Review of Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

Often considered the best kaiju film ever made, or at least second best after the original Gojira. I would perhaps concur, though I myself don't consider that title to be particularly difficult to win. But Gamera 3 does have a script that goes a bit deeper than all the others, and the special effects are almost as good as those found in American action movies. And thankfully the monsters themselves are only ever partially created by CGI. They are mostly puppets, I think (maybe there are guys in suits). Gamera is the savior of Earth. Unfortunately, he is so big, and his enemies are so big that their fights cause a huge amount of collateral damage. The story concerns a young girl whose parents were killed by Gamera when he was defending Earth. A few years later, she discovers a baby monster, which she names after her cat Iris (also killed by that bastard giant turtle), and attempts to raise it with the hope that it will someday rival Gamera. Unlike any other kaiju film I've seen, Gamera 3 doesn't glimpse over the fact that if anything actually happened like this, many real people would die horribly. During one scene, we see corpses launched by a huge explosion. I suppose that's an interesting angle, but, honestly, I don't think this genre really needs to take itself so seriously. Sure, Gojira was invented as a symbol of nuclear weapons. But the genre it spawned quickly lost any meaningful subtext. They were cheap to make and cheesily entertaining. Every kaiju film I've watched as an adult has looked lame, but I really did enjoy them as a kid. Gamera 3 doesn't make me feel particularly guilty for enjoying Godzilla stomping on an obviously fake Tokyo when I was a lad. The deaths that it shows rather graphically are somewhat counterproductive. This stuff never really happens, after all. As for flaws in the film-making, the story is somewhat convoluted. There are some annoyingly clichéd characters – notably the psychic woman and the dandy fop who philosophizes that Gamera and his enemies keep the Earth in balance. The worst thing is that, like most kaiju movies, most of the scenes not involving monsters are extremely boring. This one drags a lot during its first half. I nodded off at least once. But those are just some complaints. Overall, I rather liked the film.