GAMERA VS ZIGRA (1971)
Tagline: Nope
(Adventure, Fantasy, Kaiju) [G]
Note – No rating was given to this movie. I decided on a G because back in the day aliens talking about making you a slave was pretty much par for the sci-fi course.
Oh man, so in this one aliens destroy a moon base and threaten to basically earthquake the whole earth and make humans their slaves because we don’t take care of our ocean. Yep, that’s their reason. Zigra (who is like a giant space shark or some sort of swordfish bird thing) and an alien woman abduct several people to get their message out. Apparently, aliens can get all the way to earth but can’t figure out how to create a newspaper, TV show, or make flyers. However, kids in the group have a different plan and find a way to escape the alien, because apparently, they are just a ton smarter than the adults. Somehow we get a bit of Sea World Japan in this flick, can Gamera show up just in time to call this a Gamera movie and save the planet?
For some reason, one of the scenes in this movie that stands out the most for me is when Gamera actually picks up 2 kids in a boat and flies them to some random island that at least in the English translation seems to connect to Noah? What the actual heck? Maybe I heard that wrong. To top it off this whacky scene also has that goofy Gamera song. You know the one. There is also a weird subplot in here that has to do with a bad fishing day and an argument between a hotel owner and a Sea World employee. The Sea World employee would rather feed the seals and dolphins fish than the soldiers and emergency personnel that showed up to help the evacuation of the area. I have no idea what purpose these scenes served other than to get the alien woman to a military briefing. The alien ship in this is also pretty hilarious looking, like something Willy Wonka’s “head of the gumballs department” might wear.
This is definitely one of the more cheesy tame Gamera movies but there is something weird about an alien woman chasing two kids around to kill them while sending people into coma’s with her eyes and a quick hand movement. There is a rather cool moment when Gamera uses his fire breath underwater, but the fight itself with Zigra is nonsense.
Speaking of nonsense the end of this thing is just flat-out bonkers early Godzilla dancing type top cheese, but to be honest this movie is actually quite enjoyable and fun to just have a laugh at. It’s also got a lot more Gamera in it than GAMERA VS BARUGON. For its whimsical approach that was mostly appealing to kids and often incoherent plot and action sequences, I have to give this a 3 out of 7. But this is a great starter movie for young kaiju fans. I can also see how they were clearly going for a male audience without being too out of the box.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF DAIEI STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.
Comments
Post a Comment