kevinxirau I must say, this was an unexpected twist to the famous giant turtle. After having his successful run with the 90s trilogy, Gamera seemed to have taken a break. He returns in 2006 while his older brother/rival Godzilla is taking a vacation that ends in 2012. An all-new storyline is created for Gamera, once again gearing towards kids but with a more serious tone.About thirty years after the first Gamera destroyed a flock of carnivorous Gyaos by blowing himself up to save humanity, a young boy named Toru finds an egg resting on a mysterious red stone. The egg hatches and out comes a cute baby turtle, who Toru finds companionship from. Named Toto, the turtle starts growing and exhibiting all too familiar powers: flight and fire-breathing. When Toto disappears one day, a giant sea monster called Zedus is going around eating countless victims. Toto arrives to the scene as the new Gamera to face this adversary, but it will take the intervention of Toru and his friends to help the giant turtle conquer this deadly foe.This movie is surprisingly well done. None of the kids are annoying unlike the ones from the old films that make you wanna slap them in the face. All the characters have depth to them and emotions are conveyed very well. I was slightly moved by all this. The effects and creature designs are excellent and the battles between Gamera and Zedus are great.I don't see much that's wrong with this installment of the Gamera series. I would like to see how they plan on continuing this cool saga. Check out this family/monster film and see for yourself.

godzilla179 RUN...do not walk away from this movie!!!!! Aimed at the very young kids, this movie will bore you to tears. If the Gamera trilogy of the 90's raised the bar, this film just lowered it. It's slow paced and the monster fighting is good, but seldom seen. This movie had me dry heaving in the cat box. Just a very poor offering after a phenomenal 90's series.SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!!!!!!!!!!! Here are the top 10 reasons Gamera fans of the 90's series will HATE this film.10. This movie is a drama that follows a kid trying to cope with the death of his mother and fears losing baby Gamera to a fight after knowing his father saw the adult Gamera die.9. You see the adult Gamera for maybe a minute at the beginning of the film. He gets his butt kicked by a few Gyaos and self destructs??? He looks old and lethargic. Plus he looks nothing like any gamera you've ever seen. His suit looked cheap and rushed.8. The young Gamera you see through the rest of the film looks like a Pokemon. Big-eyed and cute...it will remind you of the baby Godzilla from Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla 2. Gamera is now too cute.7. This movie has the pace of watching a NASCAR race during a 3 hour rain delay. I watched this movie with 2 other Gamera fans and nobody was happy with how slowly this film moved along. I've seen an SUV full of fat people going up a mountain road move faster.6. Like Godzilla:Final Wars, this movie had very little kaiju time on screen. Final Wars had much more, actually, and better fights although short.5. Kids take the title role. The friend of all children theme and poor writing killed the original Gamera series in the 1970's and history repeats itself in the 2000's. The most successful Gamera films abandoned the Sesame Street feel and went to a darker place. Why go back to a failed formula? This was to be a new trilogy and poor ticket sales killed any hope for this story to continue (thank god).4. Gamera lost his iconic roar. He now sounds like an Elephant with strep throat.3. This movie may produce a new Olympic event.....Imagine a relay race that involves sending very young children into harm's way. You have to see the ending to understand this point. Where were the parents? Oh yea..right there sending their kids into a kaiju battle zone.2. The special effects were good, but sub-par for a Gamera movie. Legion and Iris had better effects. The best effect was showing the apple sized baby Gamera fly. Not too impressive.1. This movie is just not what adult kaiju fans come to expect. The director was involved in Power Rangers and it shows. It comes off like a cross between ET, Always: Sunset on Third Street and TMNT. Kudos if you know all 3 references.Rental at best or watch once if you buy it to complete the DVD series.

Chung Mo The original Gamera series quickly aimed for the 5 to 8 year old set after two attempts at the standard "adult" monster film typified by the Godzilla series (although these kept lowering the age bracket with each film). Gamera films usually revolved around turtle loving children put in peril by aliens until their rescue by Gamera. The children sometimes would help Gamera either by cheering him on or in a more disgusting case, going into his body and fighting a parasite infection. Strangely, the original Gamera films features more gore and gross damage to the monsters then the Godzilla films ever attempted. The revived series directed by Shusuke Kaneko featured a more mature approach although Gamera had a psychic connection with a teenage girl. Kaneko also introduced a more integrated approach to the kaiju genre and raised the bar for all kaiju films. The re-revived series has aimed to return to Gamera's roots in the 1960's, once again presenting Gamera as "friend of all children".Director Ryuta Tazaki comes from Japanese sci-fi action television with quite a resume with the Japanese Power Ranger Shows and never ending Kamen Rider series. This film shows little of his TV roots as this film is very well directed, well photographed with some modest experimentation with visuals and sound design. The film has a sort of naturalism that you don't usually get in a kaiju film. The hero just lost his mom to a car crash and his friend is afraid she won't live thru a heart operation in the hospital. THe parents are working class shop owners. A few moments of over-sentimentality and cuteness are here but the rest of the film makes up for it. The special effects live up to the level of the Kaneko Gamera films with a couple of shots that are excellent. Tazaki doesn't have Kaneko's dramatic flair for the action scenes but they are well done. As a note, this film does have some rather gross green gore when Gamera is hurt during the fights, this may upset children here in the west.Once again Gamera sets a high standard. Recommended.

Luke Jones I was able to catch one of the last showings of Gamera this week in Hachioji, Tokyo, and I can say that the experience was a good one.In 2004, as many already know, Toho announced that the king of kaiju, Godzilla, will be taking an indefinite vacation. This of course has happened before, but in Godzilla's absence someone needs to take the reigns. So, like before, the torch was passed to Godzilla's younger brother/rival Gamera.Gamera took the torch, and ran with it. Hard. Here are some of the good things about this movie: -Characters: The main human is a young boy (as always, after all, Gamera IS the friend of children). His mother is dead, and he lives with his father on an island fishing community. Gamera has a history on the island, so when the boy finds a fast-growing baby turtle which flies, some eyes are opened immediately... Other characters include a female neighbor with heart problems, the boys' friends, his father, and some evil government people. All are likable (or hateable), and the acting as far as I could tell was spot-on.-Story: Its there, so this is not just the full-on kaiju fightfest that characterizes many Godzilla and Gamera movies. But we do have full-on kaiju fighting...-Full-on Kaiju Fighting: This is probably the reason most people will see this movie, and it doesn't disappoint. The enemy monster this time around is a man-eating dinosaur named Jidas, and while he is not as charismatic as some of Gamera's other foes, he exudes evil and you will be rooting for the big-eyed turtle the whole time. The special effects are absolutely top-notch, in fact I think Jidas is one of the most convincing dinosaur suitmations I have ever seen.-Music: Powerful when it needs to be. Exactly what it should be in a kaiju movie: it aids the awe that someone should feel when watching 30-story monsters duke it out.Why I didn't give it a ten: The only thing that disappointed me about this movie was the fact that they replaced Gamera's signature roar with a stock roar, which I believe has been previously used for various incarnations of King Kong. But, this is a very minor complaint. Go see this movie when you can!