THE GUYVER (1991): A Movie at War with Itself

In 1990, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie became the most successful independent movie of all time. It would hold onto this honour until 1999’s The Blair Witch Project stole the crown. The turtles led to quite a few imitators both in their animated incarnations and more importantly for today’s film in live-action as well. 1991, just a year after the Turtles hit, The Guyver was unleashed onto the world. The Guyver, like the Turtles, was based upon source material that was more adult orientated. However, unlike The Turtles which converted over fairly well to a goofy ascetic, The Guyver did not. 

Guyver is based on the manga written by Yoshiki Takaya and was a co-production with Shochiku Studios. Co-director Steve Wang directed an episode of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy and sixteen episodes of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. Producer Brian Yuzna brought on legendary Japanese Director Shusuke Kaneko to work with him on the anthology Necronomicon (1993). Needless to say, The Guyver has a very interesting spot in the world of Japanese Tokusatsu blending over with North American sensibilities. 

Brian Yuzna, the producer of The Guyver, is a man as far away from anything remotely considered ‘child friendly’. Yuzna was a longtime collaborator of Stuart Gordon and responsible for a bevy of horrors all his own. In his most famous work, Society (1989), Yuzna teamed up with Screaming Mad George, one of the co-directors of this film. Screaming Mad George is a special effects legend and his teaming with the Guyver’s other director, master sculptor Steve Wang, ensured that above all else the effects work in The Guyver is unparalleled. The costumes are vibrant and expressive with impressive fight choreography. The issue is The Guyver feels like a movie at war with itself. Adapting a serious source material and bringing the body horror elements out of that does not work well with a rapping goofy creature doing pratfalls. The intense body horror of seeing Mark Hamill slowly morph into a locust is in the same movie as the line “Guyvin’ Jivin’ Thhhing”. 

The Guyver involves a group of aliens named ‘The Zoanoids’ who run the nefarious Chronos Corporation. They are on the hunt for The Guyver a weapon of great power stolen from the labs and hidden away. The Guyver is found by a young man, eventually bonding together he battles to Zoanoids to save humanity. Despite the incredibly misleading poster, Mark Hamill is not the main character. He plays a CIA agent who mostly just smokes and has a sweet mustache. 

Asides from the tonal issues, the biggest thing holding The Guyver back is the lead performance. Our lead character Sean Baker (played by Jack Armstrong) never leaves much of an impression. Until he throws on the Guyver outfit you spend most of your time with him hoping that Mark Hamill comes back onscreen. It is not a bad performance, it’s just that Baker isn’t given much to do, he feels like he’s the side character of his own story. It feels like this is Mizky Segawa’s movie, played by Vivan Wu, or at least it should be. She has all of the motivation and the reason to see this story to the end. It was her father that hid the Guyver away. However, asides from a pleasant turn in the third act, she spends most of the movie as a damsel in distress. The Guyver seems to be the only one who is effective against harming the Zoanoids at all. Even Hamill and his Mustache are powerless against them leading to the characters being sidelined as the story progresses. Jimmy Walker is the aforementioned rapping monster and this is not an issue with him or his performance. He did not write the dialog or the raps and you can really tell. When he becomes the rapping Zoanoid there are elements of the suit that have some very uncomfortable elements exaggerated. 

There are many criticisms you could throw at The Guyver and they’re justified but underneath there is an undeniable charm. Michael Berryman is great as one of the head bad guys and seeing cameos from Jeffrey Combs (as Doctor East) can’t help but make you smile. The action, once it finally gets going, is a blast to watch. The Guyver is a very cool image and the suit holds up extremely well in action.

The suits as mentioned are truly amazing and the fact that there seem to be no instances of CG makes the accomplishments even more impressive. The show-stopping effect occurs when the Zoanoid leader unleashes his full potential and begins rampaging through the laboratory. The leader is a full-on Kaiju at this point and they implement the giant prop extremely well. 

Despite everything contained within this review, I still have to say that I do enjoy this movie. It is just such a mishmash of ideas and concepts that it has to be seen to be believed. The action is a blast and the suits are the best thing to come out of the 90s. In two weeks we will visit the sequel to The Guyver and see if The Dark Hero can succeed where the first film fails.