My involvement the last time with the Godzilla films, on the occasion of the new movie that came out in theaters a few days ago, I revealed another kind of film, a sub-genre in fantasy or science fiction, if you will, that of kaiju. Accurate translation of the term kaiju, is "strange creatures" and has been associated with giant creatures with features usually animal-like. In the kaiju flicks therefore, the case is always simple: a giant creature attacks a city and destroys it, as is most common, two of these creatures fight each other, with one being usually with the side of people. The most famous of kaiju remains until today Godzilla, with dozens of films to his credit, animated series, comic books, action figures and anything else you can imagine. Somewhere in the 90s, Godzilla meets a powerful opponent, who makes his reappearance in the cinema after fifteen years and after a series of films in the 60s and 70s, not particularly successful. The name of the kaiju that soured his omnipotence Godzilla is Gamera. Gamera is a creature that is actually a giant turtle with tusks, which can fly using jet thrusters, shown in place of the rear legs (spiteful say that there is not his legs ...). Gamera never had the glamor of Godzilla but with the trilogy he gained in the 90s, for many is what best in Japanese cinema of kaiju. So I decided to take a look at the Gamera trilogy, starting from Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe. The first encouraging sign, even before the movie was the name of the director, Shusuke Kaneko, who is the man who directed the best of the series of Godzilla movies, I've watched, GMK. Second positive element, very good theme music, we hear from launch title, which exudes a seriousness and "creates" something interesting. And the truth is that the Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe, evolve with interesting and entertaining way. Good action scenes, with high quality (for 1995) special effects and a script, which is more or less the standard kind of movies (it's never their strong point). The first film in the Gamera trilogy entered dynamically in the arena of claiming the crown of the best kaiju film. Remains just under GMK, but we have two sequels to follow, which indeed they have received better reviews than the first part of the trilogy.

Sooner than I expected, GAMERA Trilogy COMPLETE! I bought a box set containing all three films so now I have a double of "Gamera 3: Revenge of Irys", but I'm sure f.y.e. will take it, getting a buck or two in return. Both films are fantastic, Kaneko really proving himself here. His work just puts other monster films, like the Mothra trilogy and albeit a few of the Millennium Godzilla films, to shame. The third still just on a whole norther level.The first in the series, this film is Gamera's rebirth, a task no other director could handle. A lot of the characters who appear in this film will appear in the third and final film. All give wonderful performances, Mr. Osako being are evident comic relief. Watching this film really helps one understand the plot of G3, which is why I guess you should never see a sequel if you haven't since the first film. Gamera looks awesome, still a bit cute, and this film right off the bat shows man's fear and uncertainty of the monster's stance with or against the human race. Hell, this seems to me to be the only "hero" trilogy where the authorities are trying to kill the good guy with even greater effort than the bad guy. Also in this film, we really see Gamera and Asagi's bond, the girl actually sharing the monster's pain. A beautiful aspect to the story. Gyaos looks just sick in this movie and the way the featherless "bird" is portrayed ( as a man-eating, asexual, doomsday bio-weapon) is simply excellent. Only now I do get the ironic plot point and Kuarata Shinya's rantings in G3: The 'Ancients' were a highly advanced race, similar to our own. Soon, also like us, they became a decadent, enviormental and self-destructive race. To counter their own self-annihilation, they created Gyaos to, as Kuarata put it;"reduce it's swollen numbers". These creatures however did their job a little too well, and as a backlash created Gamera. Also, the amulet-stone object allows certain chosen people to mediate with Gamera, which makes him stronger. Still, the Gyaos multiplied to an extent where they completely destroyed the Ancients and so with their food supply gone, they laid eggs. Gamera also went dormant. 12,000 years later, humans have apparently created a similar enviorment to the one the Ancients did, and so Gamera and Gyaos awake again. In the third film, it is revealed some Ancients clearly thought humanity would never stop destroying the earth and created the 'perfected Gyaos', Irys (who's real name technically is the Ryuseicho). This final answer to crush humanity heeds the "Earth spirit" while Gamera the human one. Irys can also "mediate" with humans, although in a more extreme way (by fusing with the selected mediator). Yes, I have a lot of free time to think about these things.Getting back to the review, despite "Godzilla vs. Destroyah" being the King of the Monster's heisei finale, this film clearly has a bigger budget, the special effects being incredible (don't take it the wrong way, I love that movie. "Godzilla vs. Destroyah" is the saddest G-film ever and one of my personal favorites. ). The action is great no doubt, the air duel looking incredibly cool. Koh Otani serves up some bad-ass music that I for one am thoroughly impressed by. Whereas the latter two films have decent dubbing, this film's is horrible. Definitely watch in Japanese, although the audio quality is only 2.0. Anyways, this film didn't disappoint, that's for sure!

This updated version of the 1960's terrifying terrapin is by far better than the showa films that precede it. Gamera first showed its fangs in 1965 in the movie Gamera (1965) as a response to the popular Godzilla series. for the most part these films were bad.The 1990's revival of the sabre-toothed tortoise is a brilliant addition to the Kaiju Eiga.The acting in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is Excellent. Each Actor and Actress portrays there own character well and seem to enjoy playing the part.The storyline is very good. The inclusion of what humans are doing to the planet being the reason for why the Gyoas waking up was a good plot device. Also the myth of Atlantis/super-civilisation having created the two monsters, Gamera and Gyoas was a good touch.The soundtrack was good but I do have some complaints about its use. During the final battle scene I feel that the music played was not completely appropriate for a battle of titans.Overall a good film with some minor flaws. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is a great film that can be enjoyed by anyone a kaiju fan or not.And by the way the next two are even better

This is a good, definitely 90ish monster movie alternative to the TOHO stable. As with TOHO movies in those years, screenplay writers often re-invent the origin of the main characters ( Godzilla from hero, to villain and Ghidorah from villain to hero; king Caesar from hero to villain etc ). Here Gamera is the safeguard byproduct of some long lost atlantean civilization lost to its previous genetic engineering experiment gone bad: Gyaos the giant, cannibal bird eating human beings ( a rip-off of Toho's Radon ). The rest has already been seen a dozen times. Cute teenager develops a psychic bond with Gamera to sustain its fighting; pretty ornithologist is dispatched to first identify, then capture the Gyayos (or Gaos ). There are a bunch of Gaos, but some are killed by Gamera, some eat each other and the overgrown, last one is finally destroyed by Gamera. SFX are good & 90ish. Acting isn't bad & the equilibrium of the plot must be emphasized. Unlike many other monster movies, there is equilibrium & no time is wasted with unneeded subplots, bond movie spoofs and pretentious character development. Definitely a movie you can watch twice in a row.