The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
I have watched the beast from 20,000 fathoms! And now I wish to talk about it
I can really see why others built on this to make the kaiju genre, but flipside, I can't recommend it too much aside from the historical value.
The monster, Rhedosaurus, is cool and has great Harryhousen effects.
The plot is very standard monster fair- I doubt it made the formula even, but you know the drill. 'See monster, deal with people doubting it's real, people admit it when evidence mounts up, fight monster.'
They had the poison blood gimmick, but introduced it way too late in, after the rampage and before only the final fight, so it didn't present a problem for very long before they had a solution.
The setpieces, though? Very cool. Great NYC rampage, and 'final inside a burning rollercoaster' was a great visual- With the irony that lighting the rollercoaster on fire wasn't even part of the plan.
Some of the extras, especially the police officers/soldiers firing at the monster, seem insufficiently worried about the gigantic dinosaur rampaging around. I wonder how much of that was due to lack of knowing what a giant monster was like!- most of the extras were good though.
If you want to see a really good old monster movie, Kong or Godzilla are better. If you want to see the spark that lead to Godzilla, it's worth a look.
As a monster movie I only give it maybe a C-. There's a lot better there and the plot is very formula. It's better than a bad monster movie, it's well made enough, but there's not going to be anything you haven't seen before.
I've also heard people say the Tristar '98 Godzilla resembles a remake of Beast more than a G movie, and that's definitely true. Some differences but in both appearance and story structure (including both somehow losing the monsters inside NYC at one point) there's strong similarities. Rethink G98 as a modern take on Beast and it helps G98 come off better.
I can really see why others built on this to make the kaiju genre, but flipside, I can't recommend it too much aside from the historical value.
The monster, Rhedosaurus, is cool and has great Harryhousen effects.
The plot is very standard monster fair- I doubt it made the formula even, but you know the drill. 'See monster, deal with people doubting it's real, people admit it when evidence mounts up, fight monster.'
They had the poison blood gimmick, but introduced it way too late in, after the rampage and before only the final fight, so it didn't present a problem for very long before they had a solution.
The setpieces, though? Very cool. Great NYC rampage, and 'final inside a burning rollercoaster' was a great visual- With the irony that lighting the rollercoaster on fire wasn't even part of the plan.
Some of the extras, especially the police officers/soldiers firing at the monster, seem insufficiently worried about the gigantic dinosaur rampaging around. I wonder how much of that was due to lack of knowing what a giant monster was like!- most of the extras were good though.
If you want to see a really good old monster movie, Kong or Godzilla are better. If you want to see the spark that lead to Godzilla, it's worth a look.
As a monster movie I only give it maybe a C-. There's a lot better there and the plot is very formula. It's better than a bad monster movie, it's well made enough, but there's not going to be anything you haven't seen before.
I've also heard people say the Tristar '98 Godzilla resembles a remake of Beast more than a G movie, and that's definitely true. Some differences but in both appearance and story structure (including both somehow losing the monsters inside NYC at one point) there's strong similarities. Rethink G98 as a modern take on Beast and it helps G98 come off better.