by Moonlight SY-3 » Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:01 am
Getting back to Guilala, I went and saw the movie last Saturday, the day after it opened. There were maybe five people in the theater.
The movie's just OK. If you love Guillala, as I do, it was very cool to see him on the big screen, but as a movie, it doesn't really offer much at all (not that I expected much!). It's much more of a political satire than a kaiju movie, with outrageously stereotypical (and incredibly bad) performances by the foreign actors portraying the leaders of the G8 nations. The typical story of the locals and their protective god Take-Majin was just that: typical. I wont get into the story so as not to spoil anything, but let's just say everything happens simply to support the strained political satire.
I was surprised to see so much stock footage of Guilala used, given that such a cool new suit was created for the production. The new footage of Guilala is entirely shot in a small countryside setting, with various electrical towers brought in to make things look different from shot to shot. We never see the new suit in the city. Guess the budget just wouldn't allow for that! So, if you're looking for a ton of new destructive Guilala action, you won't find it here.
On the plus side, the new suit is excellent! A dead ringer for the original, with excellent detail and proportion. The main differences are that the new deely-boppers are much more rigid, and don't flop around as much as the original's...which is too bad, since that was always one of the original Guilala's charm points. On the other hand, the new Guilala's fingers are very floppy, often painfully flexing backwards at the joints. The only other anomaly with the new suit is that during the film, vision must have become a problem for the suit actor, as huge gaping gashes appear in Guilala's neck, at the actor's eye level. No big whoop; it's a cool suit, and as I said before, it was great to see it on the big screen (that goes for all the stock footage, too!).
Take-Majin was pretty cool, and of course, all Beat Takeshi. If you're not familiar with Beat Takeshi or his gags, a lot of the Take-Majin jokes will be lost on you. "Nechi-koma, nechi-koma..." etc. If you are familiar with his shtick, you'll get a chuckle or two out of that, plus his running commentary when they fight. The Take-Majin suit is a pretty cool design, too.
So yeah, if you like Guilala, see it if you get a chance. In my opinion, it struggles painfully for the politically charged laughs it goes for, and the abject silliness of a lot of the action is sometimes hard to take (the original was silly, to be sure, but at least it was played straight. This one's openly played straight for laughs). But it is Guilala on the big screen, and who can complain about that?
~Brian