Movie Review - Monster Island

With Halloween having just gone by, monster movies were all the rage. From blockbuster horror movies to small screen fun flicks, monsters are always in when October comes around. Along with the bigger names though, there are also some lesser known projects that work their way in. One of those lower-profile projects I happened across was a 3D animated film called Monster Island. It looked interesting when I happened across it, but will others find it so?

Let’s look at Monster Island.

STORY

The movie focuses on a boy named Lucas and his father Nicolas (no last name given). They live a normal life in a regular city (also no name given), until a Halloween party where Lucas turns into a monster in front of everybody. Nicolas then reveals that he is secretly a monster too and they both come from an island of monsters called Caldera. Angry at having been kept in the dark for so long, Lucas runs away from home to find Caldera and discover his true heritage, with Nicolas following soon after to make sure his son is safe.

That’s about as much as I can explain before diving into spoilers.

The story raises a lot of questions. Why did they leave the island in the first place? What happened to Lucas’s mother? While some of the questions raised get answered, others, particularly minor ones, don’t, but they’re mostly just side details that don’t have a direct impact on the main plot. Speaking of the main plot though, once the setting shifts from the human city to Caldera, the plot takes a few different twists and turns, especially as certain characters get introduced, and this creepy comedy gets a few more action sequences thrown in. 

Looking at this story, it draws a few comparisons to some other movies, particularly Firebreather, a story about a half-human/half-kaiju (don’t think too hard on that) who has a mostly normal life as a high schooler until stuff happens and he is forced to embrace his monster side. While comparisons to other movies do show up, Monster Island isn’t as blatant or egregious about it as other movies and while a movie like Firebreather establishes quickly that it wants to be more action-focused, Monster Island gets to it later in the story, but hints at it earlier on. It wants to try more to build up the events to the main climax at the end.

CHARACTERS

At the beginning of the movie, when Lucas is still going to high school, before the ill-fated Halloween party, you see a lot of typical high school archetypes. There’s the jerk jock, the bullied nerd, the stuck-up hot girl, and Lucas is basically the everyman. As the plot continues, we see more of Lucas’s personality as he is an adventurous person who’s not afraid to take risks and doesn’t want to wait to do what he thinks he needs to do. His father Nicolas is the same way. While a lot of his motivation may have to with keeping his son safe, he also shows a bit of his own adventurous side as well over the course of the story. The other important characters in this movie, who I won’t elaborate on for spoiler reasons, fit their roles relatively well, but apart from two, none of them stand out from the roles they play.

VISUALS & AUDIO

The visuals in this movie are a bit odd. Comparing the city at the start of the movie with the island of Caldera, there are a lot of clear differences and I’m not sure if all of them are intentional. In the city, some of the buildings stand at weird angles and have weird colorations. Granted, these are buildings in the background, but it stands out when compared to a town in Caldera, where all the buildings are standing up straight. In fact, in one shot at the start of the movie, there are several buildings that seem to lean in strange angles and only two small buildings don’t, one of them being the one Lucas and Nicolas live in. I’m not sure if this was just rushed animation or a design choice to subtly show how Lucas really belongs in Caldera and not in the human city.

Speaking of Caldera, this is clearly a monster island. All the monsters on the island have a variety of different looks and attributes, with some looking like classic mythology creatures and some looking like they were inspired by movies like Monsters Inc. or The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even some of the plant life looks monstrous with some of the tropical plants looking like they have eyes, or tentacles, or mouths full of fangs. Compare this to the regular looking human characters and the city they live in at the start of the movie and you can clearly see what part of this movie the animators were really looking forward to.

As far as the audio goes, it does its job, but doesn’t really stand out. For the most part, the music isn’t that memorable, but it doesn’t pull you out of the film either. The exceptions here are when the film decides to insert a couple of pop songs into a couple of different scenes. They’re okay songs on their own, but here, they feel out of place. For the voice work, again, it does its job, but they aren’t standout performances.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Monster Island is an okay film to watch, especially around Halloween if you have young kids and you’re looking for something both monstrous and obscure. The story could definitely use some work in a few places, it could stand to fill a few plot holes, and this kind of story was done better in other movies, but the visuals and the designs on the monsters and the titular monster island are trick-or-treat eye-candy, especially if you like different kinds of creatures. It’s not the best thing out there, but it’s not the worst either.

 

FINAL SCORE: 3/5

REPLAY VALUE: MODERATELY LOW

10 Concepts for New Darkstalkers Characters

The Darkstalkers series is one of Capcom's most beloved series. Despite not having a new game in several years (though fans have been requesting one for several years), this series about monsters and demons of different kinds engaging in action-packed combat still gets attention in other forms like crossover games and comic books, including a recent comic crossover with the Street Fighter series.

If (or when) Darkstalkers does get a new game, one of the big things fans will get excited for is not only which characters are returning, but what kinds of new characters will join the roster. Since the characters in Darkstalkers are based heavily on classical monsters or horror movie tropes we can figure out a few ideas for what kinds of characters might make good additions.

DISCLAIMER: The following is NOT a Top 10 list. These entries are in no particular order and are not an all-inclusive list of all the ideas that could apply to this topic.

Here are 10 Concepts for New Darkstalkers Characters

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1. A Skeleton

The ranks of the undead are nothing new to Darkstalkers with vampires, ghosts, and zombies running around. So, they could add another archetype to this list and make a skeleton character. Spinal from Killer Instinct and Dry Bones and Dry Bowser from Super Mario show that interesting characters can be made with skeletons. In Darkstalkers, it could be the skeleton of a powerful mage or a large powerful demon and the bones could be reanimated by the spirit attached to them.

2. A Mad Scientist

There technically already is a mad scientist in the Darkstalkers canon, with Doctor von Gerdenheim being the creator of Victor, but as far as a playable mad scientist, there is no shortage of ideas here. They can use a bunch of high-tech gadgets, they can have an army of creatures that do some of his attacks for him, or they can go the Jekyll and Hyde route and have him able to turn into a monster mid-match. He could even just be a human scientist that turned himself into a monster, like he became obsessed with the monsters from the Makai Realm and it reached a point where he wanted to be one of them. The sky’s the limit for some of these concepts.

3. A Witch

The theme of Darkstalkers is horror-inspired fighting characters, characters that wouldn’t look out of place in a Halloween-themed fighting tournament. On that note, it's a bit surprising that there hasn’t been a witch added to the cast yet. Gameplay wise, having a spellcaster character can open the door for a lot of different playstyles. Story wise, having some human characters able to cast magic or even connect to the energies of the Makai Realm can raise some good potential plot points.

(On a personal note, my first exposure to the Darkstalkers characters was the crossover game Pocket Fighter for the PS1. At the time, I thought that Tessa from Red Earth (who was also playable) was a witch character from the same series as Morrigan and Felicia. After finding out later that she was from a completely different series, I was a bit disappointed that a character like this wasn’t made yet for Darkstalkers.)

4. A Slasher

While a lot of the Darkstalkers characters are based on classic horror tropes, some of the more modern takes on the genre have a lot to offer as well. With Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13^th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween just to name a few examples, slashers are modern titans of terror. Often portrayed as insane or undead brutes with large weapons and a strong desire to use them on unsuspecting victims, a large heavy-hitting character can easily be made from concepts like this.

Just ask Netherrealm Studios if you need proof.

5. A Dragon

Dragons are less associated with horror as they are with fantasy (unless you count Godzilla or some of the other kaiju as dragons), but even then, dragons are creatures that embody power in just about any medium they appear in. In so many fantasy stories, dragons are seen as the main villain, the main hero, or an otherwise powerful and imporant presence within the world. With the large variety of powerful creatures roaming the Makai, it would make sense that at least a few dragons or dragon-like creatures would be flying across the landscape, ready to use their claws, fangs, and breath weapons on whoever dares to threaten them.

6. A Goblin (or Squad of Goblins)

Like dragons, goblins are more of a mainstay of fantasy than horror, but portrayed the right way, goblins can be terrifying in their own right. They are small, green skinned humanoids who can be very ruthless and violent attackers when they want to be, especially when in groups. The height of these creatures might be a challenge to work with, but Capcom could make characters like Roll and Viewtiful Joe work in rosters filled with tall, normally proportioned characters, so it can happen. Goblins are best known for attacking in groups, but having a squad of goblins can be worked in by having a main playable one call in the others through special moves

7. An Ogre

If you think that goblins just can’t work in a fighting game setting, a big, brutish ogre might fit a little better. Another popular pick for fantasy settings, ogres are known for being big, green, dirty-looking brawlers that are strong, tough, and known to carry large weapons. There’s a lot of room in that for some creative interpretation and that’s not even getting into oni, which when looked at a certain way, can be shown as Japanese ogres with magical powers.

8. A Dullahan

With anime series like Durarara and Monster Musume, the headless humanoid known as the dullahan has been getting more attention in pop culture as of late. It has had a history in ancient stories as a bringer of death or misfortune, which would make it a good candidate for this fighting series. A character like this can go one of two potential ways. The first is to go the traditional mythological route and exploring the roots of this creature with the fae and Celtic mythology. The second is to pull inspiration from the story of the Headless Horseman. They could give him a jack-o-lantern for a head or maybe have his real head sitting off to the side during a match, like Anita does with Donovan.

9. A Harpy

Darkstalkers is no stranger to using creatures from world mythology instead of popular horror picks, since it helps to bring in some unexpected creatures to fill out the roster in-game and easily add more to the world of the story. So, with characters with fur or scales already either in the roster or on this list, how about one with feathers? The harpy is a creature from Greek mythology who has been seen in the past as a tormentor, a filthy beast, or a controller of the winds and has recently been given more attention in anime, video games, and even some American comics. A creature like this can easily be adapted into an aerial fighter similar to Firebrand in Marvel vs. Capcom or Wrastor from Rivals of Aether.

There’s a “sky’s the limit” joke here, but I’d rather not.

10. A Blob Monster

Slimes are very variable characters, ranging from cannon fodder enemies in fantasy games like Dragon Quest to front-and-center menaces in horror movies like The Blob. Some even manage to become characters with personalities like Zac from League of Legends. They can be stretchy and rubbery or acidic and dissolving everything in their path. They can be mindless eating machines or intelligent beings with complex motivations. This concept is practically a blank slate to create a good character around.

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What did you think about this list? What monsters do you think would make good Darkstalkers characters? How much are you hoping that Capcom will make a Darkstalkers 4? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming!