**** The Big Flying Turtle is Back!

It has been 15 years since the last Gamera movie (24 if you don’t count that dumb one in 1980). Daiei went bankrupt in 1980, and haven’t gotten back on track until 1995, when this one came out. Following the Godzilla series (again), they made Gamera with a bit more of an edge, and a lot better special effects. It will make a trilogy of very good movies that made Gamera what he is today.

A floating atoll is found in the Pacific ocean. Meanwhile, a group of 3 mysterious "birds" are found on a nearby island. A plan is made to capture them in an includes baseball stadium. However, a big turtle pops out of the floating rock. It kills one of the "birds", and another one later. It is found out that the two types of creatures are "manufactured" by a long lost civilization (once again, probably the Seatopians or the people in the Mothra/Battra fiascal). Gamera, the big turtle, and Gyoas, the last bat/bird who has grown since before, battle it out in and above Tokyo. Gamera is blown up, but he likes fire so he blows Gyoa’s head up.

I am mainly a Godzilla fan, but Gamera is fun to. Quite a bit of a diferant concept, yet still kaiju fun! Rubber suit wise, it never was as good as Godzilla, but the rest of the special effects are about the same, if not better. Basically Gamera is pretty good, and this movie is one of the main ones to find out who he is. It shows Gamera in a more updated form, but still keeps the original concepts. Gamera is still a good guy, but doesn’t save the world just for the children anymore. It’s for everybody in the universe he is guarding.

The movie itself has a pretty good plot. It’s better than most Godzilla movies, but still not up to American standards. One main thing the movie does is show the monsters in it from a human perspective, so it’s about the monsters and the people who look up to them. It doesn’t spend any time on other plot development, which could be good or bad depending on your liking. Although I like a movie with this type of format, it ends up seaming plotless. All the plot is in the monsters, which I think is good because in this movie, they seam like humans anyway. The movie is pieced together pretty well, but it still has some questionable scenes. Some parts are silly, weird, odd, or just plain strange. The confusion that sets in afterwards distracts you from other things. Also, this is one of those movies that up until the end, you can concentrate on something else while you watch. This may be convenient, but not good for the movie itself.

The main good point is the great special effects. Some scenes are really well made and utterly amazing to watch. The computer generated stuff looked really neat, and so did the mat painting background flying scenes. It has a lot of very good special effects sequences. However, the really good scenes are found in a pile of very bad ones. It looks like a rubber monster, and it acts like a rubber monster. The parts where Gyaos is feeding on humans show it eating little dolls. Gyaos itself is mainly a goofy looking puppet. The city scene looks like a little train set. It looks goofy and fake for the most part, but still looks cool at times.

This is the only movie I had to watch twice in a row before doing a review. It was mainly so I could get used to the whole Gamera, but also reflects on the replay value of the movie. It leaves you wanting more but still satisfied, but because you want to see more but don’t need difference, you want to watch it again. The plot gets boring after repeated viewing, but the action scenes only get better. All in all, a great movie. I would have gave it a 5 * rating, but I need to see other Gamera movies before I do. I heard that the sequels to this was even better, and I am anxiously awaiting them to come. This movie was good, I recommended to any person who at least kinda likes giant monster movies. I also recommended it to people that only like Godzilla and hate Gamera even thought they never watched a Gamera movie before. Watch it, it might change your mind (or might not).

Great plot.

Really cool looking special effects.

New, improved Gamera.

The monsters and nothing but.

Good replay value.

Gets a little weird at times.

Looks rubbery for the most part.

How can Gyoas sustain those speeds when his wings are down?

Plot? What plot? You mean the humans do more than get eaten?

Gyoas looks like a goofy puppet with those stick on wobbly eyes!

Credits