Reptilian (1999)
[+]
(Foreign Titles)
Nomination Year: 2015
SYNOPSIS: This is a (Korean) late-90s remake of a (Korean) Godzilla rip-off film from the
1960s (Yongary, Monster from the Deep).
The CGI technology is cutting-edge, but unfortunately its cutting edge is on the wrong side, and it wounds the film deeply. If misuse of CGI effects was a felony, this movie would have quickly earned itself the death penalty. It manages to make jetpacks look dorky, unwieldy, and just plain uncool.
A giant monstrous skeleton is unearthed ... the largest dinosaur ever. Some aliens show up and blast it with a ray. It regenerates and starts stomping around. The military fails to blow it up with fighter jets, helicopters, and missiles. So they send guys wearing jetpacks and wielding machine guns. The aliens protect it with a force field for a while, then after the last of the jetpack corps sacrifices himself to blow up the force field, we find the giant monster (Yonggary) was being mind-controlled by the aliens, so the aliens send down a second giant monster to fight Yonggary. Yonggary wins, and the aliens decide that they cannot invade the earth without Giant Monster Pre-Softening, so they fly away quickly.
Did I mention the CGI is execrable? Aliens and giant monsters are clearly the point of this film, but there are a variety of humans in this movie as well. There are science humans, army humans, and one or two waitress humans. Most of the humans are interchangeable, and eminently squishable, but one or two are not. The less squishy humans do get the most amusing lines:
There is also a schoolbus full of children For The Win. I shall say no more.
The CGI technology is cutting-edge, but unfortunately its cutting edge is on the wrong side, and it wounds the film deeply. If misuse of CGI effects was a felony, this movie would have quickly earned itself the death penalty. It manages to make jetpacks look dorky, unwieldy, and just plain uncool.
A giant monstrous skeleton is unearthed ... the largest dinosaur ever. Some aliens show up and blast it with a ray. It regenerates and starts stomping around. The military fails to blow it up with fighter jets, helicopters, and missiles. So they send guys wearing jetpacks and wielding machine guns. The aliens protect it with a force field for a while, then after the last of the jetpack corps sacrifices himself to blow up the force field, we find the giant monster (Yonggary) was being mind-controlled by the aliens, so the aliens send down a second giant monster to fight Yonggary. Yonggary wins, and the aliens decide that they cannot invade the earth without Giant Monster Pre-Softening, so they fly away quickly.
Did I mention the CGI is execrable? Aliens and giant monsters are clearly the point of this film, but there are a variety of humans in this movie as well. There are science humans, army humans, and one or two waitress humans. Most of the humans are interchangeable, and eminently squishable, but one or two are not. The less squishy humans do get the most amusing lines:
"What's your objective?" "Kill the enemy and break their toys, sir." "Compared to this guy, Godzilla was a pussy!" "Is it over?" "It's all over." "It's not over yet!"
There is also a schoolbus full of children For The Win. I shall say no more.
Kevin Hogan
Hyung-Rae Shim
