Gorgo, el monstruo

Poster tagline: LIKE NOTHING YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE! And for my part, don't underestimate the wrath of a mother, or you'll be flattened, as Gorgo did with London. A more than solid response by British filmmakers to the success of Japan's Godzilla and similar monsters coming out of Hollywood, with directorial assistance from Hammer legend Terence Fisher. The plot is nothing original: a monster is captured off a distant island and brought to a London circus (see King Kong there, too?), but it avoids clichés in some ways and adds one new element. First of all, there is no love line, typical for Hollywood and most of Toho's works (the tried and tested model of a professor's daughter falling in love with a handsome young scientist). In fact, there are no female roles at all, and the new element is that the mother of the monster comes for her captured cub (which was originally thought to be an adult), and she’s about ten times bigger and incomparably more dangerous (this concept was then successfully repeated by the Japanese in Gappa, the Triphibian Monster). In terms of production design and effects, the Brits can proudly stand next to the Japanese and even surpass them by a head in some respects. In the entire film – with the exception of one underwater scene with a bathyscaphe – I never said to myself "Gee, that looks bad". No blatant mockups of army equipment, no artificial rear or front projections, just proper models and pyrotechnic effects. The last 30 minutes are literally an orgy of demolition, with perfectly filmed crowd scenes that just ooze hysteria and must have been the envy of Hollywood. I already have a lot of experience in this genre and I say for myself "Nice work, British lads!" (02.03.2013)

Another contribution to the Godzilla family - this time the filmmakers have granted the lizard British citizenship, but it’s not worth much. Except for the final twenty minutes with the rather successful destruction of London (and the incredibly stupidly behaving English army, which can be taken as satire with a bit of exaggeration). (06.07.2012)

"Gorgo" is a film that excels not only in its special effects scenes, but also in crowd scenes and especially in water scenes with boats and potentially underwater with divers. Although it is, of course, an attempt to somehow respond to the success of Japanese kaiju films and American remakes, as well as previous British films, there are elements that stand out and make it worth watching. It is not a revolution in similar films, but it is at least of good quality. (23.03.2014)