Filed under: Kaiju | Tags: 90s gamera, asagi kusanagi, gamera, gayos, Guardian of the Universe, gyaos, Heisei gamera, Kaiju
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Release Date: 11 March 1995 (Japan)
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Genre: Kaiju
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Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is the first movie in the 90s Gamera trilogy and the ninth film in the Gamera cannon. In this remake of a 1967 Gamera movie, two ancient man-made monsters do battle in modern-day Japan. Meanwhile a teenage girl, Asagi Kusanagi, develops a strange connection to Gamera through an artifact found with the monster.
Although ‘Guardian of the Universe is perhaps more youth-oriented than its Godzilla counter-parts, the film manages to shine with a quality not present in earlier Gamera installments and overshadows Toho Studios’ Godzilla offering in 1995.
On the whole, ‘Guardian of the Universe is a solid, straight-forward giant-monster movie. The acting is half-way decent for this kind of film and the story manages to be mildly entertaining while serving a purpose beyond coming up with excuses for monsters to fight. The special effects, both model and CG work, are the best they could have been in 1995.
The narrative deals with two main points of interest, the Atlantis-like civilization that originally created Gamera and his foe, Gyaos, and Asagi’s spiritual connection to Gamera. The Atlantis story and whole mystery regarding the origin of the monsters is just enough to keep one interested for the first quarter of the film, which is about as long as it lasts before it’s dropped. Likewise, some of less interesting characters and poorer actors fade into the background as the film approaches the half-way point.
The Kaiju battles aren’t spectacular, but they’re entertaining, featuring some noteworthy gimmicks such as an atmospheric plunge to Earth from space and an energy beam-battle. Between Gamera’s three or four engagements with Gyaos, the Asagi-Gamera connection is developed in more detail, but never explained. It’s a concept we’ve seen before, Gamera takes a blow to his arm – Asagi’s arm is bruised, Gamera bleeds – so does she, etc. While hardly a ground-breaking idea, it adds a little depth to the film.
A Gamera flick is an all together different beast than a Godzilla movie. Big G fans will have to get used to the fact that Gamera is the good guy. He saves kids, battles evil and doesn’t seem to mind much when the Japanese Self Defense Forces get in his way. He’s also got built-in jet engines that replace his legs in times of flight. In fact, his sinister appearance is about the only thing keeping Gamera off the Saturday morning cartoon roster.
For all it’s individual successes, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe somehow comes up short of what it should be. Whether it’s the silly built-in rocket pack or the fact that the monster is the “good guy”, it’s no surprise that the fire-breathing turtle has always stood in Godzilla’s shadow.
7/10
Filed under: Kaiju | Tags: Godzilla, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Gojira, Heisei, Kaiju, Kazuki Omori, king ghidorah, miki saegusa
Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
Release Date: 14 December 1991 (Japan)
Director: Kazuki Omori
Genre: Kaiju
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Godzilla vs King Ghidorah is the third Gojira film of the Heisei era. In the reviewer’s opinion this film marked a change in the quality of film-making, in regards to the Heisei series, from favorable and serious to below a basic standard.
The plot, such as it is, revolves around time travelers from the 22nd century who’ve come back to change history. They plan to eliminate Godzilla and replace him with a creation of their own, the infamous King Ghidorah. In this film, we are presented with a new origin story for Toho’s signature creation. Apparently, Godzilla was once a Dinosaur on the Japanese island of Lagos. A few years after saving a company of Japanese infantry from an American attack, the animal is exposed to A-Bomb tests and becomes the monster we all know.
After changing the past and eliminating Godzilla from history, things get out of control. In order to destroy the now rampaging Ghidorah, the Japanese government opt to re-create Godzilla, even more powerful than before.
In unexpected contrast to the preceding two Heisei era films, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah falls flat on its face in regards to script, acting and even special effects.
The storyline is simply frustrating. The convoluted situation of the time travelers, the two different Godzillas and the pathetic “Godzillasaurus” origin occupies most of the film. The dialogue is some of the worst written and worst delivered since the dying days of the Showa era.
With the exception perhaps of Anna Nakagawa, the majority of the actors phone in their performances and treat the roles like jokes. Some of the worst performances come from the American actors portraying the time travelers and the WWII era U.S. military forces.
The heavy special effects, a major feature of this Godzilla film, come off with mixed success at best. From the raindow time travel effect to the cartoonish lasers carried by the men from the future, we are hit with some of the silliest and at times amateur looking effects conceivable for a film made in the 90s.
The less than par story takes up much of the movie’s run time and in fact we don’t see Godzilla or a monster fight until the third quarter of the film. Said fight, the first of two featuring Godzilla against King Ghidorah, must go down in history as one of most forgettable and lack-luster encounters between the two great rivals.
Finally, at the conclusion of the film, fans are given something to wake up for. The three-headed golden dragon returns to the present as Mecha King Ghidorah, newly fitted with a cyborg head and body, to battle Godzilla. The fight is a well choreographed, evenly matched clash of titans. This exciting and impressive final combat is the only saving grace of the film.
With such poor scripting, acting and effects, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah is likely only to please those looking for kitsch. If not for the admittedly entertaining battle between Godzilla and Mecha King Ghidorah, the film would be a write off for Godzilla fans.
4.5/10
Filed under: Kaiju | Tags: Godzilla, Godzilla 2000, Gojira, Gojira ni-sen mireniamu, Kaiju, orga, Shinsei, Takao Okawara
Gojira ni-sen mireniamu AKA Godzilla 2000
Release Date: 18 August 2000 (USA)
Director: Takao Okawara
Genre: Kaiju
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Godzilla 2000 is the lead-off film of the Shinsei or “Millennium Series” of Godzilla movies and – I like to think – Toho’s response to the Hollywood butchering of the franchise in 1998. The film breaks good ground with greatly improved special effects, far better acting than usual and a story that wasn’t thrown together a day before shooting.
A much needed ascent in the caliber of acting and story telling takes place in this pace setter of the millinneum series. Takehiro Murata is favorable as Prof. Yuji Shinoda, a man trying to learn more about the monster that has three times attacked the Japanese mainland for unknown reasons. His arsenal is a small network of like minded men of science called the Godzilla Prediction Network (or GPN) and his young daughter, Io Shinoda. Set against him is Mitsuo Katagiri, the minister of the interior and head of the Crisis Control Institute (or CCI), a man devoted to destroying Godzilla at any cost. Also in the mix is Yuki Ichinose, a photo-journalist following Shinoda and his daughter in pursuit of Godzilla pictures and Shiro Miyasaka, an ex partner of Shinoda’s, now working with Katagiri.
The real protagonist of the film, Godzilla, is once again attacking the power-plants and metropolitan centers of Japan. At the same time, an ancient space craft is released from the bottom of the ocean and uses Godzilla’s unique DNA to produce its own monster in Godzilla’s image. This strange new Kaiju (known as Orga, although this name is never uttered in the film) squares off against Godzilla in the heart of Tokyo.
For the most part, the acting in Godzilla 2000 is passable, or at the very least, an improvement over Godzilla’s last few films. Aside from the occasional slapstick routine or ridiculous line of dialogue reminiscent of the Showa era (“it came from outer space!”) we are treated to a movie that takes its self fairly seriously. Its unfortunate that said bad dialogue does pop up every once in a while, but one can chalk that up partly to the poor (as always) English dubbing.
The special effects in Godzilla 2000 are surely the most impressive seen to date in a Godzilla film. A combination of post production computer effects and Toho’s total mastery of models, pyrotechnics and rubber suits, creates amazing action sequences that, in some ways, appear far more realistic than the 1998 Holloywood Godzilla, which utilized only computer generated effects.
The only special effects feature not up to par with the movie’s 1998 U.S. counter-part are the outdated computer graphics. When one considers that the Japanese production was working with a budget 1/15 of the American, this is hardly surprising.
On the whole, the film making is worlds away from the preceding two or three Heisei era (also known as “Versus Series”) films in which most storytelling, cinematographic and special effect components had detiriorated to their lowest common denominator.
A new millennium, a new Godzilla. The most noticeably updated and revised feature of Godzilla 2000 is the monster himself. There have been a legion of Godzilla designs in the past, ranging from frightening to cutesy, but this millennium Godzilla is surely the biggest departure from any previous aesthetic scheme. In ’2000 he is hulking in stature, being noticeably more massive than in the past, with a pronounced hunch forward and a long, over-bitten jaw. His spinal spikes are at least twice as large as they’ve ever been and shaped in a twisted, more aggressive paraphrase of their ancestors. Possibly the most interesting change takes the form of Godzilla’s famous radioactive blast which in ’2000 is a firey orange rather than the traditional icy blue.
Amid these changes, the film makes a serious effort to remain true to the spirit and style of its predecessors, and that is its greatest success.
The feature enemy in this film, Orga, is simply adequate. He’s a kind of pastiche of tried and true antagonist concepts in the past Godzilla cannon. The footprints of Space Godzilla, Biollante, Gigan and others are noticeably present in his design and concept.
Gojira ni-sen mireniamu is a definite success in terms of a Godzilla film. When we consider not only the poor previous few Heisei era movies, but the incredible failure of the Hollywood adaptation, Godzilla 2000 is a triumph for Godzilla fans all over the world, who could in late 1999, breathe a deep sigh of relief as Toho reclaimed its favorite son.
7.5/10
