GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE (1995)
Tagline: A great supersonic duel. Super Genetic Beast Gyaos attacks!! Battle, Guardian Deity Gamera: for the sake of the children's futures.
(Adventure, Everything is on fire, Kaiju) [PG]
Note – No rating was given to this movie. I decided on a PG because we get both human and kaiju blood. My rating is merely given for reference. Do what you want. Yes, that tagline is real as whacky as it might sound.
If it can't find prey here, it'll attack Japan!
In this one, an ornithologist (she studies birds) checks out reports of a new species of reptile-like birds. They discover not only are the birds gigantic (about as big as a giraffe), but they are eating everyone. Eventually, the birds turn on each other and a kaiju named Gyaos is born. In the meantime, a girl is given an amulet found on a mysterious atoll and finds she has a connection to some serious turtle power. Gamera has re-emerged to take on this newest threat to the world.
We have seen Gamera and Gyaos face off before, but this film takes a far more serious tone than any of the Gamera predecessors outside of the original and possibly GAMERA VS BARUGON. Director Shûsuke Kaneko was originally turned down to do a Godzilla film, but after TOHO saw this thing, they were like… damn… we need that guy! He went on to direct 2 more Gamera films but also did GODZILLA, MOTHRA, AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTER ALL-OUT ATTACK. I actually thought his 3 Gamera films were better including this one.
GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE doesn’t have a little kid or kids to annoy us, but does have Asagi Kusanagi who serves as the human connection to Gamera in this film. If Gamera gets hurt, so does she. Oddly her family doesn't think much of it, outside of her father getting pissed she won’t give up her amulet, but failing to just take it from her. Asagi is played by Ayako Fujitani who is a pretty solid actress who also shows up in the TV show “The Last Ship”. We also get a strong performance out of Shinobu Nakayama who plays the ornithologist Dr. Mayumi Nagamine who the military leans on a lot for her expertise in this film.
One really solid thing about this movie is the suits and overall attention to detail. The models in this thing are stellar and we get some epic cinematic moments along with brilliant camera work. I think this is the first kaiju movie where we get missiles shown coming right at the screen in an almost 3D-like fashion. One interesting note is that there is a woman in the Gyaos suit. This is reported the first kaiju movie to ever do this, but it’s not the first time a woman has been in a “monster suit”. The monster in THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES also had a woman in the monster suit. Just in case you are one of those people that likes those little tidbits.
This movie does a good job of storytelling, so it’s a bit more in-depth than every other GAMERA film and the fights are a serious upgrade. The look and feel of this thing are just fantastic. For me, this is an easy 7 out of 7 for its high production quality (outside of a few shaky CGI scenes common in the ’90s), kaiju action, competent acting, and a decent storyline.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF DAIEI STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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