It feels half-hearted and lacks the energy of earlier Toho kaiju movies.
Since I was a little kid, I’ve been a fan of Japanese giant monster movies. When I’d watch them on TV during Saturday afternoons, I’d always be disappointed if the movie didn’t feature Godzilla or Gamera. There weren’t many of them but they did exist. One such movie is 1970’s Space Amoeba, which I probably saw as Yog: Monster From Space (its American title.) Even though it featured three giant monsters, it never felt as exciting without those aforementioned icons of kaiju cinema.
Space Amoeba‘s plot revolves around a mysterious blue blob that hitches a ride on Helios 7, an unmanned space mission to Jupiter. Entering the ship’s capsule, it reroutes Helios 7 back to Earth. Once Helios 7 splashes down in the Pacific, the blob enters the body of a cuttlefish. It enlarges to gargantuan size and heads toward Selgio Island.
A photojournalist (Akira Kubo), a professor (Yoshio Tsuchiya), and a public relations specialist (Atsuko Takahashi) travel to Selgio Island at the behest of a Japanese real estate developer. He plans to build a giant resort there. He sends the trio to document the island and study its wildlife. Along the way, they meet Obata (Kenji Sahara,) who claims he is going to study the natives. Before they arrive, the group is informed that a monster has attacked the island and killed one of the developer’s employees stationed there.
The island’s native population thinks the attacking giant cuttlefish is Gezora, a legendary monster that lives in the sea. They blame the intruding Japanese for angering it. Soon, though, the natives and the quartet of Japanese visitors team up to fight the monster. Little do they know that it’s not the real enemy.
Space Amoeba features a plethora of Toho Studios’ stable of veteran actors. Even casual fans of Godzilla films will recognize some of the faces appearing in the film. Akira Kubo and Yoshio Tsuchiya starred in Invasion of Astro Monster, Son of Godzilla, and Destroy All Monsters. Likewise, Kenji Sahara appeared in Son of Godzilla and Destroy All Monsters as well as War of the Gargantuas. Their performances certainly aren’t the centerpiece of a production like this, but they’re all dependable in their roles.
The real stars here are the rubber-suit creatures from Toho’s special effects department. Space Amoeba was made at the time that kaiju movies started to falter at the box office. Budgets were lower than ever. So, the monsters aren’t very convincing and the effects more disappointing than usual. According to IMDb, the eyes of the Gezora costume malfunctioned halfway through production. There wasn’t enough money in the budget to fix them so, in some scenes, they’re lit up and, in others, they’re not.
And, that sums up this movie. It feels half-hearted and lacks the energy of earlier Toho kaiju movies. No one — including me — is going to argue that these types of films are anything other than a guilty pleasure at best. But when everything from Ishirô Honda’s direction to the Akira Ifukube musical score feels phoned in, there’s little fun to be had.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
