From another thread, this happened.

So . . . with Pacific Rim coming soon and Godzilla 2014, I ask this (as a fan of Godzilla)--what makes Kaiju awesome? Are there any good (by this I mean from a technical, story, character, perspective) kaiju movies. If so, why, if not, why do we like them so much? What do you hope to see in PR or GZ2014?

Power Fantasy.

Campy awesome action.

Kick-ass monsters.

A Hero you can root for, and still run away from.

I mean Ultraman, Godzilla, and Gamera have been around for many many many moons. They've each got their own appeal.

Ultraman is all about an awesome hero (or family thereof) proctecting Earth from Giant aliens with extremely small shields specifically designed to ward off his attacks only.

Godzilla is the story of a monster that we bred on accident being bad-ass and killing other monsters that we may or may not have had a hand in creating.

And Gamera is all about the heart of the people in a giant FUCKING ROCKET TURTLE.

FUCKING

ROCKET-LEG

TURTLE

Enough said, haha.

That being said, I have been wanting to, for many many moons, play either Monsterpocalypse or Monster Island - The first for awesome figs, the second for customizeable greatness..

I honestly would kill to be able to run a non-linear tournament for it... but alas..

~Mark S.

Don't mention Monsterpocalypse, I'm still sad that game is all but dead and abandoned. =( After it did so much right too, I could sit here and wax on about how great the flavor of the units and mechanics were and how spot-on they were for kaiju movies like how the more spectacularly large your power attacks were the more likely it was that they would succeed and oh look now I'm doing it.

As for why I like kaiju... This will sound incredibly shallow, but I'm a guy who likes some spectacle. And I count giant monsters as pretty spectacular, whether they're being done by CGI animation or guys in costumes. The technical geek side of me loves the costumes though, the work that goes into making them look and feel giant and making all the little scenery to put them in scale. And then there's the metaphorical aspect of it, giant monsters representing our own mistakes or destructive forces of nature or empires personified.

What do I want from Pacific Rim? To be made breathless at the size and scale of the battles. To get attached to the pilots and their stories. Maybe find some deeper metaphor or meaning to enjoy. But it feels like Pacific Rim is going to be a movie I just enjoy watching, made by a giant geek for other giant geeks to enjoy, and that's part of what endears me to it.

This pretty much covers it for me too. I want to see giant robot fight giant aliens and explosions. Not much else I /need/.

And I know how you feel Spammy... =\

Though have you looked at Monster Island? It's not the most complex thing, but it's quirky (and cheap) and abstract enough to work with just about anything.

~Mark S.

To be honest, Pacific Rim looks like garbage. It is taking itself WAY WAY WAY FUCKING WAY to seriously. It needs to be fast, fun, and hilarious with not a single ounce of fuck given for drama for me to care about this "genera". Del Toro is the only reason I'm considering seeing Pacific Rim, but I get the feeling they're just throwing his name out specifically for that reason.