AaronCapenBanner Rival Japanese studio Daiei, in an effort to compete with Toho studios' Godzilla franchise, created Gamera, a giant prehistoric turtle that is jet-propelled and determined to destroy Japan, and anything else in its way. A young Japanese boy, obsessed with turtles, believes that Gamera is really his pet turtle grown gigantic, and decides to befriend him, after it seemed like it spared his life. The military and scientists are not so friendly however... Filmed in Black & White like the first two Godzilla pictures, film isn't bad, though the idea of a giant threatening turtle took some getting used to! First in an annual series of films that ran several years.

gigan-92 Gamera's debut film and the rise legendary rival of Godzilla as the King of Japanese monster cinema. I'm going to say this right now, but I'm not much of a fan of Gamera's early films. There were a few interesting ones, like "Gamera vs. Gyaos" and "Gamera vs. Barugon", however, the original series went to sh*t at a much faster rate than the showa Godzilla films. 1968's "Gamera vs. Viras" is a staple to that statement and of course the series would only get worse till the 80s film "Gamera: Super Monster". This film isn't as good as "Gamera vs. Gyaos" and "Gamera vs. Barugon", but is far superior to latter entries.Positive notes, well for his debut, Gamera looks pretty awesome. The city stomping scenes are well done, of course Japanese studios by 1965 having had lots of practice. The pacing is brisk and believe it or not doesn't drag. Most kaiju films have interesting finales and if you haven't seen this one you'll either laugh or sit in awe. Either way good fun. And the score is far from Akira Ifukube quality, with wildly switching moods, but it hold together.Bad points, eh, too much borrowed from other monster movies. A monster emerging from the ice, obviously lifted from "Beast from 20, 000 Fathoms" and the black and white look of the film is borrowed, if you will, from the original 1954 Gojira. I suppose that's what happens when you come in that lame in the game. Plus the child character kind of grated on my nerves, a true turtle lover all right. The movie takes itself rather seriously with notions of the Cold War as opposed to the 1965 Toho release "Invasion of Astro Monster" which was light-hearted but more memorable. That film had awesome colorful cinematography, the likes of three monsters (Godzilla, Rodan, and King Ghidorah!!" and a fun and yes zany plot. Plus it was scored by the maestro Akira Ifukube. Comparing it to this film isn't really fair, but Godzilla for the win this round.However, I still highly enjoy the vintage sci-fi and I recommend the movie to classic sci-fi lovers.

Clay Loomis When we in the western world see these funky Japanese movies, (I'm NOT talking Kurosawa here), we can get confused. At least, I can. I'm in my 50's as of this writing, and when I was a kid, I liked these Japanese rubber monster flicks. The story meant nothing to me. I just liked seeing giant monsters fight. But as I've aged, I realize I have less and less in common with them.I don't know what the hell they are talking about anymore. I caught up with Gamera a few days ago and wondered how I loved this movie as a kid. So, I thought I'd try to move up to the 21st century and see what Japanese kids movies were doing today. Bad Idea! I found http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451829/ Naisu no mori: The First Contact. It came out in 2005, 40 years after Gamera. I went on to search for a video clip from this movie, and there certainly is one. It......it....Well, OK, I cannot even describe it here without risking arrest. Check it out.If you thought giant mutated turtles with tusks and rocket legs were strange, you've not seen the children's fare out of Japan lately.I gotta tell you, the aliens are different now.I should REALLY bump my vote for this movie, but I'm too frightened to. The new stuff scares me too much.

Skragg In spite of being a fan of these Japanese monster movies, I saw it for the first time (that I know of) less than a year ago. (I'm referring to the "American" version.) It was pretty entertaining in general, but there was one thing that stood out for me, and that was a comedy scene (and I don't mean an "unintentionally funny" one). Early on in the movie, the monster was mistaken for a UFO, and there was a televised debate between an astronomer and a ufologist (a traditional set of antagonists, in and out of fiction). I'm not sure about the astronomer, but the ufologist was played by Alan Oppenheimer (he wasn't in the credits, but there's no mistaking him if you've seen a lot of sitcoms). Anyway, the debate got out of hand in a comical way, with both men getting really frantic to win it (maybe whoever wrote the scene was neutral about the UFO subject), and to me, it was funnier than 90 per cent of those comedy scenes about UFO's that you see now (with their overworked jokes about "probes" and abducted hillbillies and so on). Anyway, that's what the original "Gamera" means to me.