It must have been a shock when audiences got their first look at the new Gamera movie that debuted in 1995.
After all, it was far more serious than any of the films which came before it — even the first film, which presented the Towering Terrapin as a nearly unstoppable force causing terrible destruction in his path — and it dared to show Gamera hurt and bleeding. It was darker and harder edged than any Gamera film before it.
But it surely came as an even greater shock when the sequel, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion came out the next year.
This is one of the most brutal Kaiju Eiga films I have ever seen. Gamera is apparently killed, not once but twice, he has a big chunk blown out of his shell, he is left bleeding and screams with pain.
Let’s face it, he has become the John McClane of the Kaiju world, the underdog monster who gets hurt again and again, then takes incredible risks in order to defeat his enemies.
And what enemies!
While the first film in the new series featured one of Gamera’s greatest past enemies, this time around, they invented a new enemy, one of the most powerful and bizarre enemies any Giant Monster ever had to fight. A meteorite crashes into a remote forest, but it left no traces behind other than a path of wreckage. What is even stranger is that it looks like the meteorite slowed itself down — put on the brakes, as someone puts it — after it hit.
A series of strange and seemingly unconnected events start happening: Midori, a young girl scientist, and her friends, realize there is a pattern, put all the pieces together and discover that not only did something come down out of the sky, but that it is now moving across Japan, causing electrical problems as it goes.
This mysterious entity finally reveals itself when a swarm of bug-like creatures attacks a subway train. But before the troops sent in to stop them can do more than save a few survivors, the city shakes, roots tear apart the streets and buildings, and a huge blossom appears at the top of a major building.
Rather than lots of separate creatures, this thing is really a single being, a gestalt creature, a colony of individuals with a hive mind, which is quickly dubbed “Legion,” with a reference to the story of the Gadarene swine in Mark’s gospel.
You might describe it as a spaceborne plague: with the help of the entire hive, Legion creates one big, central plant-like being which spews out oxygen. It then blossoms and produces a massive seed. It then blasts the seed off into space to infest another planet.
Causing an explosion which would level the city in the process.
Not only is the concept unique, but it the creatures themselves look quite good. The smaller insect-like creatures are perhaps somewhat less distinctive — and are often CGI, which has aged badly — but they are small enough to be used to demonstrate just how bizarre their biological makeup is: the creatures do not have muscles. Instead, they are filled with gas, which somehow or other works their limbs pneumatically.
However, all the small ones are controlled by one monstrous creature which towers over Gamera, an almost indescribable monstrosity, with legs, feelers, a tail with a sail-like fin it can open, and a long, spear like snout with multiple jaw parts around it. It has to be one of the most incredible monsters seen in any Kaiju movie, and it comes complete with electrical powers of some sort, and an army of smaller creatures it controls.
This Gamera isn’t the old, lumbering Gamera of the Showa era, though, but the leaner, meaner redesign used in the last film. Except that this time they give him a little more room to show off his more athletic self. Not only do we see him flying with only two of his legs retracted, using his fins like wings (note how his shell narrows towards the hips to almost a point, giving him a sleek airborne silhouette), but when he goes into battle for his rematch with the big Legion creature, he does a sudden wingtip turn which ends with him sliding along the ground and doing a bootleggers turn as he comes to a stop.
That is definitely not your father’s Gamera.
And yes, I’m glad my home wasn’t in the way of that big slide.
Perhaps the best part of the film comes when the Self Defense force finally decides to join forces with Gamera and coordinate their attacks with his. We’ve seen the military decide to give Godzilla or Gamera a bit of help over the years, but I can’t remember any film where they actually planned their entire strategy around supporting the monster. Note, however, the scenes of uniformed soldiers in the strategy meetings perched on folding stools: these deliberately recall the scenes of Samurai battles in all those Jidaigeki films, where the clan leaders sit together and watch the battle and give orders to the troops.
For some reason or another, a lot of people don’t like this film. Frankly, I’m puzzled. It has a truly unique monster, a fairly intelligent plot, great creatures, and the Kaiju battle scenes have a very cinematic look. The fights themselves are a long way from the old Godzilla tag team battles of the Seventies. There are a lot of solid science fictional ideas on display here, from Legion’s strange life cycle and unique biology to the somewhat ominous statement that Gamera is the Defender of the Earth — and not mankind.
It is true that we spend a lot of time on the human side of the battle — and this is one of the main complaints — but I think this is handled well enough to keep the story interesting, even if it is a little hard to buy that somehow Midori becomes so important to the efforts to defeat Legion.
Even if she was the one who first identified the problem.
But then, let’s be honest, isn’t that true of the heroes of most of these films? And it isn’t anywhere near as absurd as Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s part in the 2014 Godzilla.
But, if I had to sum it all up, I would say that it is a fun, colorful and entertaining Kaiju film, which gives a bit of weight, grittiness and danger to what could so easily have been a routine entry in what had been a very routine series.
And it is a joy to see an athletic Gamera who manages a few bold moves instead of just lumbering around all the time…
rivets on the poster 