Monster Trailer review

The trailer for the upcoming movie Monsters is available online here.  Wow, it looks good.  Does anybody else think that this looks thrilling?  There has been a lull in monster movies as of late.  The 1998 Godzilla movie starring Matthew Broderick isn’t really much to talk about.  But it looks like hope is on the way with this new installment of Monsters.  It’s about time giants have come down to earth and started wreaking havoc, because humans need a break from all of their own mess making.  Let’s leave it to the big guys.  I give this trailer a claws up for its daring attempt to re-open the genre.

NOT MUCH TO TALK ABOUT

Monsters isn’t the only big thing coming down the pipeline.  Fantasy director Tim Burton will also delve into the genre with his version of the wildly popular Japanese Manga series Monsterpocalypse.  Let’s hope this uptick in Giant monster movies entertains and thrills us for years to come. 

COOLER THAN FERRIS BUELLER

So, what are your views? Have a favorite monster movie from the past. Are you looking forward to these upcoming films?  Do you know of any upcoming films that are guaranteed to be larger than life?  Post a comment and let everybody know that the monsters are coming. 

Theme day Post: Saturday Morning Creature Feature

Saturday is Creature Feature day, when we watch and review another creature feature movie each week.  This week’s feature film is the 1984 super hit Ghostbusters.  The movie is filled with cutting edge special effects for the time and a Giant Stay-Puft marshmallow man at the climax of the film. 

As the Ghostbusters team attempts to prevent the end of humanity they are faced with the challenge of clearing their minds.  The ancient Sumerian god named Gozer the Gozerian has left it to the imaginations of the Ghostbusters to “choose the form of the destructor”.  They try to clear their thoughts but one image pops into the mind of Dan Akroyd’s character Ray Stantz. 

The image that manifests the creature of their doom is the soft and fluffy Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. The happy faced, sweet and fluffy Stay Puft Marshmallow man towers 10 stories about the crowds of New Yorkers, crushing cars underfoot.

As far as monsters go this one is pretty lighthearted in keeping with the comedic careers of Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Rick Moranis, and Harold Ramis who all had their starts on either Saturday Night Live or Second City Television. 

The charm of Ghostbusters and the key to its success is its ability to be a both a comedy and a horror film.  Like many of the giant creatures of movies past, such as King Kong and Godzilla, fear is coupled with fascination. In the case of Ghostbusters and the Stay Puft Marshmallow man humor lightens the fear and we are entertained. 

3 favorite blogs

I like the engadget blog site.  I guess the inner tech geek in me appreciates this site.  The layout and design is easy to navigate and gather info without being overly technical with data.  It’s pretty interactive and you can “ask engadget” and benefit from their wide range of expertise.  So, if you have a technical question that your dying to ask, drop them an email and learn something.

I like the simplicity and lighthearted subject matter contained in the boingboing site.  A lot of the posts are user submitted through the “submiterator” which is kind of a silly name, but so is boing boing.  They've integrated themselves into the social networks and also have a shop with all kinds of irrelevant, odd items for sale.  

The icanhascheezburger site is funny and mostly comprised of user submitted photos of cats with funny captions.  If you’re in a bad mood maybe a photo of a cat sticking his tongue out is just what you need.  It’s interactive with the opportunity to vote on your favorite photos.  It has branched out into a number of pet and language oriented sites in case you prefer dogs.  Goldfish appear to be under appreciated, but if you've got a funny goldfish, why not submit something so we can all have a good laugh.

They Attack!

This picture was an available clip art that worked well to express the brand of this blog.  The image is simple and not too serious but still captures the feel of fantastic giants with an obvious reference to the movie monster legend Godzilla. 

Considering that the blog will begin with the monsters of early film a black and white image works well.  The bold lines and simple black and white colors give the image the modern look of a computer icon.  It's not exactly a movie still but there is plenty of time to post image blogs about all of the “real” movie monsters.    

The image captures the feel of all Monster movies, that being, something giant attacks.  This notion that there is something greater than anything mankind has come up with, including metropolises and cars is what makes monster movies thrilling and entertaining.

Giants have intrigued humankind since time immemorial.  The creation myths of the world often feature giants.  The Old Testament describes Nephilim giants who were the fathers of the gods of old. The ancient Indian Hindu texts describe Diatya, a race of giants clashing in the sky.  In one Chinese creation myth the earth is formed by a giant horned creature, grown from an egg, whose body is the earth.  The knights of Europe fought dragons.  Perhaps it was the remnants of the dinosaur age, the wooly mammoth or a few large birds that swept the sky and permanently etched giants into the human mind.  Many great religious literary works of the past have sought the giants and movies have reached for the same heights.  The giants are brought to life in film, existing there, immortal as they are.

About this blog...

This blog is intended to gather and comment on a collection of the biggest things in movie history, specifically the larger than life monsters created within the scifi fantasy genre.  This blog is inspired by the human fascination with giants since the dawn of history and our modern interpretation of them on the movie screen.  My personal interest in filimmaking as an entertaining and meaningful artform and my curiosity about giant monsters serve as the catalyst for the blog.

If you are a fan of the movie monster genre and there is a film that you would like to see commented on at this site please feel free to contribute.