Maybe you've been asking yourself how you can get into giant monsters, especially with Cloverfield 2 and Host 2 on the way. Or maybe you're ashamed of the fact that you really don't know a lot about the Godzilla pantheon. Well, I'm here to help you out. Thanks to the nice people at Slideshare, you can now get my 5-minute introduction to giant monster appreciation, which I performed live at the Ignite show in San Francisco a couple weeks ago. [Giant Monsters via Ignite]
A 5-Minute Crash-Course in Giant Monsters
2:03 PM on Tue May 6 2008
By Annalee Newitz
3,663 views
23 comments













Comments
The Host was like the size of an Elephant. Not really Giant. Great film though.
Hmm. Giant boobies just MIGHT be a danger...
Thank MaGog I'm a small boob lover.
@Plague: Yeah I heard too much fun was a big danger.
I'm more worried about the liberated women running around. Thankfully clever straight men created Sex And The City to fool women into believing that promiscuity, foul language, drinking and shoe shopping is the same thing as liberated equality.
Hahah, suckers, enjoy your cosmos and lower pay while I bounce on your radioactive super boobs.
@Garrison Dean, King Awesome:
"clever straight men"?
Who told you THAT big lie?
@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: Ya know, I would have been more excited about the new "Sex and the City" movie if they were GIANT women attacking New York.
@Plague: Can't. I've said too much as it is. Don't want the broads catchin on.
@bonniegrrl: Thats what I thought it was at first from the ads and a character named Mr. Big. Boy was I dissapointed. I mean. LOOK AT THIS AD!!!
[getreel.sidereel.com]
@Garrison Dean, King Awesome:
but isn't that giant, hideous pulsing CGI thing in the slideshow image Carrie Bradshaw?
So, um. I don't want to be rude, but that slideshow was FULL of inaccuracies.
The worst of which was the idea that the monster from "The Host" came from the ocean when the Han River was mentioned so often in the movie it was almost a character in the film.
Did the person who put this show together even watch it?
And, also, The remake of King Kong wasn't horrible. But the idea that a woman would fall in love with a giant ape is. When I went to go see it, I saw it with 3 women who cried when he died.
@NerD!!!: No, I can verify it scientifically: the remake of King Kong was horrible. Those women were crying in pain.
Yeah!.. The sideshow includes 'Them'...
I love pretending every us of the 'Them' referes to giant ants...
"Are we going to dinner with them?"
-Yes, them.. the giant ants.
*wife stares at me menacingly*
@NerD!!!:To be fair, the Han does empty into the ocean, and no single dumping of a toxin would stay put in a river for two years. So it follows that the toxin floats out to the ocean, mutates a salmon who later comes back up-stream to mate, and bite some poor bastard. A bunch of other stuff happens, the end.
Woot! This is the best news to hit Tuesday since the announcement it was no longer Monday!
Wow!
you didn't like King Kong...
I mean I get not loving it or having different expectations of it and being disappointed.
But that was an awesome movie. Way better than LOTR anyway.
I'd even go as far as saying it's the ONLY Peter Jackson movie that actually has good direction.
Also not giving proper credit (and top billing in the pantheon alongside Godzilla) to the original King Kong is just wrong wrong wrong.
King Kong vs. Godzilla.
There's a reason that title works.
I totally agree with your take on the King Kong remake.
I've never been able to sit through the whole thing - I've got a copy of it on my shelf (was a gift) and I've never managed to sit through the whole thing.
Also, yay Gamera. Gamera is my favorite movie monster ever, and he makes any list he's in 1000% better.
Wow, that was really well done! And thanks for pointing out that Slideshare site to me--that'll be a *great* place for me to put instructional presentations online for my students' to check out!
I'm currently working on a monograph for a conference concerning giant monsters in general, but focusing on King Kong, Godzilla, and my boy Cloverfield as exemplars of certain concepts that form the genre we all know and love as "The Giant-Monster Movie." I'd be glad to email you a copy when it's finished! Giant-monster fans gotta share the love of their oversized symbols of Nature's Revenge, after all. :)
Umm Cloverfield came out in 2007?
I checked imdb (for other countries) and I seen that movie on my birthday and I've pretty sure it came out Jan18 2008
I liked the new Godzilla.
Cloverfield was good, but the monster design looked a bit Rancor-like to me.
@Annalee Newitz: Nice presentation, but why no mention of The Amazing Collosal Man (1957) or its sequel and the Japanese kaiju Frankenstein series?
On the other hand, I was pleased that you omitted D-War in favor of The Host.
@DocGratis: 'Them' is a great movie...and I am glad the new Futurama is giving 'them' a moment (providing it survives the final cut).
I was disappointed in the exclusion of the original Atomic Bomb Giant Monster movie, The Beast From 20000 Fathoms.
+ Watch video
@Annalee Newitz: OK, so I'm biased (see my screen name) but Jackson's Kong was wonderful. Most importantly, perhaps, it righted the grievous wrong done to Kong and Kong fans by Dino De Laurentis in 1976. (His Kong is the reverse-gold standard for horrible remakes.) Great slideshow and presentation, though. I think you hit the nail on the head with your final point on "What Can Giant Monsters Do For You?" Bravo! (well, all except for that Kong business. And The Host did come from the Han River as a previous poster noted.).
@Annalee Newitz: Very funny. An excellent remark.
@Ghede: I'd agree, but the ocean isn't mentioned anywhere in that film. In fact, in the commentaries, the writers and driectors were very specific about it being a river film, since the river is such a central part of the daily life of people in Seoul.
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