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| The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack of the G8 Summit |
Dear Internet,
Now, I
on the right footing by watching the correct film today. "The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack of
the G8 Summit" is something of a sequel to the original movie. I say somewhat because the only thing that
the two films have in common is the shared monster Guilala. Beyond that, there is next to no continuity between
the two films. Short of one joke about a
Chinese knockoff spaceship named after the ship found in the first film, the
monster is the only similarity that the two films have. The second film also flips the genre it aims
for completely upside down. The original
film was meant to be a drama, although how well it meant that goal can be
questioned easily. The second film is a
comedy foremost with some political satire heaved heavily on the side.
The
film begins with the G* Summit being held in Japan. Eight heads of countries have come together
to discuss a number of pressing world issues.
As the group continues their discussions, an unidentified object crashes
into Sapporo in northern Japan. From the
fiery carnage, Guilala emerges and brings death and destruction to the
city. The eight take it upon themselves
to rid the world of Guilala so that none shall live in terror and that their
ratings in the polls will go up.
Meanwhile, two Japanese journalists stumble upon a secret cult of
worshipers dancing for their ancient god, Take-Majin. As they push their inquiry further, they find
out that it was foretold since long ago that Guilala was to invade Earth. Humans would be unable to stop the creature. Only the god Take-Majin could stop the extraterrestrial
monstrosity. The only problem is that
the hero-god is nowhere to be seen in mankind's darkest hour. Will he appear in time to save us?
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| The chicken from outer space comes back. |
I have
probably written a more dramatic summary than any moment of the film
itself. This is because the film takes
itself very lightly. It is a comedy
first and a monster film second. The
center of the film's comedy stems from the antics of the G8 group. Each of the world leaders is an overly stereotypical
cartoon character. The leader of France
is a womanizer who ignores his recent marriage.
The president of the USA is an idiot that cares more about his chances
of being reelected than stopping the monster.
The Russian leader utilizes spy tactics to get the job done. So on and so on, the film lays on these stereotypes
to make the audience laugh. It works
quite well because the film does not take any sort of serious jab at anyone in
particular. Even the prime minister of
Japan gets made fun of, having to run off to the bathroom constantly throughout
the film due to indigestion.
Beyond
the comedy found in the war room, the film makes sure to carry over the silly
shenanigans to the Guilala scenes. The
Japanese are the first who attempt to combat the creature by aiming a high
powered missile straight at the creature.
This ends up being a poor idea.
Guilala catches the missile before it makes contact and eats the weapon
hungrily. After this, the various other
world leaders try one after the other to destroy the beast. Each manner reflects the comical stereotypes of
each country. I will not ruin any sort
of surprises because the effect and failure of each one is a great punch line to
each joke.
There
is one major problem with the film. It
stems from the film's subplot or side-plot.
The two journalists take a considerable amount of screen time thought
the film. They find the secret shrine,
interact with the mysterious villagers, and find out about Take-Majin. It all adds up to a good level of exposition
to let Take-Maijin appear from out of nowhere.
However, despite their importance to generating information so that the
audience can see how the day will truly be saved, they do not really do
anything that affects the plot. Sure,
they eventually join the ritual dance, but their dancing is not made clear to
have been the tipping point to getting Taka-Majin to appear. For all we know, the ritual dance would have
summoned the hero-god without the help of the two journalists. They are only there as some sort of audience
avatar to see the attack of Guilala from eyelevel.
The inability
of the journalists to make a bigger impact upon the story is not the biggest
problem. The problem is that it acts too
much as a cold contrast to the comical half of the film. Whenever the film covers the G8 Summit,
laughter abounds. There are sly jokes on
the side that can be missed and other outlandish ones that are enough to bust a
gut. When the film turns to the reporters,
there are no jokes or any sort of silliness.
The tone of the film shifts to being dramatic. It is not overly dramatic to the point of
being a joke itself, but the effect is that the film feels split in two. It feels like the film was written by two
different people. One wrote the G8
Summit half and the other concentrated on the reporters. At least it seems that the G8 writer had done
the final fight between the two giants.
While the contrast between the two halves are never enough to feel like
the film is a pendulum moving in great swings from one extreme to the other, it
feels like more of a missed opportunity for there to have been humor in both
halves. The only joke that even comes from the journalist half has to do with the funny dance that is in the ritual. This joke gets old fairly quickly because of how often it repeats.
"The
Monster X Strikes Back/Attack of the G8 Summit" is a good film if you want
to watch a world political satire film. It
is a great film if you want a comedy about government incompetence. It is an OK film to watch a monster destroy
the countryside. It is very enjoyable
even without having watched the first film.
That last bit is probably the most important thing I can say about the
film. The sequel is not a parody of the
first, despite the amount of available material to make fun of. It is a general fun film. Not even the stiff acting of the English
speaking actors can detract from the film.
If anything, the stiff and poor acting makes the scenes funnier a la
"The Skeleton of Cadavra," a parody film about bad horror films of old.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Next is "The Sword with No Name" (2009).
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