Gamera 3 - The Negatives

[Cimmerian Dragon]

^ GTFO. I'm not kidding.

(just kidding)

Seriously, though, I really did enjoy GtB. I can get some enjoyment out of any of the old Gameras (except Super Monster), but GtB represents for me what the Showa series always should have been. There was heart, humor, and yet plenty of good action that was not played for goofy laughs. I sure don't like it as much as the Trilogy, but I'm thrilled that it exists.

[tymon]

Gamera 3 had me face palming at a few points when I first watched it a few days ago, I gotta watch it again before offering a full analysis though. So far I like Guardian of the Universe a lot better (which is, in my opinion, the finest post-1968 kaiju film), with Gamera 2 not too far behind. They're simpler yet so much more effective.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

I love the latter-day Gamera films too. Gamera the Brave is probably the most heartwarming of the lot, although my personal fave is Advent of Legion. I haven't watched G3 yet, and it sure is proving elusive here in Singapore. (I would but the Blu-Ray over Amazon, but I will search for a DVD, which comes much cheaper, till then)

[Bentley]

Ok, finally completed this and the first watch of the trilogy. My thoughts:

1) Advent of Legion is the best of the lot, even though best is a losely concept here. It's certainly the most effective kaiju-action movie of the three. Frankly, it got the kaiju-fights/human-drama balance neatly done, and that's not a small feat.

2) Revenge of Iris and Guardian of the Universe share the same not-so-fatal-flaw-that's-still-annoying, which is that the pacing is all kinds of wrong... When compared with Gamera 2, that works as a clockwork. This means that just a little intervention of spending the time differently could've fixed the movie entirely. For me the difference comes to this: GotU has less plot-lines going on at the same time, and that emptiness complements the pacing so it doesn't seem so crammed up, you end up thinking that the movie is not as action-packed, but still fun, and that works for most people. RoI really makes you think that if you spend some more time getting to understand the cultists and maybe a little less with Ayane and the sort-of-boyfriend, or even disposed the action in a different way, the movie would be quite improved. Of course, it also seems to me that the movie will just keep getting better the next time I see it, now that the fast paced parts -such as the cultists- won't come up as confusing and improvised -which is the risk of several plot lines and slight pace problems-. There are many kaiju movies that are paced much worse than this -all in all the trilogy delivers-, but it's worth mentioning.

3) I'm going to find Gamera the Brave refreshing and something tell me I'm going to enjoy it a lot even if it's the inferior movie. While the seriousness of Gamera 3 was excellent -and I fell in love with the ending, completely-, I love the character because of its personality and children-loving background. This is a way of saying that the trilogy will be sort of complemented by the later film for me.

4) Character drama: Some characters are not so useful plotwise and the ones that are, aren't necessarily as endearing as those we've come to know in the rest of the series. Much of the interest of the third movie gets lost without the previous investment in the characters we already saw, which isn't the case with Advent of Legion, and it's another reason for which I find that movie to be superior. But as a conclussion to the saga the characters and the drama is welcomed. Iris strikes me as a misunderstood beast somehow, in that way I think at least the monsters are to the character drama.

5) The final battle... Could've been done better, a bit more choreography and movement would've been welcomed. I think this is the one factor that you cannot truly redeem. Isn't it good to have a great fight in a great movie? I know it's not necessarily, and Gamera 3 certainly works as it is, but that doesn't change the fact that the fight leaves you wanting. To be fair, none of the Gamera battles strikes the cord as perfect, but this one had an excellent build up for what it was.

6) I personally disliked some of the aspects that had been qualified anime-like in this movie. Certain visual effects and aspects of certain plots seem to lean a bit in a more flashy entertainment, which wouldn't be so bad if the movie wasn't working so hard to be realistic already. Gamera is all about magic and science blending right? Sort of, but for me some sequence don't do good displaying neither magic nor science, they just stand out because of the weird effect this caused me. Lucky me, this is a very short part of the movies and can be forgotten readily. I'm forgetting them already.

7) Conclussion: solid film, entertaining take on the Gamera mythos, classic kaiju trilogy. These are all my fresh impressions, and I'm sure the way you see the films will change after evaluating the whole trilogy. I left out many of the things I liked not to go off topic.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I think GtB and the trilogy are both very good, but in different ways. The Heisei movies are a new, more serious take on Gamera, and work fantastically well given the exceedingly juvenile source material. Gamera the Brave is, as mentioned above, kind of what the Showa series should have been (though I do enjoy the Showa Gamera films).

[Inferno Rodan]

Of course, it also seems to me that the movie will just keep getting better the next time I see it, now that the fast paced parts -such as the cultists- won't come up as confusing and improvised -which is the risk of several plot lines and slight pace problems-.

It won't. In fact, I find myself getting more annoyed with it on each viewing.

[kaiju115]

My only negative for Gamera 3 is that one guy that gets killed by the falling ceiling. I don't remember a thing about that character except how he dies, other than that the movie is a masterpiece.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I loved that guy. He was sort of over-the-top, but he was great. He got killed in such a lame way, they almost literally Dropped a Bridge On Him.

[kaiju115]

I loved that guy. He was sort of over-the-top, but he was great. He got killed in such a lame way, they almost literally Dropped a Bridge On Him.

Yeah, I agree he was a bit over-the-top which is good, but I just didn't remember the character as much as everything else: The monsters, the action, the other human characters especially Asagi Kusanagi, & Mayumi Nagamine. But I like I said, the movie is a masterpiece.

[g2kmaster]

I just didn't remember the character as much as everything else.

Yes, a good bit of people are off put by Kurata Shinya and his female cohort.

The cultists (Asakura Mito and the video game guy who is over the top in some cases) are bits of social commentary. With the film being apocalyptic as it is, it needed some reality. In truth, around 1999 there have been reports of cults becoming a massive thing in Japan. So bad that the Aum Shinkikyo cult (which caused 12 deaths in Japan the same year G:GGOTU was released) was said to have been making a base in London and try to cause a "baptism of fire" to set off the apocalypse - with only the members surviving. It didn’t happen. Though now, take a look at Shibuya after the boy cries to his mother "Gamera saved me!". It looks as such a baptism.

Asakura Mito doesn't seem to be a very important person to the Japanese government other than being a fortune teller (in which if that was to every actually happen, the government might be seen as nuts) and Kurata Shinya is a retired video game maker. This is important because Aum Shinrikyo was known to recruit middle class people in real life. So there’s a parallel. Not to mention their beliefs were messed up versions of religions which sourced beliefs from books like the I, CHING (aka, the Book of Changes which Mito quotes at the beginning). Only whatever cult Mito and Shinya were a part of was perhaps more dangerous since not only was one of them smart (Shinya, who does most of the Irys hypothesizing) and has connections to the government (Mito), but they have a major bit: they had a connection to Irys via Ayana. It only got screwed up when Asakura Mito thought it was time to take back her apparent birthright (remember, Shinya mentioned something about Asakura's blood line) only to get killed because she was not the chosen one (Ayana was).

[Destroyer]

I agree that some of the fantasy aspects were too much, but after watching it recently on Blu-Ray, it's definitely a masterpiece in the kaiju world, and just a great film overall.

[kaiju115]

I agree that some of the fantasy aspects were too much, but after watching it recently on Blu-Ray, it's definitely a masterpiece in the kaiju world, and just a great film overall.

You can say that again man, I'm still waiting on my replacement disk from Mill Creek Entertainment Though, as of now I've been watching the other two on Blu-ray as well as the Criterion Collection of Godzilla.

[Tyler]

There's a scene towards the end where the kid says, "Knife, do something! Go get him!" and he throws it at Iris. All it does is bounce off and cut Ayana. What was that about?

[HayesAJones]

I always just assumed that was to show how Iris was allowed to get far more powerful that what he should have been. *shrug*

[Living Corpse]

There's a scene towards the end where the kid says, "Knife, do something! Go get him!" and he throws it at Iris. All it does is bounce off and cut Ayana. What was that about?

Some stupid myth about a magical knife that's been in his family since forever. And it's just that, a stupid myth. All it did was knock some sense in Ayana when it slashed her face.

[kaiju115]

Yeah that was an odd scene, though I love how the luminescence changes color on Irys after that, like you can kind of tell what Irys is thinking at that moment.

[Living Corpse]

Yeah that was an odd scene, though I love how the luminescence changes color on Irys after that, like you can kind of tell what Irys is thinking at that moment.

Yeah, we may know next to nothing about Iris but it's pretty clear when the lights change that it's pissed off at having something thrown at it.

[thatsoundman]

There's a scene towards the end where the kid says, "Knife, do something! Go get him!" and he throws it at Iris. All it does is bounce off and cut Ayana. What was that about?

Some stupid myth about a magical knife that's been in his family since forever. And it's just that, a stupid myth. All it did was knock some sense in Ayana when it slashed her face.

and wasnt that enough that it "knocked" some sense in to ayana? gamera was handling the battle duties with Irys about that time anyway. imho.

[Living Corpse]

Oh hell, they didn't even need the knife. He could have just walked up to her and scratch her face with his nails to knock some sense into her.

[thatsoundman]

Oh hell, they didn't even need the knife. He could have just walked up to her and scratch her face with his nails to knock some sense into her.

and do you think it would have had the same effect?