Don't P.O. the Ymir! Or; Sympathy for the beastie.

[Flangepart]

I gotta agree with Andrew. The Ymir is one rightious dude. He has good reason to kick ass!
How many other creatures have had that as a justification for their behavior? King Kong would seem to fit the bill. Sure, he's just a bad ass beast, but if left in his native jungle, he'd be no threat to N.Y.C.
Dangerious animals might be doing bad things to people, but if the people made such events possable through greed and ego, then the beast is just doing what its programmed to do. Its not guilty, as guilt is a word reserved for humans and other intelligent creatures. Like Burke in "Aliens", the company man who got what he deserved, even though the Marines and Ripley did not. They were victems of the Company and Burke in specific.

Sooooo....what other beasties do you have a soft spot for, in your demented lil B-movie minds?

[Scott0]

This is a good topic! It's fun to watch movies where you feel the antagonist monster's actions are justified. Some movies that I've seen that fit this bill would be Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. Orville was being subjected to so much crap for being dead by that jerk leader of the group, I was just waiting for him to rise on up and do what everyone in he audience wanted to do. Way to go Orville!

Plan 9 From Outer Space may be able to fit into this category due to fact that the aliens were protecting the entire universe when they began to terrorize the people of Earth. It may be a stretch at first glance, but once you go into detail on the alien's reasoning behind their presence on Earth, you begin to see a whole new story told from a different perspective unfold.

Basically any Godzilla movie would fit into this topic as well. That's why the beast became so popular in the first place! He destroyed things because people were p**sing him off!

Scottie

[Gerry]

I love this movie too.

One interesting bit of trivia:  Harryhausen's elephant's trunk is disproportionately long compared to a real animal--so long it would drag on the ground if the animal were at rest.  Presumably, RH emphasized it for dramatic purposes.

[JohnL]

I was always sad when the Ymir died too.

I often rooted for the giant monster to live.

[raj]

And hey, Godzilla would still be sleeping nicely if it weren't for the A-bomb tests.

[Andrew]

> This is a good topic! It's fun to watch movies where you feel
> the antagonist monster's actions are justified.
>
> Plan 9 From Outer Space may be able to fit into this category
> due to fact that the aliens were protecting the entire
> universe when they began to terrorize the people of Earth. It
> may be a stretch at first glance, but once you go into detail
> on the alien's reasoning behind their presence on Earth, you
> begin to see a whole new story told from a different
> perspective unfold.

I do not know if Eros would be a good example.  He pretty much says that the whole reason for the terrible zombies is to convince us Earthlings that they, the aliens, are real.  I can think of a couple of better ways to do that.

"Lifeform" might fit well into this category.  Also, "Grotesque" really fits here.  The end of that movie, if taken seriously, should cause outrage.  Of course, the end is the end of a rather dumb film - so it is hard to take seriously.

Come to think of it, the casts in many low budget horror movies are terrible.  I am often cheering for the monster, just to get rid of the idiots.

[Bernie]

Same with the poor Gill-Man in Return of the Creature!  There he is, minding his own business, eating the occasional Hollywood-generic jungle native, when these jerks from the States capture him, drag him back to Florida, dump him into a tank so sunburned idiots can gawk at him and, if that wasn't enough, then John Agar start zapping him with an electric prod!  

I only wish the Gill-Man could have grabbed the prod out of Agar's hands and given him a few righteous zaps to the nut-goodies!  If there was ever a case of turnabout is fair play....

[Chadzilla]

Daimaijin - Evil doers beware, he'll stomp yo asses flatter than rice cakes!