The Roaring Brain

Life drawing sketches

2010-05-28T01:57:00.002-05:00

I claim this blog in the name of sketches!

Attending life-drawing classes so I don't suck so much at people. We'll see ;)

Sooooo...not really updating anymore...

2009-11-13T13:02:00.003-06:00

Yeah, I pretty much realized that there is really no reason to keep updating this blog. It's not that I don't WANT to, it's just that more of my time and energy is better spent at Deviantart.

Of course, I'll keep this blog around, since there is a lot of important stuff here, ALSO, in case something "happens" at DA and I need to go somewhere else, this will be waiting for me.

So for all art and blog updates, check here:
kaijusamurai.deviantart.com

Also, keep an eye on Mattfrankart.com, there's a major revision in the works.
Mattfrankart.com

IT BURNS WITH CUTE.

2009-09-04T01:15:00.004-05:00

Want to destroy yourself, along with everything you ever believed it, and love yourself for doing it?

That, my friends, is "Chibiterasu," lovable little puppy-goddess of Amaterasu, hero of the wildly-praised-and-horrifically-under-appreciated OKAMI, Game of the Year for 2006.

For those who know me, Okami is my absolute favorite single game of all time, even moreso than any one Zelda game and thousands of times over all of the crappy Street Fighter ripoffs and the literal armies of brown-and-gray Space Marine games where you are told, time and again, that life is horrible and you should feel bad for breathing.

Okami is the antithesis to all of that, taking the core concepts of the borderline-played-out Zelda franchise and dressing it up with a lovely, unique art style, great characters and an epic anime feel to it all. Naturally, because it was daring enough to be different, and GOOD at it, it sold terribly because all gamers want is to beat hookers to death.

Yeah, I'm a little bitter.

But Amaterasu's brilliant light shines on us again! Okamiden, a sequel built for the DS, is coming sometime in 2010.

...Great, now I need to get a DS. Maybe I'll settle for an art book or something because I LOVES ME SOME OKAMI.

http://kotaku.com/5352267/first-okamiden-footage-small-cute

Dear Legendary Pictures...

2009-08-16T16:20:00.011-05:00

How NOT to Screw Up a New Godzilla Film

The first attempt at an all-American Godzilla as designed by William Stout. It was intended for the stop-motion-centric "Godzilla 3-D" back in 1983. Stout channeled a Tyrannosaurus Rex as a major factor for inspiration.

The second attempt came in 1993/94 for a script written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. Longtime dinosaur fan Ricardo Delgado gave the Heisei Godzilla design a sleek look.

The third attempt was finally made into a film by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The new monster was designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, who tried some thing radical and new.

There is no doubt that Godzilla is an icon of popular culture. With 55 years, 28 films and hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide under his extra-extra-large belt, there's some serious baggage that comes with a name as well-known as Mickey Mouse and Superman.
Last week, Bloody-Disgusting.com leaked a news bite that Legendary Pictures, the folks behind a bevvy of recent hits such as The Dark Knight, The Hangover and 300, are "in early discussions" to possibly produce a new GODZILLA film. Further rumors point out that Weta Workshop, the wunderkids behind the effects for The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson's King Kong and District 9 are front-runners to handle the special effects wizardry.

A qualifying statement is in order: this is all just here-say. No official statement has been issued, and Toho is remaining tight-lipped on the project...if there even IS a project. It could very well fall through. Still, once word hit the internet that there was even the POTENTIAL for a new US-made film, the internet practically exploded. People not even known to be fans were posting like crazy about the possibility that Godzilla in all his reptilian fury could be stomping across screens once more. Quite honestly, Toho and Legendary would be complete and utter fools to let this opportunity pass them by.

There's no question that there is a huge potential for profit here, and that's what the studios are all for: making money. HOWEVER, that is if, and ONLY if, the proper steps are taken. There's no doubt that a profit is to be made regardless, because the simple fact is, while you can praise and worship Gojira 1954, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris and Cloverfield until the eagles choke, people DON'T go to monster movies for plot, script and acting (although those are all factors). They go to see GIANT MONSTERS BREAK STUFF. That's the reason while Godzilla 1998 was still a financial success; American moviegoers loves them some giant monsters.

Quick aside: why did I say "American"? Because I DON'T mean Japanese. That's right, the birthplace of the kaiju genre is experiencing a terrible downturn in giant monster interest...at least in films. Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle is currently one of the most popular children's shows in Japan, and it's all live-action monsters in rubber suits beating the snot out of each other in the tradition of Poke'mon, Digimon and YuGiOh (themselves all inspired by UltraSeven, so it's practically come full-circle). But the Ultra series aside, giant monsters are decidedly NOT on the minds of moviegoers in Japan. Gamera The Brave was a box-office flop, Godzilla: Final Wars performed terribly, King Kong did VERY poorly, and even Cloverfield underperformed in the Japanese box office. While monsters are an undeniable part of Japanese culture, they've turn their backs on the "big budget" monster feature in favor of kiddish TV fare...hey, it's the 70's all over again!

But Americans are definitely still in to giant monsters. Monsters vs. Aliens, though decidedly a family-film, was a huge success at the box office, and let's not forget Cloverfield. The excitement generated online over the vague possibility of a new US Godzilla film should be proof enough.
Of course, this brings me to a touchy subject that, despite my best attempts, I can't ignore: the 1998 Tristar Godzilla. It's a flick that will inevitably come up when discussing a potential Godzilla reboot, or hell, Godzilla in general. 1998 was a year that will live in infamy as "The Year of Godzilla." Seriously, Big G's name was EVERYWHERE. There was no doubt that it was the hottest film of 1998...well, suffice to say, it wasn't so hot anymore. I could go on for another two or three pages about why this film works and doesn't work, but I'll wrap things up here and move on to the potential new flick. The bottom line is, simply, it wasn't Godzilla, and that felt like a big missed opportunity for the franchise.

But 11 years have passed and mayhaps it's time to try again. The Toho series went out with a bang AND a whimper with Godzilla: Final Wars. But, as mentioned before, there's a helluvalotta' baggage that comes with a new, American-made film. What should be done? What shouldn't be done? Should it be done at all?

First and foremost, the topic on everyone's mind is what to do with the special effects? Many are rallying for a grassroots approach, rubber suits and all, while others are accepting that CGI may be the necessity in order to attract a modern, dumber audience that wants everything brighter and shinier. There's no argument that the rubber suit will cause a lot of confusion and ultimately turn a lot of people off from the project...THEN AGAIN, it is entirely possible to make rubber suits convincingly gigantic. Shinji Higuchi comes to mind (Google him, we don't have time to get into that here), but it's a foregone conclusion that CGI will be heavily utilized in SOME way. If the rumors are true and Weta does jump on board (and they'd be happy to do it) there's no doubt that there will be plenty of miniature sets. But the monsters themselves are the real issue...
One possible solution is the recent trend of "practical CGI," as I hath dubbed it, in which a physical object, often an elaborate suit ala Where the Wild Things Are and Land of the Lost is mapped over with a number of additional digital effects, be it for facial expressions, overall movement or what have you.

Know what I'D like to see? A suit actor, maybe Kitagawa, in a half-practical suit, the legs marked with digital reference dots to be made into convincing digitigrades later, and that long tail and a fiercely expressionate face ala KONG.

It goes without saying that this film also needs a really fun plot, and what's the easiest and most lucrative solution? MONSTERS, as in PLURAL. I'll put it simply for the business majors out there: more monsters means more toys. But on a more insightful note, putting more than one monster (and no, I DON'T mean a bunch of velociraptors hatched out of xenomorph eggs) will make the film infinitely more interesting than Godzilla having to carry it on his own. That only worked for ONE film, and even in Godzilla 1985 he had an enemy in the form of the Super X! We all know who Godzilla is, we don't need an entire film to re-acquaint us with the monster all on his lonesome.
Did I mention toys?

Speaking of toys-er, other monsters, what should be used? You'd be surprised at the thematic elements of storytelling that broil about when discussing this topic. I'm sure that many fans and even mainstream moviegoers will be dieing to see classic Toho beasties like Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah fight Godzilla in his comeback flick...but it ain't gonna' happen, at least not likely. Word has it that Tristar, back in the day, payed literally millions of dollars for Godzilla alone...and I don't see Legendary shelling out the scratch for Gigan or Megalon. Chances are we'll have a non-Toho monster.

But what will we get? Storytelling aesthetic demands that the monster compliment Godzilla and be something of an antithesis. In the 1994 script, Godzilla was pit against "The Gryphon," a creature not unlike The Thing, specifically John Carpenter's version, in which it absorbs victims and gains their characteristics until it becomes a giant cougar-monster with bat wings, a mouth full of snakes and human-level intelligence. It's a nice enemy monster since it differs in origin, appearance, powers and personality, but, according to the script, Godzilla's destiny is to fight the thing, neatly tying things together.
A similar plot would be utilized for the proposed sequel to the 1998 film where "Zilla" would go up against a horde of mutated insects that have taken over an island, with the big boss being the "Queen Bitch," a sort of giant termite queen that, thanks to a quirk of evolution, Zilla is intended by nature to destroy. It'd be hella cool to see some new giant insect that isn't Mothra, Kamacuras or Megaguirus.

Basically, what I'm saying, is that we need an enemy monster, and preferably one that maybe turns Godzilla from a misunderstood villain into an anti-hero in one flick, that way the audience gets behind the Big G from the get-go...that's my opinion, anyway.

Another issue that I feel doesn't get addressed nearly enough is the human story YES BY GOD THERE ARE HUMANS IN GODZILLA FILMS WHAAAAT???
Anywho, I feel that the '94 script did something that more Godzilla films need: something for the humans to do. Final Wars did manage to make the human scenes entertaining, but they would up horning in on the kaiju screentime and ultimately stealing the plot itself. In the '94 script, as well as in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah; Giant Monsters All Out Attack, not to mention a good chunk of the Showa films, the humans are given plenty to do without distracting from the crisis at hand. In the '94 script, they take an active role in the final battle by (spoilers) actually saving Godzilla so he can defeat the Gryphon.
Like it or not, the human characters in Godzilla films are there to carry the story. While films like Godzilla 2000 badly fall short of this, alternatives like Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster keep the humans relevant and interesting.

A final thought: perhaps the most important aspects, especially for myself and the Godzilla fans out there, is that Godzilla's spirit and character must remain in-tact. Sure, his origin changes, his role changes, and his look changes, but Godzilla's FIGHTING SPIRIT must remain in-tact. In other words, the Big G is a bona-fide BAD ASS. He does not run from fights. He is a role model for young boys in that he don't take no guff from no one. He's GODZILLA, dammit.

Sincerely,
- a fan who likes to think he knows what he's talking about.

Big Man Japan...?

2009-07-29T13:26:00.003-05:00

Oi.

For the last several months, whenever I'd bring up Ultraman or Godzilla in mixed company, and particularly amongst the trendy hipster weirdos of my fellow Austinites, they'd ask me "Have you seen Big Man Japan?"

"No," I replied.

"You have to. It's crazy and hilarious and (insert more shallow praise here)!"

So I finally rented it last night.

I'll keep it short.

BIG MAN JAPAN is probably the most boring "crazy film" I've ever seen. There's no question that the film is smart, and it's making plenty of observations on modern Japanese society (particularly the slow decay of its culture), and there are a handful of moments where we found ourselves laughing, but generally it was remarkable that a film could be so filled with...well, NOTHINGNESS to the point that it's over an hour and a half.

And it's not that I didn't "get" the film. As a fan of the kaiju genre, not to mention Japanese film in general, I actually understood the film completely. Nothing seemed truly confusing to me, even the "blowdart ending" as one friend dubbed it, so I was never lost or weirded out (not TOO much, anyway). But I think that the humor of watching this aging monster-fighter who's not appreciated for his work sit for minutes upon minutes talking about the minutia of whether or not he should go on vacation is lost on me because, simply, I'm not Japanese.

Japanese humor is admittedly hard to get for a lot of Americans. Their slapstick comedy and situational humor is funny for the most part, but their puns and social commentary is pretty much lost to us. So maybe the humor of BIG MAN JAPAN is truly cultural, as much as I understood it all.

Another thing is that there's no "redemption" in the film. It's just wave after wave of depression and emotional punches to the gut, and then an ending that supposedly solves the conflict of the film...but offers nothing for the hero and gives him nothing to develop from or grow. It's all just more awkward situations.

Oh yes, and you won't get the ending unless you know who and what ULTRAMAN is. Y'know, ULTRAMAN? More culturally relevant to Japan than almost every anime ever produced?

Anywho, I honestly can't recommend the film, simply because it's just so damn boring. As a social commentary, it's interesting and it's quirky, so I can only recommend it for that.

but in the meantime, here's a better kaiju parody: GEHARA

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/30677/update-two-clips-from-long-haired-giant-monster-gehara

The Chinese Ultraman - Metal Kaiser?!

2009-07-21T00:18:00.004-05:00

A couple of years ago, Tsuburaya Productions started work in that most elusive of foreign markets, the mighty and intimidating China, to create, you guessed it, a giant superhero series.

Now we know what Tsuburaya was doing while the budget series of ULTRASEVEN X and ULTRA GALAXY were running!

METAL KAISER is a really colorful, nifty looking series that features lots of nuances of the Ultraman franchise while mixing in distinctly Chinese visual cues and story elements.
Here's the story, according to http://www.clubtokyo.org/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=14895

In the year 2052, a legendary sorcerer gives a mystical bracelet to a member of SAM (Science Analyze Mission) to allow him to transform into a giant super-warrior, armed with a laser sword and mad kung-fu skillz.
Okay, so it honestly sounds really, really unoriginal, but the visual style is very nifty, and apparently it was going to be divided into 4 seasons, each with a new giant hero.

Check out the awesome trailer here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un2PbhZ7SwA&feature=related

Yet another here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAsp2assnh8

Looks cool, right? Sure, it's really similar to Ultraman...but hey, Tsuburaya made it! So it's like GRIDMAN, a.k.a. SUPERHUMAN SAMURAI SYBER SQUAD...only...Chinese! It was an honest-to-goodness attempt to bring the coolness of Ultraman to China while bringing the massive nation's cultural pride to fore.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

http://justiceace.wordpress.com/2007/12/01/hail-to-the-metal-kaiser/
According to some internet snooping, the Guan Zhou Broadcasting Company banned the show before it could even air, wasting thousands of dollars and all of Tsuburaya's hard work, and denying Chinese children a chance at seeing a culturally relevant take on Japan's most popular superhero.
Of course, this is another chapter in the saga of Chinese censorship. It's a bad, BAD deal. The Guan Zhou, or whatever they're called, have not released a statement as to WHY the show was banned, but it likely had something to do with the strict regulations of violence on Chinese televisions (which fluctuates frequently) as well as probably negative connotations against a Japanese studio producing a Chinese program, something that entails a lot of hot-button issues for the Chinese.

Still, there's a glimmer of hope; Ryuji Honda, son of the legendary Ishiro Honda, has been strongly pushing the series, and hopefully it'll receive a release in Japan once the legal crap with China is all wrapped up.

Punish the Innocent

2009-07-08T17:29:00.002-05:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4300383

I don't usually post stories like this but I felt it necessary to at least spread the word about a man who was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit (i.e. "Here we go again!)

Eric in the link above was convicted of rape, despite there being no evidence whatsoever that he committed the act, the only evidence being a massive dumptruck's worth on some white guy who admits to being a "jealous boyfriend," so what's the logical thing to do? Throw the innocent guy in jail. THAT makes sense.

Spread the word, get this guy some help.

- From the Army of Common Sense (informed by Phillip DeFranco)

G-Fest XVI right around the corner!

2009-06-26T15:49:00.003-05:00

Well, consider this "official" ;)

I'll be attending G-FEST XVI, the 16th annual Godzilla, Kaiju and Tokusatsu fan convention in Rosemont, just outside of Chicago, Illinois.
Myself as well as a plethora of kaiju artists will be set up in the Haneda Room at the Crown Plaza Chicago O'Hare.

Schedule:
I'll be at my table from about 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM or so starting Friday, July 3rd through Sunday, July 5th.

What I'll be selling:

Posters/Prints - $10 each
The Screaming Brain! 2008 Sketchbook - $5 each (comes with a free sketch!)
Drawing Monsters (and hoping they don't kill me) 2009 Sketchbook - $5 each (comes with a free sketch!)
Sketch cards - $3 each
WRATH OF THE TITANS: CYCLOPS comics - $4 each (autographed...probably the last ones that will ever be available ever)
G-Fan #87 (featuring a cover and Gfantis comic insert by Matt Frank) - $6 each
Original art - $ varies (make me an offer!)

Private commission sketches:
Pencils: $10
Inked: $15

G-FEST is the Mecca of Daikaiju fans every year. Check out the website at:
www.g-fan.com

Livin' in the Laaaaand of the LOOOOOOSSSSST.

2009-06-07T20:04:00.005-05:00

Well, the title is more of a reference to the 1991 remake Land of the Lost series, but you get the idea.
My girlfriend, my bud and I decided to check out LAND OF THE LOST this past Friday at the Drafthouse. We unfortunately arrived a half-hour early, which, for the Drafthouse, is like getting there 5 minutes after the trailers have started. Still, we sat down in the very front row. He ordered a cheeseburger, she ordered potato skins, and I ordered fried alligator! I'd normally be against something like that, but given the prolific numbers of the American Alligator, I was convinced to give it a try. Tough and chewy, but with a nice flavor.

Oh right, LAND OF THE LOST.

It's not for everyone.

That above statement can best be illustrated by the three of us: us guys loved it, my girlfriend hated it. It has a bizarre, admittedly Will Ferrell brand of humor that reminds one of Adult Swim or Family Guy; a lot of rambling nonsense and gross-out shock humor, which, as I mentioned, I and my dry-humor oriented friend loved. However, because this type of comedy is so weird and offbeat, it's going to throw people off. And also, there was a good chunk that was genuinely not funny. The overall plot was also pretty weak, lifting story aspects from the original, well-written-but-badly-executed TV series and throwing it all together into a weird, big-budget Saturday Night Live-styled adventure.

Of course, we got a kick out of quite a bit of it; first and foremost, the flick is damn cool to look at. There are some wildly awesome set pieces and some really neat, retro-styled sets that are specific throw backs to the original series. And then there were the dinosaurs, not to mention all of the other creatures and critters. It was nice to see a well-animated Allosaurus, as well as a big, crazy, funny crab monster. And holy crap, the sound effects, music and editing? Excellent across the board. I especially liked the crab monster's sound FX. But beyond all the CGI whozamawhatzit were the practical effects, i.e. THE SLEESTAKS. Good stuff.

The human characters ranged from boring to weird to compellingly funny. Will Ferrel played Will Ferrel. Chaka was also a little weirdo. The bits with Matt Lauer were also a laugh-riot.

But hands-down, the coolest part of the whole flick? GRUMPY THE T-REX. Go see it for him if nothing else.

Like I said, not for everyone, but it may be worth at least checking out on DVD...or at the Drafthouse. We loved it, but we're weirdos.

Pointlessly Awesome Trivia Time!
The original series was written by a lot of old Star Trek writers. Leonard Nimoy plays "The Varn" in the new movie. Captain Kirk's Nipples!

A new blog, a new project

2009-05-05T14:46:00.004-05:00

FYI, for my friends and watchers, my new buddy Jeff P. and I are working on a pretty AWESOME project. A kaiju comic with plenty of teenage comedy and angst to go with it.

One of the lovely beasties of Zak Goji :D

http://zakgojicomic.blogspot.com/

Keep an eye on that blog for all details!

The day I met Tommy...

2009-04-26T16:53:00.011-05:00

This was a few months back, but yes, I met Jason David Frank, world renowned martial artist and best known as Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger! ...Then the White Ranger, then the Red Ranger, then the Black Ranger. You get the idea ;)

He was the special guest at IKKICON 2009, and I gots pictures! I took my precious Dragon Dagger, which I've had since I was but a boy, for him to sign the box.

A crappy picture of my childhood hero. Yes, that's a White Ranger helmet there!
JDF stated that he would prefer if Power Rangers were more like the Japanese version; just a little more violent ;)

A fellow fan in an EXCELLENT Green Ranger/Dragonranger outfit. Yes, that's my Dragon Dagger he's brandishing!

Sha-wing!

A few more Tokusatsu fans in attendance. Kamen Rider HENSHIN!

Another fellow fan, thankfully headache-free.

While waiting in line, nothing less than Won Tiger aka the White Tiger Zord was entertaining the crowd. MAN what some fans are capable of!

A gift for Mr. Frank, from another Mr. Frank ;) He got a kick out of it.

And the fruits of my labor that day. Signed by Tommy himself!

Been there, done that.

2009-04-15T15:31:00.013-05:00

Or "Exactly what's starting to bore me about Transformers."

A heroic Megatron...exactly what this franchise needs.

Brace yourselves.

There's no question that Transformers is a juggernaut of popular culture. It's probably never been more popular or widely recognized, and there is more merchandise for fans to dump money into that could even be thought possible (TF was in fact created to sell toys, so it makes sense). Still, in the flurry of new material and fiction in the wake of the "Transformers Revival" (even though it never went away), I've come to a realization that inevitably befalls all epic, gigantic points of fiction that have been around for so long; we're retreading old ground.

Tell me you haven't seen a pattern here. Optimus Prime and his Autobots battle the evil forces of Megatron and his Decepticons. The battle is inevitably taken to Earth. Bumblebee does silly things. Starscream betrays Megatron. And then again. And then again. All of this is repeated over and over and over and over.
I'm keenly aware that Prime and Megs are the big moneymakers, the defining characters of this franchise, but for the love of Primus, can we catch a break?

Allow me to enter these examples into the mix:

G1 - Optimus Prime vs. Megatron. It was cool, it was fresh, it had the classic flair of good and evil and established the characters we all came to love. Not a great show but still extremely entertaining.

Ah, back when it was fresh.

The Movie - Optimus dies, Megatron gets reformatted into Galvatron. Rodimus Prime takes up the mantle (badly) but it shifted things around and made it all interesting again. Then Optimus came back. Okay then.

You suck. But at least you were interesting.

Thennnnn....the Japanese took over. Now let's not forget that, if it weren't for Takara's toy designs, there would be no Transformers. BUT let us also not forget that the Japanese don't have a great track record when it comes to the fiction (see: really effed-up story elements and WAY too much "comedy"). However, they still gave us a handful of switch-ups. For example, no more Convoy (Optimus) or Galvatron/Megatron/WHATEVER he was supposed to be on a given day of the week. In the new series such as Victory, Battlestars and Masterforce we were given characters like the serious-but caring Star Saber and his vicious-but-caring (?) nemesis Deathsaurus (?!) and a plethora of other Autobot Supreme Commanders and Decepticon Emperors of Destruction.

Brutally slaughtering Decepticons and raising a human child. All in a day's work.

Things were...well, not "good," but varied and crazy. If it's one thing the Japanese are good at, it's repainting an old product. Still, Optimus and Megatron returned, like they do, as Star Convoy and Super Megatron for one final, massive battle...in storybooks and whatnot, but hey, at least it was "epic"! Seriously, something like this wasn't so bad; having these legendary characters return to settle things once and for all at the tail end of G1 (and show all these upstarts how it's done) was probably the way to go.

Yes, he is, in fact, FULL OF STARS.

And no we get to Beast Wars, and by GOD is everything right in the world. G1 references are made and G1 character appear, but we now have a new, fresh cast of characters in a new era with new grievances. True, the main actors are still "Optimus" and "Megatron," but the two only resemble their namesakes in spirit and...name *cough* BW was so damn awesome and so well written (by Season 2 at least) that it brought a new generation into Transformers (myself included) and helped push the entire mythos into a new and better direction.

Primal...you complete me.

And THEN Beast Machines happened. We had officially gone off-track. True, it's not a bad show, but it really stretched the definition of a Transformer, and got way too far up its own exhaust port. So what happened? Well, it was time for "back to basics," so to speak.

The only problem was...it didn't really get things quite right. So they tried again.

...Nothing less than THREE DAMN TIMES. And the Unicron Trilogy was AWFUL.

So, Hasbro has pulled out all the stops, and now we have nothing less than three current continuities, ALL with Optimus Prime vs. Megatron, i.e. G1 rehashing.

The Movies.

The Comics.

And "Animated" (as though that's something new).

Okay, I can cut Transformers: Animated some slack. It's still Optimus Prime vs. Megatron, but the characters all have a wider range of motivations and there's new and cool influences taken from various sources, and, thank Primus, IT'S A NEW ART STYLE. But the series is already barreling head-first towards its finale. So what then? Will we have to sit through another reboot? Will we get to see Starscream backstab Megatron AGAIN? Will we get to see Optimus use the Matrix (or Allspark) to eliminate evil (see: Unicron) AGAIN?

In my opinion, it's time for a new direction. Once the movie franchise cools off, I say we start up with some new characters and a new direction. Not Optimus and Megatron (or at least not DIRECTLY those characters), but something cool and new. Hell, why not Transtech, the ill-fated sequel to Beast Machines?

I'd watch this. ESPECIALLY if it wasn't about Optimus and Megatron...although it originally was...gah.

Dammit, Janet, I love Transformers. I'm loving the comics and digging the new movies and love the hell out of Animated, but I'd love even more for another Beast Wars with a dash of Victory. In other words...let's stop walking in circles and point ourselves in a new direction.

"That was Not over 9,000"

2009-04-13T23:30:00.003-05:00

“That was not over 9,000...” or Fail CGI Monkey is Made of Fail.

Let’s not kid ourselves; this was going to be bad from the day we heard internet rumors screaming “They’re making a Dragonball Z movie ” back in...what was it? 2001? Anyway, while I didn’t foresee EVERY steaming, badly rendered CGI monkey turd that was dropped, it all evened out to about what I expected.

At first, things are actually somewhat entertaining. There are some genuinely funny moments that are surprisingly Toriyama-esque, if you can believe it. Things even begin to descend into self-parody, making the first 10-15 minutes MUCH more entertaining than the rest of the flick. White Kid, or “Goku” as he’s called in some universe, has a hilarious daydream about ChiChi. There’s a fight where White Kid doesn’t even throw a punch, forcing his enemies to do all the damage (again, very Toriyama). But it’s when the film starts taking itself seriously that things get even more sloppy and just downright badly executed.

There were a handful of things that I genuinely liked...y’know, aside from ChiChi’s...chichi’s (look it up in your Spanish dictionary). Okay, that’s a lie: Chow Yun Fat’s portrayal of Muten Roshi was the ONLY element that I felt had any quality to it. Like Jack Black’s version of Carl Denham, CYF takes an established character and, while noting the original, takes his version in a refreshing direction that still fills the proper role.

Another problem is that the film really has no clue what it wants to be: does it want to be Dragonball? A Dragonball parody? A cheap kung-fu action scifi film catering to mass audiences? It seems to be trying to please Dragonball fans while trying WAY too hard to cater to what’s “hip” and “cool.” It tries both, fails at both and offends both.

Trust me, just about everything in this movie is bad: the acting, the script, the plot, the special effects (though the Chi, or “Ki” effects are kind of cool), but I was actually kind of enjoying myself. Having a handful of friends along for the ride was a HUGE help through this piss-filled swamp of a film. One thing that was also very disappointing was one of the reasons I used to be excited; Piccolo. He carries no screen presence, has no motivation (other than “You locked me away ...for trying to destroy your world BUT STILL ”) and is just...BLEH.

Here’s the kicker: at the climax of the film, Oozaru shows up. Then goes away. And thank God, because that was probably the worst CGI I have ever, EVER seen in a major motion picture. It was just as bad as the CGI in one of those direct-to-dvd ripoffs like KING OF THE LOST WORLD (don’t see it, believe me). What really pissed me off, though, was that there was a really interesting rubber-suited version of Oozaru that popped up online a few months back. It wasn’t really a monkey-monster, but it was a hell of a lot cooler that the poorly animated, badly edited, OUT OF FOCUS monkey monster in the final version. Seriously, what is it with movies like these? Are they so scared of the FACT that it’s a rubber suit (and a fairly decent one at that) that they’d rather put inexcusably bad CGI in place of it?

Trust me, this was much better than what we got.

I guess I shouldn’t get so worked up about it. There was a total of about 20 or so people in the theater...on opening night, no less One of my compatriots noted that “this film will be out of theaters in a week.” Probably.

The thing is, this COULD have been a much more interesting film...if an entirely different approach was taken, and certainly if Fox didn’t make it. Fox is notorious for taking franchises, spitting out a quick, crappy movie, getting a little bit of money, then trying it again. Still, when I think about it, one of the graces of the movie (being mercifully short) was also an overall detriment; in order to do a halfway decent Dragonball film, it would need to be more than an hour and a half (it was probably even less). The final film was so crammed and rushed that it was inevitable that we wouldn’t care about any of the characters or even what was going on. In fact, it would be rather easy to make a good Dragonball film, if the elements of trying to appeal to a “mass audience” were simply removed (the high school angle, for a painfully glaring example) and try to make it more of a fantasy.

But I digress (I love saying that), what’s done is done and nobody will ever try this again, and we have Dragonball Kai to look forward to (the newly edited, SHORTENED version of Dragonball Z).

Oh yeah, and Shenron doesn’t talk...or even take up the whole sky like he should...or even be anywhere near as cool as the Celestial Dragon from Dragon Wars.

Deadly Creatures - Yes, it is good.

2009-02-23T11:35:00.005-06:00

"A game about bugs. Woo-hoo."

- Some jerk on Gametrailers.com

True, there's no Chun-Li, no Samus, no Pikachu and none of the other characters that have had the same games put out year after year that gamers throw millions of dollars at, but Deadly Creatures, without a doubt, rounds out the best Wii games to date. Granted, there's not much competition, but this epic saga of critters underfoot is right up there with Metroid Prime 3, Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Galaxy of quality Wii-exclusive titles.

The premise is a strange and unique one: a pair of arachnids, a scorpion and a tarantula, meet and square off. Before the two can kill each other, they are interrupted by a pair of enormous homo sapiens searching the desert for something...or someone. The player takes control of the tarantulas, and later the scorpion, while they fight their way across the desert, establishing territory while stalking one-another. Meanwhile, a strange tale unfolds where the humans prove to be more than just background noise.

The premise is an exciting one, though some have complained that the main characters "lack motivation"...but what motivation should they have? Did someone run over their respective puppies? They're arthropods for God's sake. They hunt, fight, kill, and establish territory, all while just trying to survive. The fact that they run into humans is just bad luck. The real story is all about the two Southerners who are searching for gold buried out in the desert. Ala Cloverfield, the main characters' actions rarely have anything to do with the humans, but the two stories cross over only in critical moments. My only complaint is that I wish that I could hear more of the human story in more instances, but I suppose in this case that less is likely more.

That said, let's talk gameplay; it's well-mapped and reasonable, with lots of cool moves for both arachnids. It's not terribly intuitive, however, thanks to the Wii's already cumbersome control layout. Still, once you get the hang of it, it plays just fine. Waggling motions are also not terribly necessary with the exception of critical boss fights, and most attacks can be preformed with simply button mashing (though waggling makes it a lot more fun). It's important to note, though, because one problem with a lot of Wii games (I'm looking at you, Unleashed) is that because waggling is essential to movement, then the motions get confused VERY easily. This is generally not the case in Deadly Creatures, as the basic movement controls aren't mapped to movement. It makes for a cleaner gaming experience.

The graphics are impressive as well, ranging from fairly decent to near realism (a few particular underground tunnels are evident of this). Beyond that, the character animations are all extremely well researched and programmed, especially the smaller lizards that one finds themselves fighting in the desert. The set pieces are awesome too, with plenty of tense, cinematic moments (the black widows descending on your trapped form, the assault of the raptor-like-lizard, the epic boss battles against the rattlesnake...). The only place where the graphics truly falter are on some of the human character animations (which appear too cartoony at times) and the final cutscene, which is badly pixelated and poorly edited.

Music and sound for this game are both top notch. Really excellent work has been put into allowing the creatures to have a much more menacing, monstrous scale. And speaking of scale, it's very entertaining to see how much the developers played with this; I recall the first time I wandered into the dump, and saw a house in the distance, looming over all of the garbage. I thought that perhaps that would be the final level, but believe it or not, it was a damn doll house. VERY cool.
There was a nice Godzilla reference too that will slap a firm smirk on your face.

To wrap this up, Deadly Creatures is easily one of my new favorite games. It's a little too short, and it would have been nice to see more content besides a handful of concept galleries and interviews (a fighting game perhaps?) but its innovation makes it something that Wii owners should look into, even though it doesn't have Diddy Kong in it.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is....good?

2009-01-16T04:31:00.003-06:00

Heads-up, the total 4 people that check this blog!

For those unawares, Kamen Rider is a vintage Japanese property owned by Toei, which, way-back-when in the ages of "The 90's" was given the "Power Ranger Treatment," though, much to fans' dismay and heartache, didn't receive the same amount of credibility, exposure or even respect in its US adaptation. Needless to say, it went the Ultraman route of "perfectly good Japanese programs with crappy reception in the US." That said, one of the more recent Rider series, Kamen Rider Ryuki has received a new adaptation by Adness Entertainment into Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (which, interestingly, is more or less a direct translation of the Japanese title).

Kamen Rider (literally "Masked Rider") has always interested me, though not on the same level as sentai (Power Rangers) or Ultraman. Still, it's a fascinating series; originally it was a series about a lone hero, altered by an evil organization into a fighting machine, rebels against his would-be-masters and, each week, fights another one of their crazed mutant or cyborg henchmen. Sort of a one-man Power Ranger team, if you will. However, things have gotten a little more...varied, I suppose you could say, with the more recent series. Kamen Rider Ryuki started a fairly new trend of there being a great many riders in each new series, not all of them on the good side of karma, and adding new levels of artistic stylization, writing and cinematography. While not always successful, it's nice to see a Japanese series that prides itself on innovation (the upcoming series is Kamen Rider Decade, which will focus on riders from the last 10 years teaming up with this new Rider).

Anywho, what of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight?

Actually, it's pretty good.

Initial fears that it would be another attempt to capture the Power Rangers phenomenon all over again are squelched when the series opens with some rather brooding subject matter (kidnappings, a not-so-truthful government, foster care, etc.) while dovetailing into some cool martial-arts action and monsters and all sorts of goodness!
The acting ranges from surprisingly fun to decent to so-so, but never gut-wrenching, like in some Power Rangers episodes, and the writing is about the same. It's clear that this isn't a show for the Power Ranger crowd, i.e. toddlers, but more focused on a pre-teen/early teenager audience, which is a nice surprise.

So, check out the site and clips here
http://www.4kids.tv/shows/kamen-rider

I hope I find some time soon, because I'd love to draw up some Kamen Rider fanart :D

Jurassic Park IV? Not likely

2008-12-13T10:26:00.004-06:00

The above image, DUH, is from an old Playstation game (WHICH I OWN, BITCH) and is essentially a less-than-stellar fighting game. Still, it's dinosaurs, and dinosaurs make everything better. Only Communists and really ugly people dislike dinosaurs.

That said, ever wonder what happened to JURASSIC PARK IV? Rumors had been tossed around for years now, from Lex (Ariana Richards) returning as the main character to plot devices involving Deinonychus mercenaries (seriously) to something about dinosaurs invading the mainland and a state-of-emergency declared for the US...I mean, really, it all sounded incredibly overblown and "jump the shark" (or "nuke the fridge," however your pop culture references roll) but it looks like the project has ultimately been shit-canned.

With Michael Crichton's untimely death, Kathleen Kennedy, one of the film's producers, stated that the flick is pretty much done for. They're still attached to it, but it's likely that the project's been pushed way, way, way down into the seventh level of development hell, never to be seen again.

While I postulate that the first Jurassic Park is one of the best adventure films in cinema history, I do feel that the franchise ran out of fresh ideas about halfway through The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The two sequels, including JP3, were still entertaining and exciting in their own right, as "hardcore" dinosaur films go, but the franchise definitely lost something when Jack Horner (whom I have some choice things to say about) decided to stomp T. Rex, the undisputed Tyrant Lizard King, into the ground in favor of the fish-eating Spinosaurus. Anyone who knows me will anticipate my shrieking rants on this subject, so let's move on.

Honestly? I'd have been the first in line for JPIV, ESPECIALLY with the plot I'd read online. Check this out, from Aint It Cool News' "Moriarty":

The script starts at a Little League game somewhere in America, an idyllic scene that quickly goes bad when pterosaurs attack the kids and their parents. It’s a cool scene, and I couldn’t help but immediately anticipate what might lay ahead. Dinosaurs in America. All-out warfare on home soil. This should be fun. In a series of television clips, we learn that this is the first attack on North American ground following months of this sort of thing in Central America and Mexico. The UN has created a task force to exterminate the dinosaurs. Awesome, I thought. A bad-ass heavily-armed United Nations task force versus the dinosaurs. Bring it on! But then the script throws its first major curve ball, introducing Nick Harris, an unemployed soldier of fortune. Nick’s the lead in the movie. Not Alan Grant. Not Ian Malcolm. Despite all the rumors to the contrary, those characters are not back for this film. Instead, we meet Nick as he watches those same reports on TV that we are. He’s approached by an ex-commander of his and offered a meeting about a job. He’s warned that the guy he’d be working for is a little bit strange...

... which brings us to John Hammond. It’s a great cameo role for Richard Attenborough, and he’s said several times that he is looking forward to it. In the script’s single wittiest scene, we catch up with the eccentric ex-billionaire who is now the most-sued man in history according to the Guiness Book Of World Records. He’s been declared incompetent by his heirs and his company has been taken over by other corporations. Technically, Jurassic Park isn’t even his problem anymore, but he still feels responsible for the dinosaurs and the damage they do. Hammond’s got a big idea: breed some new dinosaurs that can’t reproduce and introduce them into the wild population. A Judas strain that will kill off the dinosaurs within one generation. Easy enough, except the UN has outlawed any breeding of new dinosaurs by anyone and they’ve prohibited the sale, mining, or possession of amber worldwide. Hammond’s got scientists ready and waiting to go, but he needs genetic material to work with. As soon as Hammond mentions where that material might come from, I thought for sure that I was ahead of the script again. Oh, of course! The shaving cream can that Nedry stole. He’s going to hire this guy to put together a team of mercenaries, and they’re going to spend the whole film on Isla Nublar getting picked off one-by-one while trying to find the samples.

After all, the first three films are all pretty much carbon copies of each other, excuses to turn people loose on the island. I almost set the script down at that point, disappointed that they’d do something so predictable again after all this talk about how they were going to turn things upside down. Page sixteen, and I was sure I knew the rest of the script without even reading it.

But I was wrong... again.

Nick Harris does indeed got to Isla Nublar, but he goes alone. He does indeed track down the shaving cream can that Nedry stole, but that’s a mere five pages later. And as soon as he finds it, he’s attacked not only by excavaraptors (think trapdoor spiders), but also by security rangers who work for Grendel Corporation, the mysterious Swiss holding company that took over Jurassic Park from Hammond. Seems they want those genetic samples for their own purposes... whatever those may be. Nick has to get off the island, evading his pursuers, human or otherwise. He manages to make it back to the mainland just long enough to hide the shaving cream can before the security team catches up with him and gasses him into unconsciousness.

All of that happens by page 39, at which point I realized I had no idea where this thing was going, and I quit trying to guess. It kept confounding my expectations. It certainly didn’t feel like it was just another rehash of the same formula. When Nick wakes up, he’s in the tower of a medieval castle in the Alps. Seriously. That’s the precise moment when the entire enterprise goes so over-the-top loony that you’ll either go along with it for the entire insane ride or reject it roundly as a big bag of ludicrous. Nick is introduced to Adrien Joyce, the major domo henchman of Baron von Drax, CEO of the Grendel Corporation. Joyce isn’t a moustache-twirling bad guy bent on torturing Nick into revealing where he hid the shaving cream can. Instead, he offers Nick a job, and in order to explain the job to him, he has to take him on a tour of the entire castle, which turns out to be a fairly sophisticated genetics lab where Grendel Corporation has been breeding some dinosaurs of their own design, cross-breeds that never existed in any era of nature with all sorts of custom modifications.

I want to tread lightly on what happens over the course of the rest of the film on the off chance that Mary Parent or someone at Universal is seriously going to make this thing. There’s the eight-year-old-boy side of me that thinks that a DIRTY DOZEN-style mercenary team of hyper-smart dinosaurs in body armor killing drug dealers and rescuing kidnapped children will be impossible to resist. And then there’s the side of me that says... WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! Nick is put in charge of training these five dinosaurs, X1 through X5, and the first thing he does is name them. “Any soldier worth his pay has a name to answer to, not a number,” he says. So we are introduced to Achilles, Hector, Perseus, Orestes, and Spartacus, each of them a specially created deinonychus, which is sort of like a miniature T-rex. They have super-sensitive smell and hearing, incredible strength and speed and pack-hunting instincts, and they have modified forelegs, lengthened and topped with more dextrous fingers, as well as dog DNA for increased obedience and human DNA so they can solve problems well. All of this is topped off with a drug-regulating implant that can dose them with adrenaline or serotonin as the situation demands.

And yes, there's more to it, but Moriarty was tight-lipped beyond that.

I wanted to paste that here for posterity, because it's a crazy-as-hell plot and I'd loved to have seen that, regardless of the shark-jumpage. There just aren't enough dinosaur movies these days. The last one was King Kong in '05, and next year Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs brings them into a CGI-animated fare, but beyond that, we can only hope that, in a few years, someone will bust out with an awesome, lavishly animated movie version of Ricardo Delgado's Age of Reptiles graphic novels.

Until then, we've still got Dinosaur King :D

My CYCLOPS comic is ready for pre-orders!

2008-11-17T16:13:00.003-06:00

The press has started for my first comic, WRATH OF THE TITANS: CYCLOPS, by BlueWater Productions. With less than two months before it's release, you had best pre-order now!

The official site of the company:
www.bluewaterprod.com

A MONSTER ISLAND NEWS article:
http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2008/11/work-of-ray-harryhausen-comes-to-comics.html

Check these links to preorder!
http://heavyink.com/title/4188-Wrath-Of-The-Titans-Cyclops-One-Shot
https://www.mailordercomics.com/prodDetail.asp?PID=296412
https://www.scifigenre.com/subs/browseTitleDetail.aspx?sid=G&bViewAll=N&nTitleID=6098

Here's an online interview on the book by Jazma:
http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews2008.asp?intID=229

The Day The Earth Stood Still new trailer and impressions

2008-10-30T12:00:00.002-05:00

Yeah....

'The Day the Earth Stood Still' 5 Minute Trailer @ Yahoo!7 Video

While I, like Harry at Aint It Cool, believe that a DTESS remake is COMPLETELY unnecessary (since the original was such a somber masterpiece of science fiction), this new film which bears the same title, but obviously is not the same film, still may be interesting enough for me to actually consider seeing. There are some really cool concepts at work here, which may just be that interesting considering how the re-makers are trying to create something from almost nothing, and it was that "nothing" that made the original so unique. It's a "less is more" approach. Still, it looks flashy and dramatic, so I'll still see it, just like the inevitably awful DRAGONBALL film.

Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thorton in Deadly Creatures!

2008-10-26T18:04:00.004-05:00

How the hell did they manage that?!?

http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/14235413/deadly-creatures/videos/deadlycreatures_horror_tsr_l.html

Seriously, I am so freaking excited for this game.

God Bless 2-D Animation

2008-10-09T00:21:00.004-05:00

It's not often that I post nude models, but I suppose it's a proper lead-in to the topic of 2d animation...
What dickweed decided that 3D should completely annihilate good 2D goodness?...oh yeah, it was Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas performed miserably at the box office, and as a result, Katz there decided that 2D animation was a plague to be avoided (despite Sinbad being a perfectly decent 2D-flick, it did come out in the wake of "OMG CGI MOVIES ARE TEH WINZORS"). Not only that, and I need to check some resources on this, but it's been noted that Michael Eisner intentionally made sure that Disney's last 2D flicks like "Home On the Range" were extremely sub-par so that he could push the studio to dissolve the 2D department (in exchange for equally sub-par 3D animated flicks in Disney's desperate attempts to match the power of Pixar).

That said, please direct your attention to Michel Gagne's masterpiece, "Prelude to Eden":

You can also see his other beautiful work on his main site:

Make SURE you check out his Insanely Twisted section. Good Halloweenie stuff.

After that, my bud Patrick pointed out Pearl Jam's Evolution video, directed by Scott Mother-effing McFarlane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8
(I cant embed the stupid thing...dammit, but be warned, it's a pretty harsh vid, but real purdy).

*sigh* I love 2D animation, and I love 3D animation, but only if either is done WELL. WALL-E is a good example of an excellent 3D flick (and I recently enjoyed the sumptuous feast of MONSTER HOUSE), and as a bit of an extension, CGI itself is a good tool for cinema. But it's nice to see that audiences are getting overloaded by CGI. Case in point, the Hellboy films, and this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Frog

Palin says "Daina-sores and Hoomans ran around together!"

2008-10-02T23:56:00.003-05:00

Not in those exact words, obviously.

Man, I gotta' make a cartoon of this. I just find this crap hilarious.
Seriously; how do these idiots even GET this far in life? Then again, it raises the question of just how legitimate this all is. Everyone sure seems out for Palin's life fluids, so there must be SOME reason.

Anywho, here's a quote ala NewsBlaze.com

"Which brings us to today's topic: Sarah Palin's belief that people and dinosaurs coexisted. When Palin was the mayor of Wasilla she wasn't reticent about sharing even the most bizarre aspects of her faith.

But now that Palin is John McCain's vice-presidential running mate, she won't even admit that she's a Pentecostal. Palin has been sequestered, far away from the press and pundits. In public appearances she sticks to her talking points, and they don't include babbling such nonsense about cavemen cavorting with dinosaurs. "

Here's another one from LA Times:

"Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said...
Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska...
Palin has attended a number of prayer sessions with pastors and has quietly sought their guidance, but she is often mum on matters of faith in high-profile public forums.

Her aides say Palin's caution at the intersection of religion and governance is a studied effort to share her beliefs without forcing them on Alaska.

'She's obviously an intensively religious person,' said Bill McAllister, Palin's chief spokesman as governor. "She understands that she's the governor and not preacher in chief. Religion informs her decisions, but she is not out to impose her views on Alaska.'"

Seems like Palin at least knows when crazy shit is crazy shit.

It's still funny shit though.

Crap Matt's Excited About: Deadly Mutha'-Effin' Creatures

2008-09-28T02:32:00.002-05:00

Time for some free advertising. They should be paying me for this nonsense.

Deadly Creatures is a new Wii game (yeah, that's right, Mr. Family Sunshine System) which stars a scorpion and a tarantula and you fight through horrible environments of beauty and savagery while witnessing a rather unsavory plot by a bunch of giant monsters called "hoo-manz." You get the jist ;)

www.deadlycreaturesgame.com

That pic at the top is the basis of some fanart I'd like to do. That and I would absolutely kill to make a comic of this game.

New name and artsies

2008-09-25T02:59:00.005-05:00

After feeling somewhat shaken by the knowledge that some random flick stole the title of my blog, I thought I'd try out The Roaring Brain and see how that goes over.
Expect a banner soon!

Note the oil painting ;)

A birthday fit for a fighting robot

2008-09-24T14:05:00.004-05:00

I figured I'd best upload this. It's my recent JET JAGUAR art that was commissioned as a birthday present for a fan's son.

Here's the original:

And here's the lucky recipient:

Matt's G-Fest Adventure!

2008-09-19T16:26:00.006-05:00

FINALLY! After replacing my USB cable, I am able to show the world my G-Fest pictures! It's a preview of the video that will premiere on Tohokingdom.com "Captain Gordon and the Quest for Kongzilla."

Me and Godzilla himself, Haruo Nakajima; I stepped out of the taxi and somehow this happened. What a freaking welcome to my first G-Fest!

Now THAT'S interesting, isn't it?

Myself and a reporter from a Japanese magazine. She was very perplexed by the kaiju phenomenon, to say the least, but she was very polite and we gots a picture! This was taken right after I won that Rodan figure in a trivia contest.

I stole this for a short time from another fan ;)

Welcome to G-Fest! We have sex and lots of it! Wait...

One of my new friends and I pose for some Ultraman badassitude.

A cavalcade of new friends and allies!

Now this was fun; a group of G-Fans, after the airing of Godzilla X MechaGodzilla, got together in the lobby to film an evacuation sequence for my bud Jared's new ULTRAMAN SORTA' movie.

That's Jared there in the bottom-left, with his stars getting ready for the next scene.

Collectively, that's a sampling of "the Old Guard," some of our G-fan elders and their elixers of wisdom.

The last day, with another pair of new friends at my artist's table. The feller on the left bought my sign!

Yes. That is, in fact, Don Frye, and yes, he has me in a headlock. BFF's!

Ultraman Appreciation

2008-09-02T14:06:00.002-05:00

ULTRAMAN -
A Guide to the World’s Biggest Hero

In 1966, a new kind of super-hero appeared on television screens across Japan known as Ultraman. Much more than a simple Japanese version of Superman, Ultraman was a being from the galaxy M78 who came to Earth in order to protect humanity from the assaults of rampaging daikaiju, evil aliens, and other malevolent threats. Over the years, the Ultraman franchise has blossomed into not just a record-holding series of spinoffs, but a phenomenon that held Japan, nearly all of Asia and even other countries in the protective silver gloved-grasp of the Giant of Light and his many relatives.
Unfortunately, since the late 60's, Ultraman has yet to gain a giant foothold in one key location: the United States. While the original series, as well as its sequel, Ultra7, were broadcast on US television, Ultraman has had very little luck with American audiences since then, as nearly every attempt to being him to our shores fails to a surprising degree. Why is this? Could it be the SPFX are too jaded for American children (despite the same principles used in the still-popular Power Rangers), or could the awful dubbing and editing be giving baby-boomers headaches?
Regardless, I decided to make this little journal entry to catch some of my devWatchers up on the goings-on of this super-hero...I mean, if he’s been around for 40 years, he must be doing SOMETHING right.

“Who IS Ultraman?”
Ultraman was a creation by Eiji Tsuburaya’s SPFX company in 1966 during the Daikaiju craze. Characters like Godzilla and Gamera were at the height of their popularity, and since Tsuburaya himself brought many of these beasts to life, why not make a TV show out of the concept?
Ultraman was, at the basic level, portrayed by an actor in a latex suit, and wrestled likewise rubber-suited monsters each week. The show, something of a sequel to UltraQ, a Twlight Zone-esque series, was a smash hit, and spawned more than 15 sequel series, at least a dozen movies, cartoons, direct-to-video specials, live stage shows, and an endless string of merchandising.

“What is an Ultra-Warrior?”
An Ultra-Warrior is any manner of “Ultra” being in an Ultraman series. Ultraman himself was just one of many “Ultra Warriors” throughout the galaxy, and he himself is usually referred to by fans as “Ultraman the First.” Each Ultra after has an official name attached to him (or her) to distinguish between them, besides their appearances. Each individual Ultra-Warrior is unique, from their appearances to their basic fighting styles and abilities, and even their personalities.
An Ultra is not, in fact, a flesh-and-blood being, but rather a combination of metallic substances and mechanics as well as “The Light.” All Ultras are powered by this energy, which is debatable as to exactly what it is...it seems to be both a combination of ultraviolet radiation as well as an empathetic connection with humanity, particularly an Ultra’s “Deunamist” (more on that later). Regardless, Ultras, when wounded, literally bleed light, so it’s obvious as an Ultra’s lifeblood. The physical aspect of an Ultra (as recently revealed in Ultraman Tiga) has been revealed to be minerals and various metals created by the Ultra’s “true forms,” which instead of creating a mechanical being, rather simply provides a solid foundation for the Ultras to interact on a more physical level with the rest of the Universe.

“Ultra-Origins”
So, where did the Ultras come from? What exactly happened to them? There are various stories and theories according to different series, but the origin that is considered most “cannon” is that of the original “Showa series,” but through much research, I’ve made something of an “all inclusive origin” (if you prefer to keep universes separate, then no biggie) -

Time before time, legend before legend, before good and evil, and before recorded history, there was darkness, and there was light. Light and Dark warred with each other for centuries, one sometimes defeating the other, but the other always returning to challenge the former victor. As the Universe developed, so did Dark and Light...
30 Million Years ago, Earth was home to a surprisingly advanced civilization of homo sapiens. However, a war soon raged between the humans and a race of savage beings called the Kileil, and before both sides could destroy each other, THEY appeared...the Giants of Light. Nobody knows where exactly they came from, though they may have been beings created at the beginning of time itself...regardless, they arrived on Earth and fashioned for themselves bodies of the rock and soil of the planet itself. Together, they stopped the war, and the Kileil were banished to the shadows of the Earth. The humans and Ultras then began to live together in peace, the Ultras forming an empathetic bond with the humans, and the humans learning new and wonderous technologies from the Ultras.
However, one fateful day, the darkness came once more. Armies of horrible monsters, created by the power of the darkness, swarmed over Earth. The Ultras fought and fought, defending both the humans and the new City of Ultra, until when it seemed like victory was at hand, the humans fell to the power of a monster with the ability to create indifference and carelessness in a human spirit...thus, the Ultras lost their touch with humanity. Many of the Ultras wanted to rule over Earth, since they believed that humanity was unfit to care for the world. It resulted in a civil war amongst the Ultras...but the final blow came from a new kind of Ultra Warrior....the Dark Ultras.
However, the Ultras eventually left Earth, having defeated the darkness, but no longer wanted by an uncaring humankind. The darkness remained, however, so the Ultras would one day return...

260,000 years ago, in the Nebula of M78, a small planet with an advanced civilization not unlike Earth’s former inhabitants, floated about in relative peace around a mighty sun. One day, fate took a bizarre turn, and the sun began to fad and grow dim, whether by machinations of a dark force or otherwise. Fortunately, a being called the Ultra Elder created a mysterious power source called the “Plasma Spark” on the small planet to keep it alive.
Fate has a way of making things interesting, of course...the Plasma Spark emitted a strange energy called the “Differator Ray,” and the first to be exposed to it were two caretakers of the Plasma Spark, a man and a woman, and the energy began to change them...
Over 200,000 years, the people of the small world evolved beyond the need for flesh and blood bodies, and became strangely similar to the Giants of Light that once roamed the universe...could the Ultra Elder be....?
30,000 years ago, a mighty beast called “Emperor” appeared and attacked what had become legendary as “The Land of Light.” The invasion was fended off by the Ultras, and the Ultra Elder decreed that the warriors use their newfound powers to create the Space Garrison, an intergalactic police force dedicated to protecting worlds from the ravages of creatures spawned by the darkness that created Emperor.
Over the millenia, the Ultras spread their influence, forming more “homeworlds” for new generations of Ultra beings (such as L-77, Z-95, U-40 and TOY-1).

As the Ultra series grew in size and depth, it became the first franchise in Japan to have fan-based magazines and trivia (and I’m not just saying that...). Fan trivia is always fun, and here are some of the bigger aspects of the Ultra-universe to familiarize oneself with:

“Deunamists” -
The vast majority of Ultras are incapable of existing in Earth’s current atmospheric condition for more than a few minutes. This has been attributed to pollution, air density, molecular differences, the ozone layer, and the like, but regardless, an Ultra’s energy will begin to deplete rapidly while fighting on Earth. Thus, the Ultras require a human host while protecting the planet. These human hosts are called “Deunamists,” (as recently coined in the series Ultraman Nexus) and are chosen for a number of reasons: sometimes it’s out of obligation, such as Ultraman the First’s ship colliding with Science Patrol operative Hayata’s jet. Other times, a human of exceptional courage, determination and kindness, who happens to be at the “right” place at the “right” time (such as a monster attack) will be chosen by an Ultra to be a human host (such as Ultraman Max). Other times, a human’s very DNA and/or physical makeup determine his (or her) right to inherit “The Light,” (ala Ultraman Tiga and Nexus).
It’s unclear as to exactly how an Ultra remains unseen by the human eye while with a Deunamist, but it has been recorded that Ultras can speak with their host on a psychic level, but never take control of their host’s body or mind.
Not all Ultras have Deunamists, as some, such as UltraSeven and Ultraman Mebius, can actually change their physical appearence to look and act like humans so that they may directly observe human behavior and interact with other homo sapiens.

“Henshin!” -
Nearly all Ultras have a “Henshin Device,” or transformation item, which, when activated, releases a small amount of “The Light” and activates a molecular transformation in the Deunamist to bring out the Ultra Warrior within. Henshin devices come in many forms and functions, and are activated in different ways as according to the device itself.
Some Henshin devices come in an impressive variety, but most are hand-held items (the Beta Capsule). There have also been small masks (the Ultra-Eye), bracelets (the Mebius Brace), necklaces (the Delta Pendant), curious little trinkets (the Beam Flasher), and even everyday items (Zearth’s electric toothbrush!).
Not all Ultras require transformation items...some, such as The Next, have merged so completely with their host that sheer force of will can transform them.

"Luminizers" -
As we well know, Ultra Warriors are powered by the Light. However, they have learned to harness this power into attacks called Luminizers (coined in the US dub of Ultraman Tiga). Luminizers shape light in such a way that it can achieve a large number of effects. Sometimes a swipe of the hand can emit a cutting disc of energy, such as the Ultra Slash, other times a force field can be created. The most powerful attack in an Ultra Warrior's arsenal, however, is what could be collectively called an Alpha Stream, which varies from Ultra to Ultra. Ultraman the First utilizes the Specium Beam, while UltraSeven fires the Wide Shot. Ultraman Tiga uses the Zepellion Ray, and Ultraman Max has the Maxium Cannon. Most if not all Alpha Streams are fired by collecting a huge amount of energy, often through the ColorTimer or an Ultra's chest armor, and fired from the hands but creating a T or L shape when crossing them.
There are other abilities for Ultras to make use of, such as Seven's Eye Slugger or Ultraman's Ultra Current, and while the Light is utilized to control these powers, and even warp matter around an Ultra (in case he or she needs to put out a fire or levitate something) these aren't "natural" Light-based abilities and are thus not considered "Luminizers."

“Kaiju and Seijin” -
Ultras are gigantic in their natural fighting forms, and this seems to be a response to the giant beasts that plague the universe. Kaiju are long time foes of Ultra Warriors, and as many of you know, come in all shapes and sizes, from mutant dinosaurs to giant bugs to fire-breathing fish to mad robots run amuck. Monsters like this can be naturally occurring and simply awoken by man’s foolish designs, whereas others are giant mutants that are the result of humanity’s arrogant pollution of this precious planet.
Ultras rarely show compassion towards such mindless destroyers, but sometimes an Ultra will see that a kaiju needs to be put down because it is suffering, or will even remove the creature and find it a new home.
Many a monster is actually the result of a malicious consciousness that seeks to destroy Earth: Some of the first monsters to menace Earth were the giant beasts of darkness called Golzas which fought against the ancient Ultras millions of years ago. The Gudis was a living amalgamation of mutagenic bacilli that began to transform normal animals into ferocious beasts. The Chaos Header sought to turn normally peaceful Earth kaiju into beasts of ravenous destruction. The Entity of Root Destruction sent outer-dimensional monsters to Earth to tear it apart.
Seijin (aliens) are no strangers to the Ultra universe. The Ultras, being aliens themselves, have created alliances and enemies across the galaxy. Earth, however, has been called “the jewel of space,” and is coveted by many a hostile species. The aliens that appear are just as numerous and various as the kaiju that appear on the planet (Earth has been identified as well as having the largest number of different species in the whole galaxy).
One alien species of particular note could be considered the Decepticons to the Ultras’ Autobots, and they are the infamous “Baltan-seijin.” Horrible and malignant, the Baltans have had a long-standing rivalry with the Ultras, as it seems as though their intent is to invade and conquer planet after planet, making them true space-locusts. Baltans, however, seem to be very tiny in their natural forms; they number in the thousands and millions. There are a select few Baltans that are meant for battle, and they are all as gigantic as the Ultras themselves (but are also capable of size-changing ability). Despite being such a massive thorn in the Land of Light’s side, it seems as though, in recent years, the Baltan threat has been largely squelched by the Ultras. Apparently, the Ultras finally wised up and aided the Baltans in finding a new homeworld where they wouldn’t have to plunder other races of their own...of course, there are always exceptions to the rule...

“The Dark Ultras” -
The Ultras are not perfection. Wherever there is light, it will always cast a shadow, and the Dark Ultras ARE that shadow. Dark Ultras come into existence by a number of ways, but largely, it tends to be Ultra Warriors and Deunamists who are tainted by the Dark, and give in to selfishness, greed, hatred, and lust for power. This results in Ultras like Kamilla, Dark Zagi, and Evil Tiga.
Dark Ultras can be every bit as strong, fast and intelligent as Ultras of Light, and are frequently the most deadly enemy an Ultra can face...but usually, the lesson learned is that, while the Dark relies only on itself, the Light takes strength from itself and others as well, thus, the Dark is pushed back into oblivion...of course, it will come back. It always does...

State of the Godzilla Franchise

2008-07-28T13:12:00.003-05:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve taken the time to write in the “deep and serious” territory, but it’s come to my attention that Matt Frank’s opinion is valued to a degree in the kaiju fandom. As such, I felt it a worthwhile endeavor to undertake a sort of “State of the Genre” address to be written, posted and likely forgotten since hardly anyone reads this blog (my own fault for updating once every ice age). I really do hope, however, that someone from Toho or anyone else actively important in the entertainment industry will read this and consider it for more than two heartbeats.

The kaiju genre is currently in a bizarre state of flux; Godzilla is on yet another hiatus (this one appearing quite serious), Gamera is all but dead, Ultraman is desperately clinging to his “triumphant return” certificate, South Korea is having a strange upturn of monster movies, and the first truly excellent American giant monster film since KING KONG took the world by storm earlier this year. Interestingly, our little corner of nerdom seems to gain an upsurge of randomized influences whenever our godly king of rubber suited stuntmen takes a nosedive into low box office turnout and subsequent hibernation...or that’s one way to put it. GODZILLA: FINAL WARS was perhaps the most divisive kaiju film ever released, likely because it ended the series on a series of notes equivalent to a hippo trying to conduct Carmina Burana. In fact, the fandom has recently taken to regarding the Millenium series (as a whole) with a consensual “eh”. Let’s face it: GODZILLA 2000 was smart but overall lackluster, GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS was a crazed mish-mash of good ideas and bad execution, GMK was a glorious gem but scared the hell out of the average G-Fan by being “different,” the massive fanwank known as the “Kiryu Saga” was a cacophony of pretty-but-recycled ideas and writing, and the aformentioned FINAL WARS caused epileptic seizures though a concoction of “stupid awesomeness.” Don’t get me wrong; there’s a lot that the Millenium series did well, but it suffers mostly from Toho’s “Play it Safe” policy. This is derived heavily from the very Japanese notion of “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” In other words, Toho doesn’t want to take risks, especially not after the whole 1998 GODZILLA fiasco. Of course, we can hardly fault them for that. The thing is, however, that change can be a very good thing, but it’s a tricky balance. Changing something for the sake of changing it, and in the process completely altering the core concepts that made it special in the first place, is a universal slap in the face. Yet, breaking something down back into its base uniqueness and thematic elements, and THEN changing all of the other frikafrak that had built up is the ideal (and ONLY) way to intelligently improve a series or franchise, be it Godzilla, the Incredible Hulk or Lord of the Rings. But such a concept is an elusive one, apparently, and Toho seems to rather stick with what works (even on the most basic level) than take any huge risks (which is one reason why Kaneko did not return for any subsequent Godzilla films).
Thus we are brought to the topic of Suitmation. A long-standing practice, there’s little argument that it is an effective tool for filmakers. Guillermo del Toro has proven that over and over again with the HELLBOY films and PAN’S LABYRINTH, and for God’s sake, look at GAMERA 3! I find it incredible that an almost 10-year-old film set the bar so high for Japanese suitmation monster flicks that the rest of the industry is STILL struggling to reach that film’s level of technical achievement. I will advocate, however, that CGI is an extremely important tool for filmmakers to utilize, especially if Godzilla is supposed to return in 3 years or so. The all CGI-Godzilla from Toho’s ALWAYS 2 was a tasty crumb tossed at us from the massive and delicious pie of cinematic potential, BUT upon viewing clips from a small-time film on Youtube (LINK), one can clearly see that a rubber suit can still be very effective, if handled properly. If Kaneko were given the proper amount of time needed to bring GMK to its full potential, we would have likely gotten something similar, but with a much more massive budget and eye-exploding visuals.
That was the paramount problem with most of the Millenium series: a simple sense of energy and atmosphere. The fight sequences and scenery of the monsters lacked the dynamics of even the recent Ultraman incarnations and the MIKAZUKI television series. In the wake of TRANSFORMERS, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and the 2005 KING KONG, all of which are explosive computer-animated brain tumors of awesome, it’s very hard to go back and watch GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA and honestly try to gain a sense of excitement beyond the simple fact that it’s the same two characters we’ve known for decades on end, slightly redesigned and beating the hell out of each other-oh wait, they’re doing some sort of weird...fighting/hugging...thing. I’m very thankful that GODZILLA: FINAL WARS at least attempted to ramp up the action, thanks largely to the imaginative work of suit actor Tsutomu Kitagawa, but the silliness and speed of the action turned a lot of fans off. This brings me to yet another point: fandom. Toho may have a lot of flaws, like any company, but neglecting the fans is not among them. Toho does have an admirable quality of insuring that Godzilla is treated with the utmost respect, as they seem to have their finger on at least some faint pulse near the fandom’s foot or something. However, trying too hard to impress a collective of like-minded people leads to the incredibly destructive problem of stagnation; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it...but don’t improve it, either. Just keep it the same and nobody will complain (or as little as the average fan can manage without going insane). BUT, and I’m loath to admit this, but the general and casual public needs to be “let in,” so to speak. The franchise has become SO enamored with “fans first” that the general public, and by extension a larger audience, has been viciously shut out. Yet if CLOVERFIELD proved anything, it’s that the non-kaiju-fan public has a huge say in what constitutes a successful film, and any major franchise film should be approached with the idea of really drawing people in with something genuinely exciting to everyone, not just the same fans repeated ad nauseam.
The Showa series (the bar which the entire rest of the franchise is measured against) is a strange mix of honest artistry and retro-riffic wackiness, whereas the Heisei series was a massive, balls-to-the-wall step up in technical prowess and divide in cinematography when compared to the low-tech Showa days. True, the Heisei saga runs together after awhile for its manly sort of swagger and the seriousness it takes itself, but it never outstays its welcome because it’s such a leap in aesthetic from the Showa days. The Millenium series (GMK and FINAL WARS notwithstanding) runs together but with a “boring realism” sort of way, rather than the Heisei saga’s “explosive action film” approach to life. But enough fanwanking over that shallow-but-completely-BADASS septuplogy (is that even a word?) and back to the matter at hand.
We have the problem; the Godzilla series has stagnated. What’s the solution? Well, if Toho stays the course and rushes out another lackluster “revival film,” the series will fall flat on its face again and we’ll not see another Gojira flick for decades. The proper and profitable solution is, firstly, to take TIME with a new Godzilla film. Really put a huge amount of money, effort and promotion into it. Tout it as a true “next generation,” rather than the “return to form” that is so often thrown in our face with hopes at placating a rabid fanbase with tired homages and recycled material. Japanese films are not known for having big budgets but just look at what CAN be done (Gamera, AGAIN, not to mention low-budget films like CLOVERFIELD) with a modest budget. It’s about effort, more than anything.
But what should the new film be about? I think it needs to go one of two ways: either something cool, flashy and new, with all sorts of bells and whistles, like THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. And something original, for the love of Primus, not Mothra, Ghidorah and MechaGodzilla again. If TOKYO S.O.S. taught us anything, it’s that audiences are tired of the same monsters and same scenarios over and over again. What about the Crystal Incursion from GODZILLA: UNLEASHED? True, not a perfect game and the story mode is fractured to say the least, but the concept is a cool and refreshing one. And Krystalak, despite a frequent victim of the usual fan-reaction “Oh God something that isn’t a redesigned Battra!” is a unique foe that would be perfect, and throw Obsidius in for good measure. The revived Gotengo could provide human-level drama, bring in Space Godzilla as a pseudo-sequel to the Heisei series and you’re golden!
The other possibility? Remake GOJIRA. The Back-to-Showa kick is major in Japan right now, and the possibilities were touched on in ALWAYS 2, and if teamed with a major US production company, it could be the sort of “Godzilla means something” film that fans have been wanting and needing desperately since GODZILLA 1985. Heck...take a damn risk and let an American studio make the darn thing! I really don’t think GINO will happen again, honestly, as that film alone stands as a huge warning beacon to all of Hollywood as “How NOT to revive a franchise.” There are tons of directors and scriptwriters out there who are just ITCHING to take their own crack at Godzilla...why not let them?
Well, this may all just be pointless, desperate wailing from a frustrated fan who thinks he’s enlightened or something, but it’s still a valid point if Toho wants their flagship series to be profitable again. So, Mr. Toho Representative, if you could kindly take these ideas, feel free to remove my name from the credits, and present it to the big guys upstairs in the head office building, maybe they’d stop trying to sue sandwich companies over completely legal parodies and make something out of this series. Oh, and GO GET KANEKO BACK. At least he knows what he’s doing.
Alright, that’s that then. I suppose it’s more of a “State of Godzilla” address than of the genre, but everyone knows how it’s doing, more or less. CLOVERFIELD incited an honest resurgence of interest in giant monsters, Ultraman is actually healthier than initially noted (despite it never, EVER will be relevant in the United States), and life really isn’t so bad, once you stop complaining and look at all the beautiful women around you...sorry, where was I? Oh yes. Go forth my fellow fans. Go forth and...write letter to Toho? Just consider the possibilities, I suppose. At least we have MONSTERPOCALYPSE to tide us over ;)

Matt like Hulk

2008-06-14T11:02:00.003-05:00

I honestly considered writing this review in "Hulk speak," but upon my first effort I realized that Hulk may not be so much simple and childlike due to mutated brain cells as he was likely MADE stupid by trying so hard to constantly refer to himself in third person...so let's just stick with regular text, shall we?
Sometime around mid-afternoon on Friday I received a text message from my hotly opinionated friend Max stating that THE INCREDIBLE HULK is, like the protagonist Bruce Banner, underdeveloped, uninteresting and a slew of other mean words basically summing up "disappointing" at the end of his capsule review.
I've always valued this particular friend's opinion, so he had validity to his argument. However, if my college years have taught me anything, it's that you NEVER take another person's opinion as your own; you'd best find out for yourself.

At the Alamo Drafthouse, my 10+ friends and I (who unfortunately couldn't all sit together) settled in for the film. In the midst of the Bill Bixby INCREDIBLE HULK projected on the screen, a game of "Smash the Hulk" (where young audience members attack a candy-filled Hulk), and "Gamma Green Sundaes," we weren't all sure if it would in any way stack up to last month's IRON MAN, but we definitely knew that giant mutated fists were going to fly and some serious shit was about to go down.

A little more than two hours later, we had found ourselves reeling from the experience. I'll never take the "opening night theatrical experience" for granted, as there's practically nothing that compares to it, ESPECIALLY at the Alamo Drafthouse. But anyway, on to the film!

...But what hasn't already been said? "It evokes the themes of the original televised series," "Extreme action and awesome special effects," "one-dimensional but otherwise basically effective characters," "plenty of Marvel fan easter eggs to boil up and nibble on," etc. etc. etc. That's the thing about writing reviews when you're not a review-writer: the most obvious facts that people actively care about have been stated, repeated and regurgitated. The only way that my review will be of any use to anyone is to strive to make points seldom or rarely made, based on my own modestly correct opinion.

First and foremost is the editing. Why make a fuss about that? Because a lot of otherwise excellent films *coughjackson'skongcough* are marred by otherwise atrocious editing, mostly because filmmakers seem to be bound by blood-oaths of making audiences sit through "character development" whether it's necessary or not. Sometimes character development can be a truly excellent thing, other times it's tacked on and does little more than pointlessly delay the actively enjoyable parts of the film. THE INCREDIBLE HULK absolutely tosses out any notion of active character development in favor of dramatic excitement. At first glance, that last sentence is a horrific cancerous growth on the backside of cinema, BUT not in the case of the Hulk. The characters of Bruce Banner, Betty Ross, Thunderbolt and Emile Blonsky are all nearly devoid of the standard character introductions or development, but they really, REALLY don't need it. The characters do what they need to do and their motivations are laid out just enough for us to know what's what. The only character that some may argue could have used more background is Blonsky, who becomes the punishingly awesome Abomination, BUT the fact that we're unfamiliar with the power-hungry little troll of a man puts the audience on guard (to paraphrase the IGn review...see what I mean?) and makes him a more unsettling villain. Betty Ross is portrayed strikingly different from what I expected, actively putting herself in harm's way for Bruce's sake to an original and refreshing extent. Thunderbolt Ross, her warmongering father (a fact that is interestingly kept out of the equation until an excellently dramatic moment) isn't the morally ambiguous weirdo of the Ang Lee flick (which I enjoyed aspects of) but a man who likes to think he has everything under control, even though the world is, quite literally, blowing up in his face.
Finally, Dr. Banner is the man on the run. Norton gets the point across and he does it well. He's not particularly strong or snarky, but he's resourceful and brilliant.

Before I get to the REAL meat of the film, I'd like to mention that it all feels very "refreshing." You generally know what's going to happen, but everything is handled so refreshingly and originally that it's hard to see what little tidbit of clever writing will be tossed at you next. From Banner's Brazilian escapades to his relationship with Betty, anything that could have been tiresomely retroactive has been thankfully side-stepped and trimmed to bypass any unnecessary fluff (more credit to the film's editing).

Finally, THE MONSTERS. Hulk and the Abomination are great fun, and the special effects themselves a sumptuous visual feast, BUT only occasionally slipping into the "CGI overload" territory so often slapped into the faces of moviegoers. Hulk looks great, there's no question about that, but he looks like he's really stepped out of the pages of a lavishly illustrated comic, and doesn't seem to occupy the same space of reality as the real actors (and he doesn't look a damn thing like Edward Norton). Still, the filmmakers were clearly going for spectacle over realism, so even though we know it's not really happening, we sure are having fun watching it.
Another thing that the Ang Lee Hulk was sorely lacking was the beastial ferocity that makes Hulk so "incredible." This Hulk roars to the sky with a foot firmly planted on a fallen nemesis, challenging the world at large for supremacy. It's this "Roaring Hulk" that I've so longed for and wanted to see for years and years now, and it's positively glorious.

As good as IRON-MAN? Probably not, but it's certainly in the top-5 superhero flicks of all time, definitely alongside IRON-MAN and SPIDERMAN 2 as one of the best Marvel films. Now we wait for the inevitable sequels and the rest of the AVENGERS films, and hopefully we'll see the the Hulk tackle the Leader and his army of plastic androids soon enough ;)

Monster motivators

2008-05-22T02:19:00.005-05:00

It's a quickly aging internet quirk, but I thought I'd have some fun like some other bloggers.

King Kong 2005 - A look back

2008-05-13T01:05:00.007-05:00

It's 2008, and 75 years ago (circa a few months back), King Kong premiered to captivate audiences in a way never before imagined.
Now I look at my personal favorite film, Peter Jackson's King Kong, almost 3 years after its release in theaters in 2005. It's an odd feeling, watching a film for the first time, watching it for maybe a few more times, getting it for your own collection, then let it collect dust for awhile before you crack it open once more and throw it into your dvd player (or in my case, catch it by accident on TNT).

The result is a rather perplexing experience, especially for me and Kong. I recall 2005 with great fondness, and being absolutely enamoured with the film and everything to do with it, not to mention my respect for the classic Kong (to that point little more than "Godzilla's inspiration" on a sticky note tacked to the film in my cerebral library) grew immensely. Upon viewing it, I was assaulted by an emotional experience for a giant beast that I hadn't felt since perhaps Godzilla's nuclear heart exploded from his body in 1995. For the next year or so I fervently venerated the film, calling it (not so silently) one of, if not THE best film I had ever seen. In fact I took to viciously defending it in case I met some fuddy-duddy who found it undesirable. I motioned that anyone who disliked Kong '05 had a heart made of melted shards of glass and a soul more dry and putrid than an old onion husk (much like detractors of GMK). In retrospect...and I'm quite loath to admit it, but King Kong 2005 isn't what I wanted to believe it is. Now don't concern yourself, dear reader, Kong 2005 is still my favorite film of all time, but for a plethora of reasons. All my repeat viewings have done are to give me a more rounded perspective of the film and where others come from when they express distaste for it (despite it being one of Universal's most profitable home-video sales of all time).
I'll get my undying love of the film out of the way first, so you cynical bastards can just skim over this part. The relationship between Kong and Ann is nothing short of cinematic and narrative genius, and I will slap anyone across the face who argues otherwise. The sheer, unspoken beauty of this onscreen drama cannot be evoked more beautifully or sublimely. Kong, played masterfully by Andy Serkis, wasn't just a computer-animated piece of nothing like Ang Lee's Hulk or, God Forbid, Roland Emmerich's "Zilla." Serkis was on the set for all of Kong and Ann's scenes, and he acted against and with her for all the interaction. There's REAL acting going on there, not just soulless green-screen. Not to be outdone, Ann, played by Naomi Watts, is a remarkable beauty who, like in the words of Fay Wray herself, held "Ann Darrow in good hands" (no pun intended). Naomi has such onscreen presence and is such a powerful actress that she was robbed an Oscar nomination...oh wait, nevermind, since the Oscars is a big fat idiotic scam anyway, there I said it.
And God Dammit, JACK BLACK. You sunnavabitch. Okay, granted, all the actors maintain a level between competent and excellent acting, but Jack Black just plain steals the show. He's so damn fun and interesting as this new take on Carl Denham that, rather than attempt to channel Jack Armstrong's original character, he forges his own cross between his own persona and Orson Wells.
That said, let's talk DINOSAURS and other horrific beasties on this island. Yes, okay, it's all very excessive. There's more critters on this island that should even be legal, but I just can't help but adore the design team for coming up with them all! Granted, there are many creatures from the production that I would have preferred to see over the "Wetasaurus," but the sheer spectacle that these dinosaurs embody, the ornamentation on the heart and soul that is the love story, simply cannot be beaten. The V-Rex's themselves are stars in their own right, the big, violent lot of them. The Piranhadon swamp monster and rampaging Ferrucutus (triceratops thing) from the extended edition THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THEATRICAL are two of my favorite creatures as well.

Well, I could go on, but I've detailed Jackson's more genius decisions in the past, especially the musical numbers in NYC at the start and end of the film, as well as some truly sublime storytelling aspects, but let's get to what I'm finally willing to agree is not so great.

First and foremost, the film is too damn long. Yes, this is an argument repeated many times, but I've finally come to truly accept it. Peter, I love you man, but get a damn editor. If you love the spectacle of the film so huggy-muggy-much (line blatantly stolen from Yahtzee), why replace that with some psuedo-man-boy story that goes absolutely nowhere? You're gonna' look me in the eye and say that you were willing to replace a big hungry piranha/sea-serpent/thingy with some bullshit about "It's not about being brave, Jimmy"? I did like Hays as part of the "Driscoll Trio" of characters inspired by the original Jack Driscoll (said burly black man, heroic writer and shallow movie-star), but everything, and I mean absolutely EVERYTHING with Jimmy and interactions with Hays feels completely unnecessary...tacked-on at best. There was supposed to be some sort of "young man learns about life" going on here, but after Hays dies, Jimmy seems to literally become dead weight or a walking hazard. There's probably a good hour of exposition that could be cut from the film, and it would be SO much tighter and more enjoyable without losing the spectacle or the real drama. I'll make a list:
1. All Jimmy/Hays crap.
2. A LOT of the scenes that drag on and on could be trimmed down immensely.
3. About half of the whole sea-voyage bull.

Something else that has finally started bothering me is the general logic that pervades several parts of the film. Yes, okay, my belief is already suspended what with the whole giant ape/way too many dinosaurs for that tiny island to sustain, but seriously, can we have a little dignity? The Brontosaurus stampede is almost universally regarded as one of the poorer spfx in the film, and I'm inclined to agree, with the exception of some truly breathtaking shots in that sequence...but raptors? C'mon, Peter. We've SEEN raptors. Why not Carnotaurs, like your first idea? Or how about those four-legged wolf-raptor things from the beautiful concept art book? THOSE would be AWESOME. Anyway, it's just how strangely fake and removed everyone is in this scene that throws me, not to mention in the Ferrucutus scene, where the SPFX guys seem to be too aware of how to work a creature AROUND the actor.
It's natural that a piece set in the 1930's will be a somewhat awkward transition to a 2005 audience without going the tongue-in-cheek route of The Mummy or Jackson's original script for Kong, but still, the spectacle is hard for some people to swallow when it takes big leaps like "How did they get Kong to New York?" and "Why are they so quick to want to kill Kong?" and "Why do they keep searching for one girl when several of them have already died?" That last bit has to do with pacing, frankly.
Speaking of The Mummy, there were elements of that film that were oddly parallel with Jackson's bizarre but wildly entertaining 1996 script that could have and should have been integrated into the final Kong product. It seemed as though when trying not to be so SERIOUS SERIOUS SERIOUS all the time is when Jackson's films have the most entertaining. Can anyone say they would have enjoyed Lord of the Rings more had they not made Gimli the comedy relief? There's a scene in the extended edition where an platoon commander is harping about a "filthy ape" in an extremely humans-are-best-and-everything-else-has-to-die manner, and then gets barreled by Kong that absolutely SHOULD have been in the final product.

Of course, with all my criticism here tonight, it would be easy to say that my opinion of Kong has lowered, and if you think that then you're a liar and a filthy horrible person, because it has not. King Kong 2005 is still my favorite film of all time, not just because I can take the spectacle and all of the best aspects of the film more to heart than any of the bad pieces that most other people let absolutely annihilate their movie experience (and as such are people who inherently must dislike cinema as a whole). One of the biggest factors is how much absolute LOVE went into this film. Yeah, remember "LOVE"? Yeah, that whole thing that people scoff at nowadays. It's the sort of thing that led to the birth of the Speed Racer film (a joyous and also overly-long experience in my humble, fiery opinion). While watching the video of Peter while he mulls over Fay Wray's death, you don't see a director; you see a man who's just learned that a childhood idol and first crush died before he could give her a last shining moment on film (a cameo at the point of Kong's death). Jackson and his army of nerds have created one big fangasm, and though it doesn't always work, it's still a great and epic cinematic experience, and I'll still defend it with tooth and claw.

Giant Monsters are SCARY again.

2008-01-18T15:41:00.001-06:00

A Cloverfield review, if you will ;)

Monster movies, particularly of the "giant" variety, have had tumultuous tidings over the last few years. Godzilla took his third hiatus back in 2004, and things seemed bleak for daikaiju eiga. Thankfully for fans of this somewhat under-appreciated genre, a small but noticeable wave of creature features have been crawling from the darker corners of film-making imaginations, such as Peter Jackson's epic, exciting, and overly long remake of King Kong, the brief return of Gamera, and two new South Korean films: the critically acclaimed The Host and the flashy-but-brainless Dragon Wars. Finally, trailing on the success of Transformers, Producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves have unleashed the giant monster genre in a way never seen before. A jarring, abrasive, eye-popping spectacle called "Cloverfield."

Thanks to a brilliant marketing campaign primarily consisting of little tidbits and dangling carrots peppered throughout the vast internet realm, to say that this is a monster movie for the "Youtube generation" is a colossal understatement. What's truly spectacular about the film is that it breaks so many conventions of the giant monster genre, while simultaneously re-introducing time-honored traditions and elements to the teenagers of today.

The story is fairly simple, but genius in its delivery. A bunch of upper-class teens and college students from NYC are living their inane grandly insignificant drama-laden lives (part of the charm, since these are just normal shmucks and not scientists or generals), dealing with breakups, crushes, and awkward sex. In the midst of a going-away party for Rob the "hero," and "crazy horrible shit" happens. Manhattan is turned into a mass of nightmares, with horrible surprises lurking around every corner, all while Hud, our nervously comical cameraman, loyally documents the events.

The camera documentation style is absolutely what sets this film apart from any other monster film. While the Blair Witch Project gets points for inventing the concept and for subtle creepiness, Cloverfield puts you smack in the middle of the confusion, excitement and thrill of confronting a truly terrifying living force of nature, and all the chaos it brings with it. The scariest aspect, of course, is that you DON'T know what the damn thing is. It's big and terrible and it doesn't look like anything you've seen before (from a normal shmuck's perspective). You don't know why all this horror is happening, you aren't a scientist or a general, so you're on the periphery, so start RUNNING.
The human characters are, of course, the center of the story. Though Rob's decision to go on his heroic quest to save his one true love feels the most unrealistic of all...however, we can't deny that, without this "hero's quest," there would BE no real story to be involved in...and if your dearest friend called you, crying and scared, you're a horrible person for not going to their aid, and may it haunt you for the rest of your life.
Acting in general was very good. A few lines felt forced or odd attempts at sounding "hip" or "cool" but these few instances aside the dialogue was very natural and fluid. Each character was also built well enough for the one and a half hour of footage (which, by the way, is all the power the camera had. Those who criticize the camera for being "on" for 10 hours need to remember that Hud was constantly turning it on and off). Rob was a stoic leaderly character, though obsessive in his goals. Hud was disheveled and cracks wise excellently, Lilly was a supportive sisterly character, and Marlena, the sad little introvert, thankfully stayed the sad little introvert.
What's also really interesting about the movie is that no character is truly "sacred." Unlike many of its kind, Cloverfield doesn't coddle its lead teens, at least not excessively. No one is truly safe.

Okay, enough of that crap. What about the question on everyone's lips? What does the monster look like? Well, finding a little time, I worked up a really quick sketch of the beastie:

(UPDATE: I removed the old picture with something a little more updated, more accurate...I'm still a little unsure about the legs, though)
(I'm working on a more detailed pic for G-Fan magazine)

You'll need to make notes of that, because even when you get an eyeful of the big bad antagonist, it's hard to make out what's-what. The beast, designed by the masterful Neville Page, has a very unique anatomy (despite looking somewhat superficially like "Orga" from Godzilla 2000), and on top of that, moves with an awkward grace of a monster not used to walking on land. It doesn't march proudly down city streets like the mighty Godzilla, rather it shambled and crawls, "scampers," if you will, because it's really not sure how it should be moving. "Clover," is an odd mix of characterizations. When it arrives, and if you take time to dissect the events, it's really not being aggressive. It's confused and surprised by humans in general (if you check the various sites, it's never seen humans before, living underwater for thousands of years), and attacks the Statue of Liberty. It isn't until the combination of the military enraging it and the nasty mutant Parasites living on it running off and raising hell that the shit really hits the fan. Now the monster's pissed and annihilating the military where it can find them. It really is kaiju-level of invincibility, which, handled in such a refreshing way, adds to the monster's level of fearsomeness.
The scrambling, horrible parasites that act as yet another threat are a welcomed addition, if a bit superfluous, or even completely unnecessary, but then again, the impact of the film wouldn't be nearly as strong as it is. Taking cues from Starship Troopers and Godzilla 1985, these buggers create a whole new level of chaos to the camera work that emphasizes the quick, deadly nature of what's going on. Horrifying stuff.

No score for the film, with the exception of the wild, monstrously powerful "Roar!" overture theme during the end credits, written by Michael Giacchino, evokes the best of Akira Ifukube and other 50's and 60's monster movie themes. This needs to be online, available for download NOW.

A few friends who had to sit back a few rows (yes, we were unnervingly close to the screen) said they could hear me shouting at the screen various obscenities, depending on what was a-happenin'. Cloverfield had indeed heralded a new era of kaiju eiga, now placed alongside the greats of Monster Movie History. King Kong, Gojira, Them, Gamera 3, Aliens, and The Host had best make way for this sucker. Now if Abrams can only resist making a sub-par sequel, we'll be all set for a Godzilla revival soon enough :D

MATT'S WORKING, HOLY HELL.

2007-10-14T21:38:00.001-05:00

Well, it's about mid-October. Yay.

Between my classes and social obligations/a glorious girlfriend :D I've found time to continue working.

As such, here's some projects I'm working on:

Unleash the Beast Warriors!

2007-08-07T13:19:00.002-05:00

WAHOOOO! I gots me another job!

In addition to RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS: BACK TO MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, I'll also be providing some character art for IDW'S BEAST WARS SOURCEBOOK, issues 3 and 4.

Here's some art!

Matt's Top 10 Movies

2007-05-10T14:22:00.001-05:00

I decided to take a little time to update my list of "Top 10 Favorite Movies," just for the sheer hell of it. I've taken the last year or so to come to some finer conclusions regarding my favorite movies, and have added a few to the list ;)

You'll also note that I have not included ANY Godzilla or straight-foreward Kaiju flicks in this list, simply because they are in an altogether seperate category in my mind, and that way I can include movies that aren't just about screaming Japanese and rubber-suited stuntmen.

10. 300 (2007) -
Yeah, yeah yeah, "It's too simplistic," and "it's all machismo bullshit," but there's a consensus out there that agrees that 300 is possibly the most BADASS comic-book film out there, and certainly the most visually compelling. Ready-made movie lines and a wonderfully tasteful sex sequence make this one for the ages.

9. THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE (2000) -
Easily one of, if not the best animated comedy of all time, it's just the sort of quirky flick with some of the best characters in Disney history. Even though it's fallen victum to the "Sleeper Sequel Syndrome" (an unexpected hit has a bunch of random follow-ups/sequels made), it really holds up well. Kronk is a timelessly hilarious character.

8. THE LAST SAMURAI (2003) -
During the "Asian Invasion" of the early 2000's, this little doozy starring the now-despised Tom Cruise tore up the big screen in this somewhat Dances With Wolves-inspired period piece. I personally have a great deal of affinity for the samurai code, and while I don't particuarly agree with it, I can admire the dedication that such individuals had to a single ideal. The sheer amount of detail and emotion that went into this film is something everyone can appreciate, I believe, and Cruise really does do a bang-up job, regardless of everyone's opinion of him. As well, the film introduces us to Ken Watanabe, a FANTASTIC actor who just plain steals the show. Each character also represent wonderful archetypes that are familiar to both sides of the Pacific, but are endearing nonetheless.

7. DRAGONHEART (1996) -
A rare gem of a flick if there ever was one, Dragonheart is an exciting story in the form of a "buddy picture," between Bowen (Dennis Quaid) and Draco (Sean Connery). Building off of the FX of Jurassic Park, Dragonheart features one of, if not the absolute first totally CGI film character (with a few props here and there), and even in 1996, the effect is most impressive. While Quaid's acting ability could be called into question, Connery's vocal role as a quirky and charming dragon is just plain fantastic. The story and setting in medieval Europe are very well done, the characters are memorable, and overall it's a unique film with a lot of heart (no pun intended).

6. TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (1986) -
Being incredibly disjointed and full of weird plot holes doesn't stop this from being one of the most entertaining animated films ever made. I mean, sure it's little more than an hour-and-a-half commercial for new toys, but the excellent animation and wildly awesome "geekgasm" moments (from Shakespeare references to friggin' LEONARD NEMOY) solidify this on my Top 10.

5. ACE VENTURA (1994) -
Basically my favorite comedy of all time, and more of an influence on my personal attitude towards life than most adult role-models.
I can quote the movie line-for-line. 'Nuff said.

4. JURASSIC PARK (1993) -
Being a big dinosaur fan since my very early youth, I have learned a newfound appreciation for these beasts which flood our minds. Jurassic Park was such a film that brought the former lords of the Earth to a new light, and out of the campy, useless view that the mainstream public had taken them in for so long. Featuring ground-breaking SPFX and great characters with fluid storytelling and a solid message behind it, there’s little to fault Jurassic Park. As well, it features the undisputed king of movie dinosaurs, the Jurassic Park T-Rex (and NUTS to Spinosaurus or any other upstart Theropoda).

3. SPIDER-MAN (and Trilogy, 2002-2007) -
If there was a film that made me into a REAL comic book fan (and eventually an artist for said industry), the first Spider-Man would have to be it. Of course, the original also stands for the subsequent two films. The first was a nearly perfect "comic book film," the second was an excellent mix of mainstream drama and comic mentality, and the third, while a mess of good and bad, maintained many of the same moments that brought back at least some of the excitement of the first two. The original, however, stands out most in my mind for keeping the wise-cracking, smartass Spider-Man, but keeping a dorky and shy Peter Parker.

2. PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) -
My personal favorite of Miyazaki’s films, being the first that I had seen, Princess Mononoke blew me away in my freshman year of high school. The characters of Ashitaka, San, Lady Eboshi and Jigo were all just dynamite, and the spectacular animation flew through my heart and mind. What really struck me was also the strong message against humankind’s arrogance, something that I take to heart very seriously.

1. KING KONG (2005) -
I never thought I would claim anything but a Godzilla movie as my favorite all-time flick, but I’ve made an exception for a movie of the caliber of brilliance that is Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Personally, while I do love the original, I never had the sheer devotion to it that many do. However, Kong ‘05 is on such a level that it begs for the place in my heart as my favorite movie. Sure, the battles and SPFX are all incredible, and the whimsical escapism that it embodies is wonderful, but it’s the development of such a fantastic love story that speaks to me as a human being on a level that can hardly be described in words.

I've got plenty of "honorable mentions" which are essentially in my Top 20 and Top-whatever lists:
- The SpiderMan trilogy
- Batman Begins
- LOTR
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
- Crash
- One Million Years B.C.
The list goes on for awhile, so let's leave it at that, shall we? ;)

Godzilla Neo FAQ

2007-02-01T01:00:00.016-06:00

What is "Godzilla Neo"?

G Neo, as I like to call it, is an unofficial, unlicensed, unapproved fan-project created by myself, Matt Frank, for the sheer, awesome hell of it. In a nutshell, the idea was born out of a desire to take the entirety of the Toho Godzilla universe and create a cohesive continuity out of it, not to mention redesign and re-imagine the characters of the universe. As stated, this project is in no way connected to or sanctioned by Toho Co. Ltd, and it is likely far beneath their notice.

Okay, so what exactly IS Neo?
Each Neo redesign takes a classic Toho character, breaks it down into what made him or her special or unique in the first place, then builds from there, while still clinging to the roots of the word "kaiju." Beyond the series of art, each piece comes with a short biography on the monsters, also lending to the overarching Godzilla Neo timeline (see below), which serves to unify and "clean up" the Tohoverse. While I'm not tackling every single one of the Toho characters, I have mixed in some of the "unmade" monsters as well as a handful from other Godzilla and Toho universes (like Zone Fighter and the Hanna Barbera series).
Originally, my mission statement included "ousting all that is cheesy or unappealing," and it took over a year to realize that such a mindset is a weak pretense. What made kaiju of the classic era so endearing and appealing was, in fact, their "cheesiness," so to deny that is to deny their handmade charm. So I should say, instead, that I'm going for "what they could do without a rubber suit," but not necessarily CGI or anything. A re-imagining with the original's spirit (more or less) may be the way to think on it.

How are the various Godzillas portrayed?
Godzilla Neo moves with "a lumbering grace, proudly holding his head high and gracefully swinging his tail (not slapping it around unless necessary)." Think of a combination of the JP T-Rex or Spinosaurus crossed with the GMK Godzilla.

As for the differences between the Godzillas, the first is VERY violent and aggressive. He's clearly confused and in pain, but still moves in a sinister fashion like GMK Goji. The Showa Goji fights pretty animalistically/borderline anthromorphically on through the Heisei series, and when Junior becomes the third Godzilla, he fights like his father. The GMK-style G Neo is much like the original...since he IS the original. G Unleashed Neo Goji will be Junior once more. It's a little complicated...I may make an FAQ soon. Final Wars Goji Neo will be, again, like the original/GMK version. There's another Godzilla, but I'll reveal that later :D

Where can I find the Neo monsters?
kaijusamurai.deviantart.com

Are human characters as important as the kaiju?

Yes. The kaiju and humans should have equal levels of character development.

Where are my favorite monsters?

I'm going in a semi-chronological order when it comes to my updates, so, for example, Zone Fighter gets updated before Mecha King Ghidorah.

How often is Neo updated?

I try to update once every Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and it'll either be a monster, a race or a locale.

What is the timeline?

65 MILLION YEARS AGO -
KING GHIDORAH invades Earth, begins changing the climate and destroying all life. The Earth creates GIGAMOTH to counter Ghidorah. Ghidorah is driven from Earth but not before separating Gigamoth into MOTHRA and BATTRA.

The GOJIRASAURUS MAXIMUS clan survives the great extinction.

SEVERAL YEARS LATER -
The Millenians arrive on Earth. They create the MEGANURA swarm. The resulting war against the Rodans forces the aliens into mass genetic memory hibernation.

78,000 YEARS AGO -
The Elias, a race of tiny humanoids, arrive on Earth. Creating "GIGAMASS," they intended to alter Earth's environment to suite their needs. BATTRA seeks to destroy them, but is stopped by MOTHRA. The Elias are all but destroyed, and Gigamass locked away deep beneath the Earth. Mothra takes Moll and Lora under her wing as her priestesses.

11,000 YEARS AGO -
OROCHI first appears, fights IKUSAGAMI and is defeated. From the 8 heads are born VARAN, MANDA, BARAGON, SHIIGAN, BARUKARUDON, VAGNOSAURUS, JYARUMU and BALKZARDAN. The battle gives rise to the legend of Susano-Oh's defeat of Yamato no Orochi.

10,500 YEARS AGO -
The Spawn of Orochi return, each one defeated or subdued in a particular way before they can kill/absorb each other to the point of regenerating Orochi himself.

10,000 YEARS AGO -
The great battle between AXOR and the mind-controlled BALKZARDAN and JYARUMU against MOTHRA, MANDA and the birth of KING CAESAR.
The Sinking of Mu; survivors flee to Asia, South America, Egypt and eventually Seatopia.

3,000 YEARS AGO -
Theorized date of the society that worshipped the kaiju KING KONG, ANGUIRUS, KUMONGA and GOROSAURUS, each created by the radiation of the Slab.

500 YEARS AGO -
The legend of GOJIRA begins on Odo Island.

JULY 14TH, 1945 -
The first atomic bomb test.

1954:
GODZILLA I appears on Odo Island. After JSDF attacks it with depth charges, Godzilla retaliates and destroys most of Tokyo. Later, the creature is killed by the Oxygen Destroyer compound. The creature's skeleton is gradually salvaged and taken to a base in Tokyo (over the next several decades).

1955:
GODZILLA II appears, fights ANGUIRUS in Osaka. Godzilla wins, Anguirus comatose in Osaka River. Later, Godzilla is buried in an ice berg by fighter pilots, but is later dug out by Anguirus.

1956:
RODAN I and II appear along with first wave of MEGANURON swarm. Both Rodans are killed in the eruption of Mt. Aso. Meganuron swarm scattered. RODAN III (offspring) survived.

1960:
First expedition to Infant Island, first encounter with the Shobijin. Both girls are kidnapped by Clark Nelson, but later rescued by Prof. Shinichi Chujo. MOTHRA appears, marches across Japan, cocooning itself at Tokyo Tower, where she emerges as an imago. Flies to Rolisica, where she retrieves the Shobijin.

1961:
FRANKENSTEIN officially found and cared for, until his escape and eventual fight against the DEUTALIOS.

GAIRA and SANDA are born from Frankenstein's scattered cells, and eventually fight.

1962:
Godzilla freed from the ice by ANGUIRUS and fights a recently discovered KING KONG (after the latter fights GOROSAURUS). Kong beats Godzilla, seemingly at the cost of his own life.

The GOTENGO is developed.

1964:
Mothra's egg washes ashore in Southern Japan, and Happy Enterprises buys and puts the egg on display.
GODZILLA II finally re-appears, combats Mothra and the Larvae twins. Godzilla is defeated and driven into the sea, and the larvae return to Infant Island.

1965:
The first contact with the Xillians. Astronauts Glen and Fuji make trip to Planet X, where the natives suggest a compromise to remove Godzilla and Rodan from Earth to protect from future raids by a mysterious monster. In return, the "Miracle Drug" was given to Earth...though it all turned out to be a hoax, even though no one listened to Princess Salno when she appeared in Japan, claiming to be of the planet Venus. Using mind-control waves, GODZILLA and RODAN are turned loose on Earth. Thanks to the Lady Guard tech and the aid of Miss Namikawa they are freed, but begin to fight one another, until the intervention of the larvae twins.
KING GHIDORAH appears, the Xillians only barely influencing the space monster.
The Earth kaiju band together to KILL the space monster, and the Xillians are defeated by the Gotengo.

What they were all unaware of was Ghidorah's contingency plan...

1966:
The EARTH DEFENSE FORCE is established.
Godzilla reportedly destroys a Red Bamboo base on Letchi Island. First appearance of EBIRAH.

1970:
First reports of the YOG phenomenon and GEZORA, as well as GODZUKI.

1971:
HEDORAH appears, battles Godzilla to a standstill, until the creature is dehydrated by the JSDF and killed by Godzilla.

1972:
Nebulan invasion, alliance formed with Seatopia to conquer the surface. GIGAN and MEGALON appear, battled with GODZILLA and ANGUIRUS at World Children's Land. JET JAGUAR defeats Nebulan forces at the Godzilla Tower, and gives Godzilla the time he needed to send Gigan packing.

1974:
Simeon invasion, first wave. MECHA-GODZILLA and GODZILLA do battle, Godzilla is defeated. Later, KING CAESAR awakens and aids Godzilla against MECHA-GODZILLA. MG defeated.

1975:
MECHA-GODZILLA re-appears with Simeon second wave. TITANOSAURUS and MG fight GODZILLA and KING CAESAR. Simeon forces largely defeated.

1976: Godzilla disappears from the map. Multiple sightings in the south seas, however, attest to the creature's presence.

1984 -
GODZILLA II rises from hibernation due to an erupting volcano. After attacking a nuclear sub and feeding off its power, Godzilla is attacked by a group of Soviet and US subs. He attacks Japan, and fights the GOTENGO, later dropped into Mt. Mihara.

1991 -
Godzilla reemerges, BIOLLANTE is born. Godzilla fights Biollante and the Gotengo and is infected by the ANEB.

1992 -
BATTRA's egg is discovered, hatches en-route to Japan. Battra and MOTHRA do battle, then fight Godzilla. Battra is killed.

1993 -
GODZILLA JUNIOR is born on Solgell Island. The Gimantids, KAMACURAS and KUMONGA are discovered.

1994 -
An alien crystal anomaly appears on Birth Island, captures and takes Junior to Fukuoka. Uses Junior's DNA to become SPACE GODZILLA. SG fights Godzilla and MOGUERA. M is destroyed, Godzilla defeats Space G.

1995 -
Godzilla becomes BURNING GODZILLA. DESTOROYAH is born. They fight, and the JSDF helps defeat Destoroyah.
Godzilla goes into Meltdown.
Junior mutates into GODZILLA III.

1996 -
PROJECT DT, PROJECT MG and PROJECT Y and put into effect.

MOTHRA fights GARUGARU (aka "Death Ghidorah") in Hokkaido, and is defeated. Mothra Larvae pupates, drawing energy from the Tree of Life, and metamorphosizes, defeating GARUGARU.
"Gigamass" is first discovered.

1997 -
DAGAHRA appears and attacks several island towns in southern Japan. MOTHRA intervenes, but is badly beaten, until a small piece of sentient Gigamass, called "GHOGO" uses its power to revive her and Dagahra is beaten by both Mothra and BATTRA.

1998 -
ZILLA appears in New York City, and subsequently killed by the Air Force. Later, "Zilla Jr." is found by Nick Tatopolous, and without G-Force's knowledge, raises the creature.

1999 -
Mothra and Battra battle the final piece of Gigamass, RAZIN.

Monster Island is officially unveiled to the world.

The Millenian UFO is discovered and is energized by solar power. Seeking out GODZILLA III, they fight.
Later they rematch in Shinjuku and ORGA is born, then beaten by Godzilla.

Zilla disappears from Tatopolous's HQ for several months, supposedly killed by the Army.

2000 -
ZILLA is discovered and nearly killed.
HEAT heads for Jamaica, and discover C-REX. Zilla reappears and destroys C-Rex. The team then heads for deep Central America, where they find EL GUSANO. Gusano is defeated by Zilla and captured by G-Force.
Finally, HEAT heads for Alaska and finds KOMODITHRAX. The two stay in isolation under HEAT's protection. KAMOEBAS appears and fights the two. Komodithrax, the eggs, and Kamoebas presumed destroyed. zilla fight GODZILLA, is defeated.

Zilla is taken to Monster Island.

2001 -
Project DT is finalized. The first experiment brings back the MEGANURA swarm.
Shibuya is flooded, and the Meganura steal Godzilla's energy to feed to MEGAGUIRUS. Megaguirus appears, fights Godzilla and Rodan in Tokyo.

2002 -
Godzilla is infected by the Project Yoshiwara serum.
The Dianii aliens appeared, chasing BAGORAH to Earth. Godzilla, Bagorah and the Dianii fight. Godzilla wins.

The SCALE attack on Monster Island takes place - MEGAGUIRUS revealed to be held on the island, kills EBIRAH during the battle. ZILLA destroys Megaguirus.

2003 -
KIRYU officially unveiled. Goes berserk after meeting Godzilla.
The Shobijin implore that Godzilla I's bones be returned to the sea. Godzilla appears, looking for Kiryu, but is intercepted by Mothra. Kiryu, Mothra and Godzilla battle.
Godzilla is defeated, but taken back to the sea by a "re-awakened" Kiryu.

2004 -
A new Godzilla (nicknamed "Ghost Godzilla") appears and rampages across Japan (somehow linked to Kiryu and Godzilla III).
The Yamato Guardians, BARAGON, MANDA and VARAN, are awoken and fight Godzilla. Admiral Tachibana destroys him from within, rendering only the heart of Godzilla. The heart is taken to "Area G" in the South Pole for isolation.

2007 -
The Crystal Incursion, and GODZILLA III reappears, and frees Monster Island from the effects of the crystals.
He then fights OBSIDIUS in Seattle, moving on to NYC, where KRYSTALAK appears and fights the monster king. Krystalak's exploding core opens a wormhole, nearly bringing SPACE GODZILLA through, but is beaten back by Godzilla and the Gotengo.

2054 -
OPERATION: FINAL WAR
A young EDF operative, Ozaki Shinichi, is chosen for an experiment to combine human DNA with G-Cells. Meanwhile, all of the monsters on Monster Island disappear and are turned loose on various cities across the planet.

Rodan attacks New York!
Anguirus demolishes Shanghai!
Gorosaurus raids Los Angeles!
Kumonga mangles Moscow!
Kamacuras pulverizes Paris!
Titanosaurus topples London!

It is discovered that the Kilaaks, a race from between Mars and Jupiter, are responsible for the attack. It is later discovered that a strange Xillian, "The Regulator" is pulling the strings.
Godzilla is reborn from the heart frozen under the ice at Area G. The Gotengo leads the monster to Tokyo, where he fights Gigan.
The Gotengo heads for Mt. Fuji, where the monster army is trying to destroy Mothra's cocoon, but King Caesar and Battra arrive to fight them. Megalon appears in Tokyo and stalls Gigan so that Godzilla can go help fight. Megalon knows that Gigan is being controlled by the Regulator, so he self-destructs and takes Gigan with him.
Ozaki fights the Regulator and defeats him, but then the Regulator becomes MONSTER X!
The Monster Army is freed, and Godzilla fights Monster X, defeats him. Monster X is absorbed by the returning King Ghidorah and becomes KAISER GHIDORAH. Monster Army plus Mothra fight Ghidorah, Godzilla defeats him with Ozaki's added G-Cell power.

2056 -
OPERATION: DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - MECHA KING GHIDORAH is revealed to the world by the EARTH UNION.
MKG destroys most of Earth's monsters, then goes AWOL.

2057 -
OPERATION: SUPER GODZILLA
The Garoga appear on Earth and created BAGAN. SUPER GODZILLA is created in retaliation.
Bagan kills Mothra and Battra, but the two then form GIGAMOTH.
Super Godzilla and Gigamoth fight Bagan in Tokyo. With MKG's help, Bagan is destroyed.
Gigamoth "dies," creates a new egg. Super Godzilla goes out to sea with the egg.

What are the main human characters?

Humans will be treated similarly to the kaiju in Godzilla Neo, in other words, they are just as important, so many characters that appeared in one film will appear in numerous events, like Chujo. Others will have their characters combined with others, such as Junko, who is no longer a bungling stereotype but rather much more capable but somewhat under-appreciated. She is not only a major character in Mothra vs. Godzilla Neo but also in the first half of the Monster Zero War (as Princess Salno's confident, if you recall).

By era, here are the main recurring characters (MANY CHARACTERS ARE BEING SUBSTITUTED FOR OTHERS TO REMAIN CONSISTENT):

Showa era (post-Gojira Neo) -

Astronauts Glenn and Fuji, Miss Namikawa, Ichiro Sakai (reporter), Junko (reporter, not as stoopid), Gyozen (Gotengo captain), (Cast of GvsH, worked on by imposterzilla), MORE TO BE ADDED, there's a damn lot :P

There's also the Calico Crew to consider, which consists of Captain Majors, Dr. Quinn, Brock, Pete, and a few new characters for that storyline.

Heisei Era -

Miki Saegusa, the Shobijin, Lt. Kuroki, the Yamane family, Yuki (that crazy SOB), Dr. Shiragami, Kazuma Aoki (hot-shot pilot of MOGUERA, replaces Koji, goes to Solgell Island etc.), (Cast of SoG), KUROKI and the other badass GONDO.

Let's not forget HEAT as well, which includes Nick Tatopolous, Elsie, Randy, Monique, Dr. Craven and NIGEL.

Millenium Era -

Yuji Shinoda, Yuri Tachibana, Yoshito Chujo, his eventual love interest, Akane Yashiro

Will Gamera or King Kong or Ultraman appear in Godzilla Neo?

No. For the sake of a more compact universe, only Toho/Godzilla-related properties and characters will be utilized. Gamera has his own plethora of monsters to contend with and Ultraman has an entire multiverse to manage. I always admired the purity of King Kong in and of its own story, whereas pulling it into Godzilla's domain outside of a light homage would prove a headache.

UPDATE! Obviously I've revoked my "No Kong" policy in favor of something that both gives fans what they want and respects the original. Still no Clover, though.

Who is BALKZARDAN and those other monsters I've never heard of?

Balkzardan, Shiigan, Barugaron, Jyarumu and Vagnosaurus are kaiju from the Godzilla Trading Battle Playstation game. These were original kaiju that were apparently intended for the film series, but have never appeared outside of said game since. Shiigan, Barugaron, Balkzardan, Jyarumu and Vagnosaurus, in Godzilla Neo, are four of the eight Spawn of Orochi, along with Varan, Manda, Baragon.
Razin is now the Final Piece of Gigamass in the Mothra saga.

What is "Gigamass"?

Indicative of the fact that I need a terminology section to this FAQ ;) Seriously, "Gigamass" was a concept invented by imposterzilla, and he has given me permission to use it in the G Neo universe. Gigamass was an organic tech created by the Shobijin's ancestors (the "weather-changing" tech mentioned in Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for Earth). More to be revealed on Gigamass in the fanfics, but it created four beasties: Ghogo, Garugaru, Dagahra and Razin.

What's up with Garugaru?

Garugaru is being combined with Death Ghidorah to make what is essentially a giant fire-breathing Gigamass-dragon. He starts out all cute and small though ^^

Will there ever be a Godzilla Neo comic?

Unlikely. Godzilla Neo works much better as fanfiction/fanart.

What is the new "Kaiju Threat Level"?

It has actually been altered into "Kaiju Classification" that will be universal for the Godzilla Neo story and effective after 1966.

TYPE 1 - "Beast Class"

These guys are survivors. Little more than giant animals, they aren't as strong as the other classes, but no less fierce and dangerous. They focus on survival and generally stay away from humans, unless their appetites or instincts get the better of them.

EXAMPLES: Anguirus, Rodan, Baragon, Varan, Manda, Kumonga, Kamacuras, Zilla...

TYPE 2 - "Warrior Class"

Now we're talkin'! These kaiju are bred to fight. Strong enough to level a whole city, these are the more intelligent, more powerful beasties around (and generally anthrophomorphic at that).

EXAMPLES: Godzilla, Mothra, Battra, Megaguirus, Gigan, Megalon, Krystalak, Monster X, Titanosaurus, Obsidius...

TYPE 3 - "Uber Class"

The Big Guns of the kaiju world. Conquerors and potential Planet Killers. These usually require multiple kaiju to take down. Also known as "God Class."

EXAMPLES: Destoroyah, Space Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Hedorah...

What are the races of Godzilla Neo?

Well, here's a basic rundown:

Humans, Xillian, Elias (the Shobijin), Seatopian, Nebulan, Simeon, Kilaak, Dianii, Watchuka, Millenians and the Garoga.

What's the deal with the Defense Force?

This regards all UN-supported Earthling organizations made to research and counter the rising threats of kaiju and alien forces. Established in 1965, in includes several smaller factions -

The Markalite Squadron - officially put into action around the 1970's, this group pretty much pushed the JSDF out of the picture when dealing with kaiju. Since conventional weaponry has little to no effect on daikaiju, and throwing wave after wave of soldiers at a force of nature is a waste of lives, the Markalite squad is the first wave of defense. Consisting entirely of unmanned maser cannons, tanks, jets and other weaponry, it's all controlled through automated systems and remote-control command stations.

G-Force - The real meat of the JSDF, this is where all kaiju research and countermeasures are focused, particularly emphasized on Godzilla himself. Consisting of several thousand members, G-Force's core is divided into three Sections: Search, Study and Statistics. Search represents finding and locating new monsters, Study (the largest section) researches kaiju as organisms, and Statistics calculates the impact the monsters have on society and the evacuation measures necessary to cope with a kaiju attack. There is also the Defense Force sector, which, through the aid of the JSDF and EDF, develops new and more powerful weaponry to counter Godzilla and his ilk. The first weapon was MOGUERA, and later Kiryu and the Garuda System. After Godzilla II's meltdown in 1995, G-Force was all but liquidated, but with Godzilla III's return in 1999, G-Force was quickly revived.

Earth Defense Force - As mentioned, this is the parent organization to G-Force and the Markalite squad. Created by the United Nations to counter extreme threats to world peace, the EDF has battled all sorts of xenomorphic threats to life on Earth. The literal flagship of the EDF is the Gotengo, the Earth's first true super-weapon. There are three generations of the Gotengo, starting with its first commander, Captain Jinguji, who also claimed to be its creator (for some rather unsavory reasons), but spearheaded the resistance against the Xillians and helped found the EDF. The second was Admiral Gyozen, himself a bitter man, not unlike Jinguji, who harbored a deep-sown hatred for Godzilla, eventually sacrificing himself during the Crystal Incursion. Finally, Captain Gordon took command, a former professional fighter-turned G-Force soldier who, while still an abrasive personality, enjoyed the finer things in life and found Godzilla to be a worthy adversary. To this day the EDF continues to find new and daring ways to defend the planet.

What about Monster Island?

Indeed. Monster Island was intended to be a top-secret research facility to house kaiju and mutations, but that didn't fly. The public quickly learned of Monster Island's existence through the unrelated reports of Sylvester Lyson and Audrey Timmonds. A branch of G-Force was placed in charge of the Island, which intends to house many of the world's monsters in one place for both safety and study. As of 1999, 6 monsters were publicly known to live on the island; Anguirus, Rodan, Titanosaurus, Kumonga, Kamacuras and Zilla. Ogasawara Island provided an ideal habitat, and more info is to follow.

What are the "families" or "factions"?
The monsters in Godzilla Neo are almost all in different groups or sub-groups.

SPAWN OF OROCHI - Varan, Manda, Baragon, Barugaron, Shiigan, Vagnosaurus, Balkzardan, Jyarumu
G-CELL MUTANTS - Godzuki, Biollante, Space Godzilla, Zilla, C-Rex, El Gusano, Komodithrax, Kamoebas
RYUSEI NINGEN ZONE - Zone Fighter, Jirass, Ganimes
DISASTER MONSTERS - King Kong, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Kumonga
MILLENIAN CREATIONS - Rodan, Megaguirus (and family), Orga
FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTERS - Frankenstein, Sanda, Gaira, Deutalios
MAJIN - King Caesar, Axor
CRYSTALLINES - Space Godzilla, Krystalak, Obsidius
G-FORCE - SMG, MOGUERA, Kiryu, Mecha King Ghidorah
YOG - Gezora, Matango
NEBULAN CYBORGS - Gigan, Megalon
GUARDIANS OF EARTH - Mothra, Battra, Gigamoth, Fairy Mothra, Black Kroiga
GIGAMASS BEASTS - Garugaru, Ghogo, Barem, Dagarla, Razin

As you can see, the only monsters not specifically grouped are Ghidorah, Godzilla, Monster X, Ikusagami, Destoroyah, Kamacuras and Ookondoru.

Is there more to come?

You betcha!

Ultimate Transformers

2007-01-08T16:36:00.003-06:00

Let's face it: Transformers continuities are negligible at best, and there basically is NO overarching continuity...merely a few universal aspects for each series.
So, in keeping with the standard "screaming fanboy" nature, I just threw caution to the wind and decided to make my own continuity. GASP, not ANOTHER one!
I don't expect everyone to agree with or even like my choices in this universe, which I've given the working title "Ultimate Transformers," which is not unlike the work of Simon Furman in IDW's current timeline, i.e. it throws out weird continuity errors and tries to tie everything together in a much neater lineage.
I'll be adding/editing this as time goes one, but methinks I'll start with "The Great War." Note that several instances are lifted directly from certain media, such as "Spotlight: Shockwave," the Transformers Animated Movie, and all 3 Beast Wars series (with Beast Machines completely removed...not due to spite, but rather differing notions of Cybertron's origin).
NOTE: The Great War, pre-Unicron Battles, will be referred to as "Generation 1." The Great War, post-Unicron Battles, will be considered "Generation 2." Huzzah for bastardization!

...GOOD LORD I HAVE NO LIFE. (doesn't care)

---------

UNTOLD BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO:
The Gods of Creation rule over various aspects of the universe, their origin unknown but to themselves. Two gods, however, find themselves at odds...and who else but the brothers, Primus and Unicron? The Chaos Bringer seeks to consume all that exists, bringing blackening dischord to the universe, whereas the Lord of Order seeks to prevent this and maintain balance in the cosmos. Thus, their battle raged from the Astral Plane to the Physical Dimension, and eventually, ended at a stalemate. Primus contained himself in a mass of metallic elements, and shut himself down. As a result, Unicron's mental link forced the Dark God to go into hibernation as well.

(Events of the 13 Transformers and the Fallen ensue...to be added later)

AFTER THE FALLEN:
Primus felt shame from the actions of The Fallen, and the Lord of Order decided that a new era must begin. He wiped the memories of the Transformers clean, so that such a one as the Fallen could never be birthed again (yeah, right), as well as remove the temptation of war and violence from his children. Then, he returned to his slumber.
As millenia passed, the Transformers replicated (ala Gen 2), and with each generation, they grew in number and intelligence, and eventually a society grew (as we ALL know). (NOTE: Cybertronians look like a combination of the classic humanoid look and the decidedly alien-looking bots from the 2007 flim. Pics to be posted...SOMEDAY)

QUINTESSA WARS - 1.5 million years BW (Before the War):
Cybertron, as it had come to be called, was growing as a merchant state. Mighty cities were constructed, but it was not prolific enough to truly be considered a powerful state in the galaxy. Nevertheless, it was a glittering prize to the Quintessons, a race of techno-organic beings who sought to occupy and colonize a new world, due to that their home planet having been rendered a dead husk.
The Quintessons moved in on the small world, seeking to turn the Transformers into mere slaves and drones, under a banner of peace and coexistance with promises of prosperity. Such was not to be, as well all know, for somewhere in the newly created ranks of "Autobots" (workers and laborers), the seeds of resistance began anew.
At first, the Quintessons attempted to quell these uprisings with more empty promises, usually resulting in assasinations of lead dissenters, but finally, a young Autobot ventured deep into the core of Cybertron, and was granted, by an ancient robot called ALPHA TRION, a mysterious power source. That Transformer would become known in the halls of memory as SENTINEL PRIME.
Thus, the "Prime" was reborn, as not since the days of the 13 Transformers was a Prime needed again. Everything about Sentinel was upgraded, and he became a nearly unstoppable force on the battlefield. As such, he gathered the newly militaristic Autobot forces and launched an assault on the oppressive Quintessa Regime, and eventually drove their former masters away from Cybertron.
Thus, it came to pass that Cybertron was an independent state, and a new era of prosperity was within the Transformer's grasp. Nevertheless, in victory, the living machines had sown the seeds of their doom; in awakening their militaristic programming, many Autobots simply could not embrace the new, pacifistic ideals laid down by Sentinel Prime, and thus, an underground was born. Literally beneath the feet of the bustling Autobot workers and merchants of Iacon grew mass-scale gladiatorial maches between mechs looking to vent their violent nature in "peace time." The Autobot Council of Elders and Sentinel Prime himself knew of these, but allowed them as long as 1.) The mainstream public was not made aware, and 2.) the maches would continue to allow those Transformers who could not function in society to have a haven in which to practice what Sentinel dubbed "pitiful barbarism."
Of course, such was not to be, as within circles inside of circles, a threat was growing. A mysterious Transformer named MEGATRON had become master of the ring...or at least had his digits in all the little cogs of the ring. Through here, he schemed, planned and plotted, and surrounded himself with warriors hand-picked from both the ring (such as ASTROTRAIN and BRAWL) and from some more "legitimate" sources (such as STARSCREAM and SHOCKWAVE). And in the darkness, his machinations matured, until...

TO BE CONTINUED

Twilight Princess - SPOILERS

2006-12-19T22:22:00.001-06:00

I have just finished what is easily one of the greatest videogame adventures of all the history of electronic interactive entertainment.

And that is saying something, dammit.

Zelda has always meant something to me...not merely as an enjoyable videogame, but as the game that introduced me to just how amazing an experience a videogame can be.
Most "mainstream" folks now reading this (however few there may be) will start rolling their eyes and muttering "It's just a damn videogame." True. It is just a videogame. Just like how a movie is just a movie, or a book is just a book. So, none of those could possibly insight deep emotions within us, now could they? ....Sarcasm aside, it was nothing less that the Ocarina of Time, the first ever three-dimentional Zelda title, which rekindled my love of videogames, which I assumed had left me back in the days of Sega Genesis and "Sega Channel," and so forth.
After playing and finishing the game, I was absolutely taken aback by the idea of "the journey," or "the quest." I was, to put it in such a way, undertaking a Quest of a Hero, only thought to be do-able in ancient days past, or not at all except in our own imaginations.
Did the deeds of the Hero that day help people? People living in the real, flesh-and-blood world? Not really. It didn't feed the hungry or cure the sick...it was about a week's worth of entertainment and escapism, but then again, so is a book, and a movie, and so on...

SPOILERS ABOUND. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE GAME AND WATCHED ALL OF THE CREDITS.

But enough philosophy. Twilight Princess: how good is it? Well, look on any gaming site and you'll see for yourself. This game is easily the most cinematic and the most technically sound title of the series, perhaps even for the Gamecube and Nintendo as a whole (arguably, anyway). Character development is top-notch, knocking Wind Waker right off the top. The graphics, though at times archaic, can be so beautiful, and make full use of the Gamecube's processing power, nearing that of Resident Evil 4.
In terms of the story, it's one of the most unique concepts to date, despite Majora's Mask beating it in the originality department. There are references and influences from nearly every Zelda title, particularly from Ocarina of Time (as if anyone hadn't guessed).

The most interesting aspect of it, however, is that this isn't really a story about Link, nor is it about Zelda, nor even Ganondorf. It's a story about Midna, the little imp from the Twilight Realm who, in the end, IS the Twilight Princess. She is easily the best character in the Zelda series, and I challenge ANYONE to contest that. She goes through a truly compelling transformation, as she and Link grow closer as allies in the quest to save Hyrule and the Twilight. Oh, and there is definitely romance between the two, or at least a budding love. Of course, as the game ends, it's unlikely the two will ever be together, and thus, we have the "bittersweet ending," the sacrifice that we all know Zelda stories must entail to some extent (as noted at zeldalegends.net) (Of course, this leaves the door wide open for Link and Ilia).
The Triforce trio are indeed integral to the story, but the story isn't about the Triforce, really. We had that in Wind Waker, as well as Ocarina, so the story of the Triforce has been told. Link doesn't get a whole lot of backstory, either, especially considering that he's pretty much just THERE. He's a farm boy with no parents, no real explanation to his past, or to just "why" he's the Chosen Hero, other than that he was simply born with the Triforce within himself. Same goes for Zelda. Ganondorf himself is given little explanation, other than what's essentially the same story we heard in Ocarina.
Again, it is the Twilight that takes center stage...though, of course, it is still a Zelda game. Link has his own story to tell, his own people to protect and aid, but it ultimately comes down to the Twilight, and what must be done to separate the worlds of Light and Shadow, despite, in Zelda's own words, they being "two sides of the same coin."

Another note I'd like to mention would be the characterizations of the Triforce Trio. Link is quiet, of course, but it can be inferred that he speaks a few times (so he isn't mute). However, this Link is much more cheerful than his Ocarina counterpart....MUCH more cheerful (of one looks, you'll see that Ocarina/Majora's Mask Link are plastered with a permanent scowl). Oddly, Link is just as, if not more expressive as a wolf (which, by the way, makes for a lot of very interesting gameplay moments).
Zelda has a very interesting manner about her in this outing. We finally have a sense of her being a very calm, collected, and wise ruler of the nation of Hyrule, much more so than any other game. She's hardly emotional, but it plays to her well, strengthening her as a character with a mighty resolve. She is brave, perhaps almost as much as Link.
Ganondorf is deliciously maniacal. I'd go so far as to compare him to Megatron of Transformers fame! I do feel that he could have used more screentime...then again, we got a lot of him in Wind Waker and Ocarina again, so we know who he is, no question (a bit more backstory into his motivation couldn't hurt, though. You listening, Nintendo?)
Another character of note has to be Zant, who we all assume was the lead villain (but, of course, is not). I myself assumed him to be the all-powerful badass, akin to Sephiroth even...how wrong I was. The final revelation of Zant's past is a sight to behold.
My final thought (for this entry, anyway) would have to be the design and art direction of the game. There are some truly inspired designs here, taking from all past Zelda games, as well as various other influences in different cultures around the world (for costume and character design, anyway). The monsters and enemies are simply marvelous, my favorites being the Helmasaurus, the Bulbin (or Moblin) King, and Dark Beast Ganon.

One more thing: many will try and place this Zelda game in the context of the rest of the series, of which there is already an extremely poor continuity. The only Zelda games with solid continuities are Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and the Wind Waker (with Phantom Hourglass to be added). A few other of the titles MIGHT have continuity, but it's a fuzzy leap. Gametrailers.com presented a few options, but if one takes into account the backstory and elements of Hyrule in Twilight Princess, the only game with any connection would be Ocarina of Time, and even THAT is a stretch, considering that Hyrule's geography is totally out-of-synch between the two (not to mention that Ganon has a very different "origin") There are references to be had, however, in the form of "The Hero" from the distant past being mentioned (and even appearing) in the game. It is likely that this Hero helped to protect Hyrule and serve the Royal Family, but whether or not he faced Ganondorf is hard to say, as it's never mentioned. I would say that this is a stand-alone Zelda game. No real connection with any other Hyrules or Links or Zeldas or Ganons. But that's just my opinion.

The Hero's Quest was long (a solid week for me) but damn well worth it. A bit easy at times, a bit confusing at others, but still damn amazing. It is now neck-and-neck with Ocarina of Time on my "Favorites" list.
Why doesn't it topple that archaic, muddy-looking game? It was my re-introduction to gaming, and can never be replaced. Twilight Princess, however, can now not be replaced from it's side.

May the Triforce be with you ;)

(NOTE: Expect fanart)

Church attempts to HIDE Hominid origins

2006-12-10T02:02:00.001-06:00

NOTE:
First and foremost, my sincere and deep apologies to anyone who may, and surely WILL be offended by this, but what's happening here is just downright WRONG. Censorship of scientific evidence to elevate one's own power is about as low as it gets.

From Livescience.com and Palaeoblog (excerpt):

"Scientist Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum's Pre-Human Fossils" -

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.

Leakey called the churches' plans "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard."

He told The Daily Telegraph (London): "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind. The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science." Leakey was for years director of the museum and of Kenya's entire museum system.
............
Leaders of Kenya's Pentecostal congregation, with six million adherents, want the human fossils de-emphasized....
"Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory," the bishop said.

(end excerpt)

My thoughts:
I honestly thought I could avoid this whole arguement after a rather uncomfortable debacle a few months back that nearly cost me a friend, but this is something I feel I have a responsibility to rant and rave about.
I have nothing against religious individuals. My girlfriend is a devout Christian and a wonderful human being, and she herself believes in the Creation and Genesis. I myself take to heart that a divine force guides this universe. But she and I both agree that to hide things from people so that one can perpetuate their own "truth" is, to be blunt, disgusting. Evolution may not be the Pentecostal's belief, but to attempt to HIDE scientific evidence of another belief system from people is an excercise in an attempt to gain more power.
People, especially those who visit museums out of genuine scientific curiousity, have every, EVERY right to know all possible views and theories, be it science or religion. They, in turn, are totally capable of making their own decisions based on what they have learned or seen.
Science, and the Theory of Evolution in particular, doesn't pretend to know all of the answers. It's a flawed theory that is constantly being adjusted and improved, and is just the best we have to go off of when looking at the world in a practical view. Charles Darwin himself stated that "the Creator" instigated evolution, but himself admitted, on his death bed, that he regretted starting such a massive divide in the world, yet stood by his theory. Religion and Science can only mix in the minds of individuals, because one is based on faith and faith alone (and needs no evidence), and the other is based on tests and factual evidence (of which there is plenty to support evolution).Evolution could simply be the answer to the "how" and not the "why."
I don't want to start any flame-wars or hate-mail, but please, PLEASE just consider that which I have said without jumping to conclusions...even though I may have jumped to a few myself. Perhaps I'm wrong? Perhaps YOU'RE wrong? Perhaps we're ALL wrong? No way to tell. We just do what we can with what we're given, simple as that.

God bless.

Primal Rage retrospective - part 1

2006-08-13T13:44:00.001-05:00

In 1994, a video game expo made its way to the then-small but still growing town of San Antonio, Texas, where, after much hype and promotion, the arcade classic Primal Rage made its debute, and a hyperactive little maniac named Matt Frank "raged" on the arcade machine for a good several hours before his brain suddenly short-circuted from overwhelming "badassitude" (a phenomenon dubbed by the various great minds of the early 21st Century scientific community).

That said, Primal Rage was a wonderful bit of "space filler" in the hectic and merchandise-flooded days of my grade-school youth, alongside Gargoyles, Street Sharks, Beast Wars and randomly reoccurring obessions with Power Rangers >_>
Primal Rage was an unconventional gaming experience (at least in America) because it made its mark by adding a whole new level of creativity to the traditional fighting game (which always invoved random martial artists and, for some reason, Panda bears).

In one of my recent "subsequent childhoods" (I do believe that I'm somewhere near my 14th or 15th), I rediscovered just how damn COOL this game's concept was...so, I decided to start a series of glamor-shots of each Primal Rage character, and even taking some liberties with each.

DIABLO -

Diablo is a fan-favorite amoungst many gamers (including his creator, Cameron Petty), being as how his character was one of pure and absolute evil. Apparently, Diablo is supposed to be a kind of Allosaur, but it's somewhat obvious in the game that he and Sauron share the same character model. So, I took some liberties here and made him a horrific fusion of allosaur, carnotaur and ceratosaur.

BLIZZARD -

The great Yeti God and main protagonist of the game, despite being so brutal, Blizzard is said to be a noble spirit who seeks to protect his home and followers. I didn't really alter Blizzard much here, sans making him more humanoid.

I'll hopefully be able to continue this series up to the chracters introduced for the ill-fated "Primal Rage 2."
UP NEXT: Vertigo and Armadon!

Primal Rage and all characters related are copyright Atari, 1994

Immortal No More

2006-07-02T16:47:00.001-05:00

Ox-Bow experience

2006-07-02T13:06:00.001-05:00

Here's some pictures I uploaded out of my camera from Ox-Bow.

Our class on the last day...can you guess which one is me?

My rather ill-tempered friend and his rivals in this merry-go-round called life ;) (Especially ill-tempered having being hauled out of the water by the tail...but that's another story)

Our studio, where we spent many a night up until about 2 AM...14 hour work days SUCK.

The incredible forest that surrounds the campus.

A nice parting shot.

(Stay tuned for "Immortal No More")

I STILL FUNCTION...

2006-07-01T22:29:00.001-05:00

Oh yes, that sounds appropriate, for several reasons, of course.
First of all, I have returned from the Ox-Bow school of the arts, a small retreat not far from the shore of Lake Michigan. Secondly, I have survived a solid 2 weeks of doing ANYTHING but relaxing, and thirdly, because of my recent (re)obsession with Transformers :D
Really, the whole experience was incredibly worthwhile, being as the tiny community of Saugatuck-Douglas is not only very arts-oriented, but also very integrated with the incredibly dense and gorgeous forests in the area.
I gots me lotsa' pictures to post somewhere at some point (hopefully including myself tackling a 25 lb snapping turtle ^^ ) and I made quite a few new friends while in the class.
As for the class itself, it was RE-DONKULOUS...as in ridiculously difficult at times, but to make a 4-page comic in 2 weeks is much more demanding than one would expect.
The class itself was excellent, as taught by Jessica Abel (who herself has created the "Artbabe" series and the EXCELLENT graphic novel "La Perdita") Despite being a tad biased against the more "mainstream" or "superhero" comics, she was very supportive of our development as artists and encouraged us to pursue our personal storytelling styles.
Everyone in the class did a great job, IMO (even though a few of us didn't finish...which goes to show what kind of work goes into comics).

I plan on posting my short story, "Immortal No More" sometime tomorrow, because right now, I'm eager to veg on some comics that I didn't make ;)

(Oh, PS, the new G-Fan published my review of King Kong!)

Off to "comic book boot camp"...

2006-06-17T14:01:00.001-05:00

(First bit of blog-exclusive art, Hannah Dundee and Hermes from Mark Schultz's brilliant "Xenozoic Tales")

I'll be taking the next two weeks "off" so-to-speak, and since I'm unsure of whether I'm bringing my laptop along with me, I decided to post a heads-up, since I won't have scanner access.

So, I'm off to the Ox-bow art school, where I'll be taking 5-hour classes, 5 days a week...yay me -_-
But seriously, I managed to procure a scholarship to the course entitled "Drawing: Making Comics." Thus, I shall be spending many finger-bleeding hours working on the techniques of panel-layout, story development, and inking techniques.
So, hopefully I'll return relatively unscathed, and then I'll be able to work on summore art, besides what I've worked on at Ox-bow.

See ya! *runs screaming out of a window*

Aaron Smith 1970-2006

2006-06-06T11:49:00.001-05:00

The Godzilla fandom was dealt a heavy blow on Tuesday when Aaron Smith, owner of the site Monster Zero (www.monsterzero.us) passed away after a major cardiac arrest.
At only 36, Aaron was surely taken away at a young age, but did more for the Godzilla fandom in his short time than many other fans can say for themselves.

I followed Monster Zero's development since the days of "Godzilla News" back in 1999 in the "post-GINO" era, and through Monster Zero, I found myself new friends and allies in a community of like-minded individuals, and I owe that to Aaron.

"SIKESTON — Aaron J. Smith, 36, died at 5:07 p.m. May 30, 2006, at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

Born Feb. 9, 1970, in Fort Gordon, Ga., son of the late Alex and Polly Lou Gestring Smith Jr., he was a 1988 graduate of Sikeston High School and a 1994 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. He was self-employed as a Web site designer.

Survivors include: one brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Reagan Smith of New Madrid; one sister and brother-in-law, Maria and Cliff Crowden of Sikeston; and one niece and five nephews.

A private family memorial service will be held at a later date.

Nunnelee Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements."

(From Monster Zero front page)

Support for Aaron's memory is much appreciated, so go visit MZ and leave a message or two.

Howdy ya'll!

2006-06-05T12:02:00.002-05:00

Gettin' things of to a start here. Welcome bloggers and viewers to my blog, Matt's Screaming Brain!
I noticed that many artists have their own blogs, and I basically said "why the hell not?" and made myself a blog, dubbed from this day on "Matt Frank's Screaming Brain," mostly because my brain likes to make loud noises while THINKIN'...

So, methinks I'll post my most recent (and first) published work: the cover to G-Fan issue 75! Enjoy as I mess around with this blog's settings...