So, we’re back again, this time with the third film in the Gamera series. This time an underwater earthquake sets a chain reaction that causes Mt. Fuji to erupt. Gamera, now just a fully-fledged hero, arrives and saves the day. Except Gyaos, a flying monster, has been unleashed on the world. He can shoot lasers, and his only weakness is being exposed to the sun, being dizzy and towards the end of the film we discover he’s also weak to his neck being bitten horrifically.

To be completely honest with you, this one isn’t very good. It has none of the fun charm from the first film and none of the well written characters of the first one. Gyaos is a dumb monster. It looks goofy every time it’s on screen and the only good thing about it is that it’s just funny. One of the things about Gyaos is that he can’t turn his neck as his spine splits into a v-shape in his neck. There is a plot reason given, but we all know it’s because the suit is cheap. When it’s flying, it just looks stupid. It’s closer to a jet than a flying bird monster.

Gamera at the start of the film appears out of nowhere to save the day, galloping up towards Mt. Fuji, which is really funny. Gamera may not be Godzilla, but he’s a great monster. The suit looks pretty decent here and the effects do look at lot better than the previous one.

The human plan to stop Gyaos is to spin him around until he gets dizzy and let the sun shrink him. They lure him in with fake blood, and then spin the contraption around and around until he’s dizzy, it breaks and Gyaos is free. While the plan is in action all I could think about was how much the guy in the suit must have been suffering. There are stories of how hot the suits were for these kind of films, and that there would be a pool of sweat that would need to be emptied throughout the day that collected in the bottom. Can you imagine being spun around, with your feet soaked in your own sweat, while in blistering heat. It must have been akin to torture.

Overall the third outing for Gamera was really bad. It had some really great and funny moments, but it is the weakest of the series so far. It’s cheap, a little boring and doesn’t have a lot going for it.

Next time is Gamera vs. Viras.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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