Gojirafan2013
MemberBaragonDecember 04, 2021What makes Kaiju movies unique from other monster movies is that the human characters have significantly less agency. In regular monster movies like Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Predator, the human characters have to deal with human-sized threats ranging from great white sharks to dinosaurs and humanoid aliens. This makes it easier for the characters to have intimate interactions with the creatures, and thus making it easier for them to dictate the events of the story.
In Kaiju films however, there is a significant size different between the monsters and humans. Since kaiju are usually over 200 feet tall, there are only so many interactions they can have with human characters in a film setting. These include the monsters briefly locking eyes with the humans, the humans being carried by the monsters, and the humans riding them. The humans are also usually relegated to being bystanders who have little bearing on the events of the story. The kaiju are the ones that move the story forward due to their immense sizes. Because of this, the monster side and human side of the story feel disconnected from each other.
I believe this is what makes balancing human and monster stories and writing compelling human characters so difficult. How do make characters that can’t really be intimate with the monster compelling?
