Well yes I add this to science fiction as well since it’s about aliens and spaceships and the origin of humans and how aliens have affected our creation. The Guyver is a 1991 scifi-action movie based on the Japanese anime series Guyver. The idea behind Guyver is that a powerful alien race came to earth in the distance past before mankind ever existed. Their experiment was to created the ultimate organic weapon and thus created mankind. With the addition of a special gene into man, they created Zoanoids – humans that can change form at will from humans to humanoid mutant creatures. The leader of the Zoanoids at present is called the Zoalord who has formed a powerful corporation called Chronos to aid in his agenda for world domination – while humanity remains ignorant of the existence of the mutants. Among the alien remains on earth was found the guyver unit – a bio boosted body armour that makes the wearer superhuman. But the Zoalord has no idea how to activate it and has his scientists working on it.

In the first movie, The Guyver, a scientist Dr. Tetsu Segawa, steals the unit from the research lab in order to give it to his contact in the CIA, agent Max Reed (Mark Hamill) but is killed before he can reach the agent. Dr. Segawa hid the unit among some trash & garbage boxes. Reed and the CIA try and find out the murder and question the scientists daughter. Sean Barker, a martial arts student, and boyfriend of Dr. Segawa’s daughter Mizky, accidentaly finds and activated the Guyver unit while being bullied by a street gang and becomes the Guyver when the unit fuses with him. With incredible strength, speed, agility and weapons along with the armour, the Guyver must protect his love interest from the Zoanoids. The only weakness in the armour is the glowing ball on the helmet – removing it causes the armour to collapse and Sean is killed and dissolved when the head goon Zoanoid does it to him. However his dna is saved in the unit and later at the Zoalord’s lab when another Zoanoid tries to fuse with the unit, Sea is recreated and fights his way out. He kills the Zoalord and his thugs but agent Reed is killed as he was exposed to Zoanoid experiments to turn him into one himself and was pulled out too quickly. Although Sean and Mizky leave safely, it is revealed that one of the Zoanoid goons has survived and that they have infiltrated the CIA as well.

This movie is so badly acted and the actors chosen are almost idiotically ham acting – especially the Zoanoids goons, which includes Michael Berryman. Mark Hammil, with a mustache, was criticized as making “an unearned paycheck for a onetime A-picture star” in a lame movie that only has some good action scenes and costumes. Jack Armstrong is useless as a hero. Vivian Wu plays Mizky and comes across as a real dumb version of the ‘lady in distress; an Oriental version of the dumb blonde who just screams and cries in the movie. And she speaks like her tongue is too big for her mouth. Jeffery Coombs also has a small role as one of Zoanoid scientists. Really bad acting but the Guyver is cool and there are some good fight scenes. 4 outta 10!

The sequel Guyver : Dark Hero came out in 1994 and is lot more serious compared to the campy feel of the original. A year later a troubled and tormented Sean (played by David Hayter) is struggling to come to terms as the Guyver. He has lost friends and his love due to his outbursts and lives alone, fighting crime but also susceptible to moments of pure rage. He sees on tv about what seems like an animal attack that people think is a bear in the woods and is drawn to an archaeological dig in Utah that turns out to be funded by Cronos. Sean makes his way to the area and meets Cori (Kathy Christopherson), one of the archeologists who agrees to take him to her father, the lead archeologist at the dig and gets him a job there. At the underground cave, student archaeologists are unearthing the cave paintings, which resemble guyvers and other alien images, similar to ones that appear to Sean in his dreams. They later unearth a fantastic looking alien spaceship that looks like it’s organic. At night Sean hears a man being killed and attacks the Zoanoid that seems to haunt the grounds.

The next day the people explore the alien ship and Crane, the lead representative from Chromos at the site, gets his hands on what the corporation wanted all along: another Guyver unit. Sean meanwhile approaches one of the room that pulsates and it talks telepathically to him; he asks for the unit to be removed but it offers him no answers. Anyways, the Chronos employees seem to be in charge and take the new guyver unit away. Cori’s father is a Zoanoid himself but is blackmailed by the corporation employees to be silent. Cori discovers that what the employees plan to do, she is caught by them and is taken away. Her father mutates and attacks the others but is outnumbered. Sean, who is looking for Coris, sees them and activates the guyver unit and fights them off and kills them. He, Cori and her father return to the dig where the Chronos gang has everyone at gunpoint. Atkins, an FBI agent under the guise of an acheologist, rescues the others but is held up the Zoanoids himself, when his fellow agents are killed. Crane asks Sean to join them but is refused and then the Zoanoids fights the Guyver & Cori’s dad. Crane uses the second guyver unit on himself and seems to become more than a match for Sean but in the end Crane is destroyed by an energy force that blasts from the Guyver’s chest.

Sean, who had learned about the origins of how the Guyver units came to be, about the aliens coming to earth and creating both the Zoanioids and the humans, sends the spaceship back into space, much to agent Atkins chagrin. Coming to terms with his origins and more at peace with who he is now, Sean leaves the dig area with Cori.

The second movie is much more fun, more violent and bloody and has awesome fight sequences. 7 outta 10! The Guyver is cool and I hope they remake this movie series sometime with a bigger budget and better cast & storylines.