The Basic Plots of Giant Monsters, Part 1: The Lost World Plot

 All the talk recently about how Gareth Edwards' Godzilla looked toward Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) reminds me of a conversation I had over at AlternateHistory.com last summer about Jaws as a Giant Monster movie and of the genre itself.  Since then, I've been wanting to write up a post that broke down the Giant Monster genre and worked out the basic most common plots - sort of like what Christopher Booker did in The Seven Basic Plots.

It would probably be best to study this chronologically, that way we have some idea of how and why certain plots emerged.

1.  THE LOST WORLD PLOT

The protagonist travels to a primitive locale where he or she discovers a monster.  The monster is captured and transported to a contemporary city, where it escapes and comes into conflict with society.  Either the monster escapes and returns to its primordial home, or it is ultimately destroyed by the society it cannot adapt to.


The prototype for the Giant Monster movie is The Lost World (1925), a black-and-white silent adventure film where a group of British explorers discover a remote plateau in Venezuela filled with dinosaurs.  In the movie's finale, the explorers return to London with a captured Brontosaurus, which (of course) escapes and runs wild through the streets of the city:  the first time in film where a giant creature rampaged in a modern metropolis.  The movie is a classic of Science Fiction and a landmark achievement in visual effects, with Willis O'Brien's work setting the standard for years to come (and so startlingly effective that, according to legend, even Harry Houdini and a room full of magicians couldn't figure out how he achieved it).

The movie was based on the novel of the same name, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912.  Doyle's novel was just the latest in a line of books that had been written in the Lost World genre of adventure novels since H. Rider Haggard's novel King Solomon's Mines (1891) had created and popularized it.  Doyle's inclusion of dinosaurs in his novel spurred imitators of his own, including Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land that Time Forgot (1916).  In Doyle's novel, though, the heroes return to London with a live Pterodactyl to prove their story - the Brontosaurus' exciting romp through the city is entirely a cinematic invention created for the film adaptation.  That one notable change from the novel, however, provided the seed for what would eventually result in one of the most well-known Giant Monster stories and the best example of the Lost World plot:  1933's King Kong.

On the surface, King Kong and The Lost World share very similar plots:  in both films, an expedition to a remote land discovers a lost world filled with ferocious dinosaurs and other monsters.  The heroes survive their exploits and return to civilization with one of the beasts as proof of their story, only for the creature to escape and run amok.  King Kong deviates from The Lost World by making a basic, but fundamental, change:  the beast that is captured and returned to civilization is the focus of the adventure.  In The Lost World, the Brontosaurus is something of an afterthought.  While we see Brontosauruses throughout the film, there is nothing to suggest any one is more important than any other until shortly before the heroes escape - only then does one Brontosaurus do battle with an Allosaurus to a standstill, and that is the creature that is brought to London.  In King Kong, Kong is the first creature we are introduced to and dominates the film as the main antagonist/tragic hero for the remainder.

It is this change which transformed King Kong from just another adventure movie with dinosaurs into the first true Giant Monster movie.

The Lost World plot is one of the genre's most well-known and popular stories, with many films using it explicitly following in King Kong's footsteps with only some variation.  Examples of other films using this plot or variations on it are:

Son of Kong (1933)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
The Black Scorpion (1957)
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
Giant Monster Varan (1958)
Mothra (1961)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Gamera vs. Barugon (1966)
King Kong Escapes (1967)
Gappa: The Triphibian Monster (1967)
The X From Outer Space (1967)
The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
Space Amoeba (1970)
King Kong (1976)
A*P*E (1976)
Queen Kong (1976)
The Mighty Peking Man (1977)
King Kong Lives (1986)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
Anaconda (1997)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
King Kong (2005)

Some common variations on this plot include:
 

• Minimizing or removing the journey to a primordial land (20 Million Miles to Earth, A*P*E, King Kong Lives);
• Minimizing or removing the return to civilization (Son of Kong, Space Amoeba, Anaconda);
• The Monster following the expedition back rather than being captured, sometimes in pursuit of something the heroes did return with (Mothra, Gappa: The Triphibian Monster, Godzilla vs. Mothra).

 As the plot of the first Giant Monster movie, there have been many imitators and parodies.  It also has served as the jumping off point for the rest of the genre.  Next time, we'll take a look at what I like to call, "The Beast Plot".

Godzilla (2014) is AWESOME!

I've seen Gareth Edwards' Godzilla twice now, and I've absolutely loved it each time.  Even moreso the second time, honestly!

I liked the story, it was pretty pitch-perfect for a Godzilla movie albeit much faster paced IMO. GREAT first act with the mystery in the Philippines and everything that happens in Japan, Bryan Cranston puts in another awesome performance (as he always does). I've heard complaints about the Second Act and Aaron Taylor Johnson's performance, but I thought both were fine. It was a little slower, but it was just the bridge getting us from Point A to Point C. Act Three was, of course, a no-holds barred action smorgasbord and I loved every second of it! Elizabeth Olsen puts in a good performance, but isn't really given a whole lot to do. Of particular delight were Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, and David Strathairn as Dr. Serizawa, Dr. Graham, and Admiral Stetz - we get to spend a lot of screentime with them and I enjoyed every moment of it.  Presuming a sequel is made, I really hope these three are brought back as recurring characters.
 
If I had to compare Godzilla's characterization to any previous incarnation, I'd say the version he most resembles is probably Late Showa - specifically, either Godzilla in GvH (which makes sense, considering Yoshimitsu Banno's involvement) or in GvMG'74/ToMG. This was unexpected, because I had gone in assuming he would be channeling more Heisei Godzilla or Kiryuverse Godzilla, but I'm perfectly fine with that. ^_^
 
The Mutos were great opponents and, as some of the pre-release reviews suggested, are surprisingly sympathetic. Edwards and his FX team really did an amazing job imbuing these two newcomers with a lot of personality. The moment the two finally meet is actually quite tender, to the point where I thought to myself, "Aw! They're in WUV! ^.^" When they at last get to take on Godzilla, the fight is brutally tooth-and-claw - arguably the best tooth-and-claw fight in the whole franchise, IMO!
 
The movie's not perfect, obviously, but it's a very enjoyable and fun giant monster movie/summer blockbuster - I honestly doubt I'll enjoy any other movie as much as this one this year. If you went into this expecting a dark and gritty monster movie, more in line with Godzilla (1954) or Cloverfield, then you're going to be disappointed. Tonally, this has much more in common with Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974), Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Godzilla 2000, and King Kong (2005). There are some shades of Heisei Godzilla, I suppose, but only in that there are shades of '70s Godzilla in his later '90s outings.

On my first viewing I had some nitpicks about Johnson's performance, Godzilla's screen time, and a couple of moments I initially feared would be seen as laughably campy.  On my second viewing, though, those nitpicks completely vanished.  I have no problems with this movie now.  ^_^

To my delight, it seems most everyone else agrees!  The movie has opened to an astounding $93.2 Million domestically and $103 Million internationally for a whopping $196 Million worldwide debut!!  The naysayers have been proven wrong and Godzilla appears well on its way to topping at least $400 Million by the end of its run.

Of course, Godzilla 31 has already been greenlit by Legendary and Warner Brothers.  xD

I can't wait!

Doom-and-Gloom Nonsense

So, about a month after Pacific Rim was released and Godzilla's big show at San Diego Comic-Con, where do we stand?

Well, while a great and well-liked movie (it still enjoys a healthy 72% fresh Critical and 82% fresh Audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes), Pacific Rim has had mixed results at the box office.  In America, it's flopped theatrically:  according to Box Office Mojo, as of August 20 it has grossed merely $98.6 Million domestically on a $190 Million production budget.  Globally, though, it's been a smash and has drawn over $380 Million in total so far.  $100 Million of that is from China alone, which once again is demonstrating its importance as a market for Hollywood.

What's been fascinating (and somewhat frustrating) has been reading the reactions to all of this by the Japanese Daikaiju and Godzilla fandoms.

On the one hand, I understand why some have taken all this as a bad sign.  I, too, was very disappointed by how poorly Pacific Rim did in the US and Japan - in particular in Japan, where the mere $3 Million opening weekend was a real punch to the gut.  What I don't understand is extrapolating this result into wacky doom-and-gloom predictions like "Pacific Rim 'failed', so Legendary is going to cut support for Godzilla and won't market it" or "Pacific Rim bombing proves nobody likes Giant Monster movies anymore and the genre is dead."  Neither of these (or the plethora of other assertions I've seen) make any sense.

Firstly, even granting Hollywood Accounting, it's becoming harder and harder to think of Pacific Rim as having "failed" when it looks set to gross at least $400 Million worldwide on a $190 Million production budget.  It may not be the gargantuan hit we had hoped for, but it certainly didn't fail.  Legendary and Warner Brothers have made their money, and from here on out it's nothing but profit.  Besides, why would Legendary be discussing sequels if this didn't meet at least their margin for success?  The movie has been #1 at the box office in China for weeks (and was #1 at the global box office as well), it'd be foolish for Legendary not to make a second film to milk that.

Next, there's this baffling idea that Legendary or Warner Brothers is going to cut support for next year's Godzilla film over Pacific Rim's box office returns.  That...makes no sense.  For one, because the two are totally separate projects that are going to be marketed VERY differently from each other:  Pacific Rim was a new untested property banking on the popularity of Guillermo Del Toro and Giant Robots; Godzilla is a long-running franchise with an established fan base and global name recognition.  Yes, they didn't market Pacific Rim well enough in America to really help establish this new brand, but Godzilla is an existing brand and a household name.  It's going to inherently easier to market Godzilla and you can expect a much heavier ad campaign than we saw with Pacific Rim, not a weaker one.

Finally, this "Giant Monsters are finished" nonsense.  This really picked up following Pacific Rim bombing in Japan, and in my opinion sounds very much like people trying to interpret how the whole world feels through the lens of the Japanese.  Yes, Giant Monsters and Tokusatsu seem to have lost their popularity in Japan.  But, if Pacific Rim bombed in Japan and flopped in America does it mean a general shift away worldwide?  

Good Lord, of course not!

Firstly, the biggest reason Pacific Rim flopped in America was not because the film's subject matter was rejected, it was a one-two punch of marketing that played up the Giant Robot angle (which created the unfortunate impression of a Transformers rip-off) and pitting this new untested property up against an established big-name brand sequel:  Grown-Ups 2.  Subtract Grown-Ups 2 from that weekend, and Pacific Rim would have done significantly better.

I've also gotten the impression that people seem to think all recent big budget American Giant Monster films - Godzilla (1998), King Kong (2005), Cloverfield (2008), and Super 8 (2011) - as having all bombed.  That's just completely wrong.

• Super 8 grossed $127 Million in America and $259 Million total worldwide on a $50 Million budget, a clear success.
• Cloverfield grossed $80 Million in America and $170 Million total worldwide on a $25 Million budget, another clear success.
• King Kong grossed $218 Million in America and $550 Million total worldwide on a $207 Million budget.
• Even the much maligned Devlin & Emmerich version of Godzilla grossed $136 Million in America and $379 Million worldwide total on a $130 Million budget.  Hell, it was the 3rd Highest Grossing movie of 1998!

The most negative interpretation of this possible is that Giant Monster movies are "hit or miss", considering the two most recent movies were clear successes.

We, as a fandom, really need to stop with the doom-and-gloom, "The sky is falling!", nonsense.  The sky ISN'T falling.  It's just that Giant Monsters haven't blossomed into mainstream popularity as many had hoped.  Failing to do that doesn't constitute failure, though.  It merely just continues the status quo.

Monster Attack Team Returns!

The great fanzine Monster Attack Team is back!  The magazine is being relaunched by Famous Monsters magazine, and (finally!) is seeing a nationwide release.  You can read all about it over at Sci-Fi Japan or head over to the Captain Company's website to preorder!

MAT was always one of those things (like the Ultra Series or various non-Godzilla Toho films) that I read about in the pages of G-Fan as a kid back in the '90s but never actually managed to find.  It was always described as if it were "G-Fan, but better!", but as much as I always wanted a subscription I was just a little kid and couldn't convince my parents to buy one.  Now that it's back (and, to my shock, is shipping this month), I'm jumping at the chance to FINALLY read this storied 'zine.  Of course, I've already preordered the new issue.  ^_~

The Ages of Giant Monster Movies

Giant monster movies have been around long enough now that, like comic books or movies in general, they can be categorized into separate eras of films.  While I'm sure that there are other theories and breakdowns out there, here's my own personal interpretation:

Primordial Age of Giant Monster Movies (~1890 - 1952)

The Primordial Age represents the formative years of the giant monster movie as the genre first developed during the Silent and Golden Ages of Cinema.  The earliest expressions of the genre are found in early Dinosaur films, the most notable and important being 1925's The Lost World, which introduced many of the elements that would later typify giant monster flicks, and King Kong (1933), which took The Lost World's elements, refined them, and introduced the giant monster as a central figure of the story in the form of Kong himself.  The King Kong franchise has remained one of the most important in the genre from the beginning, serving (alongside Godzilla) as one of the main faces representing giant monsters as a whole.  It is also the longest running (in terms of years) in the genre, with at least one appearance of Kong in each era.

Golden Age of Giant Monster Movies (1953 - 1968)

The heyday of the giant monster movie, representing the period wherein most of the genre's classics were released, many of the most popular characters introduced, and when most of the major franchises began.  The Golden Age can be further broken down into two smaller eras, which together make up the whole Age:  the Western Golden Age and the Eastern Golden Age.


Western Golden Age of Giant Monster Movies (1953 - 1960)

The Pure Golden Age is the period when the giant monster movie first emerged as a popular genre in Western cinema and reached the height of its popularity in the West.  It begins with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), a landmark and influential film that introduced the concept of the radioactive monster and firmly established Will O'Brien's protege, Ray Harryhausen, as the premier stop motion maestro of the era.  That film directly inspired the creation of two more, equally important and influential films the following year:  Them! and Gojira.  Them! was the first "big bug" film, a subgenre of giant monster movie wherein atomic tests cause the creation of giant mutant insect monsters which, of course, run amok.  Gojira, meanwhile, introduced the world to my personal favorite monster, Godzilla, and single-handedly created the Japanese special effects genre.

The height of the Pure Golden Age was 1957 and 1958, during which no less than 16 giant monster movies were released over the course of 24 months.  This included films as renowned (or infamous) as The Giant Claw, The Deadly Mantis, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Amazing Colossal Man, Varan the Unbelievable, Attack of the 50 ft. Woman, and The Blob.  Many of Pure Golden Age films approached the genre has a fusion of Horror and Science Fiction, giving many a unique (and, at times, rather dark) flavor compared to some of the more light-hearted films that followed.

Unfortunately, many of the films released in the late 1950s were lower budget and lower quality, resulting in a crash and burn of the genre in the West.  The transition from the 1950s to the 1960s saw a shift in tone and a shift in filmmakers' approaches toward the genre.  It also saw the center of gravity shift away from Hollywood and across the Pacific to Tokyo.

Eastern Golden Age of Giant Monster Movies (1961 - 1968)

While the output of Western giant monster movies dropped going into the 1960s, it simultaneously exploded in the East following the release of the highly popular film Mothra in 1961.  Unlike the American films of the 1950s (and the Japanese films that followed in their footsteps), Mothra approached the genre as a fusion of Science Fiction and Fantasy/Adventure - a dramatically different tone than '50s films, and as it turned out clicked immediately with Japanese audiences of the 1960s.  Toho Studios, the creators of both Mothra and Godzilla, quickly retooled the Godzilla franchise to match this lighter and more whimsical tone beginning with 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, which immediately became the most successful Godzilla film of all time.  The success of the Godzilla films and Toho's take on Science Fiction led to imitators, the first and most important being Daiei Studio's Giant Monster Gamera in 1965.  Gamera's success, on the coattails of Godzilla, caused what contemporary critics called the "Monster Boom" of mid-1960s Japan, spawning 10 films and at least three TV series between 1967 and 1968, introducing the world to Japan's most popular super hero:  Ultraman.

History, however, managed to repeat itself in the East and the flood of giant monster films caused the genre to start burning out in Japan.  The popularity of the Gamera and Ultraman franchises, which were aimed more toward a much younger audience than earlier films, by the late 1960s had begun to cause the already light-hearted Japanese films to become even more lighter and more geared toward children.  The expense of these films had also taken their toll:  Toho Studios decided to end the expensive Godzilla franchise with a finale film, 1968's Destroy All Monsters.  The surprise success of the film, however, convinced the studio to continue the series, but with the conscious decision to lower the budget and aim more directly for children.

This shift would completely alter the landscape of the genre, and thus with the end of Japan's "Monster Boom" came the end of the Golden Age.

Dark Age of Giant Monster Movies (1969 - 1983)

The Dark Age was the period during which the genre declined to its lowest point, and for a time seemed to nearly shrivel to nothing.

The early 1970s saw a continuation of trends that had emerged toward the end of the Asian Golden Age:  Japanese giant monster films, at this point almost exclusively represented by the Godzilla films, were reinvented as children's films and saw production values, writing, and budgets decline.  Stock footage became commonplace (in All Monster's Attack [1969] and Supermonster Gamera [1980]), it represented most of the film) and stories generally became formulaic, generally mimicking Ultraman plots (i.e. Alien Invaders attack Earth with giant monsters, our hero must fight and defeat them).  This continued until the general collapse of the Japanese film industry in the mid-1970s, which ended the Showa Godzilla series and temporarily halted the Showa Ultraman franchise in 1975 (with Ultraman only briefly resurrecting with 1980's Ultraman 80).  To the detriment of the Eastern form, these films are the most widely known and remembered in the West.

While the Eastern giant monster genre came crashing down, in the West the genre saw a small revival following the successes of 1975's Academy Award-winning Jaws and 1976's Academy Award-winning remake of King Kong.  While Jaws was not actually a giant monster movie, it spawned a series of "large Killer Animal" imitators that were popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as The Food of the Gods (1976), The Crater Lake Monster (1977), and Alligator (1980).  Kong also spawned several imitators during the same period:  A*P*E and Queen Kong in 1976, The Might Peking Man in 1977.  Unlike the few American films of the Asian Golden Age or the preceding Japanese films of the early '70s, these films rejected the Fantasy and light-hearted elements, instead opting for darker Horror films.

By the mid-1980s the Japanese film industry had recovered while American interest in Killer Animal films had waned, with the last major American film of the period being 1982's Q - The Winged Serpent.

Silver Age of Giant Monster Movies (1984 - 2004)

The Silver Age began with the reboot of the Godzilla franchise in 1984's The Return of Godzilla, a film that followed the trends of the late Dark Age by returning to the franchise's more Sci-Fi/Horror roots while also upping the production quality to the highest the franchise had ever enjoyed.  The international success of the film reestablished Godzilla as the preeminent giant monster franchise, but also became the final Japanese giant monster film to see an American release for 15 years.  This split between the East and West caused the giant monster genre to weaken and, for at time, nearly disappear in the West despite a Renaissance occurring in the East.

In the West, the genre saw few entries past 1986's widely panned King Kong Lives, and by the 1980s had largely be relegated to the occasional low budget (often direct-to-video) creature feature:  1988's The Blob, 1990's Tremors (and its sequels), 1995's Mosquito, 1997's Anaconda, 1999's Lake Placid, and 2002's Eight Legged Freaks represent high points in the West during the Silver Age.  Jurassic Park (1993) and Anaconda would prove particularly influential, one representing a major shift in special effects techniques (replacing stop motion and puppet effects with much easier and cheaper Computer Generated Images) and the other spurring a revival of the Giant Killer Animal genre, which following 1997 rapidly produced dozens of poorly made low-budget direct-to-video giant monster movies.

In the East, the Godzilla series dominated the genre and represented the majority of films produced.  Following the massive success of 1992's Godzilla vs. Mothra, the series was retooled to be more Fantasy-oriented liked the 1960s films.  This proved incredibly popular and profitable, despite a drop in production value and quality.  In 1995, Toho Studios killed off Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Destroyah and handed the rights to the character to Tristar Pictures, which set to work producing an American remake of Gojira helmed by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich.  That film, 1998's Godzilla, proved to be a critical bomb and a disaster, hated by fans and audiences, forcing Tristar to cancel a planned sequel and Toho to prematurely revive the franchise in Japan with 1999's Godzilla 2000.

In the meantime, Daiei revived the Gamera franchise with 1995's Gamera: Guardian of the Universe to critical acclaim and popular success.  The Heisei Gamera trilogy went on to set the benchmark for Japanese special effects, and quickly became beloved as some of the best films in the genre.  Simultaneously, Toho released a trilogy of Mothra solo ventures which harkened back to the child-oriented and low-quality films of the early Dark Age.  On TV, Ultraman was revived with 1996's Ultraman Tiga and remains popular through to the present day.

With the exception of 2001's Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, directed by the Heisei Gamera trilogy's director, Shusuke Kaneko, the Godzilla films of the early 2000s were nowhere near as popular nor successful as the 1990s films.  The absolute bomb of Godzilla's 50th Anniversary film, Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), ended the revival of Japanese giant monster films and the end of the Silver Age.

Contemporary Age of Giant Monster Movies (2005 - Present)

The post-Godzilla: Final Wars period has seen a relative resurrection of giant monster movies in the West compared to the East.  Japan has produced few feature-length giant monster films since 2005, the big exceptions being 2006's Gamera the Brave, a failed reboot of the Gamera franchise that tried to harken back to the franchise's more child-friendly roots, and 2008's Monster X Strikes Back, an unsuccessful comedic sequel to 1967's The X from Outer Space.  Instead, the most prominent Eastern entries to the genre during this period have hailed from South Korea:  The Host (2006), Dragon Wars (2007) and Chaw (2009).  In the West, there have been several successful big budget giant monster movies:  2005's remake of King Kong by Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson, 2008's 9/11 inspired Cloverfield, and 2011's Super 8.  Despite the success and positive reactions to these films, however, the balance of American films still remains firmly in the realm of cheap direct-to-video shlock.  The most prominent studio of such films is The Asylum, with films such as King of the Lost World (2005), Monster (2008), Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009), Mega Piranha and Megashark vs. Crocosaurus in 2010, and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011).  Also worth noting during this period are the works produced by shlock master Roger Corman:  Dinocroc (2004), Sharktopus (2010), and Dinocroc vs. Supergator (2010).

The most notable trend of the contemporary period has been near total rejection of practical effects, either animatronic or suitmation, in favor of all CGI effects work.  This trend has been universal from the genre's best entries to its worst, with the only exceptions being the few Japanese films and the Ultraman franchise, which continue to stubbornly press onward with traditional techniques.  The genre has, again, shifted back toward a more Horror-inspired tone, although a few few films have emphasized Science Fiction or Fantasy/Adventure instead.  Several of the genre's contemporary entries have received critical acclaim, at least in part rehabilitating the genre in the eyes of critics and move perceptions away from associations with shlock American films and early '70s Japanese films.

Looking into the future, the genre has two major shining stars upcoming over the next year:  2013's Pacific Rim, a giant monsters v. giant robots movie helmed by popular director Guillermo del Toro, and 2014's big budget Godzilla from Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., a second attempt at an American Godzilla film (unrelated to the 1998 film) helmed by indie director Gareth Edwards and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Academy Award-winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient), and Academy Award-nominee Ken Watanabe (Inception).  The success or failure of these two films will very much shape the future of Giant Monster genre, leaving the future beyond it very much in flux.

Conclusion

So, this is the way I view the history of the genre.  Thoughts?  Do you think there's a better or more accurate way to describe the genre's history?  If so, please share in the comments!

Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies (1990)

Before I loved giant monster movies, I loved dinosaur movies.  It started when I was a little kid enamored with Don Bluth's The Land Before Time, and despite some interruptions (like most kids, I didn't have much of an attention span) I managed to stay fond of dinosaurs right up until the Summer of 1993 when I was treated to seeing Jurassic Park in theaters.  That clinched it, and from that point on I was dino-crazy!  I had dinosaur toys, dinosaur bedsheets, dinosaur pajamas, dinosaur magazines, books, and, of course, videos.  

I discovered Godzilla in early 1994 and that began my life-long fandom of giant monster movies, but my first introduction to the genre beyond the Godzilla series came through a little video my Dad picked up around 1995 titled Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies!  

With a cover like this, who could say no?

The tape was a compilation of old dinosaur and giant monster movie trailers, filled with oodles of awesome stuff and movies I'd never heard of.  I loved the tape and watched it over and over religiously, exposing me to a world of rampaging city-smashing beasts that my 9-year old mind had not yet fathomed.  Here was where I discovered the work of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, caught my first glimpse of Gorgo, and realized there was more fun to be had beyond the seemingly endless adventures of Godzilla and his cohorts.  They were all here:  The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), King Kong (1931), Rodan (1956), Gamera the Invincible (1965), and many more!  So many fond memories, and so many movies that, even today, I've yet to see.

It was released by GoodTimes Home Video (the same company that released Godzilla vs. Megalon on VHS, amongst others), which unfortunately shut down back in 2005.  If you've got kids, though, see if you can track this one down.  It kept me hooked for years and helped establish a love for these movies that's lasted almost two decades.  I highly recommend!  ^_^

What IS a Giant Monster?

A question I've seen debated again and again is over what, exactly, qualifies as a "giant" monster?  Is it only Godzilla-sized monsters?  Are Mighty Joe Young or Gwoemul from The Host (2006) too short?  Should Japanese Daikaiju be considered separate from Western giant monsters?  Where do dinosaurs or fantasy creatures stand?

I figured it was worth laying out my position on this issue.

In my opinion, if its abnormally large - usually, this means bigger than a truck - it's a giant monster.  However, that doesn't mean every movie that features a giant monster should be considered or listed as a giant monster movie.  Ghostbusters (1984) has the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but I doubt anyone really considers that a giant monster movie.  Similarly, just because there's a large creature (or creatures!) running wild doesn't make it a giant monster movie either - I throw films like Jaws (1977), Jurassic Park (1993), and Primeval (2007) into this category, as they're more accurately classed as Killer Animal or Dinosaur pictures.  I still enjoy these movies, though, and a lot of times I'll sort of arbitrarily declare this or that film to be a giant monster movie irregardless of any logic.  ^_^()

Dinosaurs present a complicated case, because in my opinion they're sometimes giant monster movies, like The Valley of Gwangi (1968), but then sometimes they're not, like Jurassic Park.

So, if I boiled it down, what makes a giant monster movie a giant monster movie?

The assault on civilization.

One thing most giant monster movies share - from King Kong (1933) to Yonggary (1967) to Super 8 (2011) - is a conflict between the monster and society, often showcased by the monster attacking a city or being attacked by the Army (or both).  The thing about regular Monster movies or Dinosaur movies is that, almost always, the monster's target is a person or group of people.  In Jaws and The Beast (1996), the monster is more like the serial killer in a Slasher movie:  picking people off, one by one, terrorizing a community or small isolated group of people.  In Dinosaur movies, there are no targets at all - often, the story is about a group of characters trying to survive in a hostile environment (filled with man-eating beasts).  In a Giant Monster movie, however, the monster's target is civilization itself.  In Gojira (1954), The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms (1953), and Mothra (1961) the monsters sink ships and attack cities.  There's no keeping their existence secret.  In fact, there's more than one Giant Monster movie where the climax is the monster's reveal to the general public - most regular Monster movies never have that moment.  Instead, the heroes spend the movie trying to convince the authorities that the Monster exists, often without success, and in many films the authorities' role is to show up at the end to claim the bodies.  While the success rate of the police and military against giant monsters is, at best, unsatisfactory, they at least show up and get a chance to try.

I don't mean "Oh, a cop takes a shot but it does nothing."  I mean, a Giant Monster movie will devote a significant portion of the film - a scene, a sequence - to the authority figures acknowledging the threat, devising a plan, and acting on it in an effort to defeat the monster.  Hell, plenty of Giant Monster movies organize their plot around successive plans, each failing until the heroes finally devise one that works - Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) or Gamera the Invincible (1965) are examples of this.  This shifts the conflict of the film from "Hero v. Monster" to "Society v. Monster" - it's no longer about the hero, alone, struggling against the beast, instead it's now the hero and society itself, together, struggling to overcome the antagonist.

As I said, there are exceptions.  I consider Anaconda (1997) a Giant Monster movie, even though it fits none of the criteria above.  Why? 

'Cause I like it, that's why.  NYEH!  :p