Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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.

bassplace88 It helps to be a kaiju fan if you watch this as an adult. I was able to see the English subtitled version, and found it enjoyable for what it is. It's monster destruction along the vein of Gojira, albeit a cheaper budget, yet more updated special effects. The movie is short so its fairly easy to get through. I love the atmosphere of black and white, and the seriousness of Gamera as a threat to humanity. There is a child present, but he will not totally turn off adults. I'm not gonna pick the film to pieces and tell you what's wrong. It's just good kaiju fun! This movie is as important to the series as the original Godzilla was to his. I recommend it to all true fans of the genre.

Clay Loomis When we in the western world see these funky Japanese movies, (I'm NOT talking Kurosawa here), we can get confused. At least, I can. I'm in my 50's as of this writing, and when I was a kid, I liked these Japanese rubber monster flicks. The story meant nothing to me. I just liked seeing giant monsters fight. But as I've aged, I realize I have less and less in common with them.I don't know what the hell they are talking about anymore. I caught up with Gamera a few days ago and wondered how I loved this movie as a kid. So, I thought I'd try to move up to the 21st century and see what Japanese kids movies were doing today. Bad Idea! I found http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451829/ Naisu no mori: The First Contact. It came out in 2005, 40 years after Gamera. I went on to search for a video clip from this movie, and there certainly is one. It......it....Well, OK, I cannot even describe it here without risking arrest. Check it out.If you thought giant mutated turtles with tusks and rocket legs were strange, you've not seen the children's fare out of Japan lately.I gotta tell you, the aliens are different now.I should REALLY bump my vote for this movie, but I'm too frightened to. The new stuff scares me too much.

winner55 It doesn't make sense to give this film a bad rating - but it really doesn't make sense to rate it at all.Don't assume that means that this film is so ridiculous, it's beyond redemption... well, it IS ridiculous and beyond redemption; but it is certainly enjoyable on its own terms.If this film is easy to misunderstand, it's because it's really difficult to say what 'it's own terms' really are. It begins clearly intending to compete with the successful Godzilla series; but somewhere about mid-way, it suddenly decides to be about a lonely young boy. In order to salvage its science-fiction credentials, it then comes up with an impossible solution to the Gamera threat to the human race - I can't tell you what it is, but it would take the entire assets of the developed nations of the world to pull off - it might be better to let the big turtle stalk around and just stay out from beneath his feet.On top of all this wild nonsense, the American release print, which is the only one I know available, adds on some wonderful campy stuff, like the televised debate about the possible existence of the big turtle, and lowest-budgeted attempt to portray a meeting of the UN Security Council you are ever likely to see - even the one in the Adam West Batman movie looks spectacular in comparison.There is no way to wrap your brain around this one, so don't bother. A guilty pleasure to the max. And one more important point in its favor - unlike most of the other '60s Gamera films, this one moves along at a fine pace and never drags.So microwave some kettle corn and munch down - you deserve not to take life so seriously you can't enjoy a bit of fluff like this.