Gamera vs. Zigra (1971) Review

Gamera vs. Zigra (1971) Review

After conjuring up monsters with rainbow rays and sonic beams and knives for heads and tail spikes that inject parasitic offspring, the masterminds behind the Gamera series still had fresh ideas for enemies, and for movie #7 it was a new extraterrestrial kaiju, proving to be yet another formidable foe for the giant atomic mutant turtle. Gamera vs. Zigra begins with a dumb-looking alien spaceship blasting a moon base in the year 1985 (fourteen years in the future from when this movie was released), then we get a little tour of SeaWorld in Japan before two scientists and their two young children see the spaceship descend into the ocean. They are beamed aboard and meet Zigra. It’s a bit confusing, but it seems the planet this ship comes from is called Planet Zigra, and the woman on board (seemingly an alien in disguise) calls herself Zigra, and takes commands from her commander, also called Zigra. So, they’re all Zigra? They really wanted to get some mileage out of the name, I suppose.

There’s one static shot of the interior of the ship that lingers for a long time, with the big head of Zigra high above, and his red glowing eyes move back and forth without ever stopping, which is a funny detail. Zigra is looking for a new planet to call home, and has decided earth is perfect, but humans must surrender the ocean because we have polluted it so badly that we don’t deserve to rule the world. The environmental messaging is super heavy handed, and the stuff that made previous Gamera films great is unfortunately lacking in this one. Honestly, I can’t believe how many good movies they were able to make with the pace they kept up—I mean, one Gamera movie per year without interruption for seven years? Something had to give eventually, but Gamera vs. Zigra isn’t all bad. To compare it to the Godzilla series at the time, it’s more watchable than All Monsters Attack, which came out the year before. Fittingly enough, the Godzilla film released the same year as Gamera vs. Zigra, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, had similarly heavy-handed environmental themes, and is a debatably worse giant monster film.

The children characters in this one are much younger than the last few, and they are by far some of the most annoying kids of any Gamera film. They are whiny, bratty, and don’t do or say anything interesting. It’s really embarrassing when the alien woman Zigra is trying to catch them and they easily outrun and outmaneuver her on her own spaceship, then when she comes ashore and infiltrates SeaWorld, they still outwit her! It turns out this Zigra woman isn’t an alien being at all, she’s a woman of earth who was kidnapped from the moon rover at the beginning of the movie and brainwashed. The scientists are able to break the mind control with sonic waves, but it only helps them save the woman, not defeat Zigra. Gamera swims down to the sea bottom and breathes fire on the ship, which makes it take on a giant monster form also known as Zigra.

Zigra himself is actually not a bad monster. He looks like the combination of a bird, a shark, and a swordfish. When Gamera first fights him it seems like the giant turtle will have the upper hand when he hauls him ashore, but Zigra is able to fly a bit and even stand on his back fins, assuming a bipedal stance, which allows him to fight back. He hits Gamera with some kind of ray and somehow that’s enough to knock Gamera over into the ocean, completely incapacitating him. Remember when Viras impaled Gamera in the stomach multiple times and he was still able to defeat that intergalactic kaiju? I don’t know why Gamera is so weak in this movie, or why Zigra is so powerful, but I think it is largely to do with the budget and not being able to afford as many effects-heavy scenes. There isn’t much monster action throughout, and when there is, it doesn’t live up to the standards set by previous Gamera films. At one point earlier on they send out jets to destroy the Zigra ship, and the ship just shoots them down with lasers and they blow up and drop out of the sky. It’s the same old thing we’ve seen before, and it’s just not that entertaining.

With Gamera incapacitated as usual prior to the final battle, the scientists use a bathysphere to try and rouse him, but Zigra attacks them and says he will destroy everything if humankind doesn’t comply, so the U.N. gives in and asks the monster to spare the bathysphere. Lightning from a storm that night revives Gamera, and he saves the bathysphere before taking on Zigra once again. The final battle is decent, and it has one of the most absurd moments in the entire series: Gamera picks up a rock and plays Zigra’s jagged back like a xylophone, attempting to play a slowed-down version of the “Gamera March” theme music—he plays his own theme song!—then he drops the rock and does a dance with his arms flailing about wildly. While you’re still scratching your head trying to figure out what you just saw, Gamera sets Zigra aflame and burns him to a crisp, saving the day once again and getting the kids to all cheer and wave goodbye as he flies off with the “Gamera March” theme playing.  

Gamera vs. Zigra has some fun monster scenes, but drags when the monsters aren’t center stage, and even when they are it isn’t always that interesting or that exciting. The SeaWorld setting is odd and doesn’t amount to much, the kids are annoying, and even though Zigra looks cool, he’s kind of a strange villain, and not in the same entertaining way as past villains. I never saw this one as a kid, but even if I had, I don’t think it would have ranked among my favourites from this era.