Gamera, the Giant Monster1965

39/100 My favourite Kaiju, Gamera, stomps onto screen with a frankly pretty disappointing debut. However, this film isn't without its merits, as much of a Godzilla ripoff as it is. The human plotline in this film is for the most part, decentish. There's not really a character I like here, though, except perhaps for Professor Murase, the mad-scientist lookalike who's actually pretty reasonable. However, there is plenty to dislike, mainly personified in the annoying kid that would eventually go on to become a staple of these early Gamera flicks, here called 'Toshio'. Toshio here is really unlikeable. While Gamera stomps around, knocking over buildings and incinerating people into photonegatives, on the ground level, Toshio whines that he doesn't really mean to and that he's really just too big and clumsy. On top of this, the kid has somehow convinced himself Gamera is his pet turtle turned giant, which would be a lot more tolerable if the film itself didn't go out of its way to prove this false. Part of it is a clash of interests. Noriaki Yuasa, the director, wanted Gamera to be a hero children could look up to, a concept the studio wasn't really interested in, as they thought Gamera should be more like Godzilla. As a result, we have a weird clash of interests here. Gamera himself is taken in a direction much like Godzilla was originally. I don't particularly like this direction for the character, but it has its moments, such as when the characters celebrate the fact that they've defeated Gamera by knocking him on his back, only for him to retract his limbs and shoot fire from where they were, turning into a flying saucer. Entertaining in its ridiculousness. Overall, though, this film just feels like a haphazard attempt at the 1954 Godzilla which strips away much of the nuance to leave a subpar Kaiju movie. Disappointing, but not entirely without worth.