Gamera Vs. Viras

Here we go...

This is where the Gamera series changes not entirely for the best. Though heralded as the favorite of the entire series by the director himself, Gamera Vs. Viras takes the first step into children's entertainment. Not at all that the previous three films couldn't be watched or enjoyed by kids, or even that it being kid centric is entirely bad but it's a delicate art mastered by few. So we finally get alien invaders in the Gamera series as the species from the "star" Viras have come to claim and colonize Earth but have to deal with Gamera first. Now fair credit where it's due the kid story is front and center so it doesn't feel tacked on or out of nowhere, but it's still a bit odd how two literal boyscouts encounter and befriend Gamera, are subsequently captured by the aliens, and have to figure out a way to save the Earth. I never expect faultless logic in my monster movies, but I'm just saying it didn't do much for me. Which is a bit of a problem considering 75% of the movie involves these two boys, what's the remaining fourth you may ask? Stock footage, yeah this is the Gamera movie that really sets the standard for the remainder of the series. Aliens, stock footage, the Gamera theme makes it's first appearance, and plots mainly involving children. You see key fights from Barugon and Gaos, but also the attack on the dam, and Tokyo (despite it still presented in black and white), so needless to say it does feel like padding. I can't blame them, there isn't much of an original story to reach near 90 minutes but they also could have worked on the script more. It was a budget decision, okay, fine, these movies didn't have a lot of studio backing so they had to be economical in making it. With that being said, I like the visuals a fair bit, I love the alien spaceship mainly because it looks so alien, it's not your typical rocketship or fighter plane made to look futuristic, it is bizzare and otherworldly. Great job on that and the aliens, that glowing eye effect gave me the creeps and the design of Viras is simple but still works. I do however find it odd that the star discrepancy still exists in the original japanese version. Lesson time! In japanese the words for planet and star are the same word, Hoshi, and in the english dub they translated it as star and not planet. Whoops, americans are idiots when it comes to foreign languages big shock, however the subtitles for the japanese version still call it a star. And this is modern translations on Prime Video, how the hell did they still mess this up? If I can translate one single word from japanese to english in roughly 10 seconds, why can't others in this day and age? It's weird. The monster fight was a decent length, and you know this movie though mainly intended for kids has some gnarly visuals, an arm gets ripped off and you see the flesh and bone, you get 5 decapitations in a row, and Gamera gets flat out staked in a bloody fashion. I mean Jesus. As long as the fluids aren't red, the rating system doesn't care! All in all, it's a lesser entry in the Gamera series but not entirely unwatchable. 2 stars, 5.5/10, I would say here's hoping for better but...I have my doubts.

Gamera Vs. Gyaos

They're learning.

After the shocking amount of screen time Gamera got in the last movie, I feel the production team and writers doubled down on this one. Several volcanic eruptions release a new adversary for Gamera, a giant bat kaiju named Gyaos who terrorizes a small village that brings another kid into the equation as military and scientific minds collaborate once more. I feel this is a movie that took elements of both the first and second movie, and mixed them pretty well. As I said there is a huge amount of kaiju action in this, even when the monsters aren't on screen the scene still has something to do about them. Learning more about Gyaos, seeing the effects of experiments on his flesh, Gamera coming into his hero light and befriending a young boy, it's a perfectly balanced kaiju movie for me where you get lots of monster scenes and the human story enters unfamiliar waters for one of these movies and still holds some interest. The movie I think is setting the bar for the rest of the series, cause the previous two while still having humorous and off beat moments were still fairly serious and "realistic". This one takes a much lighter, silly, ludicrous, and kid orientated stance and it flat out does not care that it's absurd. Take Gyaos for example, a giant bat kaiju that lives on blood, has a weakness to sunlight, shoots weird green mist out of I can only assume it's breasts, shoots a ultrasonic ray that honestly looks and acts more like a lazer, and can regrow body parts. Only in Gamera movies will you get something this weird. The kid is a touch more annoying in this one, and still retains the scene where they just barge into a military operation without reason, prelude, or connection and has a bonding session ride with Gamera visiting an amusement park. What? It was the 60s, a strange monster could take your child alone to a fair without anyone even batting an eyelid. I trust the several storey tall, flying, fire breathing monster that destroyed the city and claimed countless lives in the last two movies oh wait-

Well...I trust him more than that reporter guy, that was some stranger danger shit man. I think it's obviously clear this was a movie intended for kids, which is interesting cause by Barugon in 1966 the Godzilla series wasn't at the lighthearted for kids romps though Godzilla was a hero by this point. And by Gyaos we were up to Son Of Godzilla which sort of was taking baby steps (Laugh!) into that department. So could it be Toho was taking inspiration from these movies for their future Godzilla projects? Possible. But I can appreciate both and can much more fullheartedly recommend this movie to kaiju fans. I like the human story but not as much as Barugon, the effects are still in good shape, the monster stuff has my full attention, it's a very solid entry. I give it 3 stars, another 7.5/10 but for completely different reasons than Barugon, and I kinda feel this is the high water mark for the Gamera series. I've seen the reviews (go watch Brandon Tenold's Gamera-athon), and I know it is not too pretty from here. Into jaws of death we go!

Gamera Vs. Barugon

And the versus commences until the end of the series.

In many ways I like this movie better than the first, yet in other aspects I can almost see why it isn't rated so highly. I will give major props to the story, taking a vast departure from the majority of kaiju movies I've seen in my entire life. So 6 months have passed since Gamera got shot into the void of space before a meteor crashes into the rocket releasing Gamera unto the world once more, as he regains some power and still keeps his antagonistic edge. Now the main story on the humans side involves three men who travel to New Guinea to find an opal that is hailed by the locals as cursed, and many deaths do follow in the wake of finding it but weirdly enough the opal is actually a monster egg and hatches Barugon, who is easily one of the most inventive and bizzare kaiju I've ever witnessed. So eventually both monsters meet, clash, and this is where I can see a lot of people tuning out for this film. Gamera truth be told is maybe in the movie 15 minutes total in an hour and forty minute flick, he loses the first fight and it takes until the last 10 minutes for a rematch and win for the flying turtle. That is a big issue for a movie called Gamera Vs. Barugon, when the kaiju stuff and our main star is more in the background. However I really actually like the human story a fair bit, almost turning into a revenge movie for our human protagonist Keisuke often conflicting with the man who double crossed him and left him for dead Onodera, while getting some help from one of the natives Karen. Yes Karen, the most exotic islander sounding name I've ever heard since Sheamus Mac An tSithigh. And they help the military deal with this mad bastard that bleeds purple, freezes and punches things with it's tongue, and shoots deadly rainbow beams that would make Mechagodzilla jealous and me jealous that the lovely folk of the LGBTQA+ community cannot do the same thing. Well let's see 1966, acid was probably a thing in Japan, case closed on the conception of this monster design. It does have pepperings of monster fights and military action with the most outlandish operation names ever said, but there's more the main story of us seeing these previous partners at odds. I don't hate that! Very misleading movie title, but not much else bad with it. The effects have improved, the casting is very good and I always applaud japanese actors who have to say this stuff out loud and they do it stone faced serious and will always have my respect, the story is still engaging, and the color footage and direction is solid and looks good. 3 stars, I give it a 7.5/10, so check it out and tomorrow we meet the Gamera equivalent of Ghidorah.