Gamera: Super Monster

Gamera: Super Monster, the last of the Showa-era Gamera movies, largely comprises of clips from the previous films (although there is also footage from a couple of unrelated animated films as well), with new scenes to tie all the battles together: three super space women, defenders of Earth, befriend a small boy and do battle with an evil woman from the Pirate Spaceship Zanon, who sends several monsters (Gyaos, Ziger, Vira, Jiger, Guiron and Barugon) to wreak havoc on Earth. Of course, giant spinning turtle Gamera is always on hand to give them a jolly good thrashing.

If you've already seen all of the previous Gamera movies, then Super Monster will be a crushing bore, Gamera defeating one monster after another ad nauseum before sacrificing his life by smashing into the Zanon spaceship (which looks suspiciously like a Star Destroyer from Star Wars). The nonsense in between the battles sees the three good space women, Kilara, Mitan and Marsha, beaming from one place to another and transforming from human to superhero by performing a stupid series of arm gestures; meanwhile, kid Keiichi releases his pet turtle into a river, plays his Yamaha organ (whilst singing the Gamera March), and is pursued by the evil woman, who hopes that the lad will lead her to his three female friends.

Produced by a struggling Daiei Studios as a last ditch effort to make enough cash to stay afloat, the film is so sloppy in all departments that it proved to be the final nail in the coffin instead.

This film was made as a finale attempt to save the company from bankruptcy. Obviously, it didn't work and rightfully so. All of the Gamera footage is recycled from previous films. This is not the first time they've done this in the franchise but in those prior films, it was only a few moments. In this film, every single scene is recycled from previous films, so it begs the question - Why waste your time on it? If they couldn't put forth the effort to make an original film then why bother wasting the time watching it? It's truly nothing but garbage and the lowest point of this franchise without question.

Gamera Super Monster is a strangely enjoyabe film, especially since it is just a bunch of old footage re edited into the story of a kid and his pet turtle, and good female aliens vs. bad female aliens. Die hard fans of the genre have something against the campy and cheesy, when the fact is not every giant monster movie is supposed to portray a grim message about nuclear weapons, or interfering with nature.

This movie is joyful through and through, never taking a break from action and (mis)adventure, with characters that are very fun to watch. The little boy, who most would find annoying, has a certain goofiness to his character. Remember people, this is a film for the children. This movie shows how cheap it is, but you aren't able to realize it because it gets you so caught up in the fantasy. This is one of the greatest escapist fantasies out there.

From the first battle with Barugan all the way to the destruction of Zigra, all Gamera's greatest fights are highlighted in this nonstop action packed adventure for the whole family. Also, watch for the anime characters! And if that is not enough, the enemy space ship may seem a little familiar to you....

In a last attempt to cash in on the titanic turtle's waning popularity, Daiei Motion Picture Company produced this incoherent clip-show in which Keiichi, a young Gamera fan (played by Koichi Maeda), and three benevolent spacewomen thwart an attack on Earth that involves the appearance of Gamera's kaiju foes from the previous five films. Similar to "All Monsters Attack" (1969; aka "Godzilla's Revenge"), the kaiju action may all be in the kid's imagination, as no one other than he, the space women, and the invaders seem be aware of the events. Unlike the polarising Godzilla film, which some people have interpreted as an insightful commentary on 'latch-key kids' and Japanese society in the late 1960s, the Gamera film is just a compilation of fight scenes connected by a silly story. There are only a couple of minutes of new kaiju material, the rest is lifted from the earlier films. In addition, there are some incongruous insertions of anime from "Space Battleship Yamato" and "Galaxy Express 999", some animated spaceships in the prologue, and a 'Zanon' starship that is a shameless copy of an Imperial Star Destroyer. The spacewomen are led by the hulking (relatively speaking) Kilara (played by wrestler Mach Fumiake) and can shrink, so they live in a box the size of a cat carrier in the back of a van that can turn into a spaceship (or at least a flying fuzzy blob of orange light). They have to wave their arms and pirouette to change into their space-hero suits, but then can fly. They also seem to have the ability to spontaneously teleport themselves (and their cars) when necessary and Kilara has an organ in the back of her pet store that when played seems to open a window/door to other parts of the Universe. There is also an evil spacewoman with a 'radar watch' who can teleport herself at will, and who is constantly being rebuked by the disembodied voice of Zanon. All of this is sufficiently incoherent and juvenile to support the hypothesis that it is all in Keiichi's imagination. The Gamera films were always budget outings (which is apparent from the clips), but the scenes with the spacewomen are even cheaper looking. As a final insult, the jauntily infectious "Gamera March" has been replaced by a new theme song (gratingly played by Keiichi on the organ). I watched a reasonably well English-dubbed version in which everyone had an incongruous trace of English accent but I doubt that the original would be much better. This film marked the end of the downward slide of the Showa-era Gamera series. The towering tusked turtle would not return until 1995's superior "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe", a much darker and less puerile interpretation of the character. Of note: in one of the rare fragments of new material, Gamera kicks over a poster of rival kaiju-star Godzilla, who is in turn revenged in "Godzilla Final Wars" (2004) when a kid throws a toy turtle into a fire.

Gamera, what a movie........ My mom and my brother took me to watch this film when I was very young and it has never left my psyche since! For me, it was one of the best films I've ever seen. Not just with the mindset of a child from the 80's, but also because I believe that you gauge a good movie by assessing how much it affected you....... In my case, It started a whole new genre for me in being a great fan of Japanese movie making and writing. No matter how cheesy the script was back then, Gamera and the 3 hero chicks in that movie instilled in me a fascination that only a true blue child fan would absorb, a lifetime of fantasy! Thus, all I have to say is, lucky are you few to know of such a movie.......... You are not alone.