MONSTER SEAFOOD WARS (2021)

MONSTER SEAFOOD WARS (2021)

Tagline: If You Eat This Monster It's Crazy-Delicious!

(Sci-fi, Comedy, Seafood Dinner) [PG]

Note – This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it would probably be a PG. It’s pretty tame for the most part. 

In this one, Yuta is on his way to deliver off an octopus, a squid, and a crab at a local shrine when he drops them into the Sumida River. It doesn’t take long before they turn into giant mutated monsters that attack Tokyo intermittently. To deal with the problem the Japanese Defense Forces are brought into the mix but fail due to the make-up of the seafood-themed kaiju. A specialized group of mostly teens or 20-somethings is created, the "Seafood Monster Attack Team (SMAT)" to try and find an unconventional solution to the problem. They do but even that isn’t enough. Along the way, Japan finds out the meat from these creatures is actually really good after one of the kaiju battles severs tentacles from 2 of the creatures. However, that doesn’t mean Japan doesn’t need heroes. Can Yuta and his genius friend along with a drama-infused (SMAT) team fight off Red Lobster’s dream come true?

First off, Red Lobster never comes up in this movie, that was just me being nuts. Speaking of nuts this movie is pretty nuts. Having said that, it still is NOT the craziest movie I have seen even from Japan. It is however pretty funny in parts and overall just feels like someone wanted to have a fun time making a movie. For those of you who hate sub-titles like me, this won’t be for you. 

So wait, I just said that I hate sub-titles and here I am writing a review for this movie? Why? Well, I am trying to open up to watching more movies with sub-titles if the idea or concept is just so awesome it’s hard to pass up. Godzilla movies fall into that category and so does this crazy thing. 

While I was watching this movie I was trying to figure out if it was “trying” to be a comedy or not. I am not super familiar with Japanese comedy and when it comes to kaiju films, it is often hard to tell if comedy was intended or not. For that matter, the same goes for American films at times. This one is meant to be a comedy and it is funny at times.

What goes well for this thing is just the overall concept. In parts, it’s very entertaining and we actually get a decent backstory. I like the relational interaction between the characters Nana, Yuta, and his nemesis Hikoma and even the twists at the end. The concepts are pretty cool and it even reminds me slightly of some of the sushi-based kaiju shirts I own. The actual octopus and squid designs are cool, but not great. I will get to that in a minute. The crab design is AWESOME. I also liked the cast but admittedly I am not familiar with any of their other work. 

What goes badly for this movie is the overkill on the movie's focus on how great the kaiju food tastes. Granted, the Japanese title for this movie translates to “THREE GIANT MONSTER GOURMET”, so it’s possible that what the main point of this thing. There is a LOT of dialog between seafood kaiju fights and those are pretty lame when we do get them. Funny, but lame. 

The monster suits the actors are wearing are Kigurumi. Kigurumi is an all-in-one oversized animal costume. This means the limbs are just bouncing everywhere but no puppeteers are involved. It also means light material and not too much expense when compared to a well-crafted monster suit like we see in most other better-produced kaiju movies. This works for a comedy but, stepping up the game on these suits might have helped this film because the fights could have been better. What we get looks more like something you might find at a seafood-themed kid's birthday party.  Nothing feels “heavy” or like it can do any real damage even though we get a little of that. Some think the squid suit was actually borrowed from THE CALAMARI WRESTLER (by the same director Minoru Kawasaki), but that thing had a nose, this squid doesn’t. The eyebrows are also quite different as well as this one having eyelashes. My guess is they are not the same suit, but perhaps the same maker? We also get a lot of CGI for the fire and explosions which doesn’t look credible at all. Having said all that, I am not giving this movie a lower score based on the effects because that was clearly intentional. 

Overall given that this is meant to be a comedy, and it’s just entertaining in enough parts for me to give this one a 4 out of 7. Having said that, this is set up for a part II at some point so I hope that happens. I also loved “Jumbo Cook”.
 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF RIVERTOP AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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