The only Gamera films of the originals was the ones MST3K did not riff. The riffed five out of eight so I think that I got a good feel for the series. The three films I did not watch were Gamera vs Viras, Gamera vs Jiger and Gamera: Super Monster which should not even count as it was really just a patched together film with very few original scenes. People complain about how movies are done now, but they literally had more than a couple of films that were just pieced together films like this, they even did a Pink Panther film this way. Talk about something that would never be accepted today. This one is a bit of an improvement over Gamera vs Guiron, which was the last film I saw (Jiger was in between Guiron and this one), but only mildly so. I preferred the setting here and quite frankly that one space girl was hot, hot, HOT! There was just a bit more to it than the Guiron film too, as that film almost seemed like there was really no credible threat and the only people in danger were the two children. Let's face it, if those two space gals from the last film landed on Earth, I do not see them really being able to do much especially since they would be coming without their monster.This film has another space alien threat as a spaceship that doubles as a candy dish comes to Earth. Zigra has come to take over the planet and his hot assistant will hypnotize anyone who stands in their way. Granted, she has the hardest time capturing the two annoying children of the piece. Soon she is sent to kill these children as they know their plan or something, but they could have better used the time simply concentrating on conquering the world as the kids really did not know anything useful as a dolphin trainer is the one that figures out the means to snap the paralysis that the hot space assistant can dish out. Of course, Gamera will be the one to battle the monster Zigra and, of course, Gamera is going to be incapacitated for a while to build tension or something. I need a coke after trying to summarize that story! This made a nice end of the Mystery Science Theater doing Gamera films. I prefer Mike as host of the show, but Joel was very good on every one of the Gamera films. Kind of strange as sometimes when they do sequels the jokes get stale, it happened with Master Ninja and Space Fugitive and most certainly on the Hercules films, but the Gamera films never got stale. I guess because they are a bit different from each other, but not really as most that feature other monsters follows the same plot of people try to stop monster and fail, Gamera fights a bit and gets injured in some way and must rest, more failed plans and then final showdown. Still, it somehow worked well to make a great set of shows for them to riff.So this one was not great by any means, but it was better than Guiron. My favorite of the Showa era Gamera films was Gaos and then Barugon as both of them featured other monsters and a dark tone. This one and Guiron are just incredibly goofy at times. Not sure how the tone in Viras was, but I am guessing the tone began to get more goofy in that one and I am pretty sure Jiger was like this one and Guiron too. Though I hear there is a rather nasty scene in that one featuring a film of some sort of parasite and an elephant's trunk. I do know that Gamera got incapacitated in that one too! This one moves pretty quickly though and has a good setting and one very fine space woman!

1971's "Gamera vs. Zigra" was the last (no 7), and by far least, of Daiei's original Gamera series, eventually making the television rounds in the US over 15 years after the company went bankrupt (the other six all showed up on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater). With yet another batch of annoying children, and adults who behave just as badly, it's up to series veteran Reiko Kasahara to maintain intrigue, even if she has to run around in a fetching bikini! She had previously appeared in "Gamera vs. Gaos" (no. 3) and "Gamera vs. Guiron" (no. 5), the latter as one of the two alien women desiring to devour the children's brains (not that that could make them any smarter). Zigra is revealed as a kind of shark usually found in the deeper waters off Japan, but Gamera is just laughable. The previous color sequels, apart from "Gamera vs. Viras," had some merit, but this one has absolutely none, dumb characters coupled with dumber monsters.

I've seen quite a number of the Japanese man-in-rubber-suit monster movies, and this one rates right down there at the bottom. Gamera has always been confusing to me. At least with Godzilla I suppose there's a chance that radioactivity could turn him into a giant radioactive lizard.But I think Gamera is a pretty hard sell, even to kids. Here we have a giant, fanged turtle that walks upright, breathes fire (even under water), and has rockets under his shell and uses them to fly. He also dances, and comes when children call, like a giant puppy with a shell.But, if you can buy that premise, I suppose none of the other strangeness in this movie will effect you either. Zigra is a giant shark-like thing from another galaxy that can stand on its tail, has a razor bladed head, a bird's beak and some sort of fourth dimensional laser beam for a nose. It also speaks English (originally Japanese) under water. Even Gamera can't speak our language, and he lives here. Zigra has come to enslave humans and eat them.Much like the other Gamera films, preschool children figure out all the answers to problems grown scientists have no clue about, then they call Gamera to come save the day. Which he does, of course, finishing up by playing his theme song on Zigra's ribs with a boulder. Nothing unusual in that, really. It's the sort of stuff that's been happening in Japan for decades.Another gift from "Producer" Sandy Frank, who never met a film that was too awful to import to America. It makes me wonder what the Japanese think when we export some nuttiness like Spiderman to their country.

I saw this film in a Gamera weekend special on TV back in the early 1990s, after Gamera vs. Barugon. This film pretty much hits rock bottom, with a lame storyline, unremarkable special effects and horrendous acting. A moon base is destroyed by a spaceship and an alien named Zigra comes to Earth and kidnaps two men and two children. After the humans escape, they were chased by an alien-possessed woman all around this Seaworld-like theme park - a scene that takes up too much of the movie.. To cap things all up, Gamera shows up and battles the alien, which ultimately becomes a giant swordfish, in one of the most sloppiest and most boring monster battles ever filmed. Probably the most annoying scene in this movie is when the boy, seeing Gamera for the first time in the film, shouts out "Ah, Gamera!" Then, he and his sister end up riding the turtle on his back, singing the infamous Gamera song. Overall, a very cheesy film. I recommend Gamera vs. Barugon or the Gamera films from the 90s over this!Grade D--