Truly Dreadful Film

Purely Joyful Movie!

one of my absolute favorites!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The '90s Gamera returns for a third time in his final second series movie, where schoolgirl Ayana, hungry for revenge against Gamera for inadvertently killing her parents, raises a small monster named Iris and, as the creature grows up, plans to use Iris to exact revenge against the flying turtle. However, the world is threatened again by the Gyaos creatures, pitting them against Gamera once more.The special effects for the movie were awesome - very sophisticated and detailed - and the monster action was great. The acting was mostly good, with the exception of Ai Maeda as Ayana, whom I thought gave a very wooden performance. It appears that all she could do was to make these solemn and angry faces, showing like she doesn't care for other people or what's going on around her.The appearances of the Gyaos creatures remind you of continuity in the series and make you wonder how Gamera plans to deal with the creatures for a final time. There is a little tension built-up as the Iris creature grows in size, making you wonder what Iris plans to do when he reaches his adult form.Despite all the monsters, action and awesome special effects, I wasn't too keen on this movie as many viewers are. I'm probably in the minority in this, but I think this movie lacks the thrills and intrigue of the previous movie (Attack of the Legion). That movie has suspense built-up that keeps you glued to the screen and a fast-paced plot that gains momentum. This movie has too many subplots going on (Ayana's revenge, humankind debating Gamera's allegiance, the cultists, the return of the Gyaos birds), which make the story difficult to follow at times. ***spoiler ahead*** And, the ending with the Gyaos creatures doesn't provide a very conclusive ending to the film and the series, and it leaves much plot-threads hanging. ***spoiler ends*** Again, it's still a movie full of monster action, pretty good acting and great special effects, but it falls a little short in momentum.Grade C+

I've noticed there are some people who obviously take Godzilla-esquire movies far too seriously. Basically if you refer to them as kaiju and you're not Japanese, you're in too deep. But I digress. I am not one of those people. I just watched Gamera and Godzilla as a kid and they cracked me up.That said, this movie is clearly the best of either Gamera or Godzilla for one good reason: collateral damage. Some mad genius hatched a story that actually tried to present a giant rubber monster movie in a real world context. There are scenes when fireballs engulf whole city blocks and the tiny, fleeing Japanese citizens are blown away in a storm of chaos. The insane contrast between what is obviously a man in an ungainly, ridiculous turtle costume and thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered as a result of that giant rubber turtle accidentally crushing a gas main as he levels a few city blocks is, to put it poetically, friggin' great.There's ambition here. The screenwriter and the director of this movie should be proud of themselves for not flinching despite how obviously ludicrous this movie should have been. It's a flying turtle. A giant one. But dammit, the story is compelling.

I have been putting off watching because I thought the movie was going to be kinda campy, not worthy of immediate viewing but after reading some rave reviews for this flick I decided to watch it. It was worth it, the movie is very good for a monster movie. There have been the inevitable comparisons to Godzilla, but Gamera stacks up VERY well to the big guy. I've been waiting for the CGI effects to catch up with the ambitious visions of the monster movie makers and it's finally here, although by "normal" Hollywood movie standards the price spent on this movie would not even pay for 1/4 of Tom Cruises salary. I would like to see a big-budget movie made, but then again it might ruin the franchise, maybe the "campiness" and "guy-in-the-rubber-suit" are what defines these flicks. Anyway, Gamera is NO JOKE in this movie. He goes after his enemy, the "Gayous" birds with a single-minded vengeance that is surprising. He hates those things. His powers are so cool also. He has got a fire-breath like Godzilla, except is seems more focused, but his coolest asset is his ability to fly, with 4 jets in his shell sockets. This guy is outrageous, he flies in like a flying saucer, kicked-ass and then jetted out looking like the space-shuttle at full after-burner! You gotta check that scene out! And the night flying scenes with Isis in the cloudy night was amazing! The CGI effects with Gamera at full after-burn is priceless! The story is pretty decent and the special affects are great, albeit a little sparsely used. I kinda like Gamera a little more than Godzilla, he was so tough that in one scene he got impaled by Isis, then to get free he burns his own arm OFF!! This Gamera film is said the be the best of the 3 and that's true, much better special effects. Good film, recommended.

well, this is a well crafted monster movie, which mixes easily and seamlessly enough SFX, CGI and traditional men in suit & miniatures in perfect 1990's style. There are many ideas coming back & forth with TOHO movies. There is the idea of a stone keeping some mysterious monster from hatching, as in monsters all out attack from Toho & a chapter of the latest Mosura trilogy. There is an underdeveloped subplot about reading ancient legends talking about guardian monsters ( all out attack from Toho again ). There is some girl with telepathic ability ( again another popular character in a few recent Godzilla movies ). This time tables turn and Gamera must face the resentment of a girl whose family he accidentally murdered while battling the gyayos. Such girl will remove the seal-stone & allow some mysterious monster to hatch, which she will fusion with later (lots of alien-styled scenes of her into the monster's mucous egg-cave ). The new monster is some sort of Gyayos with tentacles ( a cross-breed with legion? ) and instead of eating people, he reduces them to dried up mummies (another plot seen many times from Star Trek onwards, EG sucking life energy from living creatures etc ). So Gamera must fight him ( in symbiosis with the girl ) while he's alone this time. Cameo for the girl who used to fusion with him on an emotional level. There is another unexplored subplot about many gyayos birds wreacking havoc all around the world. A further subplots involves a graveyard of dead gameras somewhere in the deep sea...said to be beta versions of the last Gamera, but it ends there. All in all an enjoyable movie, though plagued by too many clichés and deja vus from other movies. SFX are very good and the plot (however not the most original ) flows uninterrupted by unneeded character development (many cameos of traditional recent Gamera movies' characters ).