When it comes to film franchises, it is not unusual for the first film to be the best. This applies to the Godzilla franchise, in which the first film is near universally regarded as the best. In the case of the Gamera franchise, it is quit different. It is one of the few franchises were the later films are better
than the first. Gamera's first outing had a generally serious tone, with Gamera portrayed as a villainous monster. The story is pretty much a Gojira knock-off, but lacking the emotional resonance or political subtext. The characters do not really stand-out beyond their archetypes. The biggest thorn in this movies thigh is the little boy named Toshio. From the first moment you meet him, he is annoying. He is dumb and treats everybody around him really badly. It is beyond stupid that Toshio keeps trying to tell the adults that Gamera is innocent even though he is destroying cities and killing innocent people. It seems the movie is not sure whether we are supposed to fear Gamera or sympathize for him. The film tries to be Gojira mixed with a little boys coming-of-age story and it simply does not work. I wished the movie would have cut the irrelevant boy subplot and taken more time to develop the adult characters more. Gamera is really interesting-looking monster, and the movie succeeds in making him look intimidating. The destruction of Tokyo is a pretty good spectacle and the human efforts to stop Gamera is also a little intriguing. Overall, for a Gojira knock-off, this is not too bad but nothing special. It's not as campy as some later entries, nor is it as spectacular.
December 11, 2011
