Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

r-c-s This movie presents some shortcoming typical of TOHO/low budget Japanese productions, EG some miniatures look like garage sale toys and some SFX are poor, yet i found it extremely enjoyable. Remember it was 1962, much before big budgeted Hollywood movies. The movie is easily watchable (got a letter-boxed edition), images are very clear, SFX very good period-wise. The plot (albeit very simple) unfolds nicely. There are many far fetched assumptions and scientific nonsense, EG the moon gets destroyed, earth is moved 400.000 km, YET nothing major happens as Gorath drifts away in the deep space. The space mission obsession continues. In 1982 (that's when Gorath was supposed to collide with earth ) they portray dozens of space stations, and tremendous ease to travel upto Saturn, Jupiter etc. We're 25 years past 1982 and not the tiniest fraction of such advancements has been made. There are a few subplots, which do not get in the way. Character development is extremely limited, if any. All in all an enjoyable movie worth watching twice. I saw the giant walrus, too. I suppose it was a diversion to improve the rhythm, which was running in circles around the Pole operation. A giant planet, whose extension is barely 3/4 earth's but whose mass is 6000+ times, is on collision course with earth. A first space mission perishes while trying to investigate the matter. Yet UN scientists have been alerted and plan to install reactors to the pole to propel earth 400.000 away, to avoid Gorath's devastating gravity. Pretty much all there.The scientific rationale behind stars of incredible density/gravity was popular back then and stemmed from (incorrect) assumptions about the origins of gamma ray bursts first uncovered by US spy satellites looking for Soviet nuclear tests. Gamma ray bursts (according to a theory popular back then) originated from Gorasu kind of stars.

hideyotsuburaya U.S. version GORATH editor @Brenco Pictures was none other than KENNETH WANNBERG in his 'salad days', who's of course gone onto be John Williams right-hand man as music editor on STAR WARS, et. al. (an interesting thematic link). I once asked him about it and he said way back then he carried around a print of GORATH in his car trunk as part of his resume.Certain U.S. release advertising states "in stereophonic sound", which I can assure you is domestic wishful thinking (the same applies to Brenco Pictures distributed THE HUMAN VAPOR). Not so the original Japanese release, which can boast (authentic) stereo track.Frederick S. Clarke, late CINEFANTASTIQUE mag. editor/publisher, said he thought GORATH contained the best Toho Co. special-effects work of all their outer-space films. I agree.Stan Timmons (BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA in print) remarked he thought the dubbed-voices in the English GORATH version sound all like old Rocky & Bulwinkle cartoons. Well yes, they do.And GORATH actor George Farness, mentioned in another viewer comment, not only has a major role in THE LAST VOYAGE, but also narrates that film.Director Ishiro Honda did GORATH immediately before KING KONG VS. GODZILLA in 1962. Yes this truly was the golden age of TOHO. But from what I've heard in the past this film's not highly regarded by fans in his home country.

HEFILM Gorath is not the name of a giant Walrus in the Japanese version of this film. Though not badly done, as giant Walruses go, this is not a giant Walrus film. It's as you can see by other reviews a space/disaster film. The Walrus and one other scene of a group of men deciding to spontaneously sing a song while flying in a helicopter are really the only two bad moments in the film. I guess the Walrus is gone from the American print which might be just as well, though the widescreen FX and photography really need to be seen letter-boxed to be appreciated.Overall this is a pretty large scale disaster film with many, and mostly good, miniatures, a number of them on a very large scale, fleets of ships, the Arctic, Tokyo being flooded etc. The whole film moves much better than the American film WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE and is especially helped by a very good musical score that reminds me of those done by James Bernhard for Hammer horror films.The killer "star" which gives the films is named Gorath and it is quite well done as are all the space effects. This film will disappoint giant monster fans since the giant monster is only in a couple of scenes, but those who like science fiction films will find a pretty serious and mostly credible film here, one that looks far newer than it's actual age. Recommended to fans of director Honda and certainly those of Japanese Science fiction, those who prefer films that actually work rather than those that are just silly and insane. I enjoy both types and found this film to be well worth checking out, letter-boxed and in Japanese at least. Oh as is typical, even in the Japanese language version, some characters do speak English occasionally

Eric-62-2 This Japanese take on the kind of story first pioneered by "When Worlds Collide" and done less effectively in later years in "Meteor", "Armageddon" etc. has been called Toho's greatest sci-fi movie ever by some. It's certainly a fairly intelligent effort overall, done with top of the line (for its time) FX. I was glad to see it in its original Japanese format, widescreen with subtitles (and with the rather pointless scene involving giant walrus Magma) and found it quite entertaining overall, certainly the equal of "When Worlds Collide" and light years ahead of the American takes on the story that followed. My only quibble was why Gorath was referred to as a "star", when it is clearly too small to be so categorized, and should have been referred to as a runaway planet (was Toho afraid of getting sued for ripping off "When Worlds Collide" if they categorized it as a planet?).Fans of the wonderful 1960 disaster movie "The Last Voyage" will recognize George Furness, who played Third Officer Osborne in that film, as the UN Secretary-General. Furness was a lawyer living in Japan who had enough acting talent to not only play westerners in Japanese movies, but to get good roles in American movies shot in Japan like "The Last Voyage" too.