KRAA THE SEA MONSTER (1998)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

KRAA is a silly but spirited salute to both giant monster films and the micro-budgeted space operas of 1950s TV. If one goes into the film expecting it to boast even middle-range FX, one will be disappointed. But without overrating what KRAA offers, I thought the actors were relatively engaged with their broadly played roles. It's not broad enough to be truly "tongue-in-cheek," much less outright comedy, but it manages to be fitfully amusing.

Most giant monster films are primarily about the giant monsters, even when they're sent by some vague prime movers. But the monster in the film's title is just a mindless tool of his creator, an alien overlord named Lord Doom (Michael Guerin), sort of a mashup of Skeletor and Marvel's Doctor Doom. He begins the film discussing his project of unleashing the giant sea monster on Earth, for conquest as far as I recall. He's aware that there's a cadre of space-patrol agents, the Planet Patrol, buzzing around the Earth, but is confident they can do nothing. 

However, the patrol agents have an agent whom they send to Earth to somehow counter Kraa's rampage. However, for some reason I forget, the agent is a tiny fellow named Mogyar, who has some "universal translator" problems that result in his speaking English in an Italian accent. Mogyar makes contact with two random humans, Bobby and Alma, and the three of them try to figure out to defeat Kraa while also dodging government agents. It's all moderately watchable but forgettable. The film then has the Planet Patrol zoom all the way to Lord Doom's world, where Doom has a short battle with the patrol-commander before being defeated. However, a coda establishes that Doom may escape once again to menace the cosmos.

A lot of similar stories might have focused upon the heroic figures who defeat Doom and his monster. However, neither the Earth-humans nor the space-patrol officers stand out. So in my view KRAA is the only giant monster-film in which the villain is the star, though the sixties film TERROR BENEATH THE SEA is similar in its structure.