Gamera: Super Monster

Gamera: Super Monster (宇宙怪獣ガメラ ,Uchu Kaijū Gamera?, Space Monster Gamera), a 1980 daikaiju eiga (giant-monster movie), was the belated final entry in the Shōwa Gamera series, and the last Gamera film written by Nisan Takahashi and directed by Noriaki Yuasa. It relied heavily on stock footage from previous Gamera films. This movie was made with the intention of getting Daiei out of bankruptcy, which failed. There wasn't another Gamera movie made for another 15 years, until his revival in 1995.

Plot

When the evil alien Zanon comes to enslave the Earth, all hope seems lost. The Earth's resident superheroes, the Spacewomen, are powerless to stop him. They must enlist the help of a young boy who has a special connection with Gamera. The friend of all children then fights and kills the revived Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Barugon. He then sacrifices himself to kill Zanon by destroying his spaceship.

Trivia

• Every one of the kaiju fought by Gamera in the Showa series appears in this film via stock footage, each with a subtitle regarding their name. In order he fights the revived Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Barugon.
• The end of the film features the death of the Showa Gamera, as he sacrifices himself destroying Zanon's spaceship.
• The Gamera March theme song is absent from this film, and a new theme song, Love for Future, appears multiple times.
• This film, because of the heavy use of stock footage (which took up over a third of the film), featured only about two minutes of new Gamera footage.
• As can be seen from the poster, the film features a spaceship which bears a suspicious resemblance to an Imperial Star Destroyer, an obvious attempt to capitalize on the success of the Star Wars films.
• As Gamera originally fought Guiron on an alien planet (Terra), a plot device was created that allowed Gamera to travel to his enemies' locations.
• At one point in the movie, Gamera knocks over a billboard. The camera then zooms closer to revealing it as an advertisement for a Godzilla film, Gamera's box-office rival.

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