Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion

Upon watching Gamera 2 I've come to the conclusion that this is the best kaiju movie ever.#1 Gamera faced an impossible enemy who not only had thousands of deadly offspring,but was over twice his size with awesome fire power.#2 There was also a daytime battle in which you got to get a better look at both monsters.#3 Need I say more on how cool Gamera looked when he inhaled oxygen from the Legion pod before he blew it to pieces.#4 The destructive blast to the city of Sentai that took Gamera out as well was second to none.#5 Who can forget about how before the last battle Gamera flew into a side slide landing as well as blasting Legion with Plasma Fireballs.#6 Need I say more about the Plasma blast Gamera fired from his chest that took out Legion once and for all.I think this movie was better that any Gojira movie ever made.

This movie rocks! Gamera gets a serious facelift for this feature, with a sleek new look and a bad attitude. No longer is he a hero just for the kiddies, but a serious threat to anything that gets in his way. The film looks great, has high production values, state of the art special effects, a killer music score, a tough no-nonsense attitude, and massive large scale destruction. Monster movie fans are sure to be thrilled. Even without the benefit of subtitles I found the film to be riveting from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Now this is what I call an excellent giant monster film. There's a plot: which concerns an invasion by alien insects who wish to turn Japan into a nest so they can spread their colonies all over. There are characters that are well-defined and interesting. There is suspense. There are realistic special FX, cool-looking monsters, and brutal kaiju battles. This film expertly shows Japan in panic and the effects of a kaiju on the country. It's also good to show how the military handles the situation. This film far surpasses the first movie in the series. Legion was a far more formidable villain than Gyaos. There are many classic scenes, including Legion's demise, Gamera getting covered with insects, and the destruction of Sendai. This can be either a great introduction to the genre or one of the quintessential giant monster films. Great fun throughout.

I must say, I picked this one up expecting it to be just another Japanese rubber suit monster movie and thought it might be a bit of a laugh in that 'so bad its good' type of way. I was surprised however to find a very decent film which kept me engaged from the beginning, with a logical and 'plausible' storyline (if you can suspend disbelief when it comes to pre-historic flying turtles stomping their way through miniature cities etc.) and a decent script. The special effects are also pretty good, even though the main protagonists are of the 'men in rubber suits' variety. The only problem is, I'm now going to have to go and hunt down the other 2 installments! I've watched many worse Hollywood films recently and would recommend this to anyone who likes a good 'creature feature'.

For years now, all I've had was the original Japanese language version, without subtitles, thinking this is the best giant monster film to ever come along. Now, after seeing it subtitled, I believe it's easily the best of the 3 new Gamera films. The situations involving people, are well integrated with the story, and kept in proximity to the action. Legion, the giant insect-like crustacean, is the best monster ever to come out of Japan. It's also one of the most articulated creatures ever designed. The icing on the eiga, is the great CGI effects, like the animated lasers Legion emits, and Gamera's fire-balls. Suspension of disbelief is not a problem. The most amazing thing is, that they were able to take what was ludicrous camp in the extreme, and succeeded in making it respectable art. You'll believe a giant prehistoric saber-toothed fire-breathing turtle, CAN fly !