Attack of the Giant Teacher

Director - Yoshikazu Ishii (Ultraman Giga, Game Master)

Starring - Makoto Kijima (Jin, Unubore Deka), Takashi Toyoda (The Scream, Game Master), and Takehiko Fujita (Anohi to Anohi, Tokyo Gikyoku)

Release Date - 2020

Genre - Comedy/Sci-Fi

Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I've had some ups and a few downs with this SRS marathon I've had over the last few days.  A few of the films I've watched and reviewed were pretty fun but more than a couple were pretty difficult to finish.  After I watched a fun anthology, a few early works from SRS founder Ron Bonk, and a couple Polonia flicks I moved on to a 2020 sci-fi comedy called Attach of the Giant Teacher.  This was one I was really curious about and couldn't wait to check it out.  I want to thank MVD for sending this one over on DVD as part of the SRS Cinema retro line.

     The film follows a teacher who is at risk of losing his job when the school starts to lose students. As the students prepare for a musical for a festival before the school closes they find themselves face to face with an alien invasion.  It's up to this teacher to stop the alien menace and protect his students.

     The trailer and artwork had me thinking this was going to be a fun kaiju flick with some laughs and plenty of kaiju action.  It was not.  The movie was bland comedy that was more focused on the kids and the relationship they have with their loving teacher with random scenes of the aliens scattered throughout until the last 10 or so minutes.  I wanted to love this one but I struggled to even finish it.  The acting in this one is pretty solid but the film struggles with character development.  The scenes are very chaotic and the introduction of new characters throughout the film with no ties to the story makes it a difficult one to follow.  I don't mind reading subtitles but when a movie is as hectic as this film is and has subtitles you can guarantee you will miss some parts of the story, as well as, some of the acting in the scenes.  The story for this one is mostly a heart-warming comedy that takes forever to get the kaiju portion which is what this film is marketed at.  The first 50 or so minutes of the film is extremely boring and tedious.  The characters aimlessly do their thing on screen with a few cut scenes from the aliens.  It's boring and very misleading.  When we do reach the giant teacher portion of the film it's over before it even get's going.  Such a huge disappointment.  Finally, the film is not bloody or gory but we get some fun creature designs and beautiful visuals.  I want to say that these, along with the final 10 minutes, were worth it but they were not.  The visuals are great and deserve praise but watching the 50 or so minutes that lead up to it is not.  Overall, Attack of the Giant Teacher looked like a lot of fun but the movie was not how it was marketed at all.  The kaiju fun was barely in the film and the comedy was not that funny.  I would suggest skipping this one as well.