Deep Sea Monster Reigo (2008)

You sank my battleship...and this movie!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...never mind, there was nothing scary about this horrible Kaiju named Reigo. For some reason the makers of this movie decided to set it during WWII using the real world Battleship Yamato and its crew as the hero of the piece.

In 1941 a young Japanese man, Takeshi, bids his schoolgirl girlfriend goodbye as he sets off on the Yamato. The Yamato was one of two warships with enormous guns, the pride of the Japanese navy. During a routine mission the ship fires on a strange object in the ocean killing a baby Reigo. Big mistake. Now mama or daddy, nobody got close enough to check, sought vengeance on the fleet of destroyers and subs accompanying the Yamato. The Yamato was at a great disadvantage because of the size and angle of the guns. They couldn't fire up close, close being closer than 25k/16mi. Everyone should have felt safe on the great warship with Commander Yamagami in charge. Kurobe Susumu who played the level headed commander had been in half a dozen Godzilla movies before this. Unfortunately, he gets promoted in mid-battle and sent back to Japan leaving a former professor in charge. Between the professor and Takeshi, the cutie pie student, they must come up with a way to alter the guns as Reigo destroys each member of the flotilla.

In order for Kaiju movies to be entertaining they have to give us two things: fun and a compelling monster. I can not overstate how truly terrible the CGI was in this movie. They would have been much better off with a guy in a rubber suit and using miniatures. Reigo, the bone fish, the ships, and the ocean were of the worst video game quality. It's hard to immerse yourself in the movie when you are constantly confronted with the terrible CGI. The interior shots of the ship weren't much better, they looked like they were shot in an office building. It didn't help that this giant warship appeared to have a crew of less than 20 men.

In real life, the Yamato never fired its massive guns until 1945 not long before it was sunk by the American navy. In a strange ending complete with a Kabuki narrator and styling, the Yamato's fate was briefly told right before the credits. It was a strange juxtaposition of monster tale and WWII reality which didn't work for me. Actually, nothing in this movie worked for me-not the human story, the monster, or even the Japanese speaking American they fished out of the ocean. For die hard Kaiju fans only and even then it might not be worth checking out.



8/16/22

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