HubrisWeen 2015, Day 25: Yonggary (1999 / 2001)

You would never guess it, given the fact that the original Korean version has seemingly been lost and the US version was released directly to television, but Yongary, Monster From The Deep must have been very influential in South Korea. If you need any convincing of that fact, just look at Shim Hyung-rae's 1993 comedy Young-Goo and Dinosaur Zu-Zu where the director's "child" character befriends a goofy baby Ceratosaurus, only for some local bad guys to kidnap them both and awaken the rage of the baby's mother--who looks exactly like Yongary would if he'd been based on a Ceratosaurus instead of just vaguely resembling one.

On second thought, do not look at Young-Goo and Dinosaur Zu-Zu*. It can be found on some streaming video sites, but completely unsubtitled and even then the film's Komedy is insufferable. Imagine if Adam Sandler made a movie where he was pretending to be a dim-witted grade schooler, with only a tiny portion of the film's running time devoted to a giant monster plot. The film is so insufferable that I gave up on it shortly after the big dinosaur finally burst out of a volcano because I decided sleep was more important--and I wasn't even that tired.

[* If you actually do want to view one of Shim's comedies for some reason, try Tyranno's Claw instead. It's not funny, exactly, but it's a cavemen and dinosaurs movie so its dialogue is all just caveman gibberish--therefore no language barrier to cross if you don't speak Korean--and its dinosaurs are not exactly good but they are fun and memorable]

At any rate, Yongary, Monster From The Deep was influential enough that in the mid-1990s, when it seemed like every kaiju franchise was enjoying a revival, it was decided that Yongary deserved a return engagement. And who would be bringing us a new vision of everyone's (read: no one's) favorite gasoline-drinking dinosaur? Why, Shim Hyung-rae, of course!

It gets worse. When the film was originally announced--and I'm going off of nearly 20-year-old memories here because it's astonishingly hard to track down background on this project--it was going to be taking the expected man-in-suit trashing miniature cities route. No other details were available at that time, aside from a few shots of the Yonggary (as the creature's name was re-Romanized to be more accurate) suit.

The guy you'll be blaming for what's to come is on the left.

Already it was clear that Yonggary had undergone a radical redesign, similar to what happened to Godzilla. The original creature's design was more or less, "What if we put Gamera's head on Godzilla's body and then put a horn on his nose?" The remake's title creature is harder to pin down to any obvious influence: it's an armored creature with a row of bumps in place of any discernable dorsal plates, a tiny nose horn, spiked shouler pads, and a crown of swept-back horns on the back of its head.

"It's Yongary In Name Only!"

Well, then the news dried up for a while. I don't recall for how long, but suddenly the news of Yonggary was all about how it was going use CGI to render its monsters (yes, there was going to be an enemy monster this time around, though you wouldn't have known it from most of the original promotion) and that the cast would be entirely Western and almost competely white. It's hard to say which was the more alarming development. After all, in 1998 when the film's production was ramping up for a 1999 release, even Hollywood was largely avoiding CGI as a principal effects tool because unless you had Industrial Light & Magic doing it for you, your FX were likely to end up looking like upscaled video game graphics or something from a current release from The Asylum.

Actually, that was still likely even if you did hire ILM.

Korea (and even Japan) at this point in time were not exactly known for their CGI. So if Hollywood could barely make CGI work, what could we expect from Korea? Well, it turns out pretty much exactly what you think. Sort of.

You might have noticed the fact that I listed two release dates above. Generally I try to only go with the film's original release date in its country of origin, but in this case that requires I give two dates. You see, unless you were in South Korea or attended the Cannes Film Festival, you haven't actually seen Yonggary in its original form. Oh, clips from the film surfaced on the internet that demonstrated its appalling effects, but apparently the film was so poorly received that Shim Hyung-rae reworked it and released it again in 2001. It was apparently this version that made its way to American home video under the bizarrely generic title Reptilian. Look, I realize Yonggary has zero name recognition value in America, but was that seriously a better title?

I say apparently because there is a lot of disagreement about what, if any changes Shim made. The 2001 re-release was labelled "Upgrade" in South Korea, but no one can exactly confirm if the woeful effects were upgraded. This is because the 1999 cut of the film is supposedly just as lost as the original version of Yongary, Monster From The Deep.

The fact that the 2001 edition is not lost may or may not be considered a good thing.

We open in a cave as a bunch of guys in spelunking gear fumble with a map. One of them asks their leader, who will turn out to be Dr. Campbell (Richard B. Livingston), if they shouldn't wait for Dr. Hughes since it's his map they're consulting. Campbell asserts that he's in charge and they should move out. Meanwhile, an old man we'll later learn is Dr. Hughes (Harrison Young), is lost in a different section of the cave. He decides to sit down and have a smoke, while Dr. Campbell and company discover a stone bridge over a ravine filled with fog and dinosaur skeletons--which is an adorably obvious miniature.

Diorama by Timmy, Mrs. Kelvin's 4th Grade Class.

Hughes, meanwhile, notices his lighter is illuminating various skeletons in the cave wall: a theropod, a pterosaur that looks more like a dragon, and finally a mummified alien. His shocked scream leads one of the other explorers to overact wildly as he tells Campbell they must turn back, but Campbell refuses because they've come too far and, anyway, he's just seen what he's looking for. Hughes examines the alien, noting it's in excellent condition and has an amulet clasped in its claws.

Campbell, meanwhile, has found a glowing symbol on a column of rock. He orders the panicky guy, named Peters, to, "DIG!" Hilariously, after Peters gets out his hammer and chisel, Campbell goes and hides behind a rock. Sure enough, the instant that Peters hits the rock it results in an explosion that blasts the flesh off every single one of the explorers and dashes their skeletons against the rock walls. Peters! NOOO! The alien amulet then glows blue, and this causes the explosion to suck back into the column of rock--revealing some form of hieroglyphic writing. Campbell comes out from his hiding place and cackles that, "It's mine! All mine!"

The credits roll over more hieroglyphs. We return to the film as an alien ship that looks like it escaped from an episode of Babylon 5 passes by the moon. At an observatory of some kind, Captain Parker (Briant Wells) is sitting by a radar screen and doesn't notice it going full static. I presume this is a "Laser Radar" station. Parker gets a phone call, as the power flickers on and off in the building. Cut to the alien ship hovering around the moon, presumably to escape detection. No, I don't know what the phone call was about because we then cut to some totally different guy getting off a phone call.

I have no idea who this guy is, but he's half-dressed and lying in bed with a woman dressed how sex workers usually are in movies. He's ranting about how he's finally gonna bury Bud Black and then whatever publication he works for will have to run his story instead. Um, sure. This sequence is shot with a shaky handheld, to make things even more bizarre. Anyways, half-naked balding guy calls Bud Black (Brad Sergi) to pass on the details of a story about a dinosaur. Bud, who is wearing a leather beret, happily copies down the details, apparently unaware that the guy passing them on to him wants to ruin him.

Bud quickly arrives at some kind of dig site where an excavator is moving dirt around and Campbell is supervising a bunch of workers digging with shovels, accompanied by his lead assistant Holly Davis (Donna Philipson). Bud hops out of his car and immediately takes a flash photo. This annoys Campbell, but Davis is annoyed because she knows Bud from an article he wrote in Time magazine about Ancient Civilizations and she dismisses him as a glory hungry paparazzo. Um, even if he was writing an article about ancient aliens that description wouldn't make sense.

Of course, all the narcissistic Campbell hears is "Time magazine" so he happily switches his tune to welcoming Bud. He explains that they've unearthed a dinosaur "fifty times the size of T-Rex," then offers Bud some iced tea. Bud chuckles about the supposed dinosaur "fifty times the size of T-Rex" until he sees the skeleton being dug up--which is in the opposite direction from where the folks we just saw digging are and Bud would have seen it when he drove up. It's also at least partially a full-scale prop and clearly not fifty times the size of a T-Rex, large though it may be.

"Campbell's all right, but you've got to divide every figure he gives you by ten. Other than he's perfectly all right."

Bud is speechless and Campbell pontificates about how this is big and signifies "the dawn of a new era." A new era of...finding big dinosaurs? Okay, sure. Meanwhile, at the alien spaceship, hordes of smaller CGI fighter craft are flying around for...some reason. As the spaceship approaches Earth, we see a space shuttle orbiting next to a satellite. The shuttle identifies itself as Atlantis Omega II (?) and then radios base control to advise them that they're reading a strange radiation surge--and then the space ship blasts them to smithereens with a laser blast. It destroys the satellite for good measure.

At base control, Lt. O'Neill (Wiley M. Pickett) can't raise Atlantis Omega II, and Parker comes up to ask what's wrong. And I have no idea what branch of the military they're working for that requires them to wear camo in a space mission control room. O'Neill says the shuttle just vanished into thin air. We see the space ship easing into a parking orbit, which you'd think the base should be able to detect but maybe it's undetectable by Earth means.

At the dig site, Davis is sketching dinosaur bones when Hughes suddenly appears and clamps his hand over her mouth. He assures her he's not there to hurt her, but then Campbell appears in the tent with two workers at his side and introduces Hughes to Davis. She expresses surprise that he's the  Dr. Wendel Hughes and Campbell mocks Hughes for becoming a senile old man who wants to stop progress. Hughes warns, "Stop the digging now. There'll be no chance at redemption once Yonggary gets his breath."

And note now that almost no one in the cast will pronounce Yonggary correctly, and most will make it sound like "Young Gary."

Campbell mocks Hughes for being jealous that he decoded the hieroglyphics first and found the skeleton first. Hughes tosses back that Campbell is arrogant and greedy. So Campbell has the workers--one of whom looks like Richard Kiel and spends the entire time looking like he's about to burst into laughter, but I think he's trying to be intimidating--grab Hughes and escort him off the site. Davis asks Campbell if he wasn't being too rough and when Bud enters the tent and asks what's going on, he's assured it's nothing and that he should rest up for the big day tomorrow,

A lightning storm rolls in as we get some adorable miniatures of the dig site and the Yonggary skeleton. The alien spaceship fires a triple laser beam at Earth, which hits near the dig site and sends out a CGI shockwave that causes two workers who see it to explode in sparks. The next morning, their smoking corpses are being photographed by Bud, but Campbell snatches the camera away and rips the film out of it. He tells Bud he will only photograph what Campbell tells him to, then turns to Davis and says, "Holly, how did you let this happen?" in the tone you'd use if your daughter let the dog get into the trash, not if you found two people dead.

Campbell passes it off as an electrical mishap and gives orders to dispose of the bodies (!) and get back to work. Davis points out that two dead people on their dig means the authorities need to be involved, but Campbell tells her this sort of thing happens all the time (?!) and then tells the workers he'll double their pay. That satisfies them and they get back to work. Campbell demands to see Davis in private, whereupon he angrily slams his coffee cup down on a desk and splatters coffee everywhere as he demands to know what's gotten into her. She points out that that was the third incident (!) this week (!!) and the authorities really ought to be brought in.

You know, at a certain point you stop being the unwitting pawn of a madman and become an accomplice.

Davis objects that nothing could be worth so many lives, but Campbell tells her that some things are worth such a steep cost and that the dig will continue with or without her. Meanwhile, Parker and O'Neill are informing Lt. General George Murdock (Dan Cashman, I think, but I assumed that by process of elimination since the IMDb lists three characters who are generals, only one of whom has a picture that does not match this guy, and no name is given at this time) that the shuttle and two satellites are missing. The General berates them that they don't lose shuttles and hardware like a "two dollar crap game" and orders everyone to go on Red Alert. Cue footage of missiles being readied and troops scrambling.

Meanwhile, over drinks Campbell tells Bud that he's going to be famous, though Bud worries it won't pay the bills. Campbell asks him in he ever heard of any famous poor people (um, yes) and assures him he could win the Pulitzer. They drink to that and finally the film gets to the really fun part as we cut back to the space ship and we see two Guyver-like aliens talking. Both are obvious puppets that can only bob their heads and wave their arms, and both speak in English with a voice that sounds vaguely like Zordon on The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

The budget for Prometheus sequels just kept getting slashed...

One alien advises that Earth has detected them and they must begin the invasion now. The other counters that Earth cannot harm them, so they should continue with the reanimation process. Back on Earth, while looking at a rotating/ CGI image of the space ship the General observes, "Sure as hell ain't Russian." Parker helpfully replies, "No, sir: it's alien." No! I would never have guessed!

At the dig site, Bud asks about Hughes and Campbell explains that he used to be a leader in their field but they had a disagreement. He then mentions that Davis is no longer with them and Bud at first assumes this means she was killed. After Bud assures Campbell he'll do whatever the man asks as long as he gets his story, Cut to some poor bastard trying to drag a tarp out to cover the enormous skeleton--when the belly of the spaceship glows, which causes teeth to fly out of the ground, throught the hapless worker, and root themselves in Yonggary's jaws. Yonggary's ribs grow, as well, and Bud steps out of a port-a-potty in time to see the dead worker, whom he photographs--so we can get an identical replay of the last time he did that and Campbell caught him. This time, after having his film ripped out, Bud yells at Campbell that he's a photojournalist but Campbell reminds him of the deal from before--and then has him help with moving the body.

Again, accomplice.

Meanwhile, the next morning Davis checks into her motel room, unaware that Hughes is watching her. Campbell is then woken up by a worker because the fossil is growing fangs and they found another body. After almost pointing out that he disposed of the body, Campbell catches himself. When asked by the workers how many more lives will this dig cost, he calmly says that they're free to go--but then reminds them that "you are all illegals, and I'll report every last one of you!" So they shrug and keep digging. Though, at this point, they might as well just kill Campbell and dispose of his body since they've already apparently covered up numerous deaths on the site.

At her motel, Davis phones a "professor" and tells him she quit the job, asks if the professor knew Dr. Hughes (who has apparently been assumed dead by most people), mentions him turning up at the dig site to much consternation, and then asks if the job offer still applies. Someone knocks at her door, but it's just the guy delivering her blankets. She asks him where she can get food and he just points and says, "Bar." At the bar, we see the quirky bartender, Sarah Saunders (Julie Kessler) trying to get some barfly to talk about his breakup, but he understandably flees the conversation so she turns her attention to Davis. Davis orders hot coffee and a chicken sandwich, and the two chat while the bartender pours her coffee.

Davis says it's nice to see another woman's face after being surrounded by men. Sarah asks how that's a problem and Davis assures her that being surrounded by a bunch of "sweaty bone diggers"--dibs on the band name--is no fun at all. Hughes then arrives and asks to talk to Davis in private, explaining he knows she quit the dig. She briefly asks him why he, a "world-famous paleontologist," disappeared for two years and was presumed dead. He explains that in Southeast Asia, he encountered a local shaman who directed him to a sacred cave and told him about the legend of Young Gary, the biggest dinosaur of all who would one day rise from the dead and destroy the world. In that cave he also found a fossil of an alien, but Davis declares him just as crazy as Campbell until he asks if anything odd has happened around the fossil and then tells her he has proof that he can show her somewhere more secret.

General Murdock then meets with a guy in a lab coat somewhere that's full of planes being assembled or worked on or some damn thing. The General advises that he's there because an alien space craft has attacked twice already and he doesn't "recall anything in the handbook about dealing with pissed off aliens." Cut back to Hughes and Davis in her hotel room, going over the hieroglyphics that foretell of the return of a giant dinosaur. She sees nothing in them but some ancient writing, so Hughes explains the last two years he was a "guest" of the government who didn't believe him either, but they were interested in aa dead alien. He shows her the analysis of the non-carbon-based, non-human, non-animal specimen that fossilized 200-220 million years ago. (Um, in the Triassic Period?!) Hughes says, as he's leaving, that he knows that the aliens are coming back and he has to stop Campbell before it's too late. Davis reluctantly decides to go with him after he walks out,

That night at the dig, Bud is muttering to himself and trying to assess the situation, including "more dead bodies than a Tarantino flick," Campbell appears then and reminds him that he is about to record mankind's greatest discovery (um, a really big dinosaur skeleton?), and then word comes that the skeleton has been fully uncovered. Campbell is moved to tears by its beauty and gives Bud permission to take his photos now. And then Hughes and Davis drive up, too late to stop the uncovering.

Cue the alien space ship firing a blast of energy at the skeleton. This causes an explosion that sends cars, equipment, and people flying. Then a glowing diamond appears on Yonggary's skull before he generates flesh, breathes deeply, and then rises up in the full glory of godawful CGI. We are talking video game cutscene from the time this was made, here. Campbell tries to deny what he's seeing, but then immediately tells Davis, "I can talk to him!" Wait, what? What the hell gave you that idea, doc?Hughes meanwhile just suggests that he and Davis get the hell out of there, as Yonggary stomps on the fleeing workers.

"Rar! Who unplugged my rendering computer?!"

Campbell faces down Yonggary as the beast stomps toward him, bellowing at it to stop because "you're my creation!" Yonggary stomps him flat as a counterpoint. And then the spaceship teleports Yonggary away. Hughes, Davis, and Bud stare at the spot where the beast was just standing in stunned silence.

Parker reports to General Murdock that they've found the target area, the site of an excavation 40 miles East of their location. Murdock orders him to go investigate at once. Parker and O'Neil pull up with trucks full of troops before we cut back to Major General Jack Thomas (Dennis Howard) arriving at whatever HQ they're using so Murdock can brief him about the alien attack. Hilariously, when Thomas asks if it's a pre-emptive strike Murdock says it's too early to say.

Meanwhile, Parker is a bit incredulous at Hughes and Davis' story of a 200-million-year-old dinosaur that vanished into thin air after being struck by a light from outer space. (Dude, you're tracking a strike from an orbiting alien spaceship) Hughes and Davis assert that the dinosaur must somehow be stopped before it reaches the city or they're all doomed. Ad then O'Neill calls Parker over to show him a footprint full of dead people. Parker, now convinced, wonders how he'll explain this.

Cut to a shot of the alien ship ad its fleet of fighters doing...nothing. Then, hilariously, a third General (Matt Landers) arrives and Murdock addresses him just as "Boom Boom," so to hell with the full name on the IMDb, that's what I'm calling him. Boom Boom introduces his companions, special task force Sgt. Romisky (Johanna Parker) and Sgt. Michaels (Alex Walters)--though I note that Boom Boom points at them in the wrong order when giving their names. Romisky advises that her objective is, "Destroy the enemy and break their toys, sir." But those were mint-in-package, you monster!

Romisky and Michaels are dismissed, so Boom Boom advises hat radar has deteced several smaller craft around the alien ship, possibly an attack force. Murdock requests that Thomas send Parker a chopper unit as back-up. then word comes in that target is moving (what target, Yonggary?) and Murdock orders the new position be relayed to Parker. Then he requests the other Generals meet him in the War Room.

In the alien vessel, one alien observes their invasion force is ready. The other alien acknowledges this and says they've received a signal from their tracking device. The order is given to dispatch Young Gary to the location. Cut to Hughes and Davis in a jeep driven by some grunt named Sgt. Archie (Derrick Costa), who advises their destination is top secret. He then calls Parker "the Pretty Boy" and explains that Parker's father was a two-star general and complains abut nepotism in ranks. He declares Parker incompetent, then goes on a spiel about the "fake" footprint and Roswell and corn fields.

Hughes, meanwhile, shows Davis a CD-R and explains it contains the rest of the hieroglyphics and need to be decoded. (And, uh, how does a paleontologist learn to decode alien hieroglyphics? Not really a discipline you need when studying dinosaurs)  Davis prods him to explain why he didn't try to find Campbell sooner if he knew what would happen. Hughes explains that when the government classified his data then he was also classified. His supposed disappearance and death was part of the cover-up. Archie cackles at this and turns around to look at Hughes and Davis as he laughs at them--just in time for Yonggary to materialize in front of the jeep.

"Pay the toll!"

While Archie asks what it is and Hughes snidely tells him it's his imagination, Davis hilariously asks, "Where is it?" Uh, do you need glasses, doc?  Archie panics, wanting to try and drive past Yongary, but Hughes warns it will kill them easily. Davis mocks the soldier's courage and then Archie says he's not sticking around--and Shatner-rolls out of the parked vehicle. He then, hilarious pulls his side arm. Hughes gets out and tells him not to shoot, but Archie promises to hit the beast between the eyes. Hughes points out that will get them all killed. Davis, meanwhile is enthralled by the beast as it stares back at them--even down to its smell. ("It smells...old.") Archie insists on trying to shoot the kaiju in front of them, but luckily a CGI helicopter squadron arrives before he can piss off a 200-foot dinosaur.

With Yonggary distracted by the approaching helicopters, Archie, Davis, and Hughes are able to get back in the jeep and drive right under Yonggary's feet. The soldier apologies for doubting Hughes, while Hughes just hopes the choppers can stop Yonggary. To my delight, Yonggary voices his displeasure at the advancing choppers by letting loose the stock roar used for the T-Rex in The Land Unknown, King Kong in the 1976 remake, and (bizarrely) Gamera in Gamera The Brave.

Before you ask, Yonggary did not have a memorable roar in his original film. It sounded like a donkey with a head cold, with a bit of Barugon's roar mixed in.

As Romisky and Michaels monitor the choppers in the control room, they make thier attck run. However, bullets don't even faze Yonggary and he responds by spitting CGI fireballs at ne chopper and smashing another with is claw. Rockets turn out to not fare any better, and Yonggary responds by leaping at the choppers and, I swear to God, the film rips off Godzilla when a pilot radios in "He's on my tail!" as Yonggary snaps at his chopper, barely missing each time because, as in the film it's ripping off, the pilot forgets he can fly up. This ends with Yonggary blasting the chopper with a fireball, though. Romisky is sure her radar screen must be malfunctioning because of all the chopper signals she's losing.

"Eat CGI, you flying jerks!"

Yonggary wipes out several more choppers with his fireballs, so Michaels orders them to break off.  He reports to the Generals that the choppers reported encountering a giant monster. The aliens give the order to "dematerialize Young Gary" and so the immense dinosaur fades from view. Boom Boom takes Murdock aside to tell him that a representative from the expected secret government anti-extraterrestrial agency has arrived. The agent introduces himself as Mr. Mills (Bruce Cornwell) of the N.S.I.A. and explains to the incredulous Murdock that he's not sure if even the president knows of his agency's existence. Mills explains the backstory about Hughes providing them evidence of an advanced alien race visiting Earth 200 million years ago.

Boom Boom gets mad mad when Mills admits the N.S.I.A. knew six months ago that maybe the aliens might one day return, but makes the sensible point that it was pretty unlikely that anyone would have believed that warning before now. Murdock asks how they can stop the aliens, but Mills informs them that some crucial information was taken from their lab and until it is recovered he has no idea. He then suggests capturing the aliens alive, which Boom Boom is not on board with.

They're interrupted then by the report that the spaceship is hovering over the city. (No, they never say which city) Murdock orders troops sent in and then tells Mills to stick around and then heads back to the control room. The satellite uplink has been repaired just in time to get a report of an energy beam from the alien ship striking just outside the city--and then everyone in the control room sees video of Yonggary materializing in the harbor outside the city. Mills mutters something about Hughes being right, but then pretends he knew nothing about this creature.

The alien spaceship is now orbiting the moon--nope, no idea why other than "it looks cool"--and the aliens order their fighters to destroy the satellite that's sending information to the military HQ. Not really sure why it needs to be destroyed now, but doing so deprives the military of their video feed. People in a bridge outside the city stop and gawk at the approaching giant dinosaur, which means they've never seen a kaiju film before. Yonggary smashes through the bridge and then wades into the center of town. For some reason he mainly just walks down a main street as people scream and flee. A motorcycle cop laughably tries to shoot Yonggary, then discovers his radio won't work to call for back-up. So he calls from a clearly not American phone booth, just barely getting in a report of a giant lizard before he has to dive out as Yonggary steps on the booth,

"Wait a minute--I was distinctly promised I would get to destroy a famous city!"

Yonggary then begins smashing buildings. A SWAT team is called in and they try to shoot at him from a rooftop, so he responds to their bullets and shotgun blasts by blasting a hole in the building. All the SWAT guys perish in a fireball. He then shoots fireballs all over the place--including into a crowd of fleeing civilians--causing massive explosions. Finally he takes out a gas station. And, frustratingly, 90% of the destroyed buildings are clearly miniatures and they actually look pretty good. It just makes the awful CGI that brings Yonggary to life that much more egregious.

Hughes and Davis are brought in to HQ and introduced to Murdock. Mills and Hughes have a catty confrontation over Hughes having stolen the discs and Mills having dismissed Hughes as crazy. Archie holds Mills back and Hughes explains that the discs may hold the key to defeating Yonggary. Meanwhile, Yonggary is destroying more of the city and I have less nice things to say about the miniatures in this segment, but at least they don't look like a cartoon. A hotdog cart is taken out by a runaway car, Yonggary knocks the spire off a skyscraper, A squad of ground troops engages Yonggary with bazookas, assault rifles, and 9mm handguns (!) but they just get to do fireball somersaults for their troubles.

Mills tries to flee the HQ, but Murdock won't let him out and has Archie place him under guard. Thomas calls in air support for the ground troops, in this case a squad of F-16s. In a truly odd bit, a bus full of children (in the dead of night?!) sees Yonggary approaching and he smashes the bridge in front of them, but the driver successfully jumps the gap--and then Yonggary sends fireball after fireball at the bus, destroying the bridge behind it but the bus manages to escape as the kids inside jump up and down excitedly yelling "yay!" in front of the fireball that almost killed them. What the Hell, kids?!

The F-16 squad leader reminds them to avoid collateral damage--and then the first plane misses both shots. The second fighter also misses with his missiles and angrily wonders how they're missing. The next fighter hits him in the chest, but the remaining shots all go way over Yonggary's head! He begins returning fire and I notice during the radio chatter that one of the pilots is a woman, which is kind of a cool little detail. Yonggary takes at least three planes out, the last one crashing into a gas truck on the ground and making a huge explosion.

Next, Yonggary takes out another plane and someone yells, "They got Mad Dog!" Then, after the missiles all failed to do anything to their target, the fighters try switching to guns. Obviously that fails, so they switch to sidewinders. This also fails because they keep fucking missing! Now, this is just a damned odd approach. Obviously Yonggary is a more traditional kaiju with the expected invulnerability to conventional weapons--so why they hell are they having the pilots missing like in Godzilla, too?! Though at least here Yonggary is destroying as many buildings when he returns fire as the incompetent military are.

The president calls Murdock and apparently demands the attack be called off to minimize the damage. Except Murdock then says that in roughly four hours the president has ordered a nuclear strike on Yonggary. Boom Boom points out the obvious downside of that plan, but Murdock just says they're under orders. The planes are still fighting Yonggary, though, but they're running out of missiles. As they plan one last strike, Yonggary's forehead suddenly glows and he writhes in pain like his head is hurting--and then he teleports away, which causes one plane to crash into a skyscraper. Which, oof, would be an uncomfortable visual shortly after its release.

At HQ, the Generals discuss a report that Yonggary had some kind of energy field around him that deflected their missiles. As they agonize over whether the beast has any weaknesses, Davis and Hughes are going over a program to translate the disc's hieroglyphics. He puts his jacket over her, which Hollywood has conditioned me to interpret as a romantic gesture and that makes me severely uncomfortable. He tells her the "code word" for the program is "Daddy Loves E.T." No, he's not kidding, he assures Davis.

The translation doesn't really help, just telling them that Yonggary will be given flesh and blood and this new race, called man, will be destroyed by his own intelligence. Wait, the aliens foretold the evolution of humans at a time when the Earth hadn't even evolved shrews yet? At any rate, Murdock asks Thomas if the experimental laser project, T-Force, could penetrate the force field around Yonggary. Thomas counters it's too early in the development process to use that technology and that the jet packs used for that project haven't even been safety tested yet. Murdock orders him to gather their T-Force anyway. Boom Boom then calls for Hughes.

Hughes is busy realizing through the translation that the aliens are using Young Gary as a tool to destroy the Earth, whereupon the aliens will be given new life upon it...somehow. Hilariously, they come upon a reference that says, "The dinosaur shall raise his head and the damon on his forehead will shine." As they puzzle over what a "damon" is, Davis finds a diamond shaped object in Hughes' coat. He explains he found it in the alien cave and Davis realizes that damon is actually diamond. Apparently aliens can't spell for shit.

Davis then realizes she saw the same diamond pattern on Young Gary's forehead and produces the sketch she made of his skull at the dig site. The hieroglyphics end by saying that once the diamond is destroyed, "another light" shall be sent in Yonggary's place. That can't be good. Looking at the clock counting down from 2 hours and 40 minutes until the nuclear strike--because apparently the nuke is just going to be fired at the city even if Yonggary is technically not there anymore, I guess--Thomas advises Murdock that Parker and his T-Force are in position. He makes a joke about their odds in Vegas, but then assures Murdock they're going to win.

Yonggary's signal is reacquired just then. The T-Force is scrambled and loaded into a transport helicopter. In the chopper, Parker gives his St. Crispin's Day speech. Hilariously, a ranger named Lewis (Marvin Poole) gets up and says he wants out because he's scared and doesn't think he can do this. Parker points out that Lewis is responsible for the Hellraiser, which appears to be a minigun, and asks who's qualified to handle it if Lewis steps down. O'Neill stands up says that he can operate the Hellraiser. Parker objects but O'Neill talks him into letting him take over.

In the HQ, as Hughes and Davis arrive to state the obvious (re: Yonggary being alien weapon of mass destruction), it's revealed that Yonggary's position is at the Gleason nuclear plant. Davis observes it makes sense if the aliens want to cause a radioactive catastrophe and kill all life around the plant. The chopper is rerouted to the coordinates as we then see the space ship firing the blast that makes Yonggary appear. So, uh, how was the military tracking that, exactly? In a bit that hilariously presages the HALO jump in Godzilla, the T-Force troops all load up and jump from the chopper. Except instead of flares on their ankles, they're leaving colored trails because they're all wearing silly jet packs!

"I call dibs on Jennifer Connelly!"
"Fine, but I got dibs on Timothy Dalton!"

They zip around Yonggary, annoying him but staying out of his reach. As they group up, Parker says, "Remember, compared to this guy, Godzilla is a pussy!" Wow. Wow, Yonggary, implying your Godzilla rip-off is more badass than the real deal, huh? At any rate, they begin their attack with their little pew-pew laser rifles that function like machine guns. They're able to dodge Yonggary at first, but then he begins to pick them off with his fireballs. Meanwhile, Davis and Hughes show Murdock the "damon" because for some reason they've decided to accept the aliens' spelling error, and explain that it's a device that controls Young Gary on his forehead. In theory, then, the T-Forces could take out the control device. So Parker and his men begin trying to shoot for the diamond. In execution ti doesn't look any different from them shooting wildly at him and they're taking heavy losses, but somehow the aliens react with, "They've discovered the damon," and teleport Yonggary away.

Hilariously, everyone in the control room begins interrogating Mills about the diamond. Equally as hilarious, despite Mills acting shady he seriously doesn't know anything when Boom Boom grabs him by the lapels and threatens him. However, somehow the group realizes that Yonggary is being tracked by the aliens because he generates an energy signature (umm, what?) and maybe they can track ti with infrared. Sure, okay, just start making wild leaps in logic, movie.

Sure enough, when Parker flicks on his infrared tracking he sees what looks like a blue energy tornado moving through the desert. (Never mind that blue usually equals cold on an infrared readout) Parker reports in that Yonggary is heading back to the city. And then Murdock gets a call from the president that, with 90 minutes left on the countdown clock, the president has ordered the nuclear bomber deployed. Of course, when we see the bomber being loaded and taxied down the runway it's an F-117 stealth fighter, not a bomber. I know this because I always thought F-117 was the coolest looking plane ever. I mean, it's also kind of a lemon, but it looks cool.

The rocket troops pursue the Yonggary signal through the desert, which is rendered with a lot of adorable miniatures. Mills, meanwhile, is making a furtive call to "Mr. Speaker" saying that the order for the nuclear strike has been given and, as he sees it, once Yonggary is destroyed the aliens will be forced to land and then they will be able to capture them. That's...that's assuming a lot, even for a duplicitous spook character. At any rate, Yonggary rematerializes in the city, which naturally is still chock full of fleeing civilians and normal traffic patterns despite earlier dialogue about evacuations in progress. The T-Force engages, but mostly get wiped out. Parker dodges several fireballs but the last one causes him to lose control and crash land.

An enraged O'Neill yells insults at Yonggary while firing the Hellraiser, stuff like not getting enough attention as a tadpole and calling him "Dino." Soon only O'Neill is left alive and against Parker's orders, he makes a death run on Yonggary. When Yonggary begins to teleport away again, O'Neill discards his gun and pushes the throttle all the way on his jet pack to suicide bomb the diamond on the beast's forehead. Yonggary stops dematerializing and when an angry Parker starts shooting at him, the beast just reacts with confusion but not aggression. An alarming number of people start crowding around the beast, including a shot of several of them superimposed next to an obvious prop tail that looks way better than the CGI. Parker is confused that Yonggary doesn't want to attack him.

Then a new squadron of F-16s swoops in, Parker tries to radio them to call off their attack, but it's too late. Yonggary dodges their rockets, though, but then they hit buildings that start to topple over onto Parker and the civilians crowding around. Except Yonggary steps in and stops the buildings from falling over. Okay, wow, that's a bit of a jump from "basically gentle monster made an unwitting pawn of evil" to "he's the friend to all children humans." In the HQ, Davis and Hughes observe that Young Gary is on their side now, as the counter ticks down from 28 minutes, Mills, though, insists they kill Yonggary, but the Generals find his motives suspicious and orders the jets away while calling the president to advise that Yonggary is under control. Nobody notices Mills grabbing something from his pocket...

Yonggary: better at saving innocent people than Man of Steel.

The aliens, having realized they lost control of Young Gary, give the order to activate Psychor. Well, it;s actually supposed to be "Cyker" per the official romanization, bu the alien says it "Sigh-Core." Another energy beam is fired at the city, which materializes into a huge fireball that zooms into the city and sets off an Independencee Day-style explosion when it hits the city. Some of this is nfity but crude model work, some is CGI, and it knocks Yonggary ass over tea kettle but we don't see it affect the humans we just saw by his feet. (They're all dead now, presumably) And even though I saw this film back around 2002, it's only now that I begin to wonder if Godzilla: Final Wars  was ripping this movie off. First there's the alien fighter craft in both films looking like arrowheads crossed with fangs and now there's an enemy monster arriving in a meteorite that blows up the city when it lands.

Communications at HQ is cut off by some interference--which turns out to be from Mills. And in the city, an F-16 buzzes over an unconscious Yonggary just as an earthquake begins to shake some miniatures that have fallen between "awful" and "good" to land on "charming." Books fall over in stores, cars rock, and signs fall off buildings. Yonggary struggles to his feet--just as something tears through the ground under the street like a giant Graboid, killing a few people who didn't think to turn and leave the street instead of trying to outrun it. Meanwhile, everyone in HQ approaches Mills carefully, as he warns that his jammer is locked and if he smashes it they'll never get their screens back. Which, uh, I don't think is how a jammer works, actually.

Mills wants A) Yonggary dead and B) to be let out of the HQ. The standoff continues but I don;t give a shit. Meanwhile, giant crab claws burst out of the street as a monster pulls itself up out of the concrete. But we cut away again to HQ as Murdock gives Mills the code to open the door and escape--only to find Archie waiting for him. The device is tossed to Davis and Mills is beaten up by Archie and dragged away.

As Cyker rises up from the street, Parker makes the nonsensical observation that, "This place is turning into a prehistoric petting zoo." Cyker appears to be a cross between an ankylosaurus and a scorpion, with four hind legs and two pincers for arms. And in another clue that this was originally meant to star men in suits, there is no doubt that Cyker's design was intended to be brought to life by two men doing the horse routine--even his legs bend at the knees like human legs would,

Kaiju Centipede: Final Wars Sequence

Cyker charges at Yonggary, just missing him and the two spit fireballs at each other. Cyker's are clearly more destructive, but both miss. The two grapple, but Yonggary ends up being tossed through two buildings. They grapple again and again Cyker gains the upper claw--especially once he shoots Yonggary with his electric tail laser. Yonggary goes limp after that and Cyker moves in for the kill, only for Parker to distract the beast with his laser rifle. That very nearly gets Parker killed instead, but Yonggary recovers and blows Cyker's right arm off with a fireball.

Except Cyker sprouts tentacles from the stump. The tentacles snare Yonggary and then electrocute him. Davis calls for Young Gary to "get up" after he collapses. Well, he doesn't. However, when Cyker moves in for the kill, Yonggary dodges the killing blow, then a fireball--and returns fire, blowing Cyker's head off. (Dig the prop severed head and, again, weep for the lost practical effects that probably did not look like shit) Unfortunately, Cyker is not dead--and Romisky's angry reaction is hilarious.

"Oh God, I did not agree to this!"

Well, when the headless Cyker charges towards Yonggary and lashes out with tentacles from the head stump, Yonggary dodges this time. He bites the tentacles in two and then spits a fireball into the stump after they retract--and Cyker's body explodes. Yonggary collapses as everyone in HQ cheers, only to realize that in 2 minutes they're gonna get nuked, So they radio the bomber with the abort codes and call off the strike just in time.

The aliens decide it's time to beat a hasty retreat before Yonggary discovers his true strength, but swear to return and defeat the humans later. Guys, you had a 200 million  year head start on us and you still lost. They go to warp speed as Boom Boom happily lights a cigar and everyone congratulates each other and thanks Young Gary for his work. And then the unconscious Yonggary flies by, suspended from cables attached to a fleet of helicopters. (An idea clearly lifted from the unproduced Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott Godzilla screenplay in the 90s, as well as King Kong vs. Godzilla) Apparently he's being airlifted to a deserted island to allow him time to get used to the 21st Century. The End.

"This prank is the best! We airlift the sleeping monster away and then he wakes up with no fucking clue where he is!"

So, I went pretty easy on The X From Outer Space because it's not a good film but it's still fun and I find its monster action charming. I feel the same way about Yongary, Monster From The Deep, only moreso. It's a delightfully silly, wrongheaded movie that famously ends with its titular monster appearing to die from rectal hemorrhaging.

Well, this version will make you long for rectal hemorrhaging.

Director Shim Hyung-rae is best known these days for unleashing Dragon Wars on the world. Like this film, that later effort was entirely populated by English-speaking actors reciting dialogue clearly not written by someone who understood English. However, I cannot over emphasize how much better a film that Dragon Wars is for several reasons:

One, Dragon Wars has CGI effects that are surprisingly good. Two, its plot and script are absolutely bonkers.

While the second thing may not sound like a positive, it absolutely is. While Yonggary has a plot that is certainly odd and often nonsensical, it's still incredibly pedestrian and rote. While it may throw you the occasional curve ball like rocket troopers, it's still a very familiar monster tale and one you've seen done before and better. So it's too bland to be entertaining on the merits of seeing what crazy turn it'll take next, and it's neither gloriously terrible nor competent enough to be good.

For one thing, while many of the actors are terrible, few of them are ever terrible in an entertaining way. Most are clearly competent professionals but receiving unclear direction. The special effects are all terrible, yes, but they're terrible in a way that is somehow hard to truly make fun of. This isn't seeing an exploding model plane flip around on its wire, it's just eye-scratchingly bad CGI. While I have actually seen that be amusingly bad, this is not one of those times. It's just bad. Especially since the filmmakers rarely actually use the CGI to do anything they couldn't have done easier and better with a guy in a suit! I mean, both Yonggary and Cyker move like men in suits but they're rendered in CGI anyway.

And that's really too bad, because without the awful CGI that final fight could actually have been pretty awesome. The choreography was pretty sweet and, even though I'm still way more partial to the original Yonggary's design, I have to say the monster designs are really good. It's just a shame they're wasted the way they are. Though at least those puppet aliens are awesome. I wish they got more screen time.

Ultimately, this is a ridiculous film that isn't ridiculous enough. It gets bogged down in the stuff none of us care about and fails to deliver on the stuff we came here for--and when it does deliver, the awful CGI effects shoot it in the foot.

I recommend skipping this one unless you're an absolute kaiju completist. There's some material in it for riffing, but not nearly enough to make it worth the trouble. Stick with the original, since at least there the bad effects are charmingly bad and the moments it goes bonkers are actually bonkers.

Today's review brought to you by the letter Y! Hit the banner above to see what the other Celluloid Zeroes chose for Y!

Only one more day of HubrisWeen, folks! Will our trusty Celluloid Zeroes all make it? Tune in to find out!