Space Amoeba (1970)

I didn't expect so much from Space Amoeba actually. Sure, it's Honda behind the wheel, Ifukube on the music and probably some very nice cinematography by Taiichi Kankura. But on the other hand it's set on an island, which means in the Toho-world that there's no budget at all to work with. It's cheaper to crush palm trees and huts than skyscrapers. But interestingly enough it's not even half as bad as I expected. Not a masterpiece, but a competent adventure movie with a bunch of great actors and three of the coolest monsters I've ever seen in a Toho-production. 

They've been created by some space-being that only can live in other lifeforms, and of course it wants to take over the world. And the perfect start is from an island that's being transformed into a luxery resort. The natives isn't happy about this and warns the newcomers about the monster Gezora living in the sea around the island, but of course no one is listening...

Gezoroa is a giant squid, and is the best squid/octopus/tentacles-monsters I've seen from Toho. The suit is a smart construction which hides the actors legs inside all the tentacles, and it works really well. Ganime is a huge crab who's designed more ambitious with a lot of moving parts in the face, some disgusting eyes and cool hands. Kameba is more traditional, but has a long neck that shoots out like a real turtle sometimes, and it works fine.

The effects are cool and there's some interesting new ideas that Honda tried. We have animated tentacles that's grabbing people for example, which maybe dosen't fit in this movie, but is an interesting idea. The back projection is quite good and the actors get's a chance to run in front of the screen and so on, which is fun. Miniatures are detailed, but there's not so much to do with palm trees and different kind of huts really. 

Though it get's more familiar in the end with some okey, but far from great, fight-scenes by the monsters, it's still a cool and fun monster movie.