Speed Kills : or, How fast was that Monster going?

[Flangepart]

Have you guys ever realised how slow some monsters move? The original Mummy was a sourch of humor on that account. Make a good gag: The mummy bursts through a door....the girl runs off....the mummy gives chase....she makes it out onto the moor....the mummy is chaseing...she gets bored...the mummy is slogging on....she looks at her watch, and rolls her eyes.....a dog grabs his bandages , and starts dragging his ass backwards.....girl calls a cab. See what i mean? If a monster is realy powerful, he may be hard to block, but if you got a clear run, go for it! See....Godzilla is unstopable, but he's relitivly slow. Sure, giant strides, but if your not fleeing on foot.....floor the accelerator and haul ass! However....that don't work With Gamera! Or Rodan, or Gaos (Great review ,Andrew!), and so my guestion is....what is the fastest monster (All size classes allowed), and do you prefer fast beasties, or slow building stompers? Does it impress you when a beastie combines size and power? Gamera has that...what others come to mind? Wolfman, Grabboids,....like that.

[Cullen]

The fastest monster I can personally think of is the Raston warrior robot in the Doctor Who episode, "The Five Doctors."  Darts around faster than the eye could see.  (One of the worst creatures of the series, actually.)

As to fast or slow, the fast monsters tend to be more excited visually, but there is something about the slow ones.  The ones that don't feel the need to rush, who don't care how fast you run or who you might try to get to help you.  They know they're going to get you, no matter where you go...what you do...

[AkiraTubo]

You'd assume that King Ghidora, Gigan, and even Space Godzilla can fly faster than the speed of light, seeing as how they travel in space.

I don't think Godzilla would be all that slow, really.  If he ever decided to run, a 50-100 meter tall (depending on the version) creature would have a pretty good foot speed.

[Gerry]

The aliens in PITCH BLACK moved pretty fast, and there were so damn many of them!

[AndyC]

I would add Gamera to the list of monsters capable of interplanetary travel. The medium through which the monster is moving is very important. Spacefaring monsters are not necessarily as fast on the ground. Godzilla is fast in the water, but lumbers across land.

I suppose the argument of whether a monster is fast or slow also depends on the context. Graboids move faster than a man can run. Not terribly fast, except that they're burrowing through the earth. That's pretty impressive.

I have to go with slow monsters as my favourite. In the case of the big ones, it makes them more realistic. The bigger the animal, the slower it moves. A hummingbird can beat its wings faster than an eagle. It's physics.

For human-sized monsters (or even big ones), slow is also far more dramatic. Jason Voorhees seems more relentless when he moves at a brisk walk than he would if he were running. His panicking victims stumble and fall and run into things, while he calmly pursues them at a steady pace. The calm determination to kill is what makes the character.