Gamera - Guardian of the Universe (1997)

Gamera, Japan's favorite jet-propelled giant flying turtle, was Daiei's child-friendly answer to Toho's Godzilla franchise. This decidedly juvenile staple of the 1960s became a modest success, but those early features, with cut-rate special effects and gooey child stars, rate little beyond camp nowadays. With such a legacy, his 1995 rebirth Gamera, Guardian of the Galaxy, is a delightful surprise. Now taking over the franchise, Toho comes through with an old-fashioned giant monster adventure in candy colors with excellent special effects and an attitude that straddles serious science fiction and outrageous spectacle. Gamera, still a hero of the people, is given a mythic back-story and a foe of apocalyptic dimensions, the flying people-eating lizard Gyaos that the government, in all its misguided wisdom, decides to protect while attacking the misunderstood Gamera. There's romance (featuring the best come-on line ever: "Someday I'd like to show you around a monster-free Tokyo"), bureaucratic satire, and a well-meaning environmental message, but that's all gravy to the movie's meat: giant monsters battling it out in the traditional Tokyo war zone, laying waste to acres of lovingly detailed miniatures. That's what Japanese monster movies are all about. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

This movie has EVERYTHING!

The flying turtle! The battle with Gayos! Giant bird poo! Stomping on buildings! And never ride the train in Tokyo because.. the train always gets destroyed! Gamera always gets a little sloppy, and oops! There goes another building! I'm running out of exclamation points!!!

I was a fan of these films when I was a kid, and it took me by suprise that there was a remake in the 90's. I picked up the boxed set and was pleasantly surprised to find that they kept the man-in-the-suit look, the hilarious dubbing, and all of the main staples of good old Japanese monster movie mayhem. No CGI here, plenty of miniatures and slow-mo sloshing water. There's something about those special effects that has a campy nostalgic feel, and it works. I was cheering like a kid watching this film - here he comes! Gamera! I gave it four stars because, well, come on, it is a monster movie, but it does exactly what it set out to do. July 24, 2007

Return of The Kaiju

Mega-turtle Gamera sleeps in the deep and is summoned forth by a girl who retains a sympathetic connection through a comma-shaped rock pendant, to do battle with an old enemy in Gyaos, the monster pterodactyl who feasts on human beings. Gamera's whereabouts are divulged when a team of oceanographers discover an island which conceals a mystical megalith encribed with actual Futhark runes, describing the prophesy of the monsters returning when the world is in perceived environmental peril.*

The little humans are predictably afraid of the monsters, and seek to destroy both of them, despite Gamera's heroic inclinations, but after awhile, they realize Gamera is the only great beast who can battle Gyaos, who has set up nest atop Tokyo Tower in the middle of the city. Instead of luring the giant away, the seemingly idiotic military deem to destroy the pterodactyl right there amidst the metropolitan surroundings. Their battle destroys the city at the cost of only a few human lives {in which Gyaos treats herself to "canned human" as she peels away subway trains, shaking the residents into her mouth}.

With the help of the life-force of the girl, Gamera gathers up enough energy to defeat Gyaos, which takes them from the city to the ocean, and even into outer space. Though Gamera receives some potent blows, thus also effecting the girl, he prevails in the end, with a nod of recognition.


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* This is the constant theme underlying oriental monster mythology, as these "monsters" are an incarnate metaphor for "Nature's Avengers", as it were. This can also be seen most dramatically in the Godzilla films. September 16, 2006

a new turtle

After years of not being on Shuesko kaneko decided to direct a brand new gamera series(Yeah!)In the beggining a giant rock is in the middle of the ocean.A man is in a store looking for food for a man when a young japense girl named asangi is the mans daughter.so they dig up some of the rock and an ancient stone is inside of it.At japan mutant bats/birds are attacking japan. December 28, 2005

The More Mature Gamera

This first in the trilogy pits Gamera against his long time and fan favorite foe Gyaos. The Gamera series takes a more mature tone and drops the childish themes the series was originally known for. This movie along with the following two focuses on adults and has nothing to do with children. Good film with excellent storyline and acting. This probably has the weakest special effects out of the trilogy, but that doesn't mean that the fx are terrible, quite the opposite, the special fx are amazing, nothing extremely special about it. A kaiju must, those who are not even Gamera fans and only Godzilla fans will really enjoy this movie and become fans of the giant turtle. It did it to me! Like the Godzilla movies, the story is completely different from the original series of the 60's, 70's and 1980. Incredible movie, but the best was yet to come! Kaneko is the best kaiju director of our time and this was his first time directing a movie like this, he would later go on to direct the other two and also direct Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All Out Attack which is considered one of the best Godzilla movies of all time! Fantastic movie, believe me, go get a copy and see it! You won't be disappointed! December 8, 2005

Good but not great like everyone says.

Godzilla, a great movie was released in 1954, it was about a giant monster that attacked japan, it was a success, in japan and america, many succesful sequals were inevitable. so naturally everyone wanted to dublicate the success,even countries like korea gave it a try with yonggary(a overall terrible film).most were just one shots that were forever outshined by godzilla films but one series was fairly succesful, still nothing compared to the godzilla movies of the time, it was gamera a giant dectructive turtle that was a "friend to all children". It lasted from 65 to about 72 and was still very crappy and only lasted because of its appeal to children. then in 1995 gamera guardian of the universe was released and completely revamped the series ignoring even the original(something only one or two godzilla movies have tried, all other current ones regard the original and use it as a cruch for its own success) it also didnt rely on children either it was very refreshing to many, but it still has its problems. people praise it for having computer generated missles instead of just fire cracker looking things like godzilla movies of the time used, but the missles still look extremely fake, they have like no detail. this film also used a CG fire ball for gamera unlike godzilla movies of the nineties that still used 2-d animated looking lasers, but the monster gaos still has this bad 2-d effect for its non CG laser. the monster action is also a little dull. but it is still good taking in the fact that it was the first monster movie to use these better methods. so I gave it a four out of five. I will review its sequels as soon as possible. August 23, 2005

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