Another one of the biggest stories to come out of Comic-Con this year was that there will indeed be another Godzilla film that follows the same continuity as this summer’s smash hit. This latest Godzilla film (the 32nd) will feature new designs of Toho’s famous standby monsters Mothra, Rodan, and the evil three-headed dragon King Ghidorah. In addition to the new Godzilla monster mash, there was also word of an upcoming King Kong film called Skull Island, which may or may not be in the same continuity as Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong, and looks to be a King Kong origin story. Call it Prince Kong.
These announcements indicate a new trend in modern movies: We are living in a new age of kaiju. What with the financial success of Godzilla, and the cult enthusiasm behind the relative flop Pacific Rim, giant monsters are the word of the day. This personally pleases me, because giant monster films have – for me – tapped into something very primal inside my inner 8-year-old brain. This new wave of American kaiju films, naturally, only leads to enthused speculation as to the future of the genre. We now must ask ourselves what giant monsters we want to see bundled into this now-growing genre.
Luckily for you, dear readers, we here at CraveOnline have seen a lot of giant monster movies, and would like to run down a list of monsters, robots, and other giants we’d like to see resurrected on the big screen.
Witney Seibold is a commentator at Nerdist, a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly Trolling articles here on Crave, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
13 Giant Monsters Who Deserve a Comeback
-
Jet Jaguar
Jet Jaguar is a young boy's robot creation that manages to grow his own self-awareness when an evil monster insect attacked Japan. His only film appearance was in Godzilla vs. Megalon, one of the lesser Godzilla movies. A self-aware helper robot with a permanent smile that can grow to monster size would be a keen hero in the age of modern special effects.
-
Lt. Glen Manning
“What sin... could a man commit in a single lifetime... to deserve this?” The Amazing Colossal Man is an infamous turkey from the 1950s about a man who is exposed to radiation and grows into a 50-foot behemoth whose mind is eventually destroyed. Only he actually predates the Hulk. The modern idiom dictates that fantasy creatures have intriguing backstories and tragic self-awareness, so a return of The Amazing Colossal Man only seems fitting. Only this time, we can do it right.
-
Giant Squid
The last time Capt. Nemo appeared on the big screen, it was as a supporting character in the rather loathsome The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's high time we had another big-screen adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, if for no other reason than to school the long string of cheapie made-for-TV adaptations of it. And just think of that giant, giant squid. What a joy.
-
The Jabberwocky
Only deep-cut Terry Gilliam fans have seen his 1977 film based Lewis Carroll's famous nonsense poem about a giant beast called the Jabberwocky. The monster made a brief appearance in Tim Burton's popular-but-not-good Alice in Wonderland, but it's high time we give the beast his own medieval epic. I want to see the jaws that bite, and claws that catch.
-
Q
Larry Cohen's 1982 film Q – The Winged Serpent was another notorious cheapie with a kind of cool monster. It looks ungainly on screen, but there was potential for so much more cool wickedness. The painting on the poster looked slicker and scarier than the monster in the film. With modern-day CGI, we can make something that looks exactly like the poster. Get on that.
-
The Loch Ness Monster vs. Bigfoot
Its time is coming.
-
Daimajin
In the 1966, there were three Daimajin films, all featuring a giant, vengeful demon god, dressed like a samurai warrior, who would spring to life and crush cities. Imagine a kaiju film set in medieval Japan, complete with resourceful attacks using primitive weapons, all against a towering, frowning samurai, and you've got yourself a classic in the making.
-
The Golem
Rooted in ancient Jewish lore, the golem is a clay or mud statue that can come to life under the spell of its master. The golem was featured in a famous 1920 feature film, and has cropped up from time to time in the interim (Roddy McDowall fought one in an obscure 1966 film called It!), but hasn't been seen on the big screen for years. Give me my towering clay monster!
-
The Kothoga
I'm one of the only fans of the The Relic, a fun, trifling monster flick from 1997. The monster in that film was a genetic blend of tigers, bugs, humans, and reptiles. It fed on human brains to survive. How come no one has scooped up this badass creature, made it bigger, and let it loose in the streets of New York or something? Its time is also coming.
-
Reptilicus
Reptilicus is an armored Danish sea serpent that can spit up acid, and hates humans. It can regenerate. It's impossible to kill. It's essentially a Scandinavian brother to Godzilla. The only film to feature Reptilicus was made in 1961, and it's high time we brought back this sea-dwelling brother from another monster.
-
The Gargantuas
War of the Gargantuas is perhaps one of the most bizarre giant monster films of the 1960s, which is saying a lot. It features giant Frankenstein monsters, cloned and grown to enormous size, wailing on each other. There is a green one that resides in the sea, and a brown one that resides in the hills. I think it's time we met other elemental Gargantuas.
-
Mechagodzilla
Yes please.
