Leofwine_draca
THE GUYVER is a little-remembered anime-influenced science fiction flick about an ordinary guy who becomes possessed with the power to transform into a crime-fighting mutant cyborg hero. He soon finds himself assailed by a gang of bizarre lizard men and discovers that a sinister engineering organisation is set to bring chaos to the world; it's his job to stop those involved. This film is a classic example of what a movie with great effects and no script looks like. Screaming Mad George, who co-directs, contributes all manner of amazing prosthetics and weird-looking creations, even a little stop motion at times. The imagination is all up on the screen in a physical format. The rest is a mish mash of nonsense and tired genre tropes, with mad scientist running amok and street gangs trying to act tough. It's a bit like the SUPER MARIO BROS. movie. The humour is very poor and the pacing seems off, inducing boredom at times. One good aspect - aside from the effects - is the presence of familiar actors in supporting roles, including tough guy Mark Hamill and mad scientist Jeffrey Combs.
AlienatorX
I love tokusatsu, in any shape size or form. So I was excited about this film when I first heard of it, an American tokusatsu based on an anime I had never heard of with a really cool premise, a human discovers an alien device which turns into a suit of living armour (I love living suit superheroes). But there is one distinct problem with this concept, translation. This was during the 90s and people weren't sure how seriously to take anime yet, a problem which translates into this film which has no idea what kind of tone it's going for. Firstly the positives; the fight choreography in this movie is nothing short of fantastic combining martial arts and wirework with really cool powers, the look of the Guyver and the Zoanoids is really really well done, the music is intense and energetic and the acting ranges from over the top and goofy to good, Mark Hamill is in this film as a cop trying to solve the mystery and he is great as always. But the film is completely ruined by it's tone, there are two movies going on here, a goofy over the top fun film and a serious gritty film, the two mesh HORRIBLY and so the film ends up being no fun at all, Give it a miss.
leathaface
Despite all the bad reviews I thought it was pretty good when you consider that it's an American comic book adaptation. The storyline was pretty straightforward, good guy accidentally finds some super weapon that the bad guy is trying to get his hands on. It turns out the villain has superhuman abilities and a small army of scientists with the same powers. There are tons of awesome transformation effects but the bad thing is we get to see a few frames of them briefly and many times none at all. In the last third of the movie a bunch of human villains transform in a laboratory, only it kind of shows them coming out of the dark in a deliberately fast pace. The creatures they turn into are really cool and complex looking, especially what Mark Hammill turns into. The main villain Balcus' true form is truly horrifying in the ending.
dominion76251
I was very excited to find this movie at the video store, being a huge fan of anime. Unfortunately, this one let me down BIG TIME. The storyline was as gay as could be and the villainous creatures just looked stupid. They tried to make the film far too slapstick, or comedic in nature. It played out like some Saturday morning kid-safe garbage. I'm not sure WHAT the he** happened to Mark Hammil, but his acting was pathetic. And Jimmy Walker as a shape-changing villain?!? Don't waste your time. If you like anime, you would be far better off watching "Fist Of The North Star" for a live action adaptation of classic anime.
AD
