coconutkungfu-30704

I think Gamera is an awesome Kaiju. What is there to not love about a giant fire-breathing turtle with a jet-fueled shell that can fly? Unfortunately the movies Gamera actually stars in are often not my cup of tea. I love Showa era Godzilla movies so this one should be right up my alley, but alas it just doesn't land for me. I think part of the problem is how kid-centric it is (Though I enjoyed the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy so that might not be it) and another part of the problem is , to me at least , Gyaos. For what is supposed to be essentially the big boss main baddie to Gameras Hero To All Children, Gyaos ends up being a dud. Gyaos feels like a bad fanart of Rodan and never comes across as threatening in this film, Gyaos was better realized in the Hesei era. When all is said and done this is a bad film in almost every aspect except for the coolness of its main character.

Gotengo? More like Go-four-out-of-ten-go hehe :)

This film never fully manages to immerse me as a viewer and it is not very well-paced. The film makes attempts to say something about Japan's past,patriotism,duty and war but it does not do it very well unfortunately.

For most of its 95 minute runtime this film is people talking to each-other to try and convey the earlier mentioned messages and themes but there is way too much spoken and not enough shown, the acting never fully sells the depth the film is going for either.

The effects are quite good and the Gotengo is cool. Manda is in it way too briefly to make much of an impact and does not live up to the hype built up by the Mu people in the film.

All-in-all a disappointing outing from TOHO. I would only recommend it to Godzilla completionists that want to see the first appearances of Manda, the Gotengo and the Absolute Zero weapon.

Mogera appears in this film for the first time, and it is a sight to behold! Mogera is an excellent Kaiju and the scenes featuring it are pure awesomeness. Sadly, much of the rest of the film falls pretty flat.

The plot is not necessarily bad, it's more so that it isn't told in a very compelling way, and it never really takes off and engages me as a viewer. When Mogera is onscreen the movie shines, but any other time it is fairly uninteresting and subpar to me.

One of my least favorites of the TOHO Kaiju/Tokosatsu movies unfortunately, despite the very cool kaiju in it.