Gamera (1965)

Plot Outline: Gamera, a giant turtle with in-built rockets to propel itself, is awakened when an unnamed jet is shot down over the Arctic. The jet was carrying a nuclear bomb which explodes and melts the ice, releasing Gamera from it's frozen tomb. The giant monster then heads straight for Japan to destroy it where a load of scientists, military guys and children try and figure out a way to stop it.

The Review: Japanese obsession with giant monsters began around ten years earlier with Toho's Godzilla. So a rival studio decided they would cash in on the act and create their own giant monster. The best they could come up with was Gamera, a giant turtle with jet-propulsion so it can fly anyway it wants. It's astounding how that idea even got past the drawing board. To suit such a mess of a monster, this is also a terrible first entry into the series and I'm amazed sequels even got made. The real problem is that it is to boring. Hardly anything happens and even the miniature city smashing isn't on for long. Gamera seems to pop up every 15 minutes or so after the characters have run out of things to say. Then he does something quickly so that the humans have something to talk about for another 15 minutes before Gamera turns up again to repeat the cycle! Gamera doesn't look too bad though - in fact this is the only time in the original series he actually looked real and not a plastic toy. The crisp black and white photography helps a lot, probably even enhancing what would otherwise be cheap effects. I had to laugh at the final strategy they devised to stop Gamera. Unable to kill him, the next best thing was to trap him and launch him into space!

Final Verdict: It is the only real rival to Godzilla but unfortunately Gamera doesn't even come close to beating the giant lizard with radioactive breath. But even more unfortunately, we've had to endure some terrible Gamera sequels since.

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