K21-The "Legend of Dinosaurs"

Film Year:  1977
Genre:  Kaiju, Horror
Director:  Junji Kurata
Starring:  Tsunehiko Watase, Nobiko Sawa, Shotaro Hayashi
MST Season:  KTMA

The Movie

Originally released in Japan as Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds (because dinosaurs need that added bump of monster birds), this movie tells of a plesiosaur being awakened from a prehistoric slumber and begins to eat just about anybody in its way.  To make matters worse, a pterodactyl awakens not long after and begins to do the same thing.  Because there is no other storyline, the two meet at the very end and Japan is all…

Okay, here is what bugs me about this movie.  We have a movie about giant reptiles that eat people, that’s fair enough.  Great and fun movies have been made about monstrous beasts preying on humans (Jaws) and even Japan has some under its belt (War of the Gargantuas).  If this movie were just that, I could ride with it.  The tone of the movie is the problem, specifically the tone of the music.  It seems that the director of the movie itself and the film composer aren’t on the same page.  The film is directed as a dark horror movie that aims to unsettle, the music seems like Muzak.  For example, halfway through the movie there is a woman in a life raft relaxing on the lake, when a plesiosaur appears, chews off her leg, knocks her around in a playful, manner, and finally eats her, and all of this plays out in long, graphic shots and in slow motion.  Adding in the strange music selection for this scene, this no longer feels like a horror movie.  Taking the music, the editing, and the direction into account, every aspect of this scene feels like a porno.  It gives this weird vibe that the violence in this movie is pornographic, and it’s…a very odd sensation indeed.

And the MST gang thought The Creeping Terror was an odd fetish movie.  It has nothing on Legend of Dinosaurs.

For kaiju enthusiasts like myself, the dinosaur scenes are sometimes cool though sometimes very silly, just the way we like them.  One bit of unintentional laughter comes at the end where the pterodactyl attempts to confuse the plesiosaur by jumping up and down rapidly.  But the effort is there and the dinosaurs are fairly decent props.  The movie itself is just a stumble of bad choices ruining the fun, all coming to a halt with a stunningly long climax that is both goofy and boring where the Earth shatters and lava swallows the dinosaurs while threatening our human cast.

When all is said and done, there is effort in Legend of Dinosaurs, but the movie just isn’t fun.

The Episode

Here we are on the final episode of KTMA’s run with the show, and the crew clearly has a more defined idea of what the series should be at this point.  While still impromptu, Joel and the bots fire rapidly in every direction, allowing for barely a silent moment.  Not all of it is great, but there are solid laughs to be had.  They particularly seem to be in a musical mood, singing everything from theme songs to jingles.  They aren’t afraid to get dark when the movie does, and they don’t seem to flinch at its most somber imagery.  What’s sad is that they barely even scratch the big faults of the film and just go for safe “fakey special effects” and “uh-oh, you’re dinner” type of riffs.  Legend of Dinosaurs might have been prime for a remake in season three, along with other films in the Sandy Frank package, but alas we can only dream of what might have been.

Host segments peak early on as the Mads concoct a scheme to boost rating by creating a “Joel is dead” rumor, ala the Beatles.  There are fun segments about special effects, but a lot of our time outside of the theater kind of sits there blandly.

Poopie!:  Apparently segments one and three aired in the wrong order, since the first segment refers to the third as happening earlier.

It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly how I feel about this episode.  There are moments where Joel and the bots are witty and clever and others where they’re just DOA.  The movie itself offers some funny special effects and weird tonal problems, but is unpleasant.  The question really is which side wins out?  The boys bring just enough fun to the table for me to say this one is worthwhile.

Good