Bionic Titan. It is in this form that they battle the most evil of beasts. The voice cast includes Brian Posehn (The Sarah Silverman Program) as Octus and John DiMaggio (Futurama) as King & General Steel.”

The show really seems to be aiming for an “old school”, Ultraman-ish vibe, but that’s not a bad thing by any means. The cartoon’s creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, has proven his geek worth in his previous efforts Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Sym-Bionic Titan ends up sporting a fair number of references and homages to old giant monster movies and Japanese superheroes.

Sym-Bionic Titan TV Clip - Exclusive: Watch Out

Sharktopus Surfaces

2010-07-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here’s the recently released trailer for Roger Corman’s Sharktopus- judging by the light-hearted tone of the trailer, it looks as if the film is unapologetically embracing its B-movie roots. Will it make the finished product more watchable? Time will tell.

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 10)

2010-07-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is the theme of the summer issue's art spread of Space Magazine Uchusen. I particularly like the artist’s interpretation of the giant condor that attacks Godzilla (before he promptly obliterates it) even though its screen time in the film is pretty minimal.

Happy Birthday, Ray!

2010-06-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ray Harryhausen, the man whose wonderful stop-motion creations played a significant part in shaping me into the giant monster movie-enthusiast that I am, celebrates his 90th birthday today.

Happy birthday, Mr. Harryhausen and thank you for all the awesome memories!

(Check out this little animated birthday wish by Mark Sullivan below. Very cool!)

Mega Shark vs Giganotosaurus

2010-06-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

It looks like another straight-to-DVD horror is about to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting population. A somewhat condescending report from CNN on the Cannes Film Festival made brief mention of the upcoming Mega Shark vs Giganotosaurus movie from The Asylum; a sequel (of sorts) to their Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus film. While the poster art is pretty slick, I think that I’ll just keep my enthusiasm in check for the time being. Let’s not forget that Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus was a fun, over the top, monster-filled trailer. The actual movie? Not so much.

I also find the choice of monsters more than a little odd too, given that there isn’t a mutual environment where both adversaries could actually fight each other on equal terms. So... I guess the victor will be determined by which creature mistakenly crosses over into its rival’s territory first? Did Asylum come up with this idea by haphazardly choosing two names from a list of pre-existing computer assets from all their various productions?

Perhaps a better choice of title might be Battle of the Random Pairing of Computer Generated Models from The Asylum Special Effects Library.

Source: Undead Backbrain

Movie Review: How To Train Your Dragon

2010-06-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

When I went to see How To Train Your Dragon, I’ll admit that wasn’t really expecting much; in the realm of computer-animated movies, my tastes sit firmly on the Pixar side of the fence than Dreamworks’ end. Even last year’s Monsters vs Aliens- a film that was practically channelling my geeky love of 50’s monster movies- did little to sway that bias, as I felt that the final product didn’t quite measure up to the sum of its core ideas. As it turned out, however, my initial assumptions were quite wrong- not only is How To Train Your Dragon a great movie, it’s arguably the strongest thing that Dreamworks studios has put out to date.

Despite being the son of a viking chieftain, teenaged Hiccup is rather lacking as a battle-hardened warrior. This shortcoming poses a bit of problem, given that his tribe has been locked in a generations-long war with fire-breathing dragons that regularly plunder the local livestock. Eager to prove his worth, Hiccup ventures out one evening during an assault on his village and manages to shoot down a fast-flying dragon with a home-made bolas cannon; unfortunately, without a body for proof, nobody believes his story. The following day, he tracks the incapacitated dragon- now unable to fly thanks to a damaged tail fin- to where it had crash landed in a nearby forest and identifies it as a member of a rare and deadly breed called a “Night Fury”. Despite what he’s been raised to believe about their dangerous nature, Hiccup takes pity on the creature and attempts to befriend it.

Slowly, a trust builds between the two and as Hiccup learns more about the dragon, he begins to realize that everything that he’s been taught about them has been filtered through fear and misunderstanding. Hiccup nicknames the Night Fury “Toothless” (because of its retractable teeth) and gives it back its means to fly by way of a prosthetic tail fin, as well as outfitting it with a saddle so as to accompany the dragon during its airborne excursions. Unfortunately, their friendship presents a new dilemma: as a dragon sympathizer in a village of people who would rather annihilate the species entirely, Hiccup is faced with the possibility that any attempt to share what he’s learned with fellow vikings would be grounds for banishment or worse.

I really enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon- while it’s not perfect by any stretch and perhaps a little formulaic, its overall charm easily paves over the shortcomings. Of particular note is that the movie actually feels like an evolutionary step for Dreamworks; it’s refreshingly free of pop-culture reference gags, blatant anachronisms or hit songs used as musical decoration, instead relying solely on straightforward storytelling for narrative and character moments for humor. The film also resists the lure of some of the more annoying oft-used animation tropes, like making the non-human characters a little too anthropomorphic. The dragons, while intelligent, are ultimately still animals and act as such: there were no smarmy cocked eyebrows or slack-jawed reactions to be seen and I was all the happier for it.

The overall aesthetic of How To Train Your Dragon is quite appealing with great designs for both the human and, particularly, the dragon characters. The movie actually throws a bit of a tease at the audience when Hiccup thumbs through an encyclopedia of dragon species, showcasing a bunch of what were possibly conceptual ideas that never made it into the finished film. Perhaps they’ll appear in a sequel, something which I definitely look forward to. Four and a half out of five.

Please Stand By...

2010-05-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I’m still around. Unfortunately, just as I was on the verge of finishing a new movie review, my computer’s hard drive decided to kick the bucket. I’m still in the process of picking up the pieces but in the meantime, I figured that I needed to put up a little filler post... so here are some awesome Godzilla doodles by artist Derek Thompson that I came across recently. You can view the full-sized version plus another page of sketches (along with tons of supah-cool artwork) over at his blog, “DerekMonster.”

Godzilla 2012 Design?

2010-05-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been visiting any of the linked sites found on the right-hand margin of this blog, you’ve probably come across the above image of what is purported to be the design of the upcoming Legendary Pictures version of Godzilla that’s been making the rounds on various sites. So... could this sculpture be the genuine article?

To put things in perspective, we’re talking about the internet here... speculation has a long-standing tradition of running completely rampant online. Remember all the crazy theories flying around about Cloverfield before the movie came out in theaters? Y’know- the ones that, as it eventually turned out, were either flat-out wrong or had nothing to do with the final, finished film?

I fully admit to getting every bit as caught up in that hoopla at the time; now looking back, a little bit of restraint and common sense might have been a better path to take. As the old Proverb goes: fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me.

This is why I really don’t have any sort of opinion about the photo in question at this point in time for a movie that has only JUST started development... other than it’s a nice sculpt. The guy (or girl) responsible is clearly talented. One thing I can say with certainty is that, given how Hollywood normally does things, whatever this new American Godzilla finally ends up looking like will probably be kept pretty confidential up until the movie’s actual release.

"Daimajin Kannon" Photo Op

2010-04-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

While I usually collect Space Magazine Uchusen primarily for its daikaiju art feature, the most recent issue yielded a little extra bonus in the form of a two-page spread which featured a nice, clear look at the Daimajin character from the upcoming Japanese tv series of the same name (based, it seems, somewhat loosely on the trio of films from the 60’s). The Undead Backbrain blogs have some further details about the show, as well as a trailer, which you can check out here and here.

Death Kappa Trailer

2010-04-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hey! Lookit!

Spry little bugger, isn't he? The DVD is slated for a North American release at the end of May (according to Amazon.com).

Jedi vs. the Zillo Beast

2010-04-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

Say, did you happen to catch last week’s Clone Wars episode? The one that was basically a tribute to Japanese giant monster movies? The Undead Backbrain site has an informative blog post about it over here.

If you missed it, well... I guess you’ll have to wait for a repeat. It’s not like the internet has places you could visit where a video of the full episode was available for your viewing discretion or anything. Yup, that sure would be handy...

Unassuming link.

Ahem. Speaking of videos, here’s a behind-the-scenes creator’s commentary which details some of the little peripheral homages to Godzilla films that appear in the episode:

Episode Commentary #2.18: The Zillo Beast

(Thanks to Benjamin for the promotional movie poster parody find).

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 9)

2010-04-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Space Ameoba (a.k.a. Yog, Monster From Space) is the theme of the art feature from the spring issue of Space Magazine Uchusen, featuring a rather demonic-looking Gezora and the climactic volcano skirmish between Ganime (the crab thing) and Kamoebas (the turtle thing).

Tremors: The Web Game

2010-04-06T13:49:00.001-07:00

Here’s a neat online distraction that’s been making the rounds on the web: a retro-styled game based on the movie Tremors. Your mouse controls left/right movement and the left click allows you to jump. Each new survivor you gain starts a wave of “Grabboid” attacks and it’s game over if the Kevin Bacon character (the one you start with) gets killed. Just like in the original film!

Play it here: Tremerz

New American Godzilla Film and Giant Japanese Robots in 2012

2010-03-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

From Variety (with thanks to Benjamin for the link!):

"Godzilla" is coming back -- this time, with Legendary Pictures taking the lead, co-producing and co-financing with Warner Bros. for release in 2012.Legendary announced Monday it had obtained rights to the iconic monster character from Japan's Toho Co., which has overseen more than 25 "Godzilla" films. Toho will release the pic in Japan.

Legendary said it's planning to announce a director shortly.

In addition to Legendary, producers on the new film will be Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers. Yoshimitsu Banno, Kenji Okuhira and Doug Davison will exec produce.

"Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise," said Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary. "Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has."

Legendary noted the film will fall under its co-production and co-financing deal with Warner Bros. Legendary's productions with Warners have included "The Dark Knight," "300" and "The Hangover."

Speculation about a new "Godzilla" has been active since last summer. The Bloody Disgusting web site reported in August that the project was in development.

I originally refrained from reporting on this news tidbit a few months back when it was just an internet rumor, but it seems to have become nice and official. I’m a wee bit concerned that Yoshimitsu “Godzilla flying by means of using his atomic breath like a rocket is a good idea and not at all asinine” Banno is attached to the project in executive producer capacity, but I suppose I shouldn’t get too worked up when a director hasn't even been chosen as of yet. The fact that the intention is to create a Godzilla movie that will appeal to fans of the character does fill me with hope, however.

In non-Godzilla-related news, I came across this today:

Looks like somebody really liked the design aesthetic of the Michael Bay Transformers movies- it’s still awfully neat, though. Supposedly, this is only test/teaser footage for a proposed “Gaiking” movie by director Matthew Gratzner and F/X artist Jules Urbach. The film is also aiming for a release in 2012 with a possible sequel, Shogun Warriors, provided the box office returns are plentiful enough. It’s interesting to note that the American “Shogun Warriors” toy line from the 70’s was comprised of Japanese giant robot characters which all hailed from different anime and manga series- it would not surprise me if this film doesn’t end up being an adaptation of the original Gaiking animated television show but instead, goes with an entirely new story concept.

SyFy Monster Invasion

2010-03-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

With the upcoming Sharktopus film being the media darling of science fiction/geeky websites over the last few weeks, I wondered if the SyFy Channel would be planning any additional jaunts into giant monster territory with regards to their home-brewed productions. According to a recent news post over at Dread Central.com, the answer is apparently a big, fat “yes”. A list of their upcoming original movies revealed a couple of notable entries.

In the “Possibly Giant-Sized Monsters” category:

Mega Piranha- An unusual alliance tries to stop a mutant strain of giant ferocious piranhas that have escaped from the Amazon and are eating their way to Florida. This film actually premieres next month on Saturday, April 10th. (I’m not certain how “giant” the “giant piranhas” actually are, given that a normal example of said fish is a tad larger than your hand and no- I don’t necessarily believe what’s portrayed in the poster/DVD box cover design above. That might just be a red herring- uh, no pun intended).

Mongolian Death Worm- A treasure hunter who has been searching for a tomb containing Genghis Khan's treasure teams with a humanitarian UN health worker to stop the Mongolian Death Worms, awakened by experimental oil drilling in the Mongolian desert. Premieres Saturday, May 8th (Again, I don’t know if the film’s interpretation of the infamous cryptozoological critter is going to make them larger than their purported size, but it’s entirely possible).

Lake Placid 3- In this sequel, a game warden, his wife and their young son move into their aunt's cabin on Lake Placid, where the lonely boy starts feeding baby crocodiles he views as pets. Three years later, the crocs start looking at him and his family as their food (The original movie featured a larger-than-normal crocodile, so it might be the same case with this newest entry).

In the “Definitely Giant-Sized Monsters” category:

Camel Spiders- Giant Iraqi camel spiders on the rampage.

Behemoth- A global disaster releases a large prehistoric creature from a snowy mountain range.

Frost Giant- Dean Cain battles a giant unfrozen Nordic frost giant (Is it wrong that I’m rooting for the monster in this one?).

Source: Dread Central.com

Radioactive Dinosaur Comix

2010-03-11T21:36:00.000-08:00

Here’s a neat little comic blog I stumbled upon recently which pretty much delivers what its title promises. The site has only just started up, so its too early to tell yet if a deeper story is waiting in the wings or if the series is merely a visual exercise in chronicling the actions of a giant theropod as it flattens various urban sprawls. I’m good either way. Go here for more:

Radioactive Dinosaur Comix

Separated at Birth?

2010-02-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Random observation of the day: is it just me or does the Kraken from the upcoming Clash of the Titans remake bear more than a passing resemblance to Orga, the alien monster from Godzilla 2000?

The Kraken 2.0:

Orga:

I’m sure it’s just a weird coincidence (Kraken sketch source: Dread Central). Perhaps if a battle with Godzilla could be arranged, we’d know for certain.

The Deal with Dinoshark

2010-02-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

Normally, I don’t bother to cover stuff that has been thoroughly covered by Undead Backbrain or Robo Japan, but since I had been recently talking about Roger Corman’s Dinoshark film, I figured I’d post the one publicity shot of the creature that’s been circulating around the net as of this past week.

Truthfully, the design is not at all what I was expecting. I assumed, from the name, that the monster would be along the lines of a Tyrannosaurus with shark features; something that could chase people around on land AND in the water (basically, the Dinocroc again). Touché, Corman- you threw me a bit of a curveball, there.

The plot of the movie, as revealed by Corman himself on io9:

Global warming causes the glaciers to break apart. We start the picture with real beautiful shots of the glaciers falling into the ocean. The unborn egg of the Dinoshark that has been frozen for millions of years is released.

Is it just me or are the Arctic and Antarctic circles a minefield of trouble waiting to happen? There seems to be a reoccurring theme in giant monster films wherein something horrible thaws out of an iceberg and then goes to town on humanity. A strong message for environmental conservation as I’ve ever heard. Dinoshark makes its SyFy Network premiere on March 13th.

Cencoroll

2010-02-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I reported on a “home brew” (i.e., mostly the effort of a single, incredibly determined animator) anime short film called Cencoroll- the story of a girl and a boy and his pet shapeshifting blob monster. I was delighted and surprised to discover that the finished product had been recently uploaded to YouTube and with English subtitles to boot. As is always the case with YouTube videos, enjoy it now before it gets yanked.

Shark + Octopus + Corman = Daikaiju?

2010-02-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, io9.com reported that the SyFy Channel has apparently greenlit the film Sharktopus. The movie will be directed by Roger Corman, who- waitaminute... Corman? Wasn’t he working on a production called Dinoshark? Has that been finished yet? Does this mean we’re eventually going to see a Sharktopus vs Dinoshark film (following the pattern set by the upcoming Dinocroc vs Supergator)?

Admittedly, Sharktopus is not much more than a title and a vague idea at this point in time, according to io9 article. The picture at the head of this post is some concept art by a fellow named Matt Leach but it may not represent the final design of the creature or even how big it will be, for that matter; it’s entirely possible that the monster might end up being human-ish sized. That would be a shame.

And to Karen O’Hara, director of the SyFy Channel’s original movies- if you’re willing to produce a movie about a half-shark, half-octopus beastie, might I perhaps interest you in a little idea called Dinobear? Half-bear, half-dinosaur... just throwing it out there...

Robot 13, Issue Three

2010-02-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

I had a pleasant surprise waiting in my email inbox today in the form of some preview pages from the third issue of Robot 13: the “amnesiac, skull-headed robot verses giant monsters” comic book. The release date is March 10th but if your local comic store is run by elitist jerks, you can always order a copy from the publisher’s website.

I wish that Hollywood would make a movie version of this thing already.

DVD Review: Ultraman (The Complete Series)

2010-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

Hey there, Ultraman... sometimes I feel as if I owe you an apology. Despite my fixation with the giant monster genre, I never really embraced your franchise in any sort of significant capacity. While I do have a working knowledge of your various television incarnations and rogues gallery of enemy monsters, I’ve never actually sat down and watched any of your series from beginning to end. I don’t even have a decent reason for this, either. Perhaps it’s simply because you were never ingrained into my psyche back when I was a wee, impressionable lad- the original 60’s program actually aired in North America back in the seventies, but not on any of the channels where I lived.

As it turns out, one of my Christmas gifts this past year was a DVD set of the very first Ultraman series, thus ridding me of an excuse to not finally get acquainted with the show. All the same, this was a somewhat tricky review to write because, well- it’s a children’s show from the '60s. The episodes are pretty formulaic and the special effects are exactly what you’d expect from a television-budgeted production from that era. That being said, I did find it entertaining all the same.

The story for the uninitiated: in the distant, futuristic world of the (ahem) 1990s, marauding giant monsters and invading aliens are commonplace enough to warrant the creation of the Science Patrol- an international defense organization whose members are outfitted with all manner of high-tech gadgetry and vehicles. Shin Hayata, a Japanese Patrol agent, is out investigating the appearance of flying spheres of energy when one crashes into his ship, completely destroying it. The end.

Well, not quite. The UFO is actually a method of transport for a gigantic being from space named “Ultraman”. To atone for the accident, the alien merges his life essence with Hayata’s, reviving him from the brink of death and leaves him with handheld cylindrical device called the Beta-Capsule. By pushing a button on the top of said mechanism, Hayata can transform into Ultraman whenever the need arises (although the change seems to be more akin to the two switching places). However, because the Earth’s atmosphere is not terribly compatible with Ultraman’s extraterrestrial physiology, he can only do his thing for a few minutes before his energy levels extinguish.

Most episodes tend to follow a strict formula of the Science Patrol coming across an alien or monster and failing to deal with the problem until Hayata finally becomes Ultraman and disposes of the threat. This repetition is to be expected of a kid’s program, but at the very least the series had the common sense to mix around the motivations of the various creatures for variety instead of a slew of enemies that were evil just for the sake of it. In fact, to be brutally honest, the monsters are real stars of the show. Ultraman himself? There’s really not much to him. He’s sort of like Superman; so all-powerful that he ends up being rather uninteresting. In the few instances where the monster of the week didn’t go down like a sack of potatoes during the climactic fight, I was actually thankful for the break in convention.

While the effects work is pretty representative of low-budget, rubber suit techniques, the show does deserve props in terms of raw ambition; the sheer amount of costume and miniature work (even with the obvious production shortcuts) was something that most American sci-fi shows being made around the same time weren’t even remotely attempting.

Overall, the DVD picture quality was passable at best (noticeable video resolution “lines” appear whenever stuff starts moving around quickly), but the English version audio track was downright awful in terms of audio quality. Perhaps a decent quality version was unavailable but after a few episodes, I switched over to the Japanese track and watched the rest of the set with subtitles.

So now that I’ve had a taste for the show, will I be seeking out more? Hard to say. Although I found all the various daikaiju and fighting to be fun romp, it didn’t take long for the repetitiveness of the stories to start wearing thin on me, so I don’t think that sitting through any of the sequels at this point in time would further endure me to the series as a whole. I suspect that my enjoyment of the character may simply remain along the lines of conceptual appreciation more than anything else, but that opinion may very well change with time. My brain is funny like that.

Three and a half out of five.

Science Patrol

2010-01-27T21:14:00.001-08:00

A teaser for a forthcoming post...

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 8)

2010-01-18T20:20:00.001-08:00

Some new giant monster-themed artwork for your eyeballs: the first new issue of Space Magazine Uchusen for 2010 features a trio of paintings based around the film Son of Godzilla.

Choose Your Own Dragon Adventure

2010-01-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

Here’s a cute little text-based game I stumbled across on io9.com today: Choice of the Dragon is an online throwback to the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books from the 80’s wherein you assume the role of a fire-breathing, princess-abducting dragon. The choices you make as the story unfolds will not only determine whether your creature is a cunning, aloof fiend or a hateful engine of destruction, but your level of prominence in the surrounding kingdom and the size of your treasure horde as well. No graphics to be found here, mind you; this is strictly old school, use-your-imagination-you-lazy-kids territory. Play it here:

Choice of the Dragon

Christmas Time!

2009-12-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well, my little monsters, it’s that time of year again. I’m going to take a little egg nog break until January, so in the meantime, have a good holiday season. See you all in 2010!

Giant Humans Attack!

2009-12-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

One of today’s posts from io9 website featured these amusing giant monster parody posters, which were commissioned by the Center for Migratory Species and the United Nations Environment Programme. The ad campaign’s theme is to raise awareness of humanity’s negative impact on animal species.

Movie Review: Chaw

2009-12-14T21:49:00.000-08:00

To be perfectly blunt: The Host, this ain’t. When I first heard about the Korean giant killer boar movie Chaw, I had hopes that it would follow more closely in the cinematic footsteps of the aforementioned film than, say, the unsatisfying D-War: Dragon Wars. While it might be unfair to compare the two, it’s kind of perplexing how a movie like Chaw can be made after something genuinely decent like The Host and yet, seemingly learned nothing from it.

Police officer Kim Kang Su is hoping for a change of pace from his stressful existence in Seoul when he is transfered to a quiet, forest village but arrives just in time to be assigned to a case involving the discovery of the dismembered remains of a young girl. The girl’s grandfather, an retired hunter, is convinced that the perpetrator is actually a wild boar with a taste for people. Before long, the entire community becomes focused on finding the creature, unaware that it’s an even greater problem than they initially suspected.

Before I go any further with this review, I should mention that the DVD copy I watched was a Chinese version with spotty english subtitles, so a lot of the plot details ended up lost in a sea of lousy translation. Unfortunately, this also proved to be particularly problematic with regards to the humor in the film, as Chaw is meant to be an intentional horror/comedy outing. I can’t help but wonder if my final opinion is somewhat tainted by the fact that I missed out on a lot of the jokes- well, the dialogue-based ones, anyway. Nonetheless, it was pretty obvious where the film would dip into lighter moments and, to be truthful, I simply found it more forced rather than funny whenever it did.

And therein lies my key problem with Chaw: it’s as if the filmmakers seemingly couldn’t decide on what to do with regards to both tone and content. The story alone felt like it could have used some trimming in terms of the number of characters and weird little subplots that just end up going nowhere. All the extra fat in the script might also explain why the killer boar itself is barely in the movie for the first hour; when it finally does show up, it’s only for a brief sequence before disappearing again for another twenty minutes until the movie’s climax. Be it for reasons of room or budget, the creature’s absence probably wouldn’t have bothered me as much if its threat was a little more omnipresent. Even as the various characters wander around in the woods (particularly during that first hour), it never really feels as if the boar could come barreling out of the shadows at any given moment.

On the special effects end of the spectrum, the CGI (and occasionally animatronic) work used to portray the boar is decent for the most part, especially considering that the film had nowhere near the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster. Granted, computer-generated fur still has a little ways to go in terms of being 100% convincing (unless you’re able to throw tens of millions of dollars at it), but at the least the movie had the sense to keep most of the boar sequences in low light to help hide the shortcomings.

To sum things up, if you’re looking for a monster romp, you might want to look elsewhere. The imbalance of humor and horror in Chaw didn’t quite gel with me, even though I firmly believe that the two genres can be successfully merged together (as in the case of Tremors, for example). I think the biggest problem was that I went into the movie expecting a main course of monster pig but instead got servings of lame duck humor- that’s not a decent meal in my book, unfortunately. Two and a half out of five.

Trap Master

2009-11-19T20:04:00.001-08:00

Here’s a weird little desktop defense-style game I found recently; you take control of a dungeon-dwelling creature out to protect its “Doom Chest” from an onslaught of angry villagers (should they manage to destroy said item, the game is over). Your monster can move freely around the area to either blast away the interlopers or chow down on them to renew its energy. Clearing out the level of intruders earns money which can be used for upgrades or to purchase contraptions that will slow down or damage the enemy units.

Be forewarned; things get considerably hectic with each subsequent, ever-increasing wave of attackers. I didn’t last very long before the villagers made hamburger out of my Doom Chest, but I fully admit to being lousy at games like this. Perhaps you might fare better.

Play it here: Trap Master

Movie Review: Wyvern

2009-11-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

Being a citizen of the Great White North and only a basic cable television subscriber to boot, I have no access to the American Sci Fi (Sorry- SyFy) Channel or its home-brewed films aside from reading online reviews or what occasionally makes its way into the video rental shelves up here. However, while I am aware that there have been a couple of forays into giant monster territory, my urgency in seeking out these movies has always been dulled by the fact that they’re somewhat notorious for being... well, bad. Still, being a fan of this genre nowadays often means that you simply take what you get whenever new films occasionally appear and as I sat down to watch Wyvern, I fully expected a repeat experience of Dinocroc: a lackluster movie that features an otherwise a neat-looking monster on its DVD cover.

Surprisingly, I was wrong in my assumption; all things considered, Wyvern is actually an okay giant monster film.

Keep in mind that I used the word “okay” and not “great”. If anything, the movie’s weakest point is that it’s yet another entry in the horror-comes-to-a-small-town formula that has been recycled endlessly since Jaws and firmly subscribes to all of its cliches. Central protagonist is a charismatic outsider? Check. Initial monster attack casualty dismissed as something pedestrian? Check. Planned town social event goes ahead despite warnings that doing so will put everyone participating in danger? Characters learn that if the monster isn’t stopped, the scope of its threat will become even more disastrous? Check. In an earlier version of this review, I had planned to include a plot synopsis but to be honest, it really isn’t necessary. If you’ve seen Jaws, Tremors, Bats, Arachnophobia, Piranha or any of a number of similar movies, this thing basically goes through all the same motions only with sightly different characters.

So what did I enjoy about the film, exactly? For one, unlike most straight-to-DVD release of this kind, the headlining creature of the film- the entire point of why I’m watching the movie in the first place- spends a surprisingly decent amount of time on-screen. No skulking in the shadows or only showing up in full view during the final minutes of the film- the wyvern is in plain sight throughout. Furthermore, the computer animation is actually pretty good as the monster moves around with a nice sense of weight, even when airborne. Refreshingly, the story also opts to give the wyvern a mythological slant to its origin; although the concept doesn’t really go anywhere aside from being used as a fanciful theory for the monster’s existence, it is a nice change from the overused “escaped, bio-genetic military experiment” explanation that currently seems to be in vogue with films of this kind.

Overall, Wyvern can be best described as “competent”; in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a particularly significant entry in the genre but in terms of what it sets out to do, it does adequately. All things considered, that’s more than what could be said of many of the straight-to-DVD giant monster movies nowadays. Three out of five.

King Kong: The Happier Ending

2009-10-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

I came across this fun little entry on the blog of Pete Von Sholly, a feature film storyboard artist, comic creator and monster enthusiast who put together a conceptual sequence of how Kong might have survived his adventure in New York and then returned to his island home. Of course it doesn’t pack the emotional punch of the film’s original ending, but it’s a neat creative exercise all the same. You check out the entire post here:

Vonshollywood: Kong Lives!

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 7)

2009-10-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

The fall 2009 issue of Space Magazine Uchusen pays tribute to Toho’s 1968 daikaiju-fest, Destroy All Monsters. Curiously, the artist has portrayed the monsters that, in the original film, had only appeared via stock footage (Baragon, Varan) or in a bit role (Manda) as active participants in the climactic fight with King Ghidorah. Neat!

Monsters Selling Stuff: Air Fresheners

2009-10-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

Ah, Japan. We can always count on you to take a simple commercial about charcoal air fresheners and package it in an Ultraman-like context (translation note: the Japanese writing on the monster’s stomach means “smelly”).

Monsters vs Pumpkins

2009-09-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

Next month on NBC, the characters from Monsters vs Aliens will return in a Halloween-themed television special, Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space. I suspect that this might be an exercise in “testing the waters” to see if a TV series (which has been considered) or theatrical sequel would be worth the trouble, as Dreamworks’ faith in the property was shaken when the film fell short of expectation in terms of its overseas box office performance (particularly in parts of Europe). The title alone for the special makes me wonder if the plot will be a parody of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or a lighter take on The Day of the Triffids. Something akin to the unused, original ending of the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors would be pretty awesome:

More Monstrous Music

2009-09-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

A little while back, I was contacted by composer T. Reed with some information about one of his music projects, “Kaijusonic”; electronic soundscapes designed to evoke the spirit of classic giant monster films. You can check out an example of one of his works, “Mecha vs. Monster IV” inserted into a sequence from The Terror of Mechagodzilla over here on this YouTube video (it’s embedding-disabled, otherwise I’d post it here). For something that wasn’t composed specifically to the footage, the music inadvertently synchs up pretty well to imagery onscreen.

This particular song comes across as a more atmospheric version of the Daisuke Yano pieces from the Godzilla: Final Wars soundtrack (which, coincidentally, were also the tracks that liked the most). You can check out some further examples of Reed’s daikaiju-inspired works on his MySpace page: Kaijusonic

Since we’re on the topic of music, I also wanted to post this cool video that I came across called “Kaiju Beach Party”, which features clips from Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster set to the surfabilly song “Black Sand Beach” by The Royal Fingers:

A Pic From “The Host 2: Hit The Road!”

2009-09-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s not the actual title but I couldn’t help it, what with the shot of the creature barreling down what appears to be a highway. Little is really known about the film at this point other than the following bits:

1. The film is apparently a prequel to the original.

2. All the CGI special effects work will be exclusively kept in Korea (unlike the first, which was a co-produced effort).

3. The Korean government will be throwing some considerable dough at the production as funding assistance.

4. The original’s director will not be involved.

5. The script will be helmed by Kang Full, a popular Korean comic artist/writer.

While I really loved The Host and the idea of a cinematic follow-up, I’m a little torn about it being a prequel. If you’ve seen the first movie, you know how the “Gwoemul” isn’t exactly a subtle predator whenever it takes hunting excursions onto dry land. So we’re going to have a story that takes takes place before the first with the same giant creature (possibly more than one, according to some rumors floating around) going on a brazen killing rampage that is completely forgotten about by the time the events in the first movie come around. Hmmm.

I suppose that I really shouldn’t cast any dispersions before I see the final, finished film- I guess that it just comes down to nervous jitters over the continuation of a movie that I greatly enjoyed.

Source: Twitch

Uchusen Daikaiju Art (Part 6)

2009-08-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

For your viewing discretion, the latest Toho monster art pieces from the summer 2009 edition of Space Magazine Uchusen.

Movie Review: Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus

2009-08-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

If there’s a lesson to be learned from Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus, it’s that expectation is the bugbear of common sense. It’s not as if Asylum, the company responsible for the film, has any sort of reputation beyond rushing low budget, straight-to-DVD Hollywood knockoffs to video store shelves (Transmorphers, anyone?), so there was already a heathy amount of skepticism present when the film was first announced. Yet, all it took was a trailer with one fleeting shot of a gigantic shark jumping out of the water at an airliner (as seen from the a P.O.V. of a passenger from inside the plane) to replace my doubt with cautious optimism that the movie might, at the very least, be a fun romp with lots of over-the-top giant monster goodness.

Whoops.

Here’s the thing: if you’ve watched the trailer (look it up on YouTube- it’s been posted a few times by different people), you’ve pretty much most of the good bits from Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus in their respective entireties. I can’t help but suspect that the film’s undoubtedly low budget probably had a lot to do with why the starring monsters are barely in the movie, but it’s still vexing to sit through scene after scene of uninteresting human characters talking about said giant shark and octopus instead of actually seeing them.

The plot is pretty straightforward stuff: a military operation involving a sonar transmitter near Alaska causes the destruction of a glacier which frees a prehistoric shark and octopus that had been trapped inside it. The two beasts swim away and immediately get busy wreaking havoc; the octopus demolishes an oil drilling platform off the coast of Japan, while the shark goes on an eating spree. Concerned oceanographer Emma MacNeil suspects that something is amiss when the mangled corpse of a whale washes up on a California beach, despite her superior’s assumption that the wounds are merely the result of a boat propeller. Emma revisits the site later that evening and discovers the fragment of a gigantic shark tooth embedded in the carcass. She secretly smuggles the item back home and consults with her old mentor, Lamar Sanders. The two mix colorful chemicals and run a computer scan on the tooth to learn that... it is indeed a tooth. They are soon contacted by a Japanese scientist, Dr. Seji Shimada; along with some video footage taken of the glacier when it shattered, the trio come to the realization that two enormous prehistoric sea monsters have been let loose into the oceans.

In the meantime, the mega shark decides to catch up to the octopus in terms of human body count and takes out a commercial airliner and U.S. naval destroyer. Having run out of ideas, the military forcibly enlists the aid of Emma, Lamar and Seji to come up with a way to stop the creatures. The scientists comply, but only under the terms that the creatures are subdued without being killed so as to preserve them for study. The three get to work mixing chemicals, but can’t seem to come up with any decent ideas. A sexual rendezvous in a janitor’s closet between Emma and Seji inspires the two with a plan to use chemical pheromones in order to attract the creatures to specific locations in order to contain them. More chemicals are mixed together. Unfortunately, things do not work out quite as intended; the shark eludes an attack from a battleship then takes a bite out of the Golden Gate Bridge while the octopus destroys Tokyo bay (well, we’re told the latter, anyway- the audience never actually gets to see anything). Since doing things the humane way just isn’t cutting it, the characters decide that the best thing to do would be to attract the two monsters to a mutual location so that they can finish up their battle from a few million years earlier.

As to whether you’ll enjoy Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus or not is really going to come down to a mixture of your mood, expectation and level of inebriation. In my particular case, I was a little bored, hopeful that the craziness seen in the trailer was reflective of the actual film and stone-cold sober. It probably explains why I didn’t care much for it. A big problem here is that the film is- to put it bluntly- dull. At times, I almost felt like I wasn’t watching a giant monster movie so much as seeing an exercise in padding. Notice during the plot synopsis that I kept mentioning how the characters continuously indulge in bouts of mixing chemicals? Those sequences go on just long enough to make you wonder if the filmmakers were desperate to meet the movie’s running time and used every cheap trick they could to accomplish it. In two separate sequences, a naval vessel attempts an attack on the mega shark which, in turn, destroys the ship: both bits are practically identical to each other, as if someone had literally photocopied the earlier portion of script, changed the words “destroyer” to “battleship” and switched in new characters.

Acting-wise, Debbie (sorry- “Deborah”) Gibson is one of the better players in the cast, which really isn’t saying much. The actor playing her mentor tries his best at a Scottish (?) accent that is so inconsistent and distracting, it’s kind of a wonder why he even attempted to begin with. Former daytime soap star Lorenzo Lamas, who plays the obnoxious government official Allan Baxter, is just downright painful to watch; even for someone who is hamming up his performance. At least, I’m assuming that he was purposely acting over-the-top. It would be frightening to consider the possibility of what’s seen in the finished film is a legitimate effort on Lamas’ part.

Special effects-wise, the CGI runs a gambit between competent and lackluster. The animators seemed to have trouble wrapping their heads around the concept that if something is supposed to be immense, it doesn’t zip around as if weightless. In many of the shots which involved the mega shark swimming along, the creature is swishing its tail back and forth like a guppy, completely undermining any sense of scale. Odder still, this same problem extended to the non-monster stuff, such as the military submarines, which also exhibited unbefitting amounts of speed and agility. And one little note to the film’s director- while blatantly recycling shots of the two monsters during their climactic fight may be easier on the film’s budget, it’s practically the filmic equivalent of flipping the bird to the audience.

As I said earlier, perhaps one has to be in the proper frame of mind to enjoy Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus but if you’re really in the mood for a giant monster skirmish, there are better films out there to satisfy that craving. 1 out of 5.

Colossal Kappas and Kong Continuation

2009-07-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across a couple of giant monster movie announcements today while visiting my usual internet haunts: the first is a film adaptation of Kong: King of Skull Island, an illustrated novel which details the events of Skull Island before the events in the original film as uncovered by Carl Denham’s son, Vincent . The meat of the backstory involves an ongoing rivalry between the giant apes of Skull Island and a species of intelligent, carnivorous dinosaur called “death runners”. Admittedly, I’m not much of a fan of prequels, but hey: giant apes verses dinosaurs. I’m willing to put aside my personal bias just on that alone. The weird thing with this movie though, is that Spirit Pictures (the company producing the film) is planning to go the CGI motion-capture route in the same way that The Polar Express and Beowulf were handled. Hard to say how that might go, considering the aforementioned approach sometimes comes off a little cold and uncanny valley-ish in the final product, but at this early stage of things, there’s not much point in fussing over it.

Source: Dread Central

Switching from digital effects to rubber suits and miniature sets, we have the upcoming movie Death Kappa from director Tomoo Haraguchi. Haraguchi, a veteran effects artist who (among other things) handled the creature work on the first two 90’s-era Gamera entries, is approaching this pet project from a very nostalgic angle: his plan is to use only traditional effects to create a tribute of sorts to the “old school” style of Japanese giant monster films.

Twitchfilm.net has posted a video where Haraguchi not only discusses his thoughts behind the movie but you also get a sneak peak of some miniature sets and the design of the kappa monster itself (as well as a drawing of a second daikaiju that also makes an appearance in the film as the kappa’s opponent). I hope this turns out to be a lot of fun as it’s certainly sparked my interest.

And for those of you not versed in Japanese folklore, the kappa is a mischievous water spirit that makes its home in rivers and ponds and preys on unsuspecting passers-by that get too close to water’s edge. Sometimes it merely plays innocent pranks on its intended victims but the creature can also be murderous; dragging people underwater to drown them (one theory is that the legend of the kappa was created as a way to make children wary of playing near water). The most particular feature of the kappa is the top of its head which is indented like a bowl and filled with water. Said water is vital to the monster’s ability to exist on dry land- should it be spilled, the creature becomes helpless. This can be achieved by simply bowing to the kappa and exploiting its etiquette to return the gesture. I wonder if the Death Kappa will have a similar Achilles’ Heel? Hmmm. I can already imagine the movie's ending narration:

"In the end, Kappa’s undoing was not because of the bombs or artillery but, rather, its own stubborn insistence on being polite..."

Who Ya Gonna Call?

2009-07-25T20:49:00.001-07:00

A tip of the hat to blog reader Benjamin for bringing an upcoming Nintendo DS release called Kaiju Busters to my attention. It’s another game that makes use of the Ultraman franchise (although Ultraman himself is absent); in this case, plugging it into something that, at a casual glance, seems to have been inspired by Capcom’s Monster Hunter series.

I did some further digging around online and found out some additional tidbits of info (there’s really not much at this point):

- players can battle alongside three other characters

- 500 different weapons (within nine categories)

- 500 defensive items

- Seven different planets to explore

- Over 40 giant monsters to fight

- More than 300 missions

- Comes with free ham

Okay, so I made that last one up. I’m just making sure that you’re paying attention. Anyhoo, a giant monster-themed game is something that has been long overdue for the DS, so I’ll definitely be picking this one up when it’s released around winter. You can also check out a brief trailer here.

The Flock

2009-07-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Warner Brothers has optioned a movie adaptation of The Flock, a novel by James Robert Smith about a modern day run-in with the descendants of prehistoric, carnivorous birds. The story synopsis, as pulled from the author’s website:

Salutations USA is the ideal town built by Berg Brothers, the studio that for generations produced family films. Constructed on a parcel of the decommissioned site of what was the Edmunds Bombing Range, it is the great studio’s intention to create a place that is what America once was. with room to expand.

But the land beyond Salutations is wilderness- 450, 000 acres protected from development because of its former military status. Other forces struggle against the company for control of those acres. Vance Holcomb, billionaire ecologist wishes to construct a research center, saving the rare habitats. Winston Grisham, retired Marine colonel, wants all parties away, capitalist exploiters and meddlesome tree-huggers alike; he and his militia wish to be left alone. Ron Riggs, Fish and Wildlife officer wants to know what is lurking at the edges of Salutations. And the lawyers slug it out in the Florida courts.

Unknown to most, this backcountry is home to the last population of a creature believed to be extinct: Titanis walleri, a predatory ground bird of saurian form. The creatures, possessed of near-human intelligence, have hidden since the first Native Americans came from the north. With humans on the doorstep knocking to come in, the Flock does not wish to be disturbed.

Could be cool- that is, as long as Hollywood doesn’t wreck it... like having the birds protect their habitat by wimping out and organizing a benefit concert or something. Archeologists have long since determined that a “terror bird’s” preferred method of negotiation was disembowelment; I’m hoping that the movie’s producers don’t forget that fact.

Japanese Park Sculptures = Win

2009-06-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

It’s been kinda quiet around here recently, huh? Unfortunately my life has been rather busy lately and as such, I haven’t had much time to sit down and put together some decent-sized articles for the blog (I’m currently trying to finish up a review for Mega Shark verses Giant Octopus, which should be up before too long). I did come across this little tidbit of awesomeness on the Japanator website which I thought I’d mention here.

It seems that the Japanese have been on a recent kick to produce “life-sized” statues of popular giant anime robots; the first is a 59-foot tall recreation of the popular robot from Mobile Suit Gundam which will stand in Tokyo’s Shiokaze Park for a two-month period starting in July.

Much cooler (I think, anyway) is the proposed Tetsujin 28 statue, which is planned as a permanent fixture of Wakamatsu Park in Kobe as a way to commemorate the achievements of manga creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama. You can actually check out pictures of statue’s various stages of construction on the official website. Very, very neat. I wish we did stuff like this in North America. Don’t tell me that a series of 1:1 scale statues of various Ray Harryhausen monsters adorning public parks wouldn’t be more interesting than the usual fare of historical figures on horseback.

The Last Guardian (a.k.a. “Project Trico”) Screenshots

2009-06-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

It seems that the video game Project Trio that I reported on not too long ago has been given its official title, The Last Guardian. There’s still nothing new in the way of details about the actual gameplay or plot, but Kotaku.com has a bunch of recently-released screenshots to peruse. You can check them out here.

One detail of interest that I didn’t notice in the teaser trailer when I watched it (but can be clearly seen in these new pictures): the cat/griffin thing seems to riddled with arrows. What could that be all about, I wonder? Given that this is a Japanese game, I can’t help but suspect that the creature might have a tragic end waiting for him at the story’s completion...

Dragons and Bears

2009-05-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of upcoming animated movies with giant monster content heading to theaters, although just not anytime soon. First up is Dreamworks’ next 3D feature called How to Train Your Dragon, an adaptation of a children’s novel by author Cressida Cowell. The plot involves a teenaged viking named Hiccup who meets and befriends an injured dragon... which would be less of a problem if Hiccup didn’t live in a village of warriors whose predominant occupation involved battling said monsters. Apparently there have been some concerns from fans of the books that the film is taking some unwanted liberties with the story, such as adding new characters and changing the original plot. I’m sure more of this will come to light when the movie gets closer to its release date of March 2010.

Twitch.com and I09.com both posted a brief news tidbit about an upcoming Danish animated film project, due out in 2011, called The Great Bear. According to the synopsis posted on both sites, the story is about an 11-year old boy named Jonathan, who laments having his younger sister Sophie joining him on his vacation to visit his grandfather. Things get worse when Sophie is spirited away by an ancient, gigantic bear which leaves Jonathan no alternative but to enter the vast forest where the creature live (along with other mythical beasts) in an attempt to rescue her.

Monsters vs Aliens vs Television

2009-05-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

Despite mixed reviews, Dreamworks’ Monsters vs Aliens turned out to be a decent performer in the box office arena (almost 200 million domestically as of this writing, according to Box Office Mojo.com), so it’s no big surprise that the studio has green lit a television pilot for Nickelodeon to air next year. I’d imagine that the expensive celebrity voice talent won’t be used, however. One can only guess what the plot will involve, but it would be nice if the series cooked up some new 50’s B-movie inspired opponents for the characters to face off against. Is an episode featuring a giant mantis too much to ask for? Just sayin’...

Source: Hollywood Reporter.com

Project Trico

2009-05-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here’s a teaser trailer for an upcoming video game by the same folks responsible for ICO and Shadow of the Colossus (two great PS2 games, BTW). There’s not much to go on in terms of what the game is exactly about, but I suspect that it might be an exploration-style adventure in the vein of ICO. The giant baby griffin will probably act as a support character that helps the player reach otherwise unaccessible areas. Nonetheless, color me interested!

I tried (unsuccessfully) embedding both a YouTube and Gametrailers.com video with the original version of this post, but the picture of the former kept getting cut off (I’ve noticed this issue with Blogger ever since YouTube switched over to a widescreen format) and the latter had some sort of HTML code problem and wouldn’t post at all.

Here’s the link to the Gametrailers.com site: Project Trico

And you can view it here in HD: Project Trico on YouTube

More Free Games

2009-05-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of free online games I discovered recently; nothing deep, but good if you need to get rid of a couple of minutes (click on each title to go to said game).

Monster Evolution

Run around and eat hapless stickmen, uh- people in order to change into larger and more versatile forms. Each transformation gives the player a couple of different choices with regards to what kind of monster they can become next.

Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar

A fun but incredibly short game with the aesthetic of a bad 80’s cartoon.. and I mean that in a good way. Needs a longer sequel. ROOOOOOAR!

Proto-Clover, Comics and Punk Music

2009-05-12T19:46:00.001-07:00

Even if you were lukewarm on the Cloverfield movie, this gallery of developmental artwork concerning the film’s monstrous antagonist- courtesy of the movie’s concept designer, Neville Page- is still pretty interesting nonetheless. It seems like the creature was always intended to be a weirdly-jointed, spindly-armed critter, but it’s neat to see some of the earlier versions of its evolution.

Neville Page’s Cloverfield monster gallery

Meanwhile, over in my email’s inbox, I received some promotional material for an upcoming comic book called Robot-13 from Blacklist Studios. The concept is wonderfully nifty: an amnesiac robot with a floating skull for a head goes on a journey of self-discovery while indulging in its relentless compulsion to battle giant monsters that threaten humanity. Sold!

The Robot 13 MySpace page, along with some additional sample pages from the book, can be found here.

Finally, some random web surfing over the weekend unearthed this bizarre but entertaining music video for the song “Ninja High Schooool” by the band Peelander-Z (with help from Kaiju Big Battel).

Book Review: Shambling Towards Hiroshima

2009-05-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

I recently took a job that requires a short commute to and from work and while partaking in public transit is certainly nothing to get excited about, I do relish the opportunity it has given me to catch up on my backlog of reading. The first book I sunk my literary teeth into was the short novel Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow. The plot is both unique and amusing; during the summer of 1945, representatives from the U.S. Navy approach Syms Thorley, a successful B-movie actor, with an unusual proposition. They want Syms to star (by way of donning a rubber suit) in a special film and stage production wherein Japan (by way of a miniature set) is destroyed by the fire-breathing monster, Gorgantis. As it turns out, the American military has actually created giant, mutant lizards and are poised to unleash them onto the unsuspecting Japanese populace: the movie’s true function is to act as a “what if” scenario in order to intimidate the Japan into peacefully surrendering. If Syms’ performance is anything less than convincing, countless innocent civilians will be destroyed in the destructive wake of rampaging, monstrous iguanas.

One point that should be addressed right off the bat about Shambing Towards Hiroshima is that this novel is not about giant monsters per se, but rather, giant monster MOVIES. It's easy to make that assumption, especially given how the synopsis comes across. Yes, there are enormous, dinosaurian lizard creatures in the story, but they’re merely plot devices. The real focus of the novel is the world of sci-fi/horror films; the people that create them, act in them, the fans, the politics and the egos. Morrow is certainly familiar with this particular corner of Hollywood, as references are scattered throughout the story- even some real world filmmakers like Willis O’Brien and Sam Katzman show up in supporting roles.

Shambling moves along at a decent pace and the lead character is a very well-rounded and amusing narrator (the book that we’re reading is basically Syms Thorley’s memoirs). Morrow frequently plays around with the theme of juxtaposing the fantastic against the pedestrian, which really helps to ground and humanize the story; in an amusing reversal, the mundane dilemmas and obstacles surrounding the portrayal of the “fake” monster Gorgantis end up being a more dire threat than the “real” monsters that are ready to destroy Japan.

I suppose that the novel’s biggest problem would be that casual readers not as well-versed in the whole sci-fi/horror film genre probably won’t get as much out the story as those who are up to speed on the jokes and references. It’s also a very short book, although I personally never consider that to be a shortcoming by any stretch (in fact, it helps to ensure that I actually finish reading it to completion before my lousy attention span fixates on something else). That being said, these are minor criticisms at best and in no way undermine an otherwise enjoyable read.

A solid 4 and a half out of 5.