Gamera: Super Monster and the End of an Era

This is it, folks. The last Gamera movie of the Showa era. And what an era it’s been. We’ve had some good movies, some great dumb fun, and some snooze fests. Question is: which is this one?

Neither. This movie is something far, far worse. It’s a cash grab. A soulless, half-assed piece of trash you’d pick out of the bargain bin for three bucks. Three bucks you’ll wish you could get back.

Aliens have come to invade Earth. Other aliens, who live hidden in Japan as super heroes, are trying to stop them. Also Gamera is fighting all the other kaiju from the series so far. Something something save the earth.

Did that summary sound disjointed? Half-assed? Heartless and empty? Then I have successfully encapsulated everything this movie is.

There are two plots to this movie. The first is all about the aliens in disguise and the kid who plays the keyboard. The other is just recycled footage of Gamera fighting monsters from across the series. Oh, sure, the movie will pretend that these two are connected, but when 95% of your kaiju film is stolen footage from other kaiju films, the act falls apart almost instantly.

Okay, let’s be fair. Is the new plot any good? Survey says: nope. The characters are flat, lifeless, and boring. The pacing is a slog. It’s a tedious nightmare broken occasionally broken up by silly sentai dances and a child’s loud piano recitals. It’s a miserable viewing experience.

This would be where cheesy Gamera shenanigans saved the day. But we don’t have those. With the exception of two scenes, every Gamera moment in this movie is directly lifted from one of the previous Gamera movies. There isn’t even a new monster at the end; Gamera just flies into the alien space ship, DIES, and then the movie is over.

Yeah, you heard me right. Gamera dies at the end of this one! Nothing happens for a whole movie, then surprise! The title character goes kaboom! I guess they were going for a bit emotional farewell to the series, but if that’s what they were going for, the effort left a lot to be desired!

It’s especially depressing because the opening left me fairly optimistic. Not just because there’s a new Gamera theme song (which is a banger, I’ll admit), but because the opening sequence uses hand-drawn artwork and exposition to set the stage. You can immediately feel the Star Wars inspiration behind it, and the art is impressively detailed.

That Star Wars influence continues with the very next shot: a spaceship flying through the void. It’s pretty much one-to-one with the iconic star destroyer shot at the beginning of the original film, only without the high quality model or camera. Still, it’s a neat little homage that gave me some hope for the special effects of this movie.

Those hopes were almost immediately dashed. This movie looks bad, dudes. Most of the effects are cheap and dated, even for 1980. We do get a new Gamera suit, but it’s by far the ugliest one we’ve gotten yet. Poor dude looks like a cheap toy, with those blank eyes and his jaw always opening and closing on loop.

There’s an entire 2D animated sequence later on, which got my hopes up again. Alas, it is somewhat ruined by the sloppy green-screened Gamera that takes up half the frame. By this point, I had realized how lazy and cheap this movie is. So much so that I refuse to believe any of this art or animation was done specifically for this movie. They had to have been recycled from some anime of the time. I have no proof for these claims beyond spite, so someone let me know if I’m wrong.

And if I’m not: which anime did this movie steal from? Let me know. For justice.

Also, the music kind of sucks. Some tracks are pretty good, but those are rare and misplaced; they don’t ever fit the scene they’re placed in. Most of the OST is made up of keyboard tracks you’d expect to hear in a circus tent. That is to say they’re grating and annoying and I hate them.

Sound design in general is bad. The editors slap silly sound effects onto random parts of the film with no regards to tone or context. Almost like they’re trying to make fun of themselves. “Boy, aren’t these Gamera movies silly and stupid? What the hell are you doing, watching one of these?” What am I supposed to make of a movie that hates itself?

‘Gamera: Super Monster‘ is a nothing movie. There is no real reason to watch it. No silly kaiju moments to laugh at, no story to get invested in, no heart or passion whatsoever to hold onto. It’s the worst Gamera movie I’ve reviewed so far, and it’s not even close.

With that, we’re done with Gamera’s Showa era. It may have ended in disaster, but there were plenty of good movies in there. If nothing else, it was an insane rollercoaster of a viewing experience.

Now, we must turn our eyes forward. Let’s see what the Heisei era has in store. From what I understand, these are the best movies Gamera ever got. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.