Tag: Kaiju

To Hail a Lunar New Year with 2024’s Ape x Mecha Ape: New World Order

Even though The Asylum’s mockbusters are just that, sometimes there’s a diamond in the rough that gets my attention. When the focus is away from a mutant lizard, Ape x Mecha Ape: New World Order is surprisingly watchable.

Ape X Mecha Ape New World OrderAvailable to view on Google Play and Prime Video
Spoiler Alert

The Asylum is a movie studio well known for its parodies of blockbuster films, and sometimes they create a hidden gem I enjoy. What writer/director Marc Gottlieb got right in Ape X Mecha Ape: New World Order to honour that kaiju spirit. The biggest surprise is the design of the robot! I’d gladly have a model of it stomping on 1998s Godzilla on my shelf!

But for the former, as this planet’s saviour (sort of), the giant sized Abraham knows something the humans do not at the start of this film. And all his human watchers can do is stand by the sidelines and watch the devastation. If that’s not what a typical Toho film from the 70s looks like, then maybe someone can enlighten me. After this monkey’s first confrontation with a worm from outer space, all I wanted to see was who would win during round two!

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Megaghost is Set to Rematerialize in 2025!

Just whether or not MegaGhost ever existed as a cartoon doesn’t matter as Dark Horse Comics have a trade paperback collecting this comic book series next year!

Megaghost Volume 1 TPBDark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 08, 2025

Albatross Funnybooks and Dark Horse Comics invite readers to join an arcane adventure that brings back the action-packed thrills of Saturday morning cartoons, blended with supernatural chills! MegaGhost, written by Gabe Soria (Midnight Arcade, Batman ‘66) and illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Gideon Kendall (Marley’s Ghost, Lester of the Lesser Gods), will be released in a new paperback volume in January 2025. It will feature an all-new cover by Kendall and collect issues #1-5, plus bonus content, including the previously uncollected holiday special “MegaGhost of Christmas,” and a new introduction! Die-hard believers will need to keep their eyes peeled for even more MegaGhost, coming soon!

The MegaGhost Saturday morning cartoon was legendary, if short-lived, and in what can only be described as the most fantastic case of the Mandela Effect EVER, the only two people on Earth who seem to remember it are Soria and Kendall.

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Godzilla x Kong The New Empire, A Review and Thoughts the Monsterverse’s Future

After all that’s sand and done in Godzilla X Kong The New Empire, is it really over after Dr., Ilene says humanity must learn how to live with the Titans?

Godzilla x Kong The New Empire Movie PosterGodzilla x Kong The New Empire isn’t the best followup to a new set of films about these two titans begrudgingly working together. That’s because I’ve seen half the ideas before. The one about Kong exploring Hollow Earth and earning his place in ape society is to be expected. Elsewhere, when the trailers show Godzilla aware an unknown threat is coming, he’ll have to power up in order to defeat it. As for whom he targets and how savage he is, that’s the only part I truly liked.

And because I read Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong the night before, I get the sense fans are being groomed for what’s to come. In the Monsterverse, superheroes do not exist. Having people in power armour does, and when considering Mecha Godzilla was introduced the prior film, I suspect putting a human in battle armour ala Pacific Rim can make anyone look super powered like Lex in his giant robot! If my theory is true, I’ll keep watching despite how repetitive the ideas are getting in setting up the future for this franchise.

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When Godzilla Minus One Recreates The Fear, Fans Can Cheer at this Proper Reset of a Beloved Icon!

Here, Gojira and Godzilla will be used synonymously to explore his appeal world-wide, and Godzilla Minus One shows how The East is dealing with the West(ern) threat.

Godzilla Minus One TrailerSpoiler Alert

A primer is needed to help describe where Godzilla Minus One fits in the lore. Technically, not all of TOHO‘s Gojira films belong in one long continuity. Fans know his longevity is due to how he is represented over the nearly seven decades.

Throughout the Shōwa era (1954–75), he eventually became a hero who often saved Japan from other kaiju and alien invaders. During the Heisei period (1984–95), he was an anti-hero. In the Millennium (1999–2004) years, I saw the beast as neither friend nor foe (each film was standalone, save for Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo SOS). The Reiwa era (2016–present) recognises how this terror is simply a force of nature. Although this studio’s animated trilogy (2017-18) is its own universe, I think they fit under the same umbrella.

Just where this Japanese studio’s latest belongs is somewhere with the first movie and Shin Godzilla. Not only do long-time fans hear Akira Ifukube’s signature score, which really defines the monster’s presence, but also we see nothing has changed in Gojira’s design. Aside from larger dorsal fins and how they activate when he’s ready to breathe fire, the outline can not be altered by much.

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It’s Just Classic Toho Fun with Giant Robot Hellboy!

The concept behind this Giant Robot Hellboy is simple. It brings some of that classic Pacific Rim vibe into what is otherwise a Toho film featuring a certain other big G….

Giant Robot Hellboy #1 Comic Book CoverDark Horse Comics
Spoiler Alert

Kaiju fans will love everything Mike Mignola has dreamed up in Giant Robot Hellboy. This story is inspired by the sketches he drew and got published in The Quarantine Sketchbook, and due to demand, he’s crafted an excellent story that blends Japanese style action to a familiar concept.

The first issue sets up something that I would expect in Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner. He gets a phone call and soon gets gassed. After passing out, he’s whisked away by unknown agents to some bunker, where he’s hooked up to various neural devices. As for the mysterious giant box, all I see is that it’s destined to some island said to be located east of Africa.

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Brains vs Brawns. Skull Island Impresses with Mystery and Kaiju Style Action!

What makes Skull Island a fine jumping in point is that one doesn’t need to know the live-action movie at all.

Netflix Skull Island Promotional PosterLegendary Pictures‘ Skull Island is essentially a variation on a theme. I’ve seen this story in Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous; both tales concern teens and adults trapped in the worst place possible. They not only have to contend with rogue scientists but also giant monsters. When they wash up here, where they land is no Hotel California.

Although this animation is billed as a story for an older crowd, the teen elements are at the forefront, and the ape (i.e. Kong) simply lounging around. His presence is downplayed while another beast takes centre stage. I’m curious about Dog, who probably aids the mighty gorilla. This temperamental mutant has the features of a Pitbull, lion and armadillo.

He’d be the type of creature cryptologists and scientists would want to study. But instead, they’re more interested in riling up things from the sea and detonating explosives in places where they shouldn’t. Charlie (Nicolas Cantu) doesn’t like this life, and if it weren’t for his best friend, Mike (Darren Barnet) being here, he’d probably go crazy. This teen wants a normal life.

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