Shin Goji and the monster movie uprising

     Well this has certainly been a week. A Skull Island spot Sunday night and in the days following, trailers for Dr. Strange and Shin Gojira. I was going to give my thoughts on the trailer but a friend of mine gave his thoughts and they pretty much match up to my own. The only difference is, they are typed a lot more eloquently than I could ever hope, so please check out his review on the subject. It is a worthy read.

The Gryphon's Lair

     I would like to talk about the uprising in monster movies and tokusatsu remakes that have blessed us recently. Between now and 2020 we have: 1 new Ultraman movie, 1 new Gamera movie, 1 new King Kong movie, 2 new Godzilla movies and 1 remake of King Kong vs. Godzilla. That is just what is confirmed to happen as of right now. I don't include Pacific Rim 2, due it's funky production record as of late, but regardless big budget monster movies are coming out of nowhere.
     Monster movies are getting darker and more realistic yet staying true to source material and inspired works. Despite it's flaws, I could go on for days about how much I love Legendary's Godzilla film, partly because this was a long time overdue for fans. We, fans, have endured direct-to-video-schlock and SyFy channel original movies for almost two decades before getting an honest to goodness, big budget, good giant monster movie.
     The question that has riddled my mind is; Why so many? Well my first theory is that audiences learned to let go a little bit and be less serious as comic book movies became more popular. In turn, fans became louder about what they wanted and Hollywood listened. I have two problems with this theory: first, nerd rage got even louder than anything else causing many to overreact. second, Hollywood has a record of not doing things for the benefit of the consumer.

     My second theory is that TOHO and other companies, both here and overseas, wanted a curve-ball to compete with the modern super hero movies and remakes. This seems likely since monster movies were a very underutilized and, at the time, untapped market for the masses. Pacific Rim was the preliminary test and Godzilla (2014) sealed the deal. Giant monsters and heroes that many of us grew up with are rising again! Does this mean that they are here for good, though, or is this the last hurrah of a dying generation?
    The Staying power of all of these franchises really depends on their success. I firmly believe that if the new Gamera movie and Shin Gojira are good, the box office will respond in kind and the monsters will be back for another decade of destruction! In America, sadly, I do not think it will last as long. I want to be proven wrong but knowing the modern American audience, the King Kong vs Godzilla reboot may the last giant monster movie for a while. Believe me I want to be proven wrong. I want new and interesting monster movies to arise and much like how the horror and slasher films had an uprising between the 70's and early 90's.
     I mentioned before that monster fans had this coming for a long time. It is ultimately up to us, however, to see these movies and support the filmmakers as much as we can. New monster movies ARE happening. It is up to us to turn this sudden spike into a full blown monster renaissance. I implore everyone, keep spreading the word about these movies. It is up to us to give many new and young fans the one thing they may never experience again, a true monster movie age.

I am the Kaiju Kidd and I'm really looking forward to Shin Gojira.