Monday, December 12, 2016

THROWBACK REVIEW: Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)

Gamera! Gamera!
Hirohito Gamera!
Hirohito Gamera!
Hirohito GAM-ER-AAAA!!!

I can never resist that silly song. Thank you for taking a lot at the start of my reviews of the Gamera Heisei trilogy, which will wrap up 2016! But before I get into Guardian of the Universe, I should probably just talk Gamera real quick. Unlike Godzilla, who I got into in elementary school, I wouldn't get into Gamera, or even hear about him for years to come. I estimate, high school years. Unlike Godzilla, which I can point to and say how I got into him, I cannot do the same with Gamera. Why? I guess mainly because sadly, Gamera has always been treated as a watered down version of Godzilla, and for a while, it really wasn't hard to see why. While my film critic side has seen worse movies, the Gamera movies of the Showa era were cheap, jumbled, flawed, ridiculous, and just...weird. And Japan can defend them as much as they want. They're pretty damn bad, and a number of them may even appear on my Top 25 Worst Big Monster movie list.

I don't exactly like saying this because I actually...really like the monster. As ridiculous as a giant flying fire breathing turtle sounds, I think he's one of the most unique monsters Japan ever conceived. Godzilla may be more iconic, but at the end of the day, we've seen giant dinosaur monsters before, some even predating the king of Monsters. While Gamera may have been created to try and compete with Godzilla, it's safe to say that there is nothing quite like Gamera, and there never will be. And so you can imagine my delights when I first watched his absolutely wonderful trilogy of the Heisei era. While not exactly perfect, these are the definitive Gamera films for me when it comes to the absolute best of the best...and even on a whole when it comes to giant monster films. I'm sure a lot of Godzilla diehards don't like admitting it, but this is one trilogy that I honestly believe can blow a lot of Godzilla films out of the water. Even when it comes to his absolute BEST films. Godzilla fans may not like admitting it, but...hard to say otherwise. Heck, some of you might recall how I said I kinda think Godzilla VS Destoroyah was as good as it was, because Gamera started his trilogy that year, and it kinda raised the bar. Godzilla had to take some notes. And it isn't exactly an implausible theory because guess who distributed this film, and the other two of this trilogy?...you guessed it. Toho. Who'd have thunk? Though I'm willing to bet even Toho lies to themselves on the existence of these films. 

If you can't already tell, I love this film. When I first watched it, I was actually shocked it was as good as it was. Like...does a Gamera film deserve to be so good? Because I hate saying this, but this one film, took almost everything I hated about the weaknesses of the Godzilla films of the Heisei...and just erased them from existence. The story is easy to follow, and interesting. The characters are ten times stronger than 90% of your average Godzilla films. And the action and effects, even if a few are a bit dated, do impress and coming from a Gamera film, a monster that's been brushed aside as a cheap Godzilla knockoff, to be accomplishing so much from one film alone? Let me tell you that there is absolutely NO excuse that Godzilla films don't meet this kind of excellence more often. And you just TRY and excuse it because of budgets. You compare the measly estimated budget of this film of only about five million yen, to a WHOPPING 12 million US dollar budget of Godzilla VS King Ghidorah and tell me that budget is an obstacle. Just you fucking try. And with the budgets of Godzilla films only getting larger, I don't buy it. Not for a second!

This first entry, marking Gamera's thirtieth anniversary, isn't a flawless product, but I'm sure that after years of the Showa nonsense, anyone watching would be pleasantly surprised. Here, they pretty much wipe the entire slate of Gamera clean. So unlike Godzilla in 1984, where they kept the original movie canon, the original movie here isn't in the same continuity. And I'm happy for that. Despite some pretty fun scenes and city destruction, that movie is rather ridiculous. Instead here, we are pretty much lead to believe that Gamera is the creation of an ancient society similar to that of Atlantis or whatnot, created when their failed creations in the Gyaos Birds destroyed their civilization. This is probably the one aspect of the story I didn't care too much for. The concept of a long lost and ancient civilization being so advanced to the point of actually being able to create Kaiju? It's just a bit much for me. As this story unfolds, you realize that though this movie is maturing and taking risks it's not done before, they do keep to the traditional Gamera sprit in multiple ways. From signature roars, to how Gamera looks when he flies, to having him in a connection of a sort with a young child. Only instead of the child being young, bratty, and annoying, we actually connect with her.

Yes it needs to be said that the characters aren't perfect, but I can tell you that I was thoroughly more interested in what any of them were doing in this movie than I was in most Godzilla films. The problem with characters in those movies is that they don't have a sense of purpose, or motivation. They're there because the script has them there. While development of the characters in this movie isn't perfect, nothing seems forced. One thing I despise about Godzilla's characters is that a lot of them in the movies get involved with each other romantically. I have nothing against this, but at times there is absolutely no development between them. A lot of the time, one character will straight up reject the other. But by the end, one is promising to show the other the world as they walk down a beach holding hands. Here, each character seemed to have a distinct purpose and role. It wasn't just some generic robot pilot, or some generic evil company owner. In fact, the humans here all worked together to fight Gyaos. Sure the military now and then opened fire on Gamera, but they still presented it in a very believable way. I think they may have even briefly mentioned the post WWII military restrictions just...barely. It's not as fleshed out as in Shin Gojira, but it's still pretty cool. And true to the Showa spirit, Gamera does form a bond with a young girl, but if you're worried about it being as stupid as the Showa series...well it's a hundred times better. Instead of Gamera just immediately becoming friends with some annoying child, there's more of a spiritual bond formed with one character, who kinda becomes this "priestess" in the story. Or something. Honestly it's not my favorite thing about the movie, seeing how they go the whole prophecy route, but it's still interestingly done.

The monsters? Intimidating, impressive, well executed, and even if I'm not completely on board with their origins, they're still given a reason to exist in this movie, aside from just having one monster fight another. I absolutely love how Gyaos is this predatory bird that preys on humans, even if at times I can't help but wonder if humans would really ever sate its appetite. Or if it would really abandon some much more meaty horses when it hears a boy on a bridge cry. And on a related note, the movie manages to put in its own little Jurassic Park "one big pile of shit" joke in there when they dig into the droppings of one and find human belongings. Ha ha movie... Oh well, it is still quite a monster to behold. And don't get me started on Gamera. His introduction scene is one of the best monster intro scenes I've ever seen (though I'll be honest the introduction of Godzilla 2014 will be very hard to top). Gamera when he first appears in this film, rises out of the bay, and immediately just slams this Gyaos bird into a power plant of a sort, in this fiery explosion, before letting out his signature roar. He just rises up, kicks ass, and takes names. Never seen Godzilla do that!

One thing I was pleasantly surprised to see was that I couldn't find ONE model in this film. While the cities are destroyed in the same ways that Godzilla films are, there was something more convincing about this film, and I don't know what. Because some of the effects are very much dated. I could also spot some unpolished areas (I'm unsure, but in one shot of a helicopter, I can't help but feel they forgot to add in the sky over a blue screen in the widow), and areas where corners were cut (they did reuse a shot if a guy rolling off the rocky alcove) and at times these effects can stand out, yet in the same way, I couldn't find ONE model tank, or model boat being destroyed. Granted they do use what appears to be stock footage of certain things in this area, but there was no obvious model destruction. And this was a trick that Godzilla was still pulling in this time! So...basically what this film has done is present a great story, with superior characters, badass monsters, and more convincing effects, whilst being severely outmatched as far as its budget is concerned??? DOES THIS MOVIE DESERVE TO BE SO DAMN GOOD???

How's the action? Why bother asking? We all know the answer, it's gruesome, it's violent, it's chaotic, it's fun, it's all one big sight to behold, even if at times there is little explanation to why things happen as they do. Like at the end, how does Gamera revive? No explanation. It just kinda happens. But for the ride I got going up to these few and far between moments of confusion, you can bet I'll be forgiving when it comes to criticism here. The fact that a Gamera movie, on a limited budget, during a time when Godzilla was dominating the Kaiju films, to just come, do its monster justice, keep the spirit of that monster in place, while giving us so much more to behold is just unheard of. I think Toho needs to watch this film again and start taking some serious notes.

My final complaint for this movie isn't so much the movies fault as it is the people who subtitled this movie. While all the dialogue is subtitled well, one thing I found myself annoyed with is the lack of a translation when it came to Japanese text. There's little blurbs and bits of text that can appear that have zero translation. Even the newspaper headlines they show don't have a translation. I'd attempt to translate myself, but haven't the slightest clue how to read Japanese. Instead i'm just left there wondering "where are we now" or what does the paper say? Mattress sale? Oh well, it's just one annoyance I have that I can't take out on the movie.

I never thought Gamera would have a film...let alone a TRILOGY of films that would rival anything Godzilla has. It seems unheard of! Yet it was, because I think the Godzilla franchise noticed it, and stepped up their game for Godzilla VS Destoroyah. While I enjoy the Heisei era of Godzilla, really there are only two films that go into the range of excellence in that film. The others can be underwhelming, nonsensical, or even just straight up...bad.   So for Gamerato just straight up surpass it on the first try? You can bet I'll be giving massive kudos to it, and you can bet I'll question if Toho has a bit of a grudge against this film...or even regrets distributing it. I don't know. I'm just happy Gamera kicks ass here.

I'm giving Gamera: Guardian of the Universe a solid three and a half star rating out of four. It's fun, it's glorious, it's thrilling, it's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be. It finally gave Gamera the justice he deserves, and it easily blows any of his Showa films out of the water, a hundred times over. It's no wonder this is often considered amongst the absolute best of Japanese daikaiju movies, and you can bet that I'm only more excited to see what part two has. But I can tell you it's still great. Let's go Gamera!

Please feel free to suggest any films you'd like to see me review. Leave a comment down below about your own thoughts to this movie and as always, thanks for reading.

Final Verdict: 3.5/4

No comments:

Post a Comment