Politics and the Prequels: Episode II

By the time we get to Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, set ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, the political crisis started in the previous film has now become a full-fledged secession movement known as the Confederation of Independent Systems. Thousands of planetary systems are leaving the Republic under the leadership of an ex-Jedi Master known as Count Dooku, secretly a Sith Apprentice working with Darth Siddous/Palpatine.

The movement is supported by a conglomeration of corporate entities with names like The Banking Clan, The Techno Union, and the Commerce Guild as well as the Trade Federation from Episode I. These groups have all been chafing under the taxation and regulation of the Republic, under the leadership of Chancellor Palpatine, who is deftly using all the powers at his disposal to arrange things in a way the leads to a giant war. It may at first seem that The Phantom Menace has little to do with the other two movies in the trilogy as it takes place so far before them but the political climate in the previous movie sets the stage for the breakout of the Clone Wars in Attack of the Clones.

They are defending freedom! Or attacking it! Either way, support them!

The Jedi, having grudgingly accepted the return of the Sith toward the end of the last movie, are no closer to identifying the Sith Lord hiding right under their noses. The fact that the CIS is lead by an ex-Jedi is no doubt a great embarrassment to them, although at the beginning of the movie they (again) wrongly believe that Dooku is just a "political idealist." The de facto rulers of the Jedi Council, Yoda and Mace Windu, later on discuss that the presence of the Sith is diminishing their collective powers and that they must keep this from the Senate. Here we see the Jedi defensive and their secretive and autocratic streak is revealed.

Ethically ambiguous, we are.

The Jedi never state what powers are being diminished and it seems curious as the movie is filled with Jedi doing amazing things. The power that Windu refers to I believe is the power of foresight or precognition. This is Siddious's greatest ability, the power to see enough into the future to see what needs to be done at a given time to reach the desired goals. It's a power that the Jedi perhaps never get the hang of. "Always in motion the future is," Yoda years later would complain to Luke Skywalker whereas the Emperor Palaptine of the same era seems supremely confident of his abilities to see the future ("I have foreseen it!")

An assassination attempt on now-Senator Amadala of Naboo brings her once again face to face with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his restless apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. There is an immediate attraction between Skywalker and Amadala, despite the fact that these sort of romantic entanglements are against the "Jedi Code." Kenobi warns him against trusting her, as she is "a politician." And he astutely observes that Chancellor Palpatine is good at manipulating the Senate. It seems everyone is cynical about politics in a galaxy far, far away.

Skywalker is ordered by the Chancellor to protect Amadala as she flees to her own planet despite the fact that she is dead set on voting against the upcoming "Military Creation Act" that would give the Republic a standing army. Anakin and Amadala spend a lot of time exploring their feelings for one another on Naboo. The two discuss politics and romance and Anakin voices his disgust with the corruption of the Senate and describes a dictatorship as the ideal form of government. A dictatorship run by "someone wise." This is one of the best and most illuminating exchanges in the whole movie, unfortunately buried in one of the worst scenes in all six movies.

This scene reveals Anakin's fatal character flaw: He is unable to deal with subtleties and fine distinctions. People have said that based on his portrayal and the way that the character is written that he is stupid but what if that is his tragic flaw? What if he is supremely powerful and good but unfortunately just not that bright? Personally, I think that is a really interesting (and realistic) combination of traits. How often to you really see a stupid hero? Villains are frequently presented as stupid but almost never heroes and he certainly does a lot of stupid things in the following movie.

She's with stupid.

His intentions are good. After what has already been established of politics in the Star Wars galaxy, he is absolutely right to be upset with the Senate but if he could, he would force his idea of the "right" thing upon everyone. How much of this is his own arrogance and how much has been fostered by the Jedi Order? Despite the fact that they are sworn to protect the government, they don't seem to have much respect for it (perhaps rightly so). In the next film we see them all but ready to take over when they have decided they've had enough of Palpatine. After Episode III, and the famous "Only Sith deal in absolutes!" line people began comparing Anakin to George W. Bush but I think the comparison starts here. Attack of the Clones is, remember, the first post 911 Star Wars movie.

Ah, remember those days?

Obi-Wan, meanwhile, has traced the Senator's attacker to the planet Kamino (Camino=Path, in Spanish) where he discovers a secret army of clones grown for the Republic on the orders of a deceased Jedi Master. Interestingly, Obi-Wan (nor any of the other Jedi) does not seem bothered by the idea of genetically altered human beings mass produced in a factory to fight in a war. I would think this would be against the Jedi Code but apparently it is not. The Jedi are very particular about the moral battles in which they engage. Mysteriously, the clones are all grown from DNA of Amadala's attacker, the bounty hunter, Jango Fett.

And nobody has a problem with this?

Following a force-vision of his mother in danger, Anakin and Amadala return to Tatooine, Anakin's home world. When he finally locates his mother, she has been captured and tortured by a native group on the planet. In his rage, Anakin slaughters the entire tribe and takes his first real step toward the Dark Side. He vows never to lose anyone like that again and his obsession with protecting those he loves will take him the rest of the way to the dark side.

"Around the survivors, a perimeter form must you," Yoda, giving concise military instructions.

Obi-Wan has followed Jango Fett to the Planet Geonosis (Based on the Biblical Genesis?) where an army of robots is being manufactured and a meeting between Count Dooku and the backing organizations of the CIS is taking place. In a telling line cut from the final movie, Dooku promises the organizations "unrestricted capitalism," continuing the theme from Episode I of the evil using the greedy to their own ends. So if the CIS represents "unrestricted capitalism" then does that mean the Republic represents regulated socialism? While transmitting his findings to the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan is captured. Anakin, Amadala, the Jedi, and their new army of clones all converge upon the planet and do battle with CIS and their droid army. Thus begins the Clone Wars.

One of the great things about the prequels is that the concept of the "good guys" and the "bad guys" is very nebulous. There are only a couple of characters that we can support as "heroes" without reservations (Obi-Wan and Padme never let us down). Although the Jedi as a whole are superficially presented as heroic characters, they are deeply flawed. As viewers, we are meant to sympathize with the Republic and not the Confederation but the Republic is controlled by the most evil character in the movies. What about the clones? Should we support these troops even though they so closely resemble the evil Stormtroopers of the Original Trilogy?

This ambiguity even applies to the movie's title, arguably the worst of all six movies. To attack usually has a negative connotation, yet it seems the only thing attacked by the clones in this movie are the "evil" Separatists, who in some ways seem analogous to the heroic Rebels in the classic movies. Are we supposed to suddenly jump to the CIS point-of-view to appreciate that title? In the larger and more metaphoric sense, what the clones are attacking is the peaceful Republic that had existed up until this point. What they represent is an attack on ideals.

Does anyone know of a good Queensryche song to play over this scene?

By the end of the movie Anakin and Amadala are married in secret. Siddious has succeeded in dividing Anakin from the rest of the Jedi as Anakin now has something to lose which can be manipulated to control him, which makes one wonder if the kidnapping of his motheer was somehow engineered to happen. We also see a meeting between Dooku and Siddious that formalized their association. The Clone Wars will now be an enormous chess match between the two that will allow Siddious to assume more executive powers and also thin the ranks of the Jedi who will now be Generals in the war until his end game is ready to be played.

Monster Movie of the Week: Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)

THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF if you read this before seeing the movie it may impair your enjoyment of the film.







Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)



Director: Christophe Gans

Genre: Period/Martial Arts/Monster-on-the-loose





THE MOVIE



The 2001 French movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf is a genre bending mix of period intrigue, martial arts and horror. It is actually based on a real-life historical cryptid, The Beast of Gevaudan which supposedly terrorized the French countryside in the 18th Century. In the movie, a pair of investigators are sent from Paris. One is a famous naturalist, the other is an American Indian. Inexplicably, both know all kinds of martial arts.





There are lots of twists along the way and the monster is fairly secondary to the overall story which involves a religious cult. Despite its title and very familiar set up, this is not the werewolf movie which you might be expecting. Brotherhood of the Wolf is very good at turning genre conventions on their heads and taking sharp turns every time you think you have it pegged down. The monster and its nature are much more bizarre than you would think. If you are the kind of viewer who needs to have your movies all figured out while you are watching them or, if you like your genres neat and self-contained, this may bother you.





THE MONSTER/EFFECTS



The Beast is a unique and interesting movie monster and his true nature keeps you guessing throughout the movie. It is strongly suggested that he is a lion that was brought back from Africa and trained by the film's villain to terrorize the countryside and empower the church which is suffering from waning influence in this Age of Enlightenment. The Beast is outfitted with a kind of armored suit that seems to be permanently attached to its body. His claws and teeth have been augmented with blades and the creature is barely recognizable for what it actually is.



The Beast is a great monster because he is also very tragic. He was animal that was taken out of his environment and warped by human cruelty and bound to a painful armor. Like many great monsters from literature and film it is ultimately a pathetic creature that lives a tortured existence. In a genuinely sad moment, he is shown a small measure of kindness before he is put down.





MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:



Mark Dacascos' Indian forest ninja rampage.



HOME VIDEO:



Several versions on DVD. Avoid the Director's Cut, the movie is already a bit too long as it is and the DC doesn't warrant the extra length.



Not yet on BluRay.



SEE ALSO:



There is really nothing else like this movie but you can try Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999) which has a similar set up and and is set in a similar time period.



THE TRAILER:

Bonus Monster Movie of the Week DEMONIC SUPER HERO EDITION: Hellboy (2004)

HELLBOY (2004)
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Genre: Superhero/Occult/Detective

THE MOVIE:

Guillermo Del Toro is the superb Mexican director who gave us such great genre movies as Mimic (1996),  Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and Pacific Rim (2013.) He has an all encompassing interest in monsters and brings them to the screen with great love and care. Hellboy is probably one of his most personal movies, as the central story deals with a monster’s struggle with his nature and the path that he has chosen versus that for which he was created. The movie is based on characters from the comic of the same name which was created by Mike Mignola, who worked closely with Del Torro on the movie.

The main character is Hellboy, a demon summoned as an infant to earth by Rasputin and Nazi occultists at the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Nazis he was taken in and raised by a kindly occultist, Dr. Bruttenholm, who works for the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, which was founded by FDR (who apparently never passed up a chance to start a government program). The Bureau is a sort of paranormal detective service which eventually includes Abe Sapien, an intellectually-gifted psychic fishman (voiced by the wonderful David Hyde Pierce) and the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman.

It's time to call Super Nanny.

Hellboy serves as the strongarm of the group, a gruff blue collar action hero with some very adolescent vulnerabilities. The group is a family unit with Dr. Bruttenholm acting as the wise patriarch.

Hellboy centers around the newest addition to this group, the fresh faced agent Myers, at a time when Rasputin returns with a few of his preternatural Nazi cohorts, including the clockwork cyborg, Kronen. He also utilizes the Sammael, monstrous demon hounds that reproduce twice for everyone that is killed. Rasputin wishes to reopen an extra dimensional portal to unleash a giant Lovecraftian tentacle monster on earth and to reclaim Hellboy for his original purpose, to serve as the herald of the End of Days.

"...and that's for Alien vs. Predator 2!"
"That wasn't me! I swear!"

While I am a big fan of the movie, it perhaps suffers for having too many incredulous plot lines for one movie. You have a demon struggling with his nature, a Federal Bureau of Paranormal research, Rasputin, occultist Nazi remnants (one of whom is a machine the other doesn’t age), a pychic fishman, a pyrokinetic struggling with her powers, a machine that summons extra dimensional tentacle monsters. On top of all that, a love triangle and interdepartmental infighting.


THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

Never having read the comics I was immediately interested in seeing this movie upon seeing the trailer because of the very imaginative creature design. Hellboy is chock full of good creature work. There’s Hellboy himself, who is superbly played by Ron Perlman under extensive makeup. If you’ve never seen Hellboy, know that he is big, red, has sawed off horns, a tail, and a large stone hand.

Abe Sapien is an aquatic being of a very extra-terrestrial appearance, with large dark almond shaped eyes and mottled blue skin. He is performed by Doug Jones on set and voiced by David Hyde Pierce.

Kronen is perhaps the film’s most visually interesting and badass character. He is a human being from the time of the Nazis who surgically enhanced himself with mechanical parts. Interestingly, his mechanics are low-tech and consist largely of gears and clockwork. He wears a couple of different masks that resemble gas masks. He is one of the most dangerous characters in the film and wields knives and swords fatally.

Bad...ass.

The Sammael engage in some very cool hand-to-claw scenes with Hellboy. They rather look like the bastard children of Aliens and Predators, and therefore a bit like the Predalien from AVP:R. They are basically quadrupedal with skeletal faces, long weapon-like tongues and tentacle manes around their heads. They seem to have the ability to infinitely contort their bodies.

The effects are by and large very good, although there is some annoyingly bad wirework. There are far too many scenes of people being “blown back” or “thrown” into walls and other objects where they are clearly being pulled by some sort of waist harness.

MONSTERS FEATURED:

All of the above, as well as a giant tentacle monster.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:

This movie really has a ton of them but I love Hellboy’s subway fight with Sammael.

SEQUELS:

I was rather meh about the sequel Hellboy 2: The Golden Army which was released summer of 2008. Guillermo del Toro is finally getting busy again after a detour in Middle Earth but the fate of Hellboy is uncertain.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available in a single disc or special edition two disc set on DVD and also on BluRay.

SEE ALSO:

What else is there like Hellboy?

Try the animated follow ups:

Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron

Get a handle on some of Del Toro’s other movies:

Mimic deals with insect monsters in the New York subways.

Cronos (1993) one of Del Toro’s Spanish-language movies also features Ron Perlman and a clockwork scarab that turns people into vampires.

Pan’s Labyrinth another Spanish language movie set in Spain during the Civil War and features a young girl who follows a sprightly insect into a magical world almost as monstrous at the real one.

THE TRAILER

Patrick Garone

Chicago-based writer & director. Author of City of the Gods and We Lowly Gods.

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The Overlooked Hotel: Deadgirl (2008)

THE OVERLOOKED HOTEL

The horror movie is a tricky thing to pin down. Some movies try to scare you and make you jump. Others try to gross you out. Others try to unsettle you. Most commonly today, horror movies try to shock you with violence or gore, desperately trying to elicit a reaction in the desensitized brains of 18-25 year old men.

Deadgirl does all of the above and actually manages to genuinely horrify. The set up seems to fit nicely within this decade's "torture porn" genre of horror movies when two disassociated high school slackers cut class and go exploring an abandoned mental hospital, cigarettes and beer in hand. They make it deep within the structure when they find a secret room in which an immaculately preserved female corpse is strapped to a table. Only she is not quite dead. Nor is she alive, either. One of the two decide to put her to "use" and what follows is a disturbing take on the teenage male mind and sexuality.




Like any great work of horror, Deadgirl is a deeply offensive and troubling movie that takes us on a trip through the shadowy corridors of the mind. It is dark and unpleasant, but ultimately rewarding for the honest insights that it offers. It differs from your Saws and your Hostels in that the horror does not solely come from gore and violence but from the main characters and how the horror upon which they stumble actually affects the course of their lives and its about the choices that they make and how it reveals the horror within them. Deadgirl, despite the fact that it is basically a zombie movie, is much more reality-based than your average horror movie. It has a strong indie-movie portait-of-middle-America feel that supports the horror elements very nicely.



Deadgirl is a movie that came in way under the radar ( it just got its own Wikipedia page entry within the last week) but that should not stop you from checking it out. Deadgirl does the work of the horror film admirably: it pulls the darkest parts of human nature from our unconscious kicking, and screaming into the light where we can see them and maybe really consider them. It has recently been released on DVD and is currently streaming on Netflix for your viewing pleasure. If you can stand the dark places that this movie takes you, it be a very rewarding experience.

Monster Movie of the Week: Rodan (1956)

RODAN (1956)

Director: Ichiro Honda

Genre: Daikaiju movie

Note: This profile is based on the English dubbed version of the movie which may have been re-edited for American audiences, although not to the degree of some of Toho’s other movies.

THE MOVIE

After the disappointing Godzilla Raids Again, Toho Studios had retired the giant lizard in favor of exploring some new kaiju. The first of these moives was Rodan from 1956 which is the story of a pair of giant irradiated Pteranosaurs that attack Japan. Rodan has the distinction of being the first kaiju movie ever to be filmed in color as well as introducing us to one of the most popular monsters in Toho’s pantheon. Rodan would later be incorporated into the Godzilla series and go on to costar in numerous Godzilla movies over the years.

What? It's perfectly normal for a pterodactyl to walk upright like this.

As one of the earlier Japanese giant monster movies Rodan also has a tone that is still somewhat grim and horrific and an ending that is downbeat to say the least. It begins oddly for a movie about aerial monsters with some miners in rural Japan who discover the mutilated bodies of some of their compatriots. They soon discover that these deaths are due to the presence of some large and irradiated prehistoric insects called Meganulons. These insects are apparently the food source for a pair of Pteradactyls dubbed Rodans. The Rodans are large and powerful and capable of producing hurricane force winds by flapping their wings. In order to save Japan and the world from the pair, lest they reproduce, the scientists come up with a plan to lure them into a volcano where they perish rather gruesomely.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

I have a soft spot for flying kaiju. When they are done well it is really cool. Unfortunately it took Toho a really long time to get this effect right.

I’m talking 2003.

Rodan is the very first stab at making this work and the results are very crude. Usually Rodan is seen gliding through the air on visible wires. When he flaps his wings he never does it enough to believably keep himself airborne (an affliction I have dubbed Rodanitis which has stricken Mothra, King Ghidorah and the Gaos birds among others). When he stands, he does so in a very manlike way. In Rodan, you can see the limits of suitmation for realizing certain kinds of creatures.

"I will drag my wings all over this damn city if I have to!"

Rodan is one of the nobler kaiju. While not benign by any means, from his original appearance and from the later Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II, one gets the sense that Rodan has a sense of family. Here, the two creatures die together tragically. In the later movie Rodan adopts Baby Godzilla and sacrifices his life to protect him. Perhaps this is why he has remained so popular despite not being featured in many movies in the last thirty years or so.

MONSTERS FEATURED

A pair of Rodans as well as some man-sized insects called Meganulons.

DVD AVAILABILITY

The English dubbed “Rodan” is available in a five pack with some Showa Godzilla movies. The Japanese version is available as an import.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The ending of the movie is surprisingly tragic and effective.

SEQUELS

While this was Rodan’s only solo film he was a popular character in the Showa series and appeared in Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster (1965), Invasion of the Astro Monster (1966), and Destroy All Monsters (1968.) Rodan was also featured in the 1993 movie Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla II as well as in 2004’s Godzilla Final Wars in which he is realized with a mix of suitmation and CGI. His attack on New York is amazingly cool and probably his shining moment to date.

Rodan has also been prominently featured in numerous Godzilla video games, most recently in the fighting game, Godzilla Unleashed for the Nintendo Wii.

THE TRAILER

SEE ALSO:

Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla II (1993), Godzilla Final Wars (2004)

TRIVIA:

This is the only movie to feature multiple Rodans. In all of his other movies there are only one which has become known simply as Rodan.

The Meganulons make an appearance in 2001’s Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, as the basis for the Megaguirus monster.

Patrick Garone

Chicago-based writer & director. Author of City of the Gods and We Lowly Gods.

🌳 Visit My Linktree

Cad Bane...Is That Your Boy?

He's kind of a bastard. But that's a good quality in a villain.

So the second season of the animated Star Wars series The Clone Wars began a couple of weeks ago on the Cartoon Network. The first season was kind of a mixed bag as far as quality and tone but the new season has started off on a strong note as the Jedi face a new antagonist created for the series, the bounty hunter Cad Bane, a cunning and resourceful villain who brings a genuine air of darkness and danger to the show. And he is badass.

You don't want to know what an apartment like this goes for on Coruscant.

Cad Bane was introduced in the first season finale, and promised more bounty hunter action to come. Bounty hunters have been a big part of Star Wars lore from the beginning, when Greedo attempted to apprehend Han Solo in the Mos Eisley Cantina and later with the introduction of Boba Fett. There is a strong Western influence on Star Wars and Cad Bane is visually inspired by Lee Van Cleef's characters in classic spaghetti westerns like For A Few Dollars More. He is starting to take his place in the pantheon of Star Wars badassery that includes Darth Vader, the Fetts, Darth Maul and General Grevious.

...and he hangs out with French models.

Bane is voiced by veteran performer Cory Burton (who you might remember as Shockwave in the original Transformers series as well as Transformers Animated). He is an alien based on a couple of the background creatures from the famous cantina sequence in the original Star Wars movie and attentive viewers will notice that his voice processing matches the snippet of dialogue we hear from those two, which is great attention to detail. He has a trace of a foreign accent that seems at once Peter Lorre with a tinge of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The animation in the second season has already surpassed anything from season 1, and Bane is brought to life with a great deal of subtlety and nuance which combines with the terrific vocal work from Burton to create a truly memorable character.

And that was probably the nicest thing he did that day.

These first few episodes of second season of The Clone Wars signify that the show is moving into a darker and more adult direction. In the first trilogy of episodes alone, we have a Jedi tortured to death (mostly on camera), prisoner abuse, Ahsoka captured and beat up and babies kidnapped for some sort of Sith experimentation. I feel like the show is starting to channel Battlestar Galactica, which is not a bad thing.

But seriously, what is with those cheek-hoses?

He is based off of Cliff and Norm here, as seen in Star Wars..

CAD BANE IN ACTION:

Bonus Monster Movie of the Week: The Howling (1981)

THE HOWLING (1981)
Director: Joe Dante
Genre: Werewolf movie

THE MOVIE

Werewolf movies came of age with Joe Dante’s The Howling. Gone were the days when you could glue some hair onto someone’s face and slap some fangs on them and call them a werewolf. This movie along with An American Werewolf In London, (released a few months later) moved werewolves away from the traditional “wolf man” characters and towards a more monstrous and lupine design. Both movies feature elaborate transformation scenes that pushed the limits of pre-CGI special effects and make-up technology. Both movies featured work by legendary special effects artists: The Howling features effects by Rob Bottin who also worked on John Carpenter’s The Thing, and American Werewolf features effects by Rick Baker, who has worked on everything to the first King Kong remake and Star Wars to The Nutty Professor and Tropic Thunder. The Howling, however, opened first and spawned six sequels (most direct to home video).

The Howling is the story of TV anchor Karen White (not to be confused with 70’s horror actress Karen Black) played by Dee Wallace Stone who is being stalked by what she thinks is a run-in-the-mill serial killer (Joe Dante regular, Robert Picardo). With the cooperation of the police, she attempts to set him up by agreeing to meet him in an adult bookstore. The cops arrive just as he is about to show her something horrible. He is shot dead in front of her and she sees something she cannot shake but cannot exactly remember either. After having a breakdown on live TV, Karen and her husband are advised by a friend to visit The Colony, an isolated commune. This commune at first glance appears to be a vaguely Wiccan, Northern California post ‘60’s nature retreat.


Karen White becomes increasingly disturbed by little things around her in The Colony that somehow remind her of her attacker, such as the eerie howling that fills the night and the unexplained animal carcasses that she stumbles across. She begins to suspect that her husband is having an affair with a local nymphomaniac/proto-Angelina Jolie. Meanwhile Karen’s co-worker is researching the mysterious stalker and discovers connections to The Colony, which turns out to be a werewolf community. Curiously, the movie hints at internal political rifts between different factions of the werewolves but this is not explored in much depth. Having escaped the werewolves but having been bitten by one, Karen makes an emergency news broadcast in which she warns the world of the werewolf menace before turning into one on camera.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The real centerpiece of The Howling is the make up and special effects work of Rob Bottin who attempts to get as close as possible to that ultimate holy grail of pre ‘90’s werewolf movies: the cut-away free transformation sequence. We take it for granted now from everything to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to the craptacular Underworld movies. But back in the day, you could not do a transformation like this without cutting away several times. Bottin’s puppets/dummies/make-up manage to do so much in single shots that cutaways are limited. Of course the result is transformation sequences that are amazing and intricate but also long, ostentatious, and painful. I mean, seriously, bring a book. This woman sits there for like ten minutes while Robert Picardo transforms, and it's like, "What the hell are you watching this for? Run!"

The resulting werewolves are actually pretty cool and scary (although vaguely bunny-like). They actually look like a cross between a man and a wolf, which is a novel departure from werewolves that either looked exactly like wolves or, more often, Kenny Rogers.



MOSTERS FEATURED

A whole pack of werewolves.

DVD AVAILABILITY

Widely available.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I like Dee Wallace Stone’s dramatic on-camera transformation at the end of the movie. Although it is contrived, illogical, and the rest of the movie doesn’t support the tragic tone with which it is presented, it is a very memorable moment in the history of horror movies. Although, I think she transforms into some kind of Terrier.

SEQUELS

There were six sequels to this movie; apparently each one is exponentially worse than the one before it.

THE TRAILER



SEE ALSO

An American Werewolf in London 1981 Silver Bullet 1985

Does anyone remember Fox's 1980's TV show Werewolf? It was literally one of the first FOX shows. Back when people used to make jokes about the Fox "network."

Patrick Garone

Chicago-based writer & director. Author of City of the Gods and We Lowly Gods.

🌳 Visit My Linktree

Monster Movie of the Week: CLOVERFIELD (2008)

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Cloverfield (2008)

Director: Matt Reeves

Genre: Monster on the Loose, Ameri-kaiju

THE MOVIE

Cloverfield might have been the victim of its own wildly successful marketing campaign. The trailer for Cloverfield came out of nowhere, attached to 2007’s megahit Transformers and it gave almost no information about the movie whatsoever. Not even the title.

And people went nuts. Speculation on the internet raged. People analyzed every little bit of information parsed out in the various viral websites and games associated with the movie. Was it a new Godzilla movie? Was it a Voltron movie? (“It’s a lion! It's huge!”) Was it an American Gamera movie? A Lost movie? What it actually was, was an attempt to create an iconic American movie monster that could stand with Godzilla.

While it remains to be seen if Cloverfield will have any kind of staying power in the American popular consciousness (anyone watch The Blair Witch Project recently? Didn’t think so.), it is an undeniably compelling experience and a unique take on the giant monster genre. While Cloverfield has its roots in Japanese kaiju movies, it avoids the mistakes usually made by American attempts to adapt the genre (see 1998’s Godzilla). The monster is kept largely mysterious; there are no long-winded attempts to explain anything. There are no talking-head scientists or feisty girl reporters to provide the characteristic loopy exposition that manages to be endearing the Japanese kaiju movies and grating in American ones.

"I said no cameras!"

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The movie effectively asks and answers the question “What would a giant monster attack really be like?” Because of the first-person point-of-view, we are literally with the human characters the whole time. More often than not, in kaiju movies, we are “with” the monster for much of the movie. If not in his point of view, we are at treating him as a character and seeing things more or less from his perspective. Here, we never are seeing things from his perspective, and he is only a force of destruction, which we are unfortunate enough to witness on several occasions.

The monster’s attack on Manhattan is presented as a terrible and shocking event that can’t help but recall the 911 attacks. This is really the first post-911 giant monster movie and the filmmakers exploit these new phobic pressure points to good effect. Despite it’s first-person conceit, this movie has quite a bit in common with the original Japanese Godzilla movie. Both movies were produced in the aftermath of some horrible traumatic national event, in Japan, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both are presented in a serious, realistic fashion. Both cinematic events are confused with the above events.

Yes, this thing is the Cloverfield monster. Well, Hasbro's interpretation.

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THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The monster in Cloverfield is for me a bit of a let down. He’s not really a cohesive creature but a collection of disparate animal parts that don’t go well together. With his fragile-looking forelimbs and weird bat-like head (which recalls the Ray Harryhousen’s Ymir creature), he’s not particularly tough-looking by monster standards and he looks like he would lose in a fight against Godzilla, Gamera or even the American Zilla. Most importantly, the Cloverfield monster lacks personality in his brief screen time.

MONSTERS PRESENT

The monster, “Clover”

Numerous dog-sized parasites.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

Actually, featured in the trailer, the initial moments of the monsters attack on the city culminating in the rolling head of the Statue of Liberty.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available on DVD and Blu-Ray, although really what is the point of having this movie on Blu-Ray since it was filmed with consumer video?

God sends his vengeance against yuppie hipsters.

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THE TRAILER

SEE ALSO

Gojira 1954, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms 1953, Godzilla 1998

TRIVIA

Technically, this is not the first kaiju story to be told in first person. That honor belongs to an episode of Godzilla: The Series, the animated series that serves as the sequel the American Godzilla movie. The show somehow manages to be a lot better than the movie and far more true to the Japanese series of Godzilla movies.

Michael Bay to Direct Transformers 3! Yay?

So it was just announced this week. Michael Bay will be fucking up-I mean directing another Transformers movie. Here are some free ideas that I'm sure would be perfect for the next movie:

Optimus Prime + Truck Nuts = hilarious and awesome.

Find new things for Megan Fox to mount or lean skankily over.

Make a comic relief Autobot named Low Ride, and give him a hilarious Mexican accent. See if Carlos Mencia is available to voice him. Orale!

Ravage was awesome in TF2, so bring him back. He was clearly killed in the last movie? Who cares! Bring him back anyway. No one will notice.

Need to bring in the Dinobots on this one. Instead of making them talk like cavemen, have them act retarded. People love that shit! And have Grimlock poop on something.

And use more of those classic names that people like. Only don't make them look or act anything like the old characters, just use the names.

We need to get the Combaticons in this one. But make sure when they are combined in Bruticus, you can clearly see their individual vehicle and robot modes in the background. No one will notice! Trust me!

Oh! And don't forget to have characters move randomly though space when it is convenient. No one notices shit like that. Like the giant aircraft graveyard that is outside of the Smithsonian.