• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Is "The Meg" a Kaiju movie?

Is "The Meg" a Kaiju movie?

  • Yep.

    Votes: 71 31.4%

  • Nope.

    Votes: 155 68.6%
  • Total voters
    226
Gundam

Gundam

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,801
My friends and I have signed a blood pact, to watch every Kaiju movie that hits theatres.

So far we've watched:

Kong: Skull Island
Colossal
Pacific Rim 2
Rampage

and will of course go and watch King Of The Monsters and Godzilla V Kong.

But does the Meg count as a Kaiju movie?

Taken from the wikipedia entry, "Kaijū (怪獣 kaijū) (from Japanese "strange beast")[1] is a Japanese film genre that features giant monsters, usually attacking major cities and engaging the military and other monsters in battle."

The Megalodon was a historically real thing, as we currently understand it. A big ol' shark. A giant shark, in fact. But does that invalidate it as a Kaiju movie? Thematically, if The Meg follows the tropes of the genre, does it matter? Can you consider a giant shark a "monster"?

Near the end of the trailer, we see the meg attack a beach, so does that fulfill the wikipedia criteria of "attacking major cities?"



Bonus question: Is Peter Jackson's King Kong a Kajiu Movie, if Kong: Skull Island is?
 
sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
The trailer really confused me regarding what kind of tone it's supposed to be going for.
 
Kuro

Kuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,533
Sgt. Demblant said:
It is my profound belief that Jason Statham does qualify as a kaiju, yes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
neS5Og4.gif
 

Deleted member 3542

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,889
It's a creature feature certainly but the fact it's not going to run into a city or cause mass destruction doesn't work for Kaiju I feel. However if there's some big fight against it with the military and it's threatening to do so then I could see it labeled as one, but I don't get that sense from the trailer.
 
MizneyWorld

MizneyWorld

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
446
Eh, I guess I'll say yes. It's "ancient" like many kaiju. It's a larger version of a regular thing like many kaiju. It attacks boats and other water-based vehicles like many kaiju. Godzilla himself can rarely go a movie without eating a boat or sub.

It's really probably just splitting hairs and could be easily argued for or against.

Kaiju or not, I just hope it's good and doesn't ruin the big budget/blockbuster shark-based horror streak we've been on the last 2 summers.
 
CrichtonKicks

CrichtonKicks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,141
I would say no. The book was inspired directly by Jurassic Park and the author just did what he could to justify the premise of a Megladon in modern day. He even tried to do pseudo-scientific stuff like Chrichton but Steve Alten isn't very talented and couldn't pull it off.
 
Ducarmel

Ducarmel

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,363
the wiki definition says its a Japanese genre, so no if we go by that!

Or is it like anime, how westerners would not call western animation anime but Japanese people call western animation anime. So the the Japanese in this context would call The Meg a Kaiju film!?


edit:I Monster film = Kaiju film
 
Last edited:
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,089
The premise of this film is so stupid. In an ocean full of whales, why waste all that energy on the sea equivalent of popcorn chicken?
 
Triggerhappytel

Triggerhappytel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,995
I don't think a shark film qualifies as a kaiju movie just because they made the shark in question really big. Plus - and I may have this wrong - don't kaiju movies usually concern a fictional creature? Or does that mean the original King Kong or giant octopus movies from the 50s could also be kaiju movies too?!
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
92,983
Kajiu just means monster, is a giant shark a monster? Yes, it is a kaji movie
 
passepied joe

passepied joe

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,703
Rampage isn't a kaiju movie though. The Japanese poster calls the monsters in it kyojin (giant animals), so it's a kyojin flick. We can say safely say that Meg is merely another kyojin flick as well. :)

Stop calling anything with giant monsters/animals/whatever you want to call them "kaiju." Y'all didn't even know the word or what it was used for before Pacific Rim even came out, and judging by it's box office you didn't even watch it. :^)
 
Siggy-P

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
A pointless complaint but surely it would need to be much bigger? Even as big as it is.

Also I do think that being a real historical sea creature probably should invalidate it as it's not an actual "monster" per-say.
 
More_Badass

More_Badass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,621
Triggerhappytel said:
I don't think a shark film qualifies as a kaiju movie just because they made the shark in question really big. Plus - and I may have this wrong - don't kaiju movies usually concern a fictional creature? Or does that mean the original King Kong or giant octopus movies from the 50s could also be kaiju movies too?!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
King Kong is considered part of the genre
 
RedStep

RedStep

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
2,649
metsallica said:
PG-13 killed all my interest in this. What a waste.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To be fair, the Meg is so big that it would swallow one or more people in a single bite. No reason for it to sit and bite on people, that would be like slowly chomping a Skittle with your front teeth. And that's weird, right? I'm sure plenty of people get chomped in the movie.
 
Venture

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,584
The Meg? Holy crap what a dumb title.
Siggy-P said:
A pointless complaint but surely it would need to be much bigger? Even as big as it is.

Also I do think that being a real historical sea creature probably should invalidate it as it's not an actual "monster" per-say.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yep. This is no more a Kaiju movie than Jaws is.
 
More_Badass

More_Badass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,621
Siggy-P said:
A pointless complaint but surely it would need to be much bigger? Even as big as it is.

Also I do think that being a real historical sea creature probably should invalidate it as it's not an actual "monster" per-say.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
At what size does it shift from real prehistoric creatures to giant movie monster? Because the shark in the trailer definitely isn't aiming for "real prehistoric creature". The real Megalodon was maybe about 60ft long, the one in the movie is movie-monster size
meg-20th-anniversary.jpg
 
OP
OP
Gundam

Gundam

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,801
Platy said:
Jurassic park 2 second half is TOTALLY a kaiju movie. The next jurassic park will probably be too.

Also for OP's....


Z5ALCgq.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon#/media/File:Megalodon_scale.svg

This is the real MAXIMUM size of the Megalodon.

Every single poster/trailer shows that the movie's Megalodon is AT LEAST twice that size

It absolutely counts as a Kaiju movie
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


This is the most compelling argument for me that it is.


Begbie said:
What about that Anne Hathaway movje Colossal?
images

C8NoJt
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I posted about it in the OP, it counts I'd say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.