Weekly Kaiju Movie Thread #34 (12/30) 8 Movie Mega Marathon!

[klen7]

Just Kidding! We'll end the year like we started, one movie at a time... So let's look back over the year and reflect on our mistakes, and what better way to do that than to vote for a movie from our list of losers.


Monsters (Poll 20)
"A crashed space probe over Mexico changes life as we know it when giant aliens begin to appear. A couple must travel through the dangerous infected zone to get back to the US in this stunning sci-fi epic."



Cloverfield (Poll 18)
Revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people.



The Green Slime (Poll 33 and 25)
A giant asteroid is heading toward Earth so some astronauts disembark from a nearby space station to blow it up. The mission is successful, and they return to the station unknowingly bringing back a gooey green substance that mutates into one-eyed tentacled monsters that feed off electricity. Soon the station is crawling with them, and people are being zapped left and right!



Yongary, Monster from the deep (Poll 4 and 17)
Earthquakes in central Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric gasoline-eating reptile that soon goes on a rampage through Seoul



War of the Gargantuas (Poll 15, 22 and 23)
An experimental lab animal called a gargantua escapes from his captors and is suspected to be the creature that is killing people all over the countryside. But when the gargantua from the lab appears at the same time as the evil gargantua, the two begin to battle across Japan.





Previous Viewings:

Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #01 (05/12) - Son of Godzilla
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #02 (05/19) - Gamera vs. Gyaos
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #03 (05/26) - Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #04 (06/02) - Mothra
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #05 (06/09) - King Kong vs Godzilla
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #06 (06/16) - Varan the Unbelievable
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #07 (06/23) - The Deadly Mantis
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #08 (06/30) - Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #09 (07/07) - Mighty Joe Young
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #10 (07/14) - The Giant Claw
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #11 (07/21) - The Human Vapor
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #12 (07/28) - Gorath
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #13 (08/04) - Secret of the Telegian
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #14 (08/11) - Godzilla's Revenge
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #15 (08/18) - Alligator
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #16 (08/25) - Gunhed
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #17 (09/01) - Godzilla 1985
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #18 (09/08) - Godzilla vs. Gigan
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #19 (09/15) - Space Amoeba
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #20 (09/22) - The Host
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #21 (09/29) - Zaat!
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #22 (10/06) - The Bermuda Depths
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #23 (10/13) - Matango
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #24 (10/20) - Mysterious Island
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #25 (10/27) - Frankenstein Conquers the World
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #26 (11/03) - Caltiki, The Immortal Monster
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #27 (11/10) - Tremors
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #28 (11/17) - Dogora
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #29 (11/25) - Them/Tarantula
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #30 (12/02) - Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends The Movie
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #31 (12/09) - King Kong Escapes
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #32 (12/16) - She Creature (1956)
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #32 (12/23) - Beast from 20,000/Godzilla King of the Monsters

[metal_bryan]

War Of The Gargantuas sounds like a great way to end the year for these threads.

[klen7]

Its bound to win eventually...

Monsters, Yongary, and WotG are available on Netflix Instant last time i checked.

I do LOVE that Green Slime poster, i think I may need to rotate out one of my Godzilla posters and replace it with a Green Slime poster.

[king_ghidorah]

Green Slime because WOTG will surely have its day eventually

[Alpha OTS]

[Henry88]

the Green Slime must grove it's way to the win.

[metal_bryan]

How can we possibly turn down one of the greatest kaiju movies ever made... in the KAIJU VIEWING THREAD... for Green Slime?! HUH?!?!!

YOU BUNCHA POSEURS!!! RABBLERABBLERABBLERABBLE!!!!!!

[Alpha OTS]

Because the Mysterians didn't bother Linda Miller in the last viewing thread, that's why!

[klen7]

[Henry88]

because it is groovy cheese and just plane fun.

[klen7]

I say if WotG can't pull a win here, then we include it in every poll from here on out but never vote for it as a sort of running joke.

[Henry88]

[MekaGojira3k]

[klen7]

Calling it for WOTG!!!

[metal_bryan]

[MekaGojira3k]

[metal_bryan]

[klen7]

[Alpha OTS]

Anyone picking up the next poll baton?

[MekaGojira3k]

Yeah, we're a little late getting started this week. I'm still behind on polls though

[Henry88]

[klen7]

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

So we begin at sea with a pretty cool sequence, which is the thing about this film. I like a lot of the ideas in it. I like The fight here at the beginning. I love things like Gaira looking up at the fisherman, or appearing out of the fog. It's great stuff, but there's a couple of things that make this never quite live up to its potential as a sequel to the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING Frankenstein Conquers the World


I know these screencaps are from the dub, but I watched the Japanese version for the 2nd time ever. I think I prefer it. It makes Russ Tamblyn sound a little more interesting. It also makes some firmer connections between this and Frankenstein Conquers the World. As I said before, the opening is creepy and cool but it lacks that pulp scifi feel of FCTW's opening. Nazi's during WWII obtain and smuggle Frankenstein's heart to Japan, at which point it is immediately irradiated. That's amazing. I think this is a little more subdued (Not that subdued Tamblyn...) and lacks the fun and zaniness of FCTW.


Tamblyn is the weak link. He lacks any of the charm Nick Adams had or even the feigned interest of Rhodes Reason. He just...doesn't seem like he's even awake. It's weird. Sahara is...well, a side character. He's not got much to work with and even Mizuno, who does well, isn't quite up to the level of her previous performances in MZ and FCTW. I have to think it's because Tamblyn sucked all of the great out of the set.


Sanda and Gaira are cool and their fight is a definite highlight, as are the maser attacks on Gaira butttttt the film is basically a less interesting version of FCTW with two of the same monster rather than a kickass burrowing fire breathing Dinosaur. The octopus got a better deal this time 'round, and we get a last minute AND IT'S OVER ending (I prefer FCTW's though). I think I like this film a little bit better than I have in previous viewings, but It's still nowhere near as fun or good as FCTW.

[klen7]

i don't think i am going to get around to screen shots for this... so here is the boring picture-less version for people that like to read.

The Good
Science! - I like that there are scientists trying to reason through the events.

Mazer Tanks! - The things are pretty awesome, the scene in which they are trying to shoot the Gargantua through the trees is really impressive as the trees are getting sheered by the beams


The Bad
Russ Tamblyn - yawn.

The gargantua's suits - these really don't do a lot for me and that hurts the enjoyability of the movie for me... in fact, being color blind i can't tell which one is brown and which one is green... the colors seem to be reversed to me.. which only adds to my confusion at times.. Brown is not Bad, Green is not Good... And since i can't tell who is good and who is bad, I actually get bored during their big fight, so the ending, though abrupt, is a welcome release for me.

Overall there are aspects of this film that i respect and enjoy, but it will probably be another 5-10 years before i revisit it

2.5 / 5