ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1958) directed by Bert I. Gordon
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This is the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man (1957).

SPOILER: I'm giving away a lot here about the ending to the first film, so if you haven't seen that one and wish to be held in suspense about how it all ends (when you finally watch it), don't read any further.

Someone (meaning director Gordon) must have thought things out all the way through a possible sequel while still making the 1st film.

Near the end of the 1st film, one of the Colossal Man's problems were solved with a giant needle and they never saw his dead body at the conclusion (after he took a big fall). So, it's all quite feasible that he returned in this sequel — albeit a bit worse for wear.

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This is a very short film and has about 5 minutes of flashbacks to the first film, so new footage totals about 65 minutes.

As it is, it moves quickly, the action begins pretty early and there are few slow spots. There is no sign of the fiance here; instead, the ex-colonel's sister is now trying to locate him. The giant man is now a giant beast, horribly scarred on the right side of his face and with a new I.Q. of roughly a bear.

Gordon managed to make him quite grating on the ears, amplifying (rightly so) the noises he makes, which consist of growling and grunting. He is more menacing here than in the previous film and you truly fear for some characters in a couple of scenes.

The FX are the same, of course. The story is very simple, with the giant captured a couple of times and then escaping. The ending switches to color in the last minute.

[Bongopete]

Darn kids on the bus!!! Where's Pepe when you need him??

This might be totally wayyyyy out there . . . but for some reason . . . somewhere around the time that the truck with meat is picked up and destroyed . . . for some reason I keep thinking that the woman and the . . . love interest? Find giant scat while they are looking for the giant.

Surely I'm wrong, they wouldn't have put this in the movie would they? What is it they find that leads them to believe they are on the right track?

[Bud Brewster]

It's after midnight and I'm too lazy to get out the DVD and check this, but I think they found the remnants of the food that was on the truck the giant was chasing in the opening scene.

Or maybe it was cattle bones. Not sure.

But finding a big pile of Amazing Colossal Crap would have been pretty funny.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Bogmeister started this thread back during the first week this newest version of All Sci-Fi was created in December 2013. His post is at the top, of course.

But I discovered that three years before that, in March 2010, Bogmeister added a completely different review to his own board!

I decided to add the post I rescued from his "Lost Board" to the thread he started here, just for fun.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

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______ ____ War of the Colossal Beast | Trailer


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This is the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man (1957).
Someone (meaning director Bert I. Gordon) must have thought things out all the way through to a possible sequel while still making the first film.

Near the end of the first film, one of the Colossal Man's problems were solved with a giant needle and they never saw his dead body at the conclusion (after he took a big fall). So, it's all quite feasible that he returned in this sequel — albeit a bit worse for wear.


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This is a very short film and has about 5 minutes of flashbacks to the first film, so new footage totals about 65 minutes.

As it is, it moves quickly, the action begins pretty early and there are few slow spots. There is no sign of the fiance here; instead, the ex-colonel's sister is now trying to locate him.

The giant man is now a giant beast, horribly scarred on the right side of his face and with a new I.Q. of roughly a bear. Gordon managed to make him quite grating on the ears, amplifying (rightly so) the noises he makes, which consist of growling and grunting.

He is more menacing here than in the previous film and you truly fear for some characters in a couple of scenes. The FX are the same, of course. The story is very simple, with the giant captured a couple of times and then escaping.

The ending switches to color in the last minute.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Wikipedia's article has a section dealing with what film critics said about this movie. It's pretty funny.
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Reception

Contemporary film fan-historians Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester noted that the film was "... a low-budget ship with Bert Gordon at the helm, so the special effects are unsurprisingly average; one always knows the 'giant' was filmed separately and mixed in with other shots".
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Think about that last sentence. Did Holston and Winchester expect Bert I. Gordon to find an actually giant for the role?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[ralfy]

1080p upscaled:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgwgnj5K9x0