Daikaijû kûchûsen: Gamera tai Gyaosu

This third offering in the "Gamera, the Giant Flying Turtle" franchise is one of the better ones. However, by this point the filmmakers started imitating the tone of recent Godzilla films to make the series more kid-friendly, so from here Gamera starts becoming a nice monster who watches out for the welfare of children. There would usually be a little boy or two in the lead parts from now on, but GAMERA VS. GYAOS still emerges as an enjoyable outing, retaining some strong moments for a movie geared to a juvenile audience. Much of that is owed to the truly mean and overpowering nature of Gyaos himself: he's a giant bat who shoots laser beams from his jaws which can cut objects clear in half! Superhero Gamera truly appears to have met his match this time and it seems nearly impossible for him to overcome the threat of his formidable opponent. **1/2 out of ****