Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blistering performances.

A scientific expedition lands on a South Pacific island, whose natives worship a mysterious god named Gappa. An earthquake opens up an underground cavern, where the scientists find a strange-looking baby reptile. The natives implore them to leave the hatchling where they found it, but instead the scientists bring it to Japan to live in a zoo. It isn't long before Mommy and Daddy Gappa start ripping Japan apart in search of their missing kid.After a slow first half, the action sequences are non-stop to the point of relentlessness. It's amusing to watch Mommy Gappa knock buildings over as an octopus dangles from her mouth. (Presumably, it's to feed her kid when she finds him.)The film is every bit as cheesy as you would expect. There's a greedy businessman, a precocious kid (two, in fact), unfunny comic relief, tin-ear dialogue, shitty dubbing, a poorly handled romantic sub- plot, a remarkably well-lit cave, a volcano that looks like a fifth-grader's science project, a submarine sequence that must have been shot in a bathtub, and monsters who were just different enough from Godzilla that Tojo couldn't sue. It was all done before, and the filmmakers knew it. This was simply Nikkatsu Studios' attempt to cash in on Japan's monster craze. Looks like it didn't happen, though, as Nikkatsu never made another monster movie. So if you want to see the Gappa clan, this is your only option.The "prehistoric planet" of the title is Earth, about two or three million years ago.

I do not know why this got a 3.9. It is a 7. It is just very underrated. I think there are to many sciences fiction that underrated and this is one of them. This movie has a great story line. It also has great acting. It is very scary. It is scarier then The silence of lambs could ever be. This is scarier then A Nightmare on elm street and that is not easy to do. This is scarier the Friday the 13th V a new beginning and that is not easy to do. This is scarier the Halloween resurrection could ever be. If you like monster movies then you should see this movie.

Seriously, if the studio actually intended this to be satirical then shouldn't it have been...you know.....funny? The gigantic indestructible monster flick is not a genre that lends itself to subtle humor. It demands broad ridicule because its premise is inane. Think Ghostbusters when the giant StaPuff Marshmallow Man came wading thru the city. That's how silly your monster needs to be. Not to say that the Gappa aren't silly in their own right. They're just not silly enough. In a really good Gigundo monster spoof you'd have Tokyo menaced by something like an enormous broccoli monster from outer space that had legs and tentacles and shot green laser beams out of its ass. The government would try every weapon in its vast arsenal to stop the horrifying veggie brute but only succeed in slaughtering thousands of their own citizens instead. There would be a super-annoying brat in tight little shorts who loves the monster and gets crushed under a ton of rubble just as he's about to reveal to the adults what the monster's weakness really is. Of course all of the miniature sets should be made out of cardboard and toys purchased from a nearby Walmart. They can't look cheesy enough! Now THAT movie would be fun to watch. This movie is just the same refried monster drivel you've seen dozens of times before.

Nikkatsu Studio was one of the six largest movie studio in Japan at the time this movie was made, but due to the proliferation of TV sets, Japanese movie industry was in a steady economic decline. Kaijyu or giant monster movies were about the only franchise that were still making good money, and Nikkatsu made an attempt to jump in to this genre with this movie.A Japanese expedition to the south pacific island unwittingly stumble onto a newly hatched baby triphibian reptile which the natives call "Gappa", and brings it back to Japan. A greedy publishing magnate, and an amusement park promoter notices a good thing when he sees one and decides to display the baby at his park. This didn't sit well with the parents of the baby reptile, and they show up in Japan to claim their kid. Rest is stereotypical giant monster mayhem.This movie as far as I know is the only movie that features a complete family of giant monsters or "Kaijyu" ever to be shown together. It's also a first Triphibian monster that can walk, breathe underwater, and fly. The story is bit derivative where I can see little pieces off of Gorgo, Mothra, Godzilla, King Kong etc. and not very original, but the special effects in this movie is surprisingly good for a studio's first attempt. Gappa is not just an mindless monster, but actually seems to have intelligence behind their actions. This lowers the tension of the monster's character as an engine of destruction, and the movie carries on with bit of a bore, but the overall production is good, and ranks as an average giant monster movie. You get to see a very young Yoko Yamamoto playing the star in this movie. She's still acting after nearly 50 years since this movie was made, and amazingly, still beautiful in her roles.