RAIGA, GOD OF MONSTERS: MAN IN SUIT!

Not long ago in a Facebook page I belong to discussing exploitation and drive-in movies someone mentioned that there were no longer companies like American International Pictures (AIP) that created some of the most enduring low budget horror and monster movies of all time. Those movies have given way to bloated budget films and an overuse of computer generated images (CGI) with little creativity to be seen. Sure those old movies had some terrible acting but at least they tried to do something new.

 

I thought about all of that while watching RAIGA: GOD OF MONSTERS. The movie is an obvious rip off of the classic Godzilla movies complete with an energy spewing dinosaur type creature who rises from the sea instilling fear in the people of Japan. This time around the cause for his rising is global warming, just to keep things current.

After destroying much of the nearby town near the waters he rose from, Raiga returns when new giant monsters threaten the area. Now he goes from monster to savior as he saves the town from being completely destroyed while doing a little damage along the way.

It’s difficult trying to decide just what kind of movie this is. While the obvious choice is a kaiju (Japanese giant monsters) film most of its time is played for laughs coming from a character who sells t-shirts of the monster, seems to be in charge of the town council and runs around with a group of young just past teen groupies. To say something in lost in translation here is an understatement.

At the same time the movie has that simplistic charm of those old Godzilla movies most of us grew up with on Saturday mornings and afternoons. They were unbelievable and not to be taken seriously. This one definitely falls into that category. My guess is if you grew up with those films you’ll find something to enjoy with this one. The rest of the world maybe not quite.

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