Weekly Kaiju Movie Thread #63: Oooh, Options!

[eabaker]

Okay, watched Eye of the Tiger over the weekend, and it remains solidly my least-favorite Harryhausen fantasy flick. I never feel the slightest tension, I'm not concerned about or interested in the characters (even the great Patrick Troughton doesn't get to have any real fun with his part), Patrick Wayne in partcular is like a charisma void (huge step down from John Phillip Law, and without even the basic nice-guy appeal of Kerwin Matthews), and the villains spend most of the movie sitting on a boat. The Minoton is built up as a one-monster army, but he basically spends the whole movie rowing, moves a big stone, and then gets crushed for his efforts, never really serving any purpose that couldn't have been served by Zenobia using a magic rowing spell and a magic telekinesis spell. In fact, none of the creatures (except the baboon) really serves much of a purpose (though the Trog could have, had he entered into the story earlier and been a more active participant), and the fight scenes aren't good enough to make up for their relative irrelevance.

[Henry88]

a good time to take a break this week and besides next week is the one year anniversary of the second most active poll.


viewtopic.php?f=39&t=19047

[Alpha OTS]

Watched this last night. This is definitely the least best of the Harryhausen Sinbad Trilogy. I'm not completely sure exactly why. It has all the ingredients for a solid adventure, but it just doesn't quite gel like the other movies.

First off is Sinbad. He's pretty much a non-character in that he doesn't control any of the narrative. He's pretty much just along for the ride. I'd even posit that Malantheus is more of a protagonist than Sinbad is.

Then there's some of the plot inconsistencies, or things that just don't have any weight. We're told repeatedly that the baboon Kassim needs to be locked up because he's becoming too animalistic, but he never is. Then there's the ending where the evil queen Zenobia tells her beloved son to directly attack a *GROUP* of good guys to kill Malantheus, and he quite obviously fails. I'm still not sure what her plan was there. Which leads into eabaker's complaint above, there's a build up of confrontation against the Queen, her son, and the Minoton that never pays off. The sabretooth battle is cool, but this occurs pretty much after the heroes main achievement.

Lastly there's the Harryhausen creatures which is the reason we're really watching. The design and animation on them is fantastic, but the problem is that the majority of the time these creatures are simply walking. The Trog, the baboon, and the Minoton spend most of their time walking or doing mundane uninteresting actions.



I do like that we can see the beginnings of Calabos from Clash of the Titans in the troglodyte. The walrus battle is decent, and on this viewing I actually liked the summoned demons that Sinbad and friends fought at the beginning of the movie.


We're just here to hook up your component RGB cables, we promise!

Btw, Jane Seymour is simply scrumpscious in this.

Who's Linda Miller?

I did enjoy watching it again, like I have before. However, it's just as obvious now that this isn't only a weak Sinbad movie, but its a weak fantasy movie when compared to the rest of the Harryhausen library.

I guess we're taking this week off. O.Supreme has the next poll if he wants it, if not, may I suggest a Thunderdome event amongst the other members for the honor of hosting the Zaat Anniversary Poll?

[Henry88]

perhaps PM him.

[Alpha OTS]

[Henry88]

[eabaker]

I'm game, though I may not have a set of options assembled until tomorrow.

EDIT: I thake that back. While waiting for some long video files to import, I easily had time to think of my choices. Thread coming soon!

[Alpha OTS]

Dang it! I had Tina Turner all ready to sing!