Monster Movie of the Week: Negadon: The Monster from Mars (2005)

NEGADON: THE MONSTER FROM MARS (2005)

Directed by Jun Awazu

Genre: CGI/Anime/Daikaiju eiga, short film

THE MOVIE:

Fans of kaiju movies generally don’t have a lot to look forward to. Godzilla is retired for another five to ten years, with another American remake on the way. The status of the Gamera series is not known. We tend to have to make due with movies that have some kaiju elements like The Host or Transformers, or the Korean movie D-Wars. Once in a while, we'll get a Cloverfield or Pacific Rim but most actual kaiju movies are few and far between. That’s why Negadon: The Monster from Mars is such a nice and unexpected treat.

Negadon is a twenty-five minute short film that is little more than an exercise in kaiju action. But that’s a good thing, right? Although it is a CGI movie from 2005, the film goes out of its way to present a retrofuturistic setting that would have been at home in one of Toho’s movies from the 1960’s or 1970’s.

The narrative is short and sweet. It is the future and man is exploring Mars. A ship brings back a mysterious Mars boulder, which escapes and destroys the ship over Japan, unleashing a giant floating monster, the titular Negadon. Meanwhile a scientist laments the loss of his daughter who was killed in an accident involving the giant robot he had invented. Although he swore never to reactivate the robot, he pilots it in combat against Negadon.

Something tells me Negadon may be the future of kaiju movies, which are becoming increasingly unprofitable in Japan. As CGI becomes cheaper to use we may eventually see entirely CGI Godzilla movies, which would be both bad and good. Bad because we would lose the wonderful artistry that goes into building the sets and monster suits but good because the creatures would no longer be constrained by the technology used to realize them. Either way, despite its shortness and relative obscurity, Negadon: The Monster from Mars may end up being a very important film in the history of monster movies.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

I’m not a fan of the Negadon design, it’s a little too complex for my tastes. It almost looks like it could have come from one of the 90’s Gamera movies. However, I do like the design of Magara, the creature featured in the two micro-movies included as extras. Magara is wonderful firebreathing throwback to the classic Toho monsters. The director Jun Awazu has a wonderful grasp of the kaiju subgenre and I would love to see what he would if let loose on a franchise like Godzilla or Gamera.

MONSTERS FEATURED:

Negadon and the giant robot.

DVD AVAILABILITY:

Can be bought easily enough online but you probably won’t be able to find it at your local video store or even on Netflix. Incidently, the DVD has a couple of nice little micro movies even more in the style of classic kaiju film.

TRAILER:




Patrick Garone
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