Director: Akio Jissoji
Year: 1966
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: (Alternate DVD Title: The Space Ray of Terror) (恐怖の宇宙線 Kyōfu no Uchūsen?)
Genre: Tokusatsu TV
Plot:
When a series of strange incidents are reported in the city, the Science Patrol finds the cause is a series of strange energy beams from the sun that effects 2D objects and turns them into 3D versions including the monster Gavadon conjured by a group of school kids and forces them to find the secret of the rays to stop it.
Story:
Story:
As well, with this early work here with the existence of the rays and how it affects the monster, the Science Patrol is given a rather unique and heretofore unseen ability to keep the monster contained not with firepower but brawn. This is the closest we've gotten yet as to how they would've operated before Ultraman where they focus on the investigation of the space rays and how to keep Gavadon from wreaking havoc. With the focus on comedy involving their ineptitude and Gavadon's complete disinterest in them, this is a fine section of the episode.
There is a slight flaw with the storyline here which is the handling of the ray's origins, and it's the most obvious factor with the complete lack of any. The sheer wackiness of the concept involving rays from the Sun seemingly turning 2D drawings into 3D creations needs to be explored and explained as to why it hasn't happened before. It gets intriguing as well with the final coda offering hints that it's a potentially global situation but it's disappointingly vague and underwhelming, making for quite a troubling aspect overall.
Special Effects:
As well, the rest of the special effects here are quite fun. The experimentation of the episode comes from the implementation of the creatures' origins as we see the creature emerge off the steel pipes in the factory. The glowing orb increasing in size to become as if a living organism sprouting out of the pipe is impressive where it looks quite realistic festering and growing until it produces the full-size creature in the next shot sleeping in the middle of downtown Tokyo. The slow dissolve into the sky when it disappears is a fine cheaply-done tactic to get it out of the scene rather nicely, while the miniature city featuring the military confronting the creature looks quite well-detailed even without the explosions going off around it.
The one area it suffers somewhat slightly is in the set for the final battle, where the water-dam confrontation takes place. An effort is certainly made to incorporate the live-action shots of the Science Patrol on a real-life dam rescuing the children to give this some cohesive imagery and a sense it's taking place at the same location but the actual battleground is a bleak, barren spot on the shore with a few trees to denote the forest location. That this is noticeably above the water-line instead of blending together into one equal footing, making the set-bound shoot quite obvious.
Other Factors:
Overview: ***.5/5
While there are some intriguing setups in the storyline that aren't always executed to it's potential, the monster mayhem is still highly enjoyable and helps to overcome enough issues to be a worthwhile episode. It's not one of the best or more important ones in the series but this is still a solid comfort-level piece for those binging through the series as a whole.
Comments
Post a Comment