Finally got around to watching the latest Gamera movie. (I created my own double bill on Sunday afternoon of LINDA LINDA LINDA and GAMERA THE BRAVE. Would that they’d combined the two films.) I don't remember if anyone ever did a post on this.

Okay, a kid in some seacoast village near Nagoya, son of a widowed father, finds Gamera as a turtle egg and raises the turtle until it gets a little too big to keep in his room. And little “Toto,” as the boy calls the turtle that WE know as Gamera, does grow big. So what does the boy, Toru, feed the turtle? What makes it grow big? We don't know because we never see the turtle being fed. That bothered me and completely ruined my enjoyment of the early stages of the film. They couldn’t put in one scene of the kid sneaking some food from his father’s noodle shop downstairs to show what he’s feeding Gamera? I don’t get it.

So the turtle grows man-size, still way short of its ultimate size, and it starts to look really silly. The Gamera suit looks like a cartoon character, like the Pillsbury Dough Boy or Kermit the Frog or something. This isn’t the fierce Gamera we used to know. And when Gamera starts fighting an invading monster, an iguana on two feet called Zedus, who comes with a lethal sharp tongue, the Gamera suit worn by the actor looks nothing like it used to look and just looks terrible. (Where are those awesome fangs?) Which is too bad, because Zedus looks pretty fearsome and formidable, making quite a suitable monster for a film like this. And the monster combat in the streets of Nagoya is very well shot and staged.

Finally, there’s a whole bit during the monster combat where a sick girl evacuated from a hospital has to make sure Gamera gets this big glowing red crystal, so she passes it on to a random kid who runs counter to the fleeing crowds and passes it on to another random kid who passes it on to another kid…etc., like some kind of massive Gamera relay race. And all the kids INSTINCTIVELY know it’s got to get to Gamera so he can beat the monster. I just groaned during all this. I mean in ET, for cryin’ out loud, Spielberg didn’t hit us over the head like this. And then the main kid, Toru, has to actually deliver the crystal to poor Gamera who’s stuck in an upper floor of an office building that Zedus slammed him into. So what does the kid do after climbing a couple dozen flights? He gives a big speech while Gamera’s sweating like a fat turtle desperately waiting for the friggin’ crystal so he can unleash his powers and get the hell out of there. To paraphrase Tuco in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, “When you have to deliver a crystal, deliver a crystal, don’t talk.” And then there’s a big scene involving all the kids at the end that MUST have been greeted with derisive laughter when this was shown a year or so ago at festivals here. I mean, the whole Gamera-friend-of-the-children routine has to not be so damned self-important in order to work.

The director, Ryuta Tasaki, is best known for directing a lot of “Power Rangers” episodes, including some in one of the very best PR series, “Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue” (2000). Here he directs the widowed father-son scenes way too seriously, like he’s doing A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN or TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. This is a MONSTER movie, not an Oscar contender.

For the record, I’m a big fan of all the earlier Gamera movies, even the ones from the late '60s/early '70s. So it’s not like I can’t enjoy an outlandish, child-centered Gamera movie. But there was a real lunatic playfulness at work in the older ones. The recent one is quite sedate and middlebrow by comparison. Films like GAMERA VS. GUIRON appealed to kids BECAUSE of the deliriously imaginative sensibility behind them, like having the child heroes whisked to another planet where hot alien women want to eat their brains, not because they were trying to tone everything down to be so self-consciously kid-friendly.

I'm disappointed to hear that the new Gamera movie turned out like this, but I'm not too surprised either. I loved the 90s Gamera trilogy by Shusuke Kaneko (in fact, they may be the movies that got me interested in kaijyu movies again as an adult), and the 60s/70s Gamera movies are good fun. I knew that expecting anything close to the Kaneko Gamera films was probably a bit much, but it's still a little disappointing to hear that the new Gamera movie turned out like this. I might still put it on my Netflix queue anyway if it comes to R1.

I liked GAMERA THE BRAVE. Outre touches aside, even as a kid I thought Gamera was kind of stupid, not a patch on Godzilla and friends. The 90s pictures were a definite upgrade, and BRAVE was for me the kind of movie the earlier ones might have been. The concluding monster action delivers the goods.

GAMERA THE BRAVE is decent entertainment, and certainly superior to any other kiddie movie I've seen from Japan in quite some time. It's nothing like the terrible MOTHRA movies, for example.

What was exceptional in GAMERA THE BRAVE is that it is finally a Gamera movie in which he really is "friend to all children", like they constantly say in the old movies, but whenever you watch them, you can't help but notice that Gamera appears completely indifferent at best most of the time and certainly cuts a swath through any adults that he comes across. But this time, he really is, and the connection is well and truly made. It was quite refreshing to see a movie that updates the spirit of the original gamera series so well.

It's a little slow in parts, but all around an enjoyable film, one I recommend, especially if you have a child (I'd not show it to under 6) to watch it with.

-- Peter

I can't speak for all festivals, but I did help put together the first US screening of GAMERA THE BRAVE at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood (It was part of a "Kadokawa Night" which also included THE GREAT YOKAI WARand an introduction by Kadokawa reps). The audience really seemed to enjoy the movie and went with the flow of story points like the relay race.

I've enjoyed it when I watched it. Gamera was so kawaii when he was wittle. I dug the kid gestalt thing too. Even so I was still missing Gamera the bad ass and still do. Still, this is a kids movie and as such, hits the mark.

Well, Doran, I guess you shouldn't take this curmudgeon's word for it. :D