Gamera vs Viras... Terrible, Terrible movie

[Gwangi]

Put me in on the side of those who like this movie. What David said is quite true. This was the first ever Gamera movie I saw, and the stock footage did not bother me one bit. (As a kid, I wanted to see monsters fighting, and that is exactly what I got).

In viewing it today, yes, I now think the stock footage is a tad too long, but looking past that, the movie is still enjoyable. The cool looking flying saucer, the aliens with their cold sinister stares (looking at this as a kid, it was quite alarming), and Jim and Maseo, who were certainly mischievous, but never ever annoying. Their exploring the Viras spaceship I thought was so cool. Nothing of that sort was even seen in the Godzilla series.

[MouthForWar]

I actually think this is one of the better Showa Gamera movies

[Garasharp K7]

[jellydonut25]

I've never seen Zigra or Super Monster Gamera (or whatever it's called) [can't find Zigra anywhere]

but this movie's pretty bad...I thought it was by far the worst of the Gamera films...but then, the whole Showa series other than Gammera, The Invincible are pretty bad and Gamera vs. Gyaos are pretty bad...I'm probably gonna try to sell back those DVDs...I've seen 'em once and that's all I'll ever need, partly because they are the awful ADV versions...

Gammera the Invincible ***1/2
Gamera vs. Barugon (aka Barugon featuring a hint of Gamera) **
Gamera vs. Gyaos **1/2
Gamera vs. Viras *
Gamera vs. Guiron *1/2
Gamera vs. Jiger **
Gamera, Guardian of the Universe ****
Gamera 2 ***1/2
Gamera 3 ** (it was an OK movie but it's just not re-watchable for me...)

[planetxleader]

[Gwangi]

[lhb412]

[MouthForWar]

[Giganfan]

Well, let me put it this way. I'm a big fan of the Showa Gamera films, but Destroy All Planets isn't one of my absolute favorites. It has some cool things about it (a neat story, cool aliens, groovy spaceship, cool monster), but I personally prefer Attack of the Monsters (Guiron). Just the fact that it takes place almost entirely on a different planet makes it one of the coolest monster movies ever!

Let's see, I haven't really watched a Gamera film in a long time (except a couple days ago, but I just scimmed through the DVDs a bit), but based on my memory of things, this is how I'd rank the Showa Gamera movies against themselves...

Attack of the Monsters (Guiron) ***
Giant Monster Gamera (both U.S. & Jap.) ****
Return of The Giant Monsters ****
War of the Monsters (Barugon) *** & 1/2
Gamera vs. Monster X (Jiger) ***
Destroy All Planets ***
Gamera vs. Zigra ** (I'm being a wee-bit generous with this one)

I didn't include Supermonster because the copy I have is without subtitles, and I don't really feel like watching it all the way through without knowing what's going on.