Sigh, the first film of the popular "Gamera" series is also one of the best. Despite several incredibly stupid moves by several members of the cast, this movie is very easy to stay attent through.
The movie has a cliche' enough storyline: An atomic accident awakens a huge prehistoric turtle who had been trapped for millions of years under arctic ice. The turtle fights the military, and after several failed attempts to destroy it, Gamera is finally launched into outer space on a rocketship.
The movie's special effects were average for the sixties, with the slight exception of the poorly realized jet planes and nuclear explosion at the film's opening. The flame thrower implanted in the Gamera suit's throat works fine, and the flying saucer effects are also quite well done (surprisingly).
But even amidst all the really cool scenes of city destruction, a poor cast can really wreck the film. Luckily, here such is not the case. All the actors do a good job with their roles except Kenny, the only character in film history more annoying than Godzilla'a Revenge's Ichiro. The "cute little boy" of this movie is an overweight, manic depressive. He starts out the film by doing nothing with his life other than talking to his pet turtle (the only creature on God's green Earth who doesn't hate his crunchy little guts). Then he is in a light house which Gamera destroys, but by pure coincidence Kenny falls into Gamera's open hand and then onto the ground. That is his cue to spend the rest of the movie making life miserable for all the brave men risking their lives to stop Gamera's reign of death and destruction by shouting, "No! Don't kill Gamera! He's good! He saved me! I'm a fat chode who deserves to die!" Oh wait, scratch that last part.
I guess my main purpose for hating Kenny is actually because he is the main reason most people mistakenly remember Godzilla as being "Friend of All Children" in his older movies, not "King of the Monsters". Gamera's just about as good as daikaiju movies get without having Godzilla in them. His older movies anyway. The two newer films surpass almost all other daikaiju films in their quality. I'll always like Godzilla movies the most just because they have Godzilla, but if you want to see good daikaiju flicks, watch the two new Gamera movies. As for the older series, they're pretty good and this was the first, and only, Gamera movie in black and white. It is also one of the few early Gamera movies without that incredibly obnoxious theme song. Sayonara!
He's da' king!
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