Review by larscentury

I've watched 21 of the Godzilla films so starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel with that series (eg All Monster Attack...), so now on to the Gamera series. This first effort was entertaining although a bit bland. The plot introduces us to Gamera, a giant turtle who has been in hibernation for thousands of years but is brought to life when a nuclear-armed Soviet jet plane crashes into the Arctic ice. The subplot involves a zoologist who studies Gamera, his beautiful assistant, and a young journalist who follows them around. Too many scenes with a young kid - that's a bit of a worry for me (although my daughter doesn't mind). The monster looks a bit cheap, but the plot moves along quite nicely, and as long as there are some scenes of Tokyo being stomped on I'm reasonably happy.