From the beginning of the film it becomes pretty clear that there will be little fluidity to the film. For one, we have no idea who was actually the one to drop the bombs that awakened Gamera from his hibernation. Then you don't even really get a good idea of if you're in Japan, or Alaska? But all that aside, it's a pretty great plot. Ancient flying turtle from Atlantis is awakened and (sorta?) goes on a rampage. The love of turtles from a little boy leads him to believe that Gamera is in fact evolved from his own pet turtle, whom his father forced him to set free. Kinda silly I guess, but what more can you ask for in a cheesey monster movie? It's a good start to the series. More were made after this one that turned out much better than the original, but like I say, it's a decent step in the right direction.

"Gammera, the Invincible*" was Daiei Studio's chelonid answer to Toho Studio's popular Godzilla series. The film was targeted at a younger audience than contemporary Godzilla movies and one of the main characters is a young, turtle-loving boy. The monster design is on par with the late Showa-era Godzilla characters, although making a turtle look menacing is challenging. The film opens with the accidental detonation of a nuclear bomb, which releases Gamera from his 200,000,000 year icy hibernation. This is a one-monster-show, so most of the action revolves the shelled-kaiju's destruction of cities and power plants, and the JDF's various fruitless attempts to destroy him. The dubbed version I watched had a lot of tedious, cheap-looking English footage added (including, among others, Brian Donlevy), primarily cold-war tinged discussions about what to do about the situation). In keeping with his later appearances, Gamera is child-friendly, catching young Toshio (Yoshiro Uchida) when he falls from his lighthouse home (unfortunately, as the kid turns out to be an incredibly annoying character). Even by Showa-era kaiju films, the 'science' that explains Gamera's evolutionary history and current existence is ridiculous, as is the cunning plan devised to get rid of him. While silly, the black-and-white film is much more somber than later entries in the series (noticeably absent is the cheerily infectious "Gamera theme") and resembles the original Godzilla (1954) in style (although the Toho film is substantially better). Some of the matte scenes are reasonably well done, as are the miniatures (esp. the thermoelectric plant), but the gigantic, tusked, bipedal, flying turtle pretty much strains 'suspension of disbelief' beyond the breaking point. Kaiju fans will want to include the towering turtle's debut on their life lists but other than fans of 'camp' (who will probably prefer the MST3K annotated version), I can't imagine a modern audience showing much interest in the movie (although the Japanese version may be better that the 'westernised' version I watched). *The American title of the film seems to be the only instance of the "Gammera" spelling.

This is the American version of the very first Gamera movie, where an atomic explosion awakens the fire-breathing turtle monster from his hibernation and causing him to go on a destructive spree on Tokyo. U.S. footage with American actors were inserted and I couldn't tell if they contributed to the plot or not since I at the time of this review haven't seen the original. However, I do recall that most of those scenes involving endless meetings of the authorities in how to deal with the monster was boring because it distracts from the monster action. The special effects were decent as you can see a good dose of Gamera stomping on buildings and setting them on fire. And, you have a simple plot of the humans trying to think of a plan to stop this horror. Other than that, I thought this was pretty much a below average monster movie, one that precedes just over a half-dozen very childish and kid- oriented Gamera movies with recycled alien-invasion plots. Somehow, this first Gamera movie doesn't have that charm, riveting monster horror and intrigue that most other Japanese monster films, especially those made by rival movie studio Toho, have. From what I can see for just the American version of the film, it is a very typical and basic monster-on-the-loose flick.If you want to see more exciting and sophisticated Gamera movies, check those from the 1990s era.Grade D+

Gammera (or Gamera) is a giant turtle. He walks upright. He flies. He breathes fire. He wrecks ships, lighthouses, and assorted utility companies. He's got a real bad attitude toward technology. Anything manufactured seems to irk him to the point where he feels it necessary to incinerate the offending object and anyone in close proximity. He's a technophobe, and no mistake. It all started when he was rudely woken from slumber beneath the cold, quiet Arctic by a pesky atomic bomb alarm clock with a broken snooze button. Believing an icebreaker ship is the very clock that roused him, he tanks the craft in an obviously futile attempt to hit that snooze bar and get an extra eight minutes of sleep, but in his half-awake state he decides to just fry the clock and go back to bed. Yet the bed is too cold, so he decides to find a warmer place to curl up in...like volcanic Japan! Hmm...nice and toasty there, what with geothermal vents and cities to burn. But first, gotta put out that tacky light of the neighbors that's always flashing into his bedroom. Then it's time to slip beneath the sea for forty winks.Gammera's day just gets worse from there. He just can't catch a break. People keep screaming at him and making all sorts of unpleasant noises to keep him up. And machines are the worst of the lot, so he tries to silence as many as possible. But there's still too much commotion for a tired monster to bear, so he investigates claims of a sensory deprivation tank at a remote facility which prove mostly true. He slips into the tank and enjoys a brief moment of quiet before the thing roars up into the sky to deposit him on Mars where he can continue his nap uninterrupted. Plan Zzzzzzzzz is a success..."Gammera the Invincible Sleep Deprived Giant Turtle"