**** Giant Space Chicken on the Rampage!

First off, let me make one thing clear: this movie is bad! But then again, is bad really a bad thing? Not when it's laugh out load silly! A classic mix of Japanese space travel sci-fi and gigantic monster on the loose city bashing. The movie would be "bad" enough, but the kaiju featured, Guilala, is one of the baddest, silliest, most mind-blowingly pathetic rubber suit monster ever made!

As we all know, Japan has been making regular space travel to sites such as moon colonies and distant planets since the 1960's. One such endeavor is the first trip to Mars. A group of elite astronauts are briefed in a classroom and sent out on the third attempt to get to the red planet (the first two failed and the people aboard disappeared, but nobody is pessimistic about it). The spaceship dubbed AAB-Gamma takes off fine but gets a hole punched in it by an asteroid, and so makes a stop on the moon colony. After vacationing there and picking up a replacement medical officer (the last one ironically got sick), they head off to Mars and encounter a custard pie. The pie sticks some "spores" on the ship, and as usual they bring back a sample. Finally, after 47 minutes of mundane space travel, Guilala appears (pronounced Goo-La-La)! He goes stomping around Japan, visiting city after city trashing them! None of Japan's defenses work, and he just goes on to destroy just about everything in his search for a good energy source. However, he is eventually coated in guilalium (looks like shaving cream), which blocks off his flow of energy and he turns back into a spore. The spore is sent into space for an infinite orbit around the sun.

Like most kaiju movies not made by major kaiju-movie making companies like Toho or Daiei, this movie looks like they put a lot of effort into making a good movie, but ended up making a very pathetic one. But well-made pathetic movies are good in my opinion! The unfortunate part is that the first 47 minutes are a Japanese version of futuristic space travel in the 60's. It's not all that bad, and the human plot is pretty good. It's one of the few kaiju movies that has a lot of something known as character development! Well, sort of. The characters act out some pretty good sequences, but occasionally get overly mutinous on the ship. But for the most part they just talk about all the neato stuff the future has, like artificial water (yeah, like that's possible). However, it's all very slow-paced and the "wow that was cool" factor is lost in today's world. Still, its neat to see what somebody in the 60's though the future of space flight was going to be like. The people act through the stuff like it was natural to see blinking buttons all the time, and in a way the whole thing is believable. Well, sort of. The props and sets look kinda fake and people bouncing on trampolines isn't all that effective, but still the whole thing is kinda neato.

Once Guilala finally appears, the movie takes a shift from campy Japanese space travel to campy guy-in-rubber-suit monster mayhem! Guilala is really silly looking. I don't know what they where thinking when they designed the thing, but realistic-looking was not one of their thoughts! He is quite fun to watch, especially moving around. And he trashes a pretty good model city to. It looks quite good as a whole, on par with other monster movies of its type, but it does have a slight problem with scale (as in nothing being to scale). Well toy tanks and jets attack the guy, and he shoots fireballs on back. Lot's of explosions and destruction ensue. And the silly scenes keep popping up all the time, such as when one stupid pilot rams his jet into Guilala's head! And Guilala's movement across Japan is well recorded with a cardboard cut out on a map. Finally comes the showdown at the spaceport (you could see it coming since the first views at the beginning). Included is more destruction, and a great scene where Guilala chases a truck carrying radioactive material (and I thought the T. Rex chase scene from "Jurassic Park" was original). Essentially a lot of pretty good models get trashed by a really bad rubber suit, and for the most part that is good!

As a whole, the movie is quite bad but good. Basically the great/silly scenes just keep coming! Bad special effects that show effort, the best there is! It does have its problems, such as the same 5-second music clip playing over and over again. They also say "AAB-Gamma" just a couple dozen too many times! Still, it's a great silly movie to watch. If you can make it through the first 47 minutes, you get quite a good treat. Not saying the first 47 minutes is all that bad (good human plot, nifty sci-fi view, shower scene), but it is kind of boring. Basically as a whole if you like campy Japanese sci-fi movies with silly monster stomping, then you will love this one! Guilala is one whacked-out kaiju, and if you don't take him seriously, then you will have a seriously good time!

Great plot

Good/Bad special effects

Neato view of space travel

Lot's of silly city destruction

Some pathetically funny bits and pieces

Guilala! Very silly kaiju, and that's a good thing.

Boring first 47 minutes

Rather pathetic, which can be bad at times

Certain models not to scale with other models

If you say "AAB-Gamma" one more time I'll…!

So, Guilala absorbs energy. Didn't we see that before, like say... "Gamera"?

Oh shoot! The air is escaping the ship! Quick, cover the hole with your rear end!

Credits