I've noticed there are some people who obviously take Godzilla-esquire movies far too seriously. Basically if you refer to them as kaiju and you're not Japanese, you're in too deep. But I digress. I am not one of those people. I just watched Gamera and Godzilla as a kid and they cracked me up.
That said, this movie is clearly the best of either Gamera or Godzilla for one good reason: collateral damage. Some mad genius hatched a story that actually tried to present a giant rubber monster movie in a real world context. There are scenes when fireballs engulf whole city blocks and the tiny, fleeing Japanese citizens are blown away in a storm of chaos. The insane contrast between what is obviously a man in an ungainly, ridiculous turtle costume and thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered as a result of that giant rubber turtle accidentally crushing a gas main as he levels a few city blocks is, to put it poetically, friggin' great.
There's ambition here. The screenwriter and the director of this movie should be proud of themselves for not flinching despite how obviously ludicrous this movie should have been. It's a flying turtle. A giant one. But dammit, the story is compelling.
That said, this movie is clearly the best of either Gamera or Godzilla for one good reason: collateral damage. Some mad genius hatched a story that actually tried to present a giant rubber monster movie in a real world context. There are scenes when fireballs engulf whole city blocks and the tiny, fleeing Japanese citizens are blown away in a storm of chaos. The insane contrast between what is obviously a man in an ungainly, ridiculous turtle costume and thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered as a result of that giant rubber turtle accidentally crushing a gas main as he levels a few city blocks is, to put it poetically, friggin' great.
There's ambition here. The screenwriter and the director of this movie should be proud of themselves for not flinching despite how obviously ludicrous this movie should have been. It's a flying turtle. A giant one. But dammit, the story is compelling.