Midwest Emo Boys vs. Giant Monster — Who Wins?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:20:00 PDT

We've told you before about Zero Trooper F, a giant monster flick set in a town much like Madison, Wisconsin, and now there's an action-packed clip from it online as well as a full trailer. Basically it's the simple tale of a mad scientist having a life crisis while super-soldiers fight a giant monster (see clip) that looks a lot like those those cute felted animals with scary eyes and teeth that you always see hipsters making in CRAFT magazine. Except this cute animal is as tall as a skyscraper and fights by kicking buses like a hackysack. Plus, the soundtrack is great.

The short film, put together by University of Wisconsin students and directed by Eric Lim, looks fun and manages to capture the craziness of kaiju battles on a shoestring budget.

The filmmakers describe the plot like this:

As a genius inventor and scientist, Bryan Abrams is the brain behind the super sentai hero, Zero Trooper-F's brawn. Byran is loved and adored by his family, his co-workers, and the greater area of Greenside City. However, it's not a feeling he reciprocates. Bryan's overwhelming feeling of unfulfilled desire comes to a breaking point at the worst time possible, during a giant monster attack.

Here's the trailer:

Zero Trooper F [official site] Thanks, Avery Guerra!

Giant Monster Trashes Madison, Wisconsin

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:20:00 PDT

Tired of those giant monsters only attacking the big cities and ignoring the heartland of America? So is one film-maker in Madison, Wisconsin, apparently. Eric Lim brought the world-crushing kaiju action to Greenside City, which looks remarkably like his hometown of Madison, in his new film Zero Trooper-F, which just premiered last month.

Says The Daily Page, the 39-minute Zero Trooper-F starts with a "fuzzy white kaiju" that's leveling the city of Greenside. A squadron of fighter jets is called in to fight the giant monster, but to no avail. Meanwhile, a genius scientist named Dr. Abrams (Rob O'Brien) is a local celebrity for his work to defend the city from giant monsters in the past. He's just created his greatest invention — a device that will help the army's Zero Troopers (who wear super-armor similar to the Power Rangers) to fight the giant monster "on equal terms." But Abrams suffers a crisis of confidence, and quits the Troopers just as the giant monster's rampage reaches even greater heights. Here's a trailer, which sadly shows no kaiju scenes:

The movie's special effects are a throwback to the pre-CGI monster movie days. And the Daily Page adds:

The downtown cityscape of Madison is itself a star, with both the monster and its Zero Trooper combatant stepping over, around, and through many of the newer apartment high-rises sprouting along the periphery of the UW campus.

As long as the monster doesn't trample the macaroni-and-cheese pizza place, we'll be fine. Lim is also working on a full-length sequel called Greenside, a "dark scifi" movie which takes place 50 years in the future, when Zero Troopers are mass produced and there's a giant biodome. [The Daily Page]

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Midwest Emo Boys vs. Giant Monster — Who Wins?

Giant Monster Trashes Madison, Wisconsin