Gamera vs. Guiron Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		2.0
Audio		1.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.0

Gamera vs. Guiron Blu-ray Movie Review

Gamera vs. The Last Movie in the Series.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 8, 2014

'Gamera vs. Guiron' is currently only available as part of a four-film bundle.

How can a series have so many movies under its belt and many of them, it seems, be more or less the same? In Gamera vs. Guiron, a couple of kids are once again whisked away in a spaceship, and it's up to Gamera to save them. The film toys around with all of the series' hallmarks and fails to paint a bigger picture beyond simpleminded entertainment that sticks firmly to script and never even dares introduce anything novel. It's not so much a disappointment, then, because it does exactly what's expected of it, and it does so with all of the low-budget "charm" that has, by this film, become a series staple. The film is, however, otherwise worthless, sort of like a food product that's just been repackaged rather than reformulated. "New look, same great taste!" it might say if it were to appear in the frozen foods isle, but then again that would be a lie, at least the latter half of that statement. Gamera vs. Guiron is nothing but Gamera vs. Viras repurposed with a fresh coat of paint, and it's not tasty because it never was.

Let me demonstrate the new and improved Ginsu for you...

Two young boys -- Akio (Nobuhiro Kajima) and Tom (Chrystopher Murphy) -- are obsessed with space. They spend their time together gazing through a telescope and are overjoyed when scientists announce the arrival of alien signals from outer space. That same evening, they spot a flying saucer through the telescope. When they, along with Akio's sister Tomoko (Miyuki Akiyama) investigate, the boys discover the ship. They board and are whisked away into the cosmos where they are saved from a collision with an asteroid by none other than Gamera. They land safely on an alien world where they are greeted by battling monsters and become entangled in an alien conspiracy from which only Gamera can save them.

Gamera vs. Guiron plays with an unmistakable simplicity, a simplicity that can be a blessing (as in charmingly basic) or a curse (as in it's just so goofy that one can't take it seriously, no matter the context). It's so simple that the movie feels like a Saturday morning cartoon come to life, and a bad Saturday morning cartoon at that, one in which the hero just appears not so much on command or demand but instead only at a time of great convenience for the main characters. Character development, then, is reduced to nothing more than a reworking of René Descartes' famous philosophical "I think, therefore I am" statement, here presented as "I am, therefore I appear." Really, the creatures show no development beyond "I am," and the human characters, likewise, are little more than pawns who more or less observe the beings in battle and escape only a couple of dicey situations without Gamera's aid. This is Sci-Fi storytelling at its most terribly basic, where everything is set in motion because of sheer convenience to the plot (and that term is used loosely), not for purpose or discernible theme or idea.

The recycled story ideas drastically slow the pacing, particularly for viewers who have seen all of the previous Gamera films. But it's not just that the story has nothing new to offer. There's no weight to it, nothing to anticipate, no reason to unconsciously slide to the edge of the seat. Worse, the action is slowly developing and bland, even when it's rather graphic in nature (a wing severed here, a leg laser-beamed off there) and even when it's so ridiculous as to be humorous, such as when Guiron -- a creature with a knife for a head -- fires throwing stars (which are housed on his face) at Gamera or when Gamera literally performs some gymnastics late in the film. The rubbery suits are fun to look at but the cheapness wears thin rather quickly, helped by a plethora of unconvincing spaceship and environment miniatures and full-sized sets that look like something out a bad dream in which the original Star Trek sets were dumbed down to the bare necessities and then further stripped to almost nothing but a few colors and basic shapes.

Gamera vs. Guiron Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gamera vs. Guiron features another mediocre-at-best 1080i transfer from Mill Creek. The transfer suffers from pale, lifeless blacks. Colors aren't vibrant but neither are they dull. There's a nice red to Gamera's tongue and gums, his green blood, and other shades on clothing and vegetation both on Earth and on the alien planet. Skin tones offer no cause for alarm. Details are adequate, but never eye-catching. The high definition presentation provides, at least, a steady frame and mostly clear, well-defined surfaces. The image suffers from light background blocking and interlacing artifacts, the latter particularly evident on fast-moving subtitle transitions. Overall, this is a suitable image, one that gets the job done but at the bare minimum of effort.

Gamera vs. Guiron Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gamera vs. Guiron features another miserable Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, norm for the Gamera series from Mill Creek. Note that while the soundtrack is presented in Japanese, it reads by the Blu-ray playback device as an English track. Optional English subtitles are included. This presentation has no range and no authority. It's shallow and muddy, lacking even basic spacing and aggression, even at reference volume. Whether music or sound effects, the track fails to bring forth any sort of vigor or vitality. Dialogue is serviceably presented, at least, but it, too, suffers from the same fate as music and effects. Of all the Blu-ray releases out there, this would rank at pretty much the bottom of the list of "reference worthy" audio soundtracks.

Gamera vs. Guiron Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Gamera vs. Guiron contains no supplemental content.

Gamera vs. Guiron Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gamera vs. Guiron is just bad. It's laughably bad, yes, but even that schtick wears off about halfway through when, if it wasn't clear before, it becomes painfully obvious that the movie is nothing but a rehash of the last. Poor characterization, lazy visual effects, a bland story, and rubbery monsters will equate to "charm" for some and "trash" to others. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Gamera vs. Guiron delivers substandard video, terrible audio, and no supplements. Skip it.