The Basics: A killer space shark plots to invade the Earth, vowing to protect and conserve the Earth's oceans but there's a catch...he plans on enslaving all of humanity!
The Plot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera_vs._Zigra
The Kaiju:
Gamera:
A little softer looking than in previous films, but I think he looks better in this film than he has in the past two films. Also, in the Gamera suit itself can finally blow fire which makes for some interesting shots of the full suit spitting fire while walking. Great stuff.
Zigra:
This guy blew my mind as a child. More than any other Gamera kaiju, this one amazed me. Now the only Gamera film I saw as a child was Guiron, but I used to go with my step-dad to the video rental store and I'd always see the FHE cover for this video...I was never able to rent the film but I used to watch the preview for this film on my FHE Guiron tape religously.
Now I'm a little bit picky with Zigra....I love him in his swimming form, not so hot on him when he's on land. I actually like the idea of exclusively aquatic kaiju. I also think he has a lot of personality, and is a suitably dangerous foe for Gamera. Oddly enough, I feel as if he's not that bad of a guy er kaiju...sort of a weird anti-hero.
The Acting:
The only real standout for me in this film is the Zigran alien woman...she's hot and has a pretty decent arc of sorts...she's likable when she needs to be and threatining when she's doing the bidding of Zigra
The SPFX: Pretty standard work here, on par with the last film with the exception of an inmproved Gamera suit that can actually breathe fire as opposed to a hand puppet doing the dangerous work.
The Other Stuff:
-Ok, ok, I know I said last time that Jiger is one of my favorite kaiju but it's kind of like "whatever steak you are eating at the moment is the best steak you've ever had" syndrome. After watching the Showa era films ( I think Super Monster is it's own era
) I can honestly say now that I LOVE Gyaos, Barugon, Guiron and Zigra as kaiju. They are among my favorite kaiju of all time
-This film is slow at times...but I think it has a somewhat undeserved reputation for being worse than it actually is. It's overly long, and the characters are kind of bland but I'd take this over several Godzilla films
-Gamera is a dumb a$$ in this movie. Hide and go seek. The musical number...wtf
-Zigra the musical
-It's odd seeing the evil sleeze ball from Barugon being the likable dad in this film
-I...do...not...want...to...watch Supermonster!!!! I've only seen it once and I hated it. I was bored out of my mind. Yuasa in several interviews I've read barely, if at all, aknowledges this film...I may not survive watching it again but such is my dedication to my craft