Monster Roll is not really a trailer for a bigger film but nor is it the full film itself. It appears to be a draft for a fuller film made almost like a calling card to show what is possible and therefore what could be done with more support and funding. This short film acts as the frame for the bigger film and we see sushi restaurants in LA being attacked by some form of giant squid coming up through the plumbing. When the sushi chefs combine to hunt down the creature, the size of it is revealed and then we have clips of more epic confrontations with various other oversized sea creatures.
The film is well made technically and, although the CGI creatures are limited in how well they look when placed in reality, they are actually pretty close to the standard you would see in some bigger Hollywood creature features (Deep Rising for instance) so it is not like it is a massive stretch. The main body of the short is the restaurant attack and it is well done with convincing action and was actually pretty tense. The confrontations suggesting a bigger film are all very tough in cheek and I found them very amusing – not sure that this would make for a bigger film that could sustain what it does here without making it too silly, but it worked very well here.
Although it is just a very short film, the cast benefit from Odate in the lead role; he has a great presence and his tough impatience is a very good temper to the silliness of the concept. The rest of the cast sell the humor of it all, but Odate is the one you remember. Creator Dan Blank appears to have a good career under his belt in the area of visual effects and I would like to see something from him on the basis of this because he seems to not only have an eye for the effects but delivers action well and does so without taking himself or the film more seriously than it can bare.
It may only be a trailer showing what is possible for a bigger film, but it is enjoyable and fun in its own right.
