Gamera 2: Region shurai (1996)

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ThomasFTB
Pretty weak script. Deus ex machinas out the butt, and an incredibly tacked-on environmental message at the very end.
Good effects though 10 years 1 month ago
Siskoid
1996's Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion brings back some of the cast from the previous film, but I do wish it had reintroduced them a little better (and I watched the two movies less than a week from one another!). That said, Gamera 2 surprisingly DOESN'T resurrect a monster from the Showa era, instead creating a three-tiered threat that gives the human cast more to do. "Legion" is a giant bug "queen" that makes use of smaller (the size of bull) drones, and a massive seed delivery organism to launch itself at other planets. There's lots to figure out and many different situations for Gamera itself to fight in (though I wish they'd made more of the snowy climes early in the film). The effects are good, the action quite violent at times (this isn't as kid-friendly as the original films to be sure, though the kaiju's bond with children is still evoked), and it actually has some shocking turns. As with the previous film, the cinematography on the kaiju stuff is superlative, though Legion's design is less than iconic, haphazard even. It could have done with a bit more color, I think, to make its different parts stand out. But it's certainly given me an interest in 90s-era kaiju films, something I have very little experience with. 5 years 11 months ago