Negadon, Monster From mars Review

Negadon: The Monster from Mars is a thirty minute length kaiju film, done completely in CGI. The reason Negadon is considered to be so special is that Negadon is the first kaiju film ever created to be made in full CGI, and is supposed to be a throwback to the glory days of Japanese monster cinema in the late fifties and sixties.
      Does Negadon succeed in what it has tried to do? I first saw Negadon at G-Fest 13, and by the time the film had ended, I was happy, and got what I was expecting. Actually, I got much more than I was expecting. There are only three disappointing things in this movie for me: 1) the action was lacking; 2) Negadon: The Monster from Mars isn’t a feature length film; and 3) Godzilla is no where in sight.
      Seriously though, Negadon is astounding. Jun Awazu, the man who directed the film, as well as did the CGI work and wrote the script, has done the best possible for a thirty minute film. Negadon, without question, deserves the best it can get- The CGI is amazing, the music is placed perfectly, the characters are so well developed, and the action isn’t too bad either. It’s everything unbelievably bad films aren’t.
      Dr. Narasaki had been working day after day constructing a giant robot named Miroku. He believed that Miroku could become a breakthrough in science. But because of the long hours spent working on it; he had lost time with his beloved daughter. One day his daughter came to see a test run of the robot. Everything was going smoothly until there was a freak accident which killed Narasaki’s daughter. Since then, Narasaki has never gone near his robot or forgiven himself for his daughter’s death.
      Elsewhere, a freighter from Mars, which had been made habitable through a long arduous process, falls from space and smashes into the ground in Tokyo. Emerging from the freighter is the gargantuan space monster from Mars, Negadon. The military immediately attacks the monster with all they have, but Negadon is not even scratched and easily dispatches them. Eventually, after much destruction, Dr. Narasaki realizes that he is the only one that can stop the extra-terrestrial from Mars. For the first time in years and years, Narasaki returns to the docking bay where Miroku resides. Narasaki pilots Miroku from the inside, and controls the robot to charge towards Negadon. Miroku begins the battle against Negadon, which eventually takes off into space. In an attempt to kill Negadon off once and for all, Narasaki sacrifices himself, in an explosive finale. The explosion eradicated every single part of Miroku and Negadon, as well as Narasaki. Thanks to his sacrifice, the Earth is safe once more.
      Negadon: The Monster from Mars is much more than I was expecting. I was expecting thirty minutes of undeveloped characters and a lot of action, with pretty good CGI. Instead, I received a good plot with very memorable characters, still a good amount of action, and incredibly pretty CGI. Narasaki is one of the most emotional and memorable characters I have ever seen in a kaiju film. He is right up there with Dr. Serizawa from the original Gojira (1954) film. The plot is very solid and straight forward, although nothing too special. But hey, what do you expect to get from a thirty minute length film? For the amount of the time they had to explain the plot and still get a lot of good action scenes in, it was amazingly good. It’s not the best plot ever created, seeing how it is rushed, but for a thirty minute length film, the plot is very solid.
      Negadon itself is a cool new kaiju, with a unique design and a good arsenal of powers at its disposal. It’s a shame Negadon died so fast though- the kaiju has so much potential, and we only get to see a few minutes of it in action.
      Aside from the kaiju, I don’t think I’ve praised the CGI enough- every little detail is incredible. When you see a close up on the sweating Dr. Narasaki, it may take you a second or two to realize that it isn’t live action. Negadon proves that Japan has a lot of amazing CGI artists. Jun Awazu is most likely one of the best of the bunch. He has done a splendid job with directing this film, as well as doing its CGI and writing its script. He really put all of his love and effort for kaiju into this film.
      Negadon is so good that I believe it should be a feature length film. The music is well composed and placed in exactly the right moments, and only on when it should be on. The score always gives the exact amount of power and emotion needed for every scene.
      Right now it seems like a film like this can’t do wrong, but, alas, every film has at least one thing wrong. Nothing can be perfect. But, it can come pretty close to perfection. For a film like this, only a few tidbits detract from it. Probably the biggest downfall of this film is its lack of action- sure; the fight scenes we do receive aren’t bad; they are good enough, but lack length, and sometimes go so quickly you won’t realize what happened at first. The only other problem will only occur with kaiju fans like me- we enjoy dark toned kaiju films, but would prefer to view a film with a lighter tone- an example being something like the 60’s Godzilla films and up.   Negadon can easily be viewed as a dark toned film. Not as dark as say, Gojira (1954), but you get my point. For me, dark toned kaiju films are not as high on entertainment value as light hearted ones are because of their depressing and sad atmosphere. I still love dark films to death if they are something like Gojira (1954), or Godzilla 1984 (1984), but I dislike being sad and depressed by the time the film ends. Negadon won’t get you as sad as any of the classic Godzilla films would, but you’ll be feeling sad for the emotional Dr. Narasaki by the time the film ends.
Anyway, aside from some tidbits, Negadon is a great film, and is almost perfect in everyway. The only thing the film really lacks is really good fight scenes; the ones included aren’t bad, just a bit lacking in length, and without Godzilla.
      Make Negadon a feature film, have more action, and talk to Toho about adding Godzilla in somehow, and this film would be one of my personal all time favorites. Negadon is a blast to watch. As an emotional, dark toned film, or just for pure entertainment, Negadon does not fail. Negadon is great for every type of kaiju fan, except for fans who come specifically for the kaiju battles, who may be a little disappointed at how short they are.