Following on from the newly-revitalised '90s GODZILLA films made by Toho, Gamera, the waddling, cuddly but still pretty deadly giant turtle (from a rival series of '60s monster bashes made in Japan) found himself undergoing a face lift, a makeover and even given a budget for his new late '90s trilogy. The first of the films to be made, GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, is a rip-roaring adventure yarn that somehow manages to be pleasingly old fashioned and clichéd while exploiting modern special effects and story lines along with it. The story moves along at a fair old crack, taking various cues from JURASSIC PARK as a team of scientists uncover a family of nasty, prehistoric reptilian birds, known as the Gyaos, living on a remote island. The Gyaos have a habit of eating the local islanders and, when the food supply runs low, they travel to downtown Tokyo to have a small snack.At this point Gamera enters the fray, smacking one baby bird into an electricity pylon and generally kicking backside all round! The military, dumb as they are, want to study the Gyaos and see Gamera as the threat, so launch a military attack against our big green turtle saviour. After lots of action, stock footage of military vehicles and aeroplanes, and poorly-dubbed antics from the unnecessary human cast, Gamera and Gyaos return to Tokyo to wreak havoc in a climatic slug-fest that will have any kaiju fan jumping in their seats in appreciation. The various fight scenes in this film are really dynamic, with excellent miniature sets (that explode when knocked over!) and some cool costumes for the guys in rubber suits to don.An interesting plot point is in the inclusion of the character Agasi, daughter of a policeman and played by Ayako Fujitani, apparently the daughter of Steven Seagal although you couldn't really tell. Fujitani has a psychic link to our hero Gamera which means that when he gets wounded, she gets wounded! A pretty gruesome idea which is exploited to the full and only adds to the excitement of the fight scenes between the two monsters. The computer animation used in the film is excellent, especially the deadly laser breath and fireballs that the monsters fire at each other during their battles. Many parts of the film are hilarious with Gamera plummeting out of space like a football and there is a sense of fun and wonder all the way through. My favourite scene is where Gamera first turns into a UFO to the astonishment of the crowd who can't believe their eyes. Neither could I.My only complaint with the film is that Manga have seen fit to incorporate an unnecessary techno-soundtrack over the real music in the film. Thus scenes of dialogue and exposition are ruined with a loud, thumping beat which is totally out of place and only detracts from the experience. Why do people have to mess around with foreign films so much instead of letting us watch the original versions? Despite this niggle, GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE is a highly engaging and enjoyable monster fest, with ten times the effort of a similar American production from the period, which never lets up the fun factor from start to finish. A whole lotta fun.

After watching just about all the kaiju monster movies, it was time to see the Gamera movies in order. The photography/cinematography is excellent for this film, and the modeling maybe second to none. Maybe due to the scale of Gamera, I'm not sure, but the detail was superb. I love the point of view shots and camera movement through the miniature sets. I wish they would use this effect more. I was amazed at the detail of the utility poles with wires connecting them, increasing the realism and providing depth to the shots. The monsters are also very well done and Gyaos and Gamera have risen to the top of the best looking kaiju suits to date. Some CGI shots worked, while others didn't, but for its time, above par. You can see why Toho wanted Shusuke Keneko to direct its Godzilla GMK movie, which may be my all time favorite Big G movie. The pacing is good, and although the movie is not flawless, the fun factor is through the roof! I can't wait to see the others in this series as they are rated even higher on IMDb.

When Gamera first appeared in Japanese theaters in 1965, he was nothing more than a Godzilla-want-to-be. The giant flying turtle was one of the few want-to-bes that achieved any level of success close to what Godzilla had, but there was still nothing primal about him. Now truth by told, although I am a huge kaiju (giant monster) fan, I was not and still am not a fan of the original Gamera series. Those films were so juvenile and unbelievably dull that they made even the corniest of the Godzilla movies look like visionary works of art by comparison. And so Gamera had that reputation for a while. He was popular and suited only for very young children. That was until 1995, when director Shusuke Kaneko changed all of that with a very successful inventive trilogy of Gamera films that changed the flying turtle from just another Godzilla rip-off into his own character…and in three very good movies. The first was "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe." In this vast reinvention of the Gamera series, decades of environmental catastrophes have awakened a flock of bat-like creatures called the Gyaos, who begin to plague Japanese islands and then threaten the mainland. Around the same time, a giant turtle referred to in legend as Gamera, awakens at the same time. As the monsters begin to battle, its soon discovered that their simultaneous appearance and their aggression for each other is anything but coincidence.Now in terms of its plot, "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" is anything but special, but then again, neither was "Predator" (1987) or "Jaws" (1975) or to a certain extent "Gojira" (1954). Like with all of those movies, its the high-energy pacing and the stories that make "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" work. The best word to describe this movie is fun. Even Roger Ebert, who is not a fan of the kaiju genre (see his review for "Godzilla 1985" for proof) admitted he had a fun time with the film.One thing I particularly liked about "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" as well as the other two movies in the trilogy was that even when the monsters were not on screen, I was not bored for a second. Typically in monster movies, the creatures are the most interesting element and the human characters are inane and time-fillers. This film is an exception. The characters are familiar in terms of classification (scientist, witness, etcetera) but they are fairly fleshed-out to become likable. The dialogue is also very well-written so that for once, the explanation of the monsters' origin is not long-winded, familiar, or tiresome.But of course, I can't leave out the star of the movie, Gamera himself. Kaneko's decision to change Gamera from a child-friendly big-hearted turtle into a more vicious and animal-like, yet somehow appealing monster was absolutely brilliant. Now in terms of how he's presented, no, Gamera is not spectacular, but then again neither was the shark in "Jaws". And both creatures carry of their parts effectively. The Gyaos are also fairly well-done, although in their earlier scenes, there was a little too much of a phony expression in their ping pong ball-like eyes. Overall, the special effects are a little more then what you'd expect, although not fantastic like in the second and third installments of the trilogy.Bottom line, "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" is like the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" of Japanese monster movies. It's not meant to be taken seriously and nobody does, it doesn't try to be anything more than what it is, and every second is nonstop energetic and pleasurable cinematic fun.

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.