Gamera vs. Viras Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		2.0
Audio		1.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.0

Gamera vs. Viras Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 6, 2014

The Gamera series isn't exactly known for telling great stories, building them with unbeatable visual effects, and filling the screen with exciting monster-on-monster actions. The films certainly try, but all of the early movies -- Gamera: The Giant Monster, Gamera vs. Barugon, and Gamera vs. Gyaos -- fail in capturing the Godzilla-inspired Kaiju magic. Unfortunately, a further deterioration in quality is evident in Gamera vs. Viras, undoubtedly the worst of the bunch so far -- and by a wide margin -- and an example of how not to do "cheap." Imagine the worst of Star Trek: The Original Series, remove the last little bit of character charm and story cohesion that frequently saves that series' "worst of the worst," multiply that by a hundred or so, and vaguely understand the epic disaster that is Gamera vs. Viras. Fortunately, the old "so bad it's good" charm keeps this one from cinema oblivion.

Gamera vs. Bumblebees.

An alien spacecraft approaches Earth with the intention of attacking and colonizing, a move essential to their species' survival. Enter Gamera, the flying turtle creature. Gamera repels the alien attack, but not before the aliens gather intelligence on the monster and prepare for a second assault. The aliens' new mission is to take out Gamera before conquering Earth. Gamera is caught in a "super catch ray" through which the aliens are capable of analyzing his strengths and weaknesses. When they discover his fondness for children, they abduct two Boy Scouts, Masao (Tôru Takatsuka) and Jim (Kurl Crane). While the boys attempt escape, Gamera plots his move to save them and fend off the aliens' secret weapon, a creature called Viras.

This one is just bad, and that's being kind to it. The film does everything the other Gamera films do poorly, like overuse obviously phony miniatures, populate the film with forgettable human characters, and suffer through incredibly slow action scenes. Yet there's almost a charming awfulness here, whether discussing the alien spaceship that looks like it's made from five or six bumblebee rear ends connected together in a circle or the scenes introducing the Boy Scouts and the submarine that are accompanied by circus music. That section that sees the submarine piloted with reversed controls lasts far too long and serves as an example of how the film falters, by dragging out everything to its limit and then some, whether overdrawn battles or the lengthy montage that basically serves as a highlight reel from the previous three films in the series and seems to occupy about a fifth of this film's entire runtime. It's like it's grasping at straws just to keep the length up, and the end result is a sluggish disaster brought further down by that aforementioned usual array of Gamera awfulness.

Gamera vs. Viras Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gamera vs. Viras arrives on Blu-ray with an iffy, but watchable, 1080i transfer. The image is littered with compression and combing artifacts, random smudges (check around the 8:00 mark), and dirt. These represent some major problems that do hinder one's ability to fully enjoy the film. On the plus side, light grain remains and details satisfy. Clothing details are particularly nice, with kudos to the clarity with which Boy Scout uniforms and patches are revealed. The spacecraft floor is so well defined that viewers will see the cheap materials and scuff marks. The 1080i resolution also makes it easy to spot wires holding up Gamera in a number of shots (take a look right around the 17:00 mark). Colors are a bit dim and uninteresting, even on the alien spacecraft where a fair variety of brighter shades appear on clunky readouts. While flesh tones appear mostly accurate, black levels do look washed out. Overall, this is a watchable yet weak effort from Mill Creek Home Entertainment.

Gamera vs. Viras Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gamera vs. Viras features a fairly pitiful Japanese language Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack (note that the player reads it as an English track, but it is indeed in Japanese. Optional English subtitles are included, which must be toggled on or off (default is on) with the remote control's "subtitle" button). The track lacks command and presence. Music is crunchy and cramped. Sound effects are absent any sort of perceptible energy or stage presence and fail to track across the front. An underlying hiss may be heard throughout. Dialogue is crunchy and scratchy. In short, a poor soundtrack all around.

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

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

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

Easily the worst film of the first four, Gamera vs. Viras is also one of the worst Monster movies ever made, Gamera or otherwise. Overlong even at 80 minutes, featuring a simple plot that's stretched too thin, populated by dull characters, and home to a needlessly lengthy collage of footage from previous films smack-dab in the middle all contribute to the film's epic awfulness and allow the movie to serve as the perfect example of Kaiju done poorly. Fortunately, its so terrible to be funny and it's worth a watch just to revel in every flub along the way. Mill Creek Home Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Gamera vs. Viras features middling video and awful audio. No extras are included. Pick it up on the cheap for an easy laugh.