Kaiju movies, by the very nature of their concept, are a mostly campy good time. In fact, most attempts to parody them fall flat because it’s hard to outdo what’s already ridiculous. But that didn’t stop the makers of Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit from trying. They do manage to successfully spoof some of the clichéd elements of giant monster movies but, for the most part, fail at coming up with any laughs of their own.
Monster X revives Guilala, a giant chicken-like monster from a 1967 movie called The X from Outer Space. The original monster arrived on Earth as a spore attached to a spaceship. This new version of Guilala arrives in a similar fashion, but this time the ship is Chinese and an exact copy of the ship from the 1967 movie. One of the world leaders exclaims, “The Chinese are always making a copy of everything!” That line doesn’t make much sense if one doesn’t recognize the design of the spaceship.
Monster X Strikes Back takes place at the annual G8 Summit, which in 2008 was held at Lake Toya in Japan. The 8 leaders of the world are portrayed in satirical form and given names that are over-the-top insulting (ie. U.S. President Earth Burger, French President Escargot Sarkosy, and Russian Premier Beefstroganoff Puttin.) Initially concerned with tackling topics like the environment and global warming, the arrival of Guilala gives each leader a chance to employ his or her strategy for destroying the monster. When each strategy fails terribly, the fate of the world is left in the hands of a Japanese god, Take-Majin.
One thing Monster X Strikes Back does well is spoofing the usual kaiju eiga methods of killing off a fiendish monster. Usually, something completely ridiculous is dreamed up and, within a few hours, is put into action – no matter how outlandish or unbelievable. The same is true in this movie and, even better, we get to see multiple attempts at stupid methods for killing off Guilala. There’s also a great scene where a small child wanders into the G8 conference room and suggests a name for the monster because every monster always gets a name.
Unfortunately, the movie’s attempts at political humor are just too juvenile and banal to be funny. The American President is a cowboy. The Italian Prime Minister wants to relive the glory of the Roman Empire. The French Prime Minister seduces his Japanese translator. Yawn.
Monster X Strikes Back could have overcome these shortcomings by providing some compelling action sequences featuring Guilala. Yet again, however, the movie drops the ball. Footage of Guilala destroying cities is recycled from The X from Outer Space and the new monster action all seems to take place on a small soundstage shot from different angles so as to appear to be multiple locales. Very disappointing.
Even If you’re a kaiju otaku, Monster X Strikes Back is a curio at best.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
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