Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales

At Bookgasm, Rod Lott gives a good review to Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, an anthology of stories in the spirit of Japanese kaiju eiga. Lott enjoys the book and says

"But from there, all bets are off, as the book constantly surprises. Unlike the all-formula movies from which these stories draw their inspiration, you never know what you’re going to get."

I bought the book when it came out and have been meaning to write about it for a long time now. I still haven't finished it, I just dive into it and enjoy from time to time. The stories are mostly high quality. The writers are serious about the idea, even when they use it for humorous purposes. I've been very pleased with it. The book is a creation of Robert Hood and I urge you to check out his page for the anthology [sorry, dead link], where he announces that Prime Books will be publishing a sequel [sorry dead link]. I can't wait. Also on the site, check out Hood's earlier giant monster story "Watching a Giant Monster Trash a City" and read about the movie version [another dead link]. There's also a few other goodies like The Drakenswode Correspondence [dead link] and An Unnatural History of Giant Monsters [dead, dead, dead]. The anthology is great fun for all giant monster fans, go buy it now!

The Monster that Challenged the World

I was going to go into a long description of this film and its narrative, but Exclamation Mark has already done a terrific job and hit most of the points I would have brought up. So instead, I'd ask that you look at his review and then come back for a few of my thoughts on the film. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Back? Good review, no?

First, the filmmakers chose an interesting setting for the movie, mysterious in its own right. The Salton Sea started as a basin, a prehistoric leftover of the once world-covering ocean. The basin was once the site of mining and a small town. Both were submerged after floods at the beginning of the 20th century. (All this information gleaned from Wikipedia.) The movie, in the opening voice over, points out the prehistoric origins. The Sea is also a good setting because it sits amid a desert. We get a sense of the place's isolation and are reminded of the desert settings of "Them," the template for all these giant bug movies. (The map seen here is stolen from the Notes from the Road Web site.)

The prehistoric origins and the earthquake seem to be the origin of the monster. In fact, the scientist goes out of his way to dispute the notion that radioactivity tests had anything to do with it. And that's a strange point, because later we find out that the monster's saliva is significantly more radioactive than the surrounding water. Yet the point is never broached again. Was the monster revived thanks to radiation? Or did the movie makers decide that a giant monster just had to have radioactivity tied in somehow?

Exclamation Mark points out that the movie is slow, and I agree. It plods along with little forward drive. Even once we know that the hero must destroy the creatures before it finds its way out of the sea, the pace still moves leisurely. This and a need for more monster action really doom this film from repeat viewings. It's just not that entertaining.

But don't blame the actors for that. Lt. Commander John "Twill" Twillinger is made out to be a stickler for Navy regulations. He accepts no walking outside the lines, for whatever reason. Later, we get his softer side as he plays with Gail's child and shows his willingness to forgive errors in the field. It may not have helped viewers like the character, but the choice makes for a far more three-dimensional character than in many other giant monster movies.

And the same goes for almost all the other characters. From the archives guy obsessed with a defeated proposition to a gatekeeper shooing away kids, everybody has his own personality. It's too bad they weren't in a faster paced film.



The monster design wasn't bad. Though they say it's a snail at one point and it sure doesn't look like one. It's got hard skin, mandibles and little arms. It's a bug of some kind, not a snail.

We never see more than the top of the creature. It has a long cylindrical body and we have to assume it has a shell just out of sight, since later we see the creatures hiding in their shells.

The monster's eyes are probably its best asset. They make the monster look like something from the cover of an old pulp science fiction magazine. Science fiction and fantasy author Dave Duncan wrote the story behind the script. Here's a nice paragraph about the film from this Turner Classic Movies site:

The Monster That Challenged the World was shot in sixteen days on a budget of $200,000 and reportedly Holt suffered a broken arm during one of the film's action sequences. According to co-producer Arthur Gardner in Science Fiction Movie Stars and Horror Heroes by Tom Weaver, "The mollusk monster was conceived by us and executed by a very good special effects man named Augie Lohman. Augie went on from that picture to do many, many famous special effects films (Barbarella, 1968). The monster stood around ten feet high, and the exterior was made of fiberglass. All the movements were controlled by Augie and two assistants - it took three men to operate it. It worked with a series of air pressure values. I believe it cost around $15,000 to build, and weighed about 1,500 pounds."

This is one movie where I could see a modern remake actually being worthwhile. If they maintained the design, but gave it a mobility boost, kept the interesting characters and added better pacing, this could be a great fun film. With a modern budget, you could even play out the great warning the scientist offers: "Can you imagine an army of these things descending upon one of our cities?" Yes I can, and it would be marvelous.

Anyway, the film is certainly worth a watch. However, it's not something I'll be seeking out again.

Gorgo No. 15: The Land that Time Forgot

(This follows is the second in my posts about Charlton's giant monster comic books, written by Joe Gill.)


The story comes straight from the pages of Edgar Rice Burroughs, so much so it even steals the title of one of his books. But let's call it an homage, rather than a theft.

The story is almost certainly written by Joe Gill, but I'm a little unsure about the artist. Steve Ditko famously drew most of these comics, but this one looks very different from No. 3. Also, in No. 3 Ditko's name was right there on the splash page. No such signature here. Looking over this checklist, I only see issues #1, 4, 11, 13, 16, 18 listed, but No. 3 was definitely a Ditko issue. So we'll have to leave it a mystery for now. If anyone has further information, leave a message in the comments.

All right, on with the story. After a splash page depicting a scene we'll get to later, we start off "many years ago" as young Professor Carl Engstrom hears about a place in the African jungle where dinosaurs still live. He decides not to go, despite his interest, because of his wife and child. But his wife convinces him otherwise and they head off to unexplored African jungles where dinosaurs are expected to live. Do you see where this is going?

Of course, their "fella boys" (I assume this is some kind of slang for the black natives) jump ship as soon as they near the "land that time forgot" and Engstrom thinks they should turn back. His wife, once again, convinces him otherwise. Three days later, they see dinosaurs along the shore and they decide to head into the jungle. They are set upon by natives, Engstrom is knocked out and left behind.

Here we have a great transition between pages. At the bottom of page 5 (seen here), we get an image of Engstrom moving through the jungle and finding his wife. We don't see the wife, we only see a stressed out Engstrom's shocked face set against vines and flowers. On the top of the next page, we get a different image of Engstrom standing before a handmade wooden cross, behind him is an empty field.

He buries her body and searches for his daughter.

"But his search was in vain and finally, exhausted, mentally and physically, heartbroken and without hope, he left that land of death that time had forgotten..."

And with that, the prologue ends and we get our first glimpses of the title hero/villain. Gorgo and Orga (his mother) are swimming up river into the African jungle. On the way, they apparently fight a giant squid for food. Engorged, the duo falls asleep on the river bottom. But Gorgo, being the energetic youth that he is, swims to the surface to check things out. He smells "the odor of creatures of his own kind" and decides to go ashore.

And now, we see what has become of Engstrom. He's a bitter old professor kicking out a student for "wasting my time and yours." This student, Jay Conners, is expecting it, however, and says he's taking a vacation. Engstrom then heads off for a meeting that has been on his thoughts.

He meets a wounded explorer at the Explorers Club (what, your town doesn't have one?). It's the same place Engstrom heard about the land of dinosaurs at the beginning of the story. The adventurer tells consistent rumors of a white goddess have come out of the jungles. Also, talking about how the information got to him, the adventurer mentions this:

"No! Even the natives shun the place! You know the stories ... about prehistoric men and beasts! The other natives got their information through some mental telepathy of their own ... very strange but always true! That's all I can tell you about it, old chap!"

Telepathic natives. Fascinating! And yet this is the only mention of it. I guess telepathy comes in handy when it's hard to get a plot point to your hero.

Engstrom heads off to Africa, hoping this white goddess will be his long lost daughter. The first person he meets in Africa is his student Jay Conners who is there for his vacation, a hunting trip in Africa. The two go their separate ways, Engstrom up river and Conners through the jungle.

We follow Conners until his native baggage handlers run away. Conners, smarter than Engstrom's wife, decides he'll need to turn back. But just as he starts, he sees Gorgo tearing up trees and heading inland. So, "almost hypnotized by the adventure," Conners follows the monster into the jungle.

Meanwhile, we turn to Engstrom who is tramping through the jungle. His baggage handlers have also taken off, but Engstrom expected it. He now is hoping to find the natives that once took his wife and child. Sure enough, they come out of the trees and take him, bringing him back to their white goddess.

The white goddess has lived with the natives since she was a baby. And yet, when Engstrom starts speaking to her, calling her Gloria and trying to get her to remember him, she does! In fact, she even knows some rudimentary English. Wow! What a memory on that kid.

Now the story gets into high gear. A dinosaur attacks! It's kind of a weird looking thing.It's yellow and it's head is like an egg on its side with a mouth. It looks nothing like the more accurate T-Rex on the cover. It still looks like a dinosaur though, and it's angry. The natives decide that their goddess is no longer protecting them, so they have to sacrifice her to "Scaley." Meanwhile, we see that Gorgo's mother has risen from the river in pursuit of her child. There's a funny panel with Orga walking and all the beasts of the jungle running before her to get away. (Sorry, I don't have the editing tools or knowhow to take single panels out.)

Engstrom and daughter are tied to posts, just like on the cover. Scaley hovers over them. It seems they are doomed! That is until Conners arrives in the next panel wielding his shotgun. Engstrom tries to tell Conners that his bullets won't hurt the creature. But Conners, the able hero, says "If I can't stop it, then I can't! Anyway, I'll know I did my best!"

Conners faces Scaley down over the next page. There's one neat panel here. It's taken from the perspective of Scaley's mouth. We see black shadows of teeth above and below (picture that scene in the Empire Strikes Back when the Millenium Falcon escapes the sea slug: "The cave is collapsing." "That's no cave.") and the view below of Conners aiming at the creature. The gunshots annoy the Scaley. Conners' gun jams. It seems they are all doomed.

But then Gorgo arrives. He and Scaley rush at each other. The tremendous noise attracts other monsters and, in a scene that Peter Jackson would love, a total of three Scaleys and one triceratops join the battle. This gives Engstrom, Conners and Gloria time to escape.

On the next page, it's all neatly wrapped up in four panels. Orga joins the fight and tosses the Scaleys aside. The three explorers make it to their boat, where Conners starts hitting on Gloria. And finally we see Gorgo and Orga playing together as they head back to the river. And Conners says:

"I imagine that after they get through with it, there's nothing left of the creatures ... in the land that time forgot!"

Well, this comic book certainly had the thrills. We get Gorgo, dinosaurs and a hidden African land from the prehistoric past. We also get references to ERB, H. Rider Haggard and about a hundred other English lost world stories.

It is odd that none of the people recognize Gorgo. When Conners and Engstrom each see him for the first time, neither recognizes the creature. Which is weird, you'd think a monster that wrecked London (in the movie), New York and a few small Central American countries (early issues of the comic book) would be pretty well known by now. It's weirder because there is definitely a continuity to the stories in the earlier issues.

The art is not Ditko. Gorgo is drawn much skinnier and the T-Rex's are just downright weird. But overall I think it works. And some of the perspectives used are just terrific. The artist adds lots of fun little details in the background and other animals (monkeys hanging over Gorgo's rising form, lions and other creatures fleeing before Orga) are done with humor.

There is, of course, some racism in this story. I think that comes with a lot of these lost world type stories. They basically come straight out of an 19th-century British imperial perspective. Still, it's something that could easily have been removed. One strong African character would have done wonders for this comic.

Having said that, a lost world story is a perfect setting for a Gorgo comic and this one takes full advantage of it. A good fun story in one issue.

Next up will be Fantastic Giants before we get into Konga.

A great film about fungus

ScifiJapan takes a close look at Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People). As they point out, the film can be looked at as an allegory for drugs or capitalism, but it's much more than that. It's a good movie that cares about its characters, even though most of them are unlikeable, and makes the situation feel real, despite the rubber mushroom suits.

It's one of my favorite movies. With this film and Gojira, one can see that Ishiro Honda is a great, and criminally underrated, director.

Also at the link is the full text of William Hope Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night," which was the inspiration for the film. I would also recommend picking up the Matango DVD, which has some great extras including a story read by the screenwriter.

War of the Gargantuas

I caught this classic for the first time on MonstersHD. It's quite something, pure entertainment through and through. I saw the AIP dub of the film, which took some liberties with the Japanese version (which I haven't seen) including really screwing up the soundtrack (it was quite obvious that Ifukube's music had been mostly replaced.) The dubbing also tried to eliminate all mention of "Frankenstein Conquers the World;" the Japanese version of "War of the Gargantuas" continues that story.

The story revolves around two giants, Gaira and Sanda (those names are from the Japanese version, but the AIP version only calls them gargantuas, so there you go.) Gaira starts the movie off with a bang, fighting a giant octopus and then eating the sailors he just saved from the beast. Gaira goes on to attack Japan, attempts to steal a singer and fights the military.

When the military attack, they bring on one of the key weapons of Toho's kaiju films: the Maser cannon. That piece of firepower appears again and again in Godzilla films and plays a crucial role in "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla." And in this movie, the Maser cannon does what the military is unable to do in almost any other Toho film: they actually put harm the monster. Gaira is bloody and beaten during his fight against the Masers. He is only saved by the intervention of Sanda, his brown brother.

Sanda was created from the mix of Frankenstein's monster's heart and the radiation at Hiroshima (at least, that's what created Sanda in "Frankenstein Conquers the World"). Gaira is part of Sanda's flesh that was left behind at sea, somehow regenerating into the people-eating monster.

Sanda takes his brother in and tries to heal him up. But he's outraged when he finds out about Gaira's food of choice. He attacks his brother and they fight across Japan.

That's the basic monster plot line of the movie. Meanwhile, Russ Tamblyn and friends try to come up with ways to defeat Gaira and to save Sanda.

Tamblyn looks sleepy in this film. Tamblyn, over the years, has said he thought of this job as slumming and didn't care much about it. Until recently, he had never actually watched the film. His acting doesn't hurt most of the film, in fact his scientist just comes across as exceedingly calm and put together. The acting only hurts when Akemi's life is threatened toward the end of the film. Tamblyn seems neither concerned nor excited about his girlfriend's peril. In fact, he doesn't seem to care at all for Akemi. I don't think that's what the director wanted.

Gaira running across airports and over lines of tanks looks silly, but so much fun. Despite it still being filmed in Toho's usual slowed down speeds, he seems to fly across the screen, little vehicles scattering to either side. It looks fake, no doubt, but it seems so much fun and so much unlike anything else in the daikaiju canon that I can't help but love it.

The ending of this film is bizarre. It's reminiscent of Rodan, the two creatures ending their lives in the flames of a volcano, one of the creatures doing so heroically. But where it fit naturally in Rodan, it doesn't fit at all here. In the last 10 minutes of the film, the volcano suddenly appears in the water, where the two are already fighting, and they end up falling into it. It seems purposeless, it seems as if the scriptwriter just had nowhere to go with the film and just found a way to say "and they all died."

"War of the Gargantuas is flawed, but it's a lot of fun. I would love to see the Japanese version of the film to find out how much of the film's plot was lost through its Americanization. I hope MediaBlasters adds this to its list of kaiju films it releases in the near future. It needs to be seen cleaned up and in its original version.

GORGO #3

It's very clear this is a Steve Ditko comic as he put his name right there in the bottom left corner of the first page. As for Joe Gill, like many of his productions, he was never credited. Still, most of Charlton comics were written by him and it is common knowledge he did this series.

As with most of these reviews, this is mainly going to be a summation of the comic with a few comments from me. For those who are worried, there will be spoilers.

The story starts out in media res, the opening splash page showing the young Gorgo destroying some Central American city while in the foreground, dictator Mandel Astro convinces this country's leader to surrender because "The beast destroys your nation at my orders!" Gill is obviously pulling this story out of the headlines of his day. In the early '60s (the time of the Cuban missile crisis) Cuba was the big fear. Communists at the country's border and all that. Ditko adds to the obviousness of the caricature (Mandel Astro/Fidel Castro) by dressing the dictator in a military uniform and continually chomping a cigar.

On to the next page and we jump back "some months before" when Astro is informed of Gorgo's presence. Astro forces Dr. Valzo -- a scientific aid who has promised control over any living thing -- to go out and make the creatures obey him. Valzo is worried but Astro convinces him:

VALZO: "S-serve you president? It would destroy me, it w-would..."
ASTRO: "Perhaps, Valzo, only perhaps! But, of a certainty, I will destroy you if you fail!"

By the next panel, Valzo has set out to capture Gorgo and his mother.

On page 3 (pictured), we've gone on to the capture of the younger Gorgo. Both in the opening splash page and in this page, there are references to the creatures being wounded in a previous battle. I can only assume this is from earlier issues of the comic book. The creatures are found east of Long Island.

Valzo uses an electrical rod to control the young Gorgo in a much less wordy sequence underwater. Electricity not only hurts Gorgo, it actually stuns him, allowing Valzo to tie up the creature and tow it along back to their native country. There, for several pages, Valzo trains Gorgo to do his bidding.

Astro, impatient as any comic book dictator would be, has Valzo send Gorgo across his border (apparently this isn't an island nation) and defeat the enemy's forces. After Gorgo crushes the city, we are returned to the conversation between Astro and his enemy, who threatens to shoot him.

ASTRO: Shoot me and Dr. Valzo will send the monster after you.
ASTRO: You want that amigo? You want it coming for you, talons, teeth and tail? Or would you rather flee with the millions you have stolen from your poor, down-trodden people?

That's pure pulp dialog, but man it's fun.

But as Astro celebrates his victory, Valzo meets with his "pet" and tells him he will no longer use Gorgo to win power for others. "It is I who will reap the rich rewards!" Valzo orders Gorgo to take out Astro as he gives a speech from a balcony, telling his people not to revolt. By the end of the page, we see Valzo wearing his own uniform under the caption:

"When the dust cleared, the abused proletariat had a new master in the palace but there was no real change..."

Valzo teaches his army to control Gorgo and sets off to conquer yet another nation. Finally, as they reach the border, Gorgo has had his fill. He turns on Valzo and then faces Valzo's army. But the new dictator makes his escape as his army fights. He makes off to a waiting yacht filled with gold bullion plundered from the country's treasury.

But Gorgo follows the dictator. The yacht's crew deserts him, but Valzo makes a desperate attempt to escape the monster. Out at sea, he puts the ship on automatic and prepares to gloat. Unfortunately:

"Yes, Valzo forgot that Gorgo was a marine animal ... more at home in the water than on dry land ..."

Gorgo destroys the yacht, and Valzo floating on the sea make a desperate plea for his life. Surprisingly, Gorgo listens:

"Almost as though he understood the abject fear, as though he felt pity in his huge heart, Gorgo did resist and turn away, swimming strongly for the deep, quiet place where his mother still slept!"

Valzo is left floating at sea, his fate uncertain. The last panel shows Gorgo rejoining his sleeping mother beneath the waves, ready for the comic's next issue.

Of course, much of the excitement here is due to Ditko's work. His decisions on panel placement (I'm assuming he made those decisions) and keeping action going even when there is only talking makes this comic a joy.

But don't count out the story. With the exception of Valzo forgetting Gorgo is a marine animal (he did, after all, have to risk his life underwater to capture the creature), there is little here that would make me cringe. Gorgo acts much as he did in the movie and the surprise ending seems perfectly in keeping with that. In fact, Gorgo is really the hero of this story.

The political story is pure 1960s scare tactics. Mandel Astro is vain and power-hungry and overthrown quickly. His successor is venal. All their talk of the proletariat are just ways to control the masses. Still, stories like this were part of their age. For example, there is a Twilight Zone episode from this same era featuring a similarly thinly veiled Fidel Castro (played by Peter Falk) facing his own ego.

The worst moment in the comic is seeing the innocent civilians, Pablo and his friend wearing a bright yellow sombrero, in one of the attacked countries.

What does work well is the combination of monster and human stories. Often in giant monster movies, the hardest part is making the monster plot connected to the human story. Too often you get world leaders watching a TV screen as the monster destroys a city. Here, Gorgo is enmeshed directly in the plotting and politics of these Central American dictators.

All in all, a fun comic and a great place to start reading the Gorgo comic. Next up is Gorgo, issue 15.

The Host, a short review

I managed to catch the new South Korean film, "The Host", while I was on a plane to London last month. It was the best thing about that flight.

The movie is about a Korean man -- who is at best stupid and at worst deranged -- losing his daughter to a giant monster. He and his family make a valiant effort against the government and circumstance to rescue the girl and defeat the monster.

While that pretty accurately describes the story, it doesn't tell you anything about the movie. The characters are all well drawn and the tone shifts comfortably between goofiness, drama, action and black humor.

The film is easily the best giant monster movie I've seen since the Gamera trilogy. The monster, however, is not of the kaiju type. He's slightly smaller than the Rhedosaurus of "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms." And he's a scary beast. You never get a truly good look at the creature, although he seems to be some kind of mutation between a tadpole and a lizard with a wide mouth that opens in at least three directions.

I don't think I've captured the true sense of how good this film is. But watch out for it, it is expected to have a small tour of American theaters before its DVD release and an American remake. No giant monster fan could be disappointed with this film.

Classic Media's "Gojira" review

If Classic Media had simply put out a DVD of the Japanese version of "Gojira," with no extras and a crappy clamshell cover, it would still be one of, if not the, major giant monster event of the year. The movie has long deserved to be seen this way, its recent tour of art house theaters was important, but being available in everyone's home is crucial.

But that's not where Classic Media stopped. Their 2-disc "Gojira" DVD set, which is officially being released Sept. 5, is a beautiful piece of work that is absolutely essential for giant monster and Godzilla fans and, probably more importantly, film buffs in general.

THE PACKAGE

The first thing that hits you is how beautiful the packaging of this disc is. The cover shows Godzilla's gray image surrounded by sea and black sky. At the top is the red lettering of Gojira, with the Japanese symbols for the monster's name a shadowy gray behind it. The case is cardboard, giving the feel of a hardcover book.

Open the package up and there is a plastic tray for each version of the movie. Beneath the disc for "Gojira" is a photo of Godzilla breathing atomic fire across the Tokyo skyline. Underneath "Godzilla King of the Monsters" is the monster rising from the sea in its death throes, our heroes' ship in the background.

Inside is a booklet with an essay called "Godzilla's Footprint" written by Steve Ryfle, author of "Japan's Favorite Mon-Star," one of the best books on Godzilla films. The essay helps put the films in perspective of the times. It also details the stories of the creators behind the films. The booklet contains a couple of nice stills from "Gojira."

THE FILMS

I was surprised by the number of pops, lines and other artifacts in the film. In this age of cleaned up films, I expected things to look much cleaner. However, the explanation for it came in the commentary. First, because of the matte work and layered film used for effects, there were flaws from the first time this film was shown. Second, Japan used a lower quality film stock than American films of the same time period. Therefore, much of the film degraded quickly and prints would not come much cleaner than this.

There is, of course, no widescreen here. The movie was not filmed in Tohoscope, so its shape is much the same as your TV screen. I detected nothing cut off or missing (however, I've never seen the film in a movie theater, having missed last summer's showings.)

"Gojira" seems to be subtitled very well. I don't know Japanese, so I can't tell the quality of translation, but it does read well. There were no mistypes or spelling errors that I could see.

Most importantly, it was wonderful to see "Gojira" again. Before this, I had only seen bootleg copies on VHS tape. The movie is truly dark and dismal. There's a seriousness to the film unlike any other giant monster film. Unlike almost all of Ishiro Honda's other work, there is no irony or humor in "Gojira." There is no doubt Honda was making a film for adults dealing with issues that were still raw for the Japanese public.

I'm also impressed with the structure of the movie. In most giant monster movies, one of the most difficult problems to overcome is creating an interaction between the characters and the monster, making the human drama as compelling as the devastation. Only during the long destruction of Tokyo are the characters removed from the center of the film. In particular, I was impressed with the love triangle at the center of the film. Emiko and Ogata confront Serizawa about the oxygen destroyer. This would be compelling drama on its own, but it deepens and becomes more powerful knowing that their argument is about more than just that issue. When Ogata and Serizawa fight, Serizawa is lashing out against a world that would use his discovery for evil and against Ogata directly. Yamane's character is also well drawn. He wants to save Godzilla, not because the monster is one of a kind or some other misguided impulse, but because he sees in studying Godzilla the possibility of saving people's lives. Despite his misgivings, however, he still helps the government in finding a way to defeat Godzilla. In an American monster movie of the time, (think "The Thing from Another World") the scientist would be a madman not really in touch with the situation.

"Godzilla, King of the Monsters" suffers from being packaged with "Gojira." The things that make the original great are hollowed out. Terry Morse and Raymond Burr did a good job with what they had, and if they hadn't done it Godzilla may never have had the level of fame it's reached, but it doesn't have the gravitas of the original. But it is still wonderful to have this film side by side with the original. This was, after all, the version that brought Godzilla to worldwide fame.

THE EXTRAS

The extras on the disc include a commentary on each film by Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski (the creator of Japanese Giants magazine as well as many other fandom publications). There are also two featurettes, one on the making of the Godzilla suit and the second on how the story of "Gojira" was developed. There are also original theatrical trailers on each disc.

All these extra materials are very informative. There were many pieces of information I had never heard before, and I've read much about the Godzilla films. In particular, the commentary for "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" includes snippets from interviews with people involved with bringing the film to America and an interview with Terry Morse Jr., the son of the American director who also worked on the film. This is great stuff and is essential listening for any Godzilla fan.

The featurettes are basically still photos while commentary continues about the movies. The featurette on story development fascinated me (although I imagine many fans will be more interested in the suit-making story of the other featurette.) After hearing it, I really would like to see the original version of Shigeru Kayama's story for "Gojira." It sounds much different from the film and fascinating in its own right. Just hearing the plot details of Kayama's story goes to show how much work Ishiro Honda put into the film. After Honda finished with the film, it was no longer Kayama's story. Honda had made it his own, and much more dramatic and affecting. (Of course, this is all judging from what the featurette tells us. Maybe Kayama's story was much more dramatic in other ways.) Regardless, I am now fascinated with Kayama as he supposedly wrote stories before Godzilla about sea creatures. I wonder if any of his work has been translated? (Actually, I just found this page about an effort to get Kayama's story translated.)

COMPARISON TO BFI

Previous to this release, the only other "Gojira" release in English was BFI's Godzilla disc. Many of the same people worked on both packages, including Ryfle and Godziszewski, but as I understand it, Classic Media's extras are all new. Still, the BFI disc (which I have not seen) includes the one Japanese version of the film, a commentary by three Godzilla experts (the third expert (I think, I welcome corrections) was Keith Aiken, who worked on the animated Godzilla series in the U.S.) It also includes two featurettes that sound very similar to Classic Media's, one on story development and one on suit building. There is also a documentary called "12 Japanese Fishermen." It's a documentary from the 1950s on the effects of radiation on Japanese fishermen.

It sounds to me, from my uninformed position, that Classic Media's release stands up well against BFI's. It's too bad the documentary on Japanese fishermen was not included, but it alone is probably not worth the price of importing BFI's disc.

SUMMATION

This disc is a dream come true for me and probably for most Godzilla fans. Finally, the original film treated with respect and care. This bodes well for Classic Media's upcoming releases of "Godzilla Raids Again" and "Godzilla vs. Mothra," which will get very similar treatment. In the meantime, "Gojira" gets a place of honor in my collection.

Carnosaur 2

The first "Carnosaur" was muddled but ambitious. It featured dinosaurs hatched from chicken eggs -- and occasionally people. The dinosaurs grew from small bitey critters to T. Rex like monsters. It featured Diane Ladd as a mad scientist who tricked the government and a corporation into backing her crazy scheme. There was lots of goo and a military takeover scene at the end.


"Carnosaur 2" loses all of that. In fact, the only references to the first film is a huge triangle cage that once held the T. Rex sized monster and a reference to the military keeping some dinosaurs "on ice" after the cleanup at the end of Carnosaur.

The movie is set at a government facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. In this facility are: atomic waste, nuclear weapons and dinosaurs. But the dinosaurs are on a top secret level, so very few know about them. In the intro to the movie, the dinosaurs escape and kill everyone in the place, except for Jesse -- a precocious kid who knows all about the facility -- who is traumatized by seeing his father killed by a dinosaur.

Our "heroes" are a systems repair group. Apparently, when things break down, these guys are called in. They have the demeanor of a grizzled Army troop. It makes me wonder what kind of systems they are normally repairing. The main character is Jack Reed. Actor John Savage does his best Harvey Keitel in the role as Jack takes a father-like role over Jesse. The whole movie is set in the rooms and hallways and outside heliport of the Yucca facility.

I almost can't call it a giant monster movie as most of the dinosaurs are raptor size. But in the last few minutes of the movie, we get the big T. Rex dinosaur to chase the heroes around, and Jesse has his revenge thanks to an "Aliens" ripoff and the line "Eat This Barney!"

The movie is an entertaining slasher flick with dinosaurs (which, if you think about it, so was the first "Jurassic Park"). There's more focus on character than the first movie in the series, but less ambition in what it tries to pull off.

There's few other reviews out there for me to link to. Also, there's little to say about the crew. It is, of course, produced by Roger Corman (happy birthday!) to tap into the dinosaur craze created by "Jurassic Park." This movie came out after the first movie, but a year before "The Lost World," which despite better production values isn't much better than these movies. The writer is Michael Palmer whose only other credit appears to be "Watchers III," also produced by Corman. (The Web offers a unreliable credits because searches seem to bring up medical thriller novelist Michael Palmer quite often.) Louis Morneau has a few more credits (also mostly Corman-produced efforts), the most famous of which is Bats.

King Kong Escapes

King Kong Escapes was one of the first giant monster movies to infect my young mind. It and Destroy All Monsters were shown during Channel 38's (or was it 9, or 11?) "monster week." Those two films are probably responsible for my fascination with giant monster movies and kaiju in particular.

To my pre-adolescent self, there was nothing more fascinating than the giant mechanical monster known as MechaniKong. He looked like the famed giant ape, but was metal head to toe. In the movie, both he and King Kong fight a T-Rex -- at least I thought it was a T-Rex, it turned out to be a Gorosaurus, a creation of Toho. There was a lot to love in this film.

Now, it's been released in a two-pack with King Kong Vs. Godzilla. I can still see what affected me as a youth, but the movie really pales in comparison to the rest of the Toho canon, and certainly with other Kong movies.

The film was actually a sequel to a 1960s Rankin-Bass cartoon, which has recently been released on DVD. I've never seen that series, so I can't comment on how the two compare.


The good: The movie is filled with neat ideas. There's a sleek submarine that the heroes patrol the waters with. There's MechaniKong, of course. The mechanical monster would later be the inspiration for MechaGodzilla. There's a crazed evil leader, that "international Judas" Doctor Who, and a conflicted agent of a unnamed Asian country. There's a mysterious Element X that could power the world, or lead to its destruction. There's electronic mind control devices. There's an Arctic command center.

And despite all these things, the movie is just not very good. Nothing in the movie is left for the viewer to figure out when a lump of exposition can be used instead. The building of MechaniKong makes no sense. It's built to dig up Element X. But it is immediately shorted out by that element. Shouldn't that have been tested before you spent millions on building a mechanical monster? Seems like a waste of resources. And for that matter, is building a giant mechanical ape any way to run an excavation site?

Logic aside, the movie just seems listless. Things happen and there's the occasional giant monster battle, but they all seem rather boring. The effects have their moments, but are generally poor. This movie came out between Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (initially intended to be a King Kong film) and Son of Godzilla, films that are generally considered to be the start of G's downward trend. If you look at the effects, particularly the tropical island settings, those two films are much better than some of what's seen here.

Still, the absurdity of the film is fun and I still love MechaniKong. If only Toho could bring it back. King Kong Escapes is really only for giant monster movie completists.

Image found at KensForce.



Technorati Tags: King Kong, daikaiju, kaiju

King Kong atop the world

I saw "King Kong" over the weekend. I loved it. The movie took the original King Kong and used it as an outline for this movie. Everything that was in the 1933 movie has been expanded on and enriched. This made for a long movie, over three hours, but it never felt like one.
There were a few holes in the movie. Jack Black's acting is just a touch too much. Black is a ham and he is trying to rein it in here, but only partially succeeds. I don't think he could make a subtle motion to save his life. Fortunately for him, his character is over the top anyway. The film really gives a new look at Carl Denham: ambitious, self-obsessed, adventurous and probably crazy. I liked the rebuilding of the character, it made for a deeper, more interesting guy (and probably one truer to the era.)
The scene with the insects and lampreys and all was pretty exciting, but why does the calvary turn up? As far as I could tell, the writers had just put themselves in a corner and had to find a way out, despite logic. I think that Jackson just wanted to do that scene so much, he let it override his sense of story.
And the last line, the same one from the original film, was just wrong here. It wasn't as cringe inducing as I'd been led to believe, but it certainly didn't fit. In fact, in this version of the movie, Denham should have been packing his bags as the ape was rampaging.
And the movie's length: Yes, it moved right along and didn't feel like three hours, but there was still a hell of a lot of stuff that could have been deleted to make a shorter running time. Even if you love every minute of the film, it's hard to find time in the day to see a three-hour movie.
Despite all those quibbles, it was a great movie. I had a good time and would love to see it again. Naomi Watts was terrific, as she has been in everything I've seen her in. Kong was a marvel to behold. Everything on Skull Island was scary. Atop the Empire State Building, you could really feel a sense of vertigo. I don't think any movie has ever given me such a great sense of height.
This version of King Kong was a worthy remake of the original and adds itself to a list of the finest giant monster movies ever made.

Technorati Tags: kingkong, giantmonsters, movies, review

King of Kong Island

King of Kong Island (just called Kong Island in the film and was originally released as Eve the Wild Woman) is a true stinker of a film. I own it in my 50 Movie SciFi Classics box. I wouldn't be reviewing it here if it weren't for the descriptions I've seen of the movie. Here's John Stanley's summation in the book "Creature Features Strikes Again":

King of Kong Island (1968). Also known as EVE THE WILD WOMAN. With remote control devices, giant gorillas become robot killers. A descendant of the King himself happens along and decides enough is enough already and starts crunching skulls -- and remote-control devices. Left to its own devices, this Spanish-produced job (made as EVE THE WILD WOMAN) would fall flat on its ugly kisser. Directed Robert Morris. Brad Harris, Marc Lawrence. (VCI)

Wow, a giant ape "crunching skulls", how could that be bad? Here's the one on the DVD box:

A diabolical team of scientists land on Kong Island determined to implant devices in the brains of the gorilla population that will transform them into an unstoppable army. Their plan for world domination runs amok when a descendant of King Kong arrives and the mayhem begins.

That last sentence makes you think there will be a giant gorilla in this movie, right? Nope. In fact, there's no monsters larger than man-size (besides the many, many stock footage shots of lions, crocodiles, hippos, ad nauseum). Actually, there's not even an island in this movie. There are man-sized gorillas however. In fact, they are the worst gorilla suits I've ever seen. And the people wearing them make no attempt to be even slightly animal-like.
The plot is a total mess with one subplot after another being introduced. That is until the end when the movie just kills off one person or another (usually by rifle fire) putting an end to each silly plot line.
This is truly a bad movie. Enjoy at your own risk. You can find other reviews here, here, here, and here.

"It came out of a damn chicken egg!"

"Carnosaur" was as much fun as I remember. It was weird and wild and a total cheap exploitation film. Roger Corman produced the film, which was released in 1993 to cash in on the big budget release of "Jurassic Park."
The film stars Diane Ladd (of movies like "Chinatown," "Christmas Vacation" and "Wild at Heart") as Dr. Jane Tiptree (a reference to James Tiptree Jr., the science fiction writer?) a mad scientist creating an apocalyptic virus that will wipe out the human race and make way for dinosaurs. Her work is funded by an evil corporation, Eunice, which is in turn funded by the government (and thereby, the movie creates a trifecta of B-movie villains: Mad scientist, evil corporation, evil government.) Ladd spends most of her time in a dark control room talking to people in gray rooms by camera. I imagine all her scenes were shot in one day.
Our hero, Doc, is played by Raphael Sbarge, an actor who started his career co-starring with Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" and now spends most of his time doing voice overs on Star Wars videogames. Here he plays a drunken night watchman at a quarry site. What the quarry is digging for, I have no idea. Apparently, the site is environmentally important, so the company's equipment is constantly under attack by a commune of environmentalists.
Doc drinks all the time, carries a rifle and yet has books about Gandhi and sketches the landscape. His trailer includes a poster of Alfred E. Neumann saying "What Me Worry?" as well as Doc's medical license, crossed out with the words "Just Do No Harm" written over it.
Eventually Doc meets one of the environmentalists, Thrush, (Jennifer Runyon who apparently hasn't done any work since this movie). Her only role in the plot, besides vague love interest, is to get in the Carnosaur's way.
Enough with the actors. The movie begins with a batch of chickens on a truck getting out of Ladd's lab just as quarantine begins. Among the chickens is a baby dinosaur, which of course kills the driver and escapes. Meanwhile, everyone is getting sick.
Apparently, Dr. Tiptree's plan has two parts. The first is the spread of a disease which makes women give birth to a giant green egg. The birthing process kills the infected women. The second part is baby dinosaurs born in chicken's eggs.
It's the loopiness of this plan that really makes the movie fun. A couple of dinosaurs get loose while feverish women give horrible birth. Neat.
The special effects are humorous but effective. There seems to be a combination of stop motion, puppets and animatronic models. If you've ever seen the TV show "Land of the Lost," the dinosaurs are about one step up from those. There's also some gore as the baby dinosaur rips the intestines out of people, but nothing spectacular.
The movie rips off scenes from "Alien," "Night of the Living Dead" and, believe it or not, a satirical final shot reminiscent of "Citizen Kane."
The movie is ridiculous, but a lot of fun. It never gets boring (though it veers close with static scenes in Ladd's lab and Eunice's board room.) Best of all, Clint Howard is in the first half hour of the film. Clint Howard makes any movie better.
The director, Adam Simon, also wrote the film "Bones," starring Snoop Dogg. The last two films he directed were "The American Nightmare," a documentary about horror films, and "The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera," a documentary about director Samuel Fuller.
The film is based on a novel by Harry Adam Knight, which is apparently a pseudonym for John Brosnan, an Australian writer well known in science fiction fan circles. He died this year of acute pancreatitis. Apparently, the book is very different from the movie. In fact, some of the Amazon reviews claim Michael Crichton ripped off this book when he wrote "Jurassic Park."
The "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" says about Brosnan's pseudonymous works "these written equivalents of exploitation ovies are slightly self-mocking but quite exciting as sf horror; all are variants on the humans-being-destroyed-by-monstrous-things theme." The Encyclopedia also points out "The initials of the pseudonyms were no accident." Brosnan also wrote as "Simon Ian Childer."
I'll have to pick up the novel and see what I think.
Finally, here are some other reviews of Carnosaur:
Dino-Source; Trash City; The B-Movie Film Vault; Cold Fusion Video Review; Stomp Tokyo; Bad Movies; At A Glance Film Reviews; Night of the Creeps; Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review; Mutant Reviewers; Broke Down Cinema; DVD Cult and Rotten Tomatoes.

Dogora

"Dogora" is now out from Media Blasters. It's the story of jewel thieves and a giant jellyfish desperately in need of carbon.
It's a strange movie. The jewel thief story seems to go on despite what's happening with the giant monster. If I understand the history of the movie correctly, a movie about jewel thieves was melded with the giant monster theme early on so Eiji Tsubaraya and Ishiro Honda could try some new technology of the time.
The new technology doesn't look so new now. The title creature is mainly jellyfish arms hanging from the skies, with only a couple of shots of the entire creature. The creature is matted in to the film - there's no rubber suits here. Unfortunately, some of the special effects near the end of the film - when the monster has been broken up into smaller "space cells" - are downright awful.
Still, the story was fun, if bizarre. Unlike "Varan," I was never bored with this movie. The disc is more basic than most of the Media Blasters releases. It only has the theatrical trailer and a photo gallery. Still, the transfer is excellent and this is the first time this movie has been released in its original Japanese form here. So another good job for Media Blasters.
Next up from the company is "Yog: Monster from Space." No release details are available yet. That's another film I've never seen and includes three giant monsters! I hope it's worth it.
There's also talk of Media Blasters looking to pick up "Atragon." Although it only has a minor giant monster part - Manda! - it's one of my favorite Ishiro Honda films. Let's hope Media Blasters is able to bring a new version here.

Varan the Unbelievable

For years I've owned a video tape copy of Varan the Unbelievable put out by Something Weird. It was the U.S. version, starring Myron Healey, and it was awful. I tried watching it about 10 times and managed not to fall asleep about twice. But those images of the monster, Varan, always intrigued me. I wanted to know, what were the secrets of the original film, how had Americanization screwed it up.
Thanks to Media Blasters, now I know. The company's Tokyo Shock division has been putting out some great Japanese films of late, including The Mysterians and one of my favorite films, Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People. Varan is the first giant monster movie in the series (well, Mysterians features a giant robot, Mogera, but is really focused on the alien invasion).
And I've come to find out that Varan is still not a great giant monster movie. The first part of the film, set in the "Tibet of Japan," has some atmospheric looking locations and includes actual danger to the protagonists. But the rest of the film is bogged down in military movements and Varan thrashing around in the water. Even the smashing of buildings near the end isn't all that exciting.
Varan, itself, is a pretty good monster, as long as it stays on four feet. In those scenes, it moves like no other monster in the Toho canon. It seems to move like a cat, slinking back and forth, and often pulls its front two legs up on to a structure or mountain to get a better look at flares shot off by the military. On two legs, which only seems to happen near the end, it's just embarrassing. Varan's arms move side-to-side like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and really, it just doesn't look stable.
Then there's the flying. Completely excised from the American version, Varan flees from his homeland by getting on top of a mountain and spreading flying-squirrel-like wings. It makes the monster seem all the more interesting, but it seems to come out of nowhere and is never used again.
Still, this version is a far better film than the American, and it certainly deserves a look from all dedicated monster fans.
The disc is terrific. You get Japanese language with subtitles on the movie, plus there's a second version of the movie as it was originally edited for television. There's also an audio commentary.
But the best extra I've seen is a short video about the molding of Varan. Keizo Murase, the original molder of Varan, teaches this little course in the making of scales and skin. It makes me want to build my own Varan at home!
Media Blasters isn't finished yet, either. They've got two more giant monster movies lined up, both of which I can't wait to see. The first is Dogora, giant jellyfish that come from the sky. That DVD is out now. The second is Yog, the Monster from Space, which will go under its original American title Space Amoeba. Details on both films can be seen in the HenshinOnline archives.

Final Wars reviews

Well, "Godzilla Final Wars" has premiered in America (the first time a G premiere happened here before Japan) and the reviews are coming in. And Ain't It Cool News has a review as well:

This past summer, I got really tired of hearing people try to defend VAN HELSING as “just fun,” because it didn’t feel to me while watching it like Stephen Sommers actually had fun making it. It just felt like he had a release date to make and thought that biggerlouderfaster was the way to cover any narrative flaws. Here, you can feel Kitamura giggling behind the camera as he piles up the insanity, and it’s infectious.
...
From the moment Godzilla wakes up to the end of the movie, Kitamura kicks out the jams and just bombards you with one fight after another. Some of them are frustratingly brief, like when he butts heads with the miserable American Godzilla in Sydney Harbor. Just about the time the real deals holds down the pale imitation and starts recreating a scene from DELIVERANCE, the sequence is over. Other fights pick up in the middle, like when we see Godzilla whup up on Hedorah, who was actually one of the toughest monsters to fight in the original series. These are minor nitpicks, though. There’s something like an hour of sustained monster action, intercut with kung-fu and spaceship dogfights and a kamikaze STAR WARS scene and did I mention that Minilla drives a car? Seriously. And he wears a seatbelt. It’s gloriously batshit, and I loved it all.

It sounds like this is a very fun movie filled with lots of references to Toho past. However, it's not a serious movie. Almost every review mentions Minya and how he just slows down the film.
Still, it all sounds immensely fun. I'm hoping it gets an American release so everybody can enjoy Godzilla's 50th in style.

"Godzilla on my mind" review

Jim Knipfel, a Godzilla fan himself, reviews "Godzilla on My Mind: 50 years of the King of Monsters." He likes the book saying that while it is filled with fannish references to the movies and bad attempts at humor, it captures the personal experience of loving Godzilla movies.
And while I'm at it, let me continue to mention "The Buzzing," Jim Knipfel's novel. For any giant monster fan, it is overflowing with references to daikaiju and the plot hinges on one well known Godzilla film as well.

Titano: The Monster that Time Forgot!!

At a flea market a few weeks ago, I picked up the No. 7 issue of "Tower of Shadows," a 1970 reprint Marvel comic. It's filled with wacky stories done by great artists. The first oneis called "Titano: The Monster that Time Forgot." Monster Blog has a few pictures and a description of the giant crab monster. It's a silly story, but fun. It has no credits, but there is no doubt that Jack Kirby drew it.
Titano splits boats in half and causes tremendous tidal waves over Japan, before our stalwart Navy hero comes on the scene. He paints his submarine in luminous yellow paint and gets the monster to chase him. Eventually, they embed the monster in a glacier in the arctic.
Kirby was the master of giant monster in comic books. Check out Monster Blog, which includes articles on all Kirby's giants. It's great stuff.

Godzilla (1954) soundtrack review

Filmtracks reviews the Godzilla soundtrack. They are quite complimentary, although the second review seems pretty uninformed to me.

Filmtracks Recommends:

Buy it... if you have any interest in Akira Ifukube or Gojira, for the 2004 album is the definitive release of the original film's music.

Avoid it... if you do not value the history of Gojira more than the need for perfect sound quality, or if the Ifukube style has proven too foreign for your Western sensibilities.

I have the soundtrack on now and it is better than I ever imagined. The couple of excerpts on "The Best of Godzilla 1954-1975" made me think it might be boring. It's anything but. It's a definite must have for any Godzilla fan.

Godzilla: The Series

It's a measure of how bad Centropolis's Godzilla (1998) was in that a Saturday morning cartoon surpassed it. I got to thinking about Godzilla: The Series when I heard that the Monster Wars Trilogy -- a three-part episode of the cartoon -- will be released in August. I taped a number of episodes, including those three, back when it was on, so I went back and watched.
The cartoon takes off from the ending of the movie. The original Godzilla is dead. A baby has been born from its egg. Somehow (I don't have the first episode on tape) the baby sees Nick Tatopoulos (the character played by Matthew Broderick in the movie) as its mother. Nick creates H.E.A.T. (Humanitarian Ecological Analysis Team (where giant monster or mutation is in that name, I have no idea)) to investigate the mutations, like Godzilla, forming all over the world. With him on this team are two minor characters from the movie: Dr. Mendel Craven, a dumpy, allergic joke who only has half-a-minute in the movie; and Dr. Elsie Chapman, the wise cracking scientist played by that redhead from Newsradio.
They are joined by a protege of Jean Reno's character, Monique Dupre, a member of the French secret service, and Randy Hernandez, the token black character who has a Spanish(?) accent and is a master computer hacker. Craven also has a robot, Nigel, which, like Kenny on South Park, gets blown up at least once every episode.
Other characters from the movie make occasional guest appearances. Audrey Timmonds, the girl reporter played by Maria Pitillo in the movie, turns up in two episodes, one with Animal. Animal was odd since he was played by well known voice actor Hank Azaria in the movie. In the show, his voice is done by Joe Pantaliano. The Army general also shows up a few times.
Nick's character changes radically from the movie, where he was a schlebby scientist who just happens to have all the right answers for what's happening to Godzilla. In the series, it's as if he was played by Dylan McDermott's character in The Practice. He's a strong-minded leader with all the right answers.
H.E.A.T. headquarters are on Staten Island. Godzilla hangs out in the bay. The team spends most of its time on its boat, a fast little number with a shark's head drawn on the front. Actually, I think the boat may have been an homage to the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla cartoon, which also featured a team of characters who worked on a boat and could call for Godzilla using a button on the ship.
Godzilla follows the H.E.A.T. team wherever they go. It doesn't matter if they travel the globe or take airplanes instead of ships, he's always right there to show up in the nick of time. When they need him, they can call him using Nigel.
So the show is basically set up on the premise of a new bad monster every week. H.E.A.T. faces a giant worm in Central America, giant hot-headed mole creatures in the Antarctic, a weird electric creature in New York City and a group of aliens determined to take over the world using giant monsters.
This being a Saturday morning cartoon series, there's lots of leaps in logic and one-note characterization. But the series is still better written than the movie. In fact, one episode copies the stupid love story between Nick and Audrey and how she betrays him by using information he told her in private. Dumb in the movie and no better here.
The Monster Wars Trilogy isn't bad. It brings back a lot of the monsters from the series up to that point and adds the best of all: the movie's Godzilla suited up in cyborg armor. Also, the mind controlling aliens look pretty neat.
The plot has ridiculous moments. Nick and Craven want to get into an Army base. They state that there's no way they can get inside. So they send in a little robot eye to find out what's going on. They realize Elsie is in trouble, so they go inside to save her. Umm, how were they able to get inside the impregnable base? Don't ask, the show isn't telling. Also, the aliens have many chances to shoot the H.E.A.T. team, but never seem to manage it. Why is that? But if you can overlook such absurdities, there's a lot of fun to be had.
And occasionally the show picked up some good help. Len Wein wrote a good story about an electrical creature (the Crackler) that starts tearing apart New York. Wein is a great comic book scripter who created Swamp Thing. He also edited the fantastic Alan Moore comic book series Watchmen.
Another comic book great, Marv Wolfman, also came along for the ride. Wolfman was the creator of Blade among hundreds of other characters.
So I give a thumbs up to the Monster Wars Trilogy. It's a good, fun time. It's certainly not a masterpiece of plotting, but then the movie it's based off was worse.
Pick it up and hopefully the whole series will be released. Apparently, there are a few unaired episodes that could be added to a complete DVD series.