VividSimon Simply Perfect

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

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

JLRVancouver Nikkatsu studios joined the kaiju club with this 1967 entry, which sees two giant, prehistoric bird-like creatures descend upon Japan in search of their newly hatched chick, which has been taken from their island home by a team of scientists and journalists. Unlike most Japanese diakaiju films (but similar to the British film "Gorgo" (1961)), the monsters are simply victims of human avarice, ignorance, or indifference, and are neither our enemies/predators (like most monsters) nor our friends/guardians (as Godzilla was becoming). Despite this differing philosophy, the 'first two acts' follow the usual kaiju trajectory, the monsters are 'awoken', show up in Japan whereupon they cause considerable destruction (the miniature buildings that they destroy when they first arrive are very well done), demonstrate their invulnerability to our puny weapons necessitating the development of a bespoke weapon (in this case, high-intensity sound). Needless to say while the army is trying to destroy the distraught parents, more empathetic characters are pleading for the chick to be released and I doubt that anyone would be surprised by which side wins out in the 'third act'. As mid-1960's kaiju films go, "Gappa: The Triphibian Monster" is not bad. The story is simple but has the odd gaps in logic common to the genre (the fact an egg could hatch after lying dormant for a million years makes perfect sense, the possibility that it was recently laid by extant adults is untenable). Most of the miniatures and the pyrotechnics are on par with contemporary Toho films but the titular monsters are not as effective. The Gappas suffer from the usual problem with bird-like kaiju: they're too bulky, have long, heavy legs, and look completely unconvincing in flight - they take off like the flying monkeys in the "Wizard of Oz" (1939) and never seem to move their wings when flying. As well, unlike Toho's 'Rodan', the Gappas have both arms and wings, making them look even more like actors in suits. Kaiju design aside, the film is a lightweight but watchable entry into the genre. Socially sensitive viewers take warning: the young actor playing the native island boy does so with make-up to darken his complexion (with mixed success), which some people might consider 'blackface' (although he's not intended to look like a minstrel player) and the female lead, having just witnessed a somewhat sentimental Gappa family reunion, closes the film by disavowing her job and asserting that she's just an "ordinary women" who should get married and have children.

kai ringler if you can get by the dubbing, and the sometimes missing of the translation of what was really meant to be said by the actors , then yeah this isn't really a bad movie at all, course i'm bias I love virtually all monster movies,, whether American , or Japanese. thought it was so ignorant of the man in charge for most of the movie not to return the "baby" gappa , meanwhile the mommy and daddy move closer towards Tokyo,, you will have to watch and see for yourself what happens next.. sure this isn't king kong or Godzilla but hey this really isn't a bad movie to watch. you just have to bear with it and try to follow along as best as you can that's all.

siderite I've seen a lot of Japanese giant monster movies and most of them are terrible. Daikyojû Gappa, or Monster from a Prehistoric Planet as it was translated into English, is no exception. The monsters are flying sea creatures (yeah, it makes a lot of sense) that are clearly men dressed in cheap suits and plastic masks, fly faster than airplanes, breath fire and are pretty upset because people stole their baby, with which they can communicate electromagnetically.There is a bit of fun to be had when you see these people moving around the set and destroying plaster cities, but the enjoyment is limited. The English voice over is a bit funnier, but also not much. A total bore overall.

Clay Loomis Wow. Sexism, racism, monsterism, ridiculism, this movie has it all.I've seen many Japanese "man-in-a-rubber-suit" monster movies. Yup, got hooked as a kid. And this is the worst I've seen. To be fair, I saw it on one of the late night Monster, Horror, Chiller Theater showings, and it was the English dubbed version that had been edited down to just over an hour, so I could be missing some of the more subtle points and nuance.But here are the parts I DID see- The little Japanese boy, playing a "native" that went through the entire movie in black face (a subtle touch I managed to catch).The female scientist, who spent the whole movie cold-shouldering her suitor in order to pursue her career, only to decide at the end to give it all up to go home, become a woman, and wash diapers (a wholesome family message I was happy to see).Monsters that can't decide how large they are. Are they 10 feet tall, 100 feet tall, 1000 feet tall? The answer is YES! The version I saw did not explain how these flying, swimming, fire breathing lizard-birds (called Gappa) came to be. It also made no mention how a scientist with no prior knowledge of Gappa's immediately knew they were hypersensitive to certain sounds. But I'm sure that was all explained in the unedited version of the movie. Oh, and at the end of the movie, as the monsters flew off into the sunset, they blew up (huh?).This is not the worst movie ever made (Can you say "Monster a-Go Go"?), but it IS a really bad movie. I'm not sure how MST3K missed it.