Customer Reviews

Gamera - Guardian of the Universe (Custom Art Box)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First, you must be a fan of this Genre'. With that understood, this new take on the old "Gamera vs. Gaos" movie is truely a 5-star effort.

The special effects were suprisingly good. Still using rubber suits and beutifully detailed models, this movie keeps the old charm. And now, the tasteful use of Digital effects for Gamera's Fire Ball Breath and Jets, brings this movie into the nineties.

It is enjoyable and fun for kids young and old. I recommend it highly to all fans.

Long ago, back when there were plenty of Godzilla-ripoffs, there was one series that stood above the rest: Gamera. Gamera was the most popular of these, most likely because it appealed largely to children (outside of Gamera vs. Barugon, which may have been the best of the older series.) By and large, the Gamera series was a joke. With cheap, often-poorly designed costumes, poor and predictable plots, and an over-reliance on Gamera, "Hero of the Children," it's amazing it went on for as long as it did.

In 1995, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe was released, with a completely different approach. This new Gamera, directed by Shusuke Kaneko, abandons the old plotline, as Godzilla 1985 did with the Godzilla series, and brings the audience into a new, darker Gamera, relying on myth rather than children.

The story begins when a Japanese vessel carrying radioactive material runs aground in the middle of the sea. A mysterious floating atoll has been found and is heading towards Japan. On an island elsewhere, Dr. Nagamine has discovered a giant species of "birds" that have eaten the entire population of the island and one of her fellow scientists. Back at the atoll, a science team led by Professor Kusanagi finds many comma-shaped stones on the atoll, as well as a large 2001-esque monolith buried in it. When the professor's assistant touches the monolith, it breaks apart, as does the atoll. Back with the "birds", the Japanese government stages a plan to capture them as an endangered species, but their efforts are thwarted when Gamera, the creature within the atoll, arrives to destroy the creatures himself.

The beginning of the movie is very disjointed, thus the shaky plot summary. However, once the two halves meet, the rest is solid, involving the confused Japanese government trying to capture the birds and defeat Gamera, Gamera's origins as a bio-weapon in Atlantis, and professor Kusanagi's daughter, Asagi, who provides a human link to Gamera and an homage to the giant turtle's earlier role.

If it's different from the older movies, then it must have better special effects, right? At the point of this film being made, Gamera had never looked better (though the sequels continued to improve his look.) His "flying saucer" flight looks spectacular with CG flames, though his half-jet flying won't look good until the next film. The suit is also a bit fatter than in the old series, which is good, since turtle's don't have flat shells. The birds are based on the old Gyaos from the old series, and while they look very good, they're still clearly hand-puppets and marionettes. There are also several other effects with missiles explosions, and the Gyaos's laser.

The music is good as well. While a little hokey at times, the main theme fits wonderfully with Gamera.

While the movie itself manages to reach Godzilla's level of achievement, the DVD far surpasses it. Most Godzilla discs are complete bare-bones; some don't even have chapter-stops. ADV has included making-of featurettes, videos of opening night, a Japanese language track with subtitles (as well as the dub), and a multitude of other goodies. It's everything a fan could want. And there happens to be this box set out. While it's a little more expensive than the movie by itself, it's nice to have a small case for when you get all three films.

And after seeing this one, you will want the rest. A very good kaiju film , high above Gamera's usual standards, and the best is still to come.

To me, with a lot of the 90's Godzilla movies, the special effects and especially the miniatures don't look as good as they did in the classic 60's Godzilla movies. But with the 90's Gamera, EVERYTHING is better. The FX, the miniatures, the pacing, the story, the action--it's all excellent. If you have any affection at all for Japanese giant monster movies, then you will definitely enjoy Gamera, Guardian of the Universe. And, this ADV release is widescreen, has optional subtitles and is full of extras and behind the scenes stuff. Highly recommended.

With a good script, a good director, and top-of-the-line special effects, GAMERA - GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE was considered during its release in 1995 to be the all-time best giant monster movie, a title it lost the following year to its own sequel. The DVD contains both the original Japanese dialog as well as the English dubbed. Do yourself a favor and watch the Japanese with English subtitles, as the dubbing--good as it is--glosses over some of the effective subtleties of the original script. This is a great sci-fi movie and can be enjoyed even by those who don't normally go into the giant monster movie genre.

This 1995 film is as I see it a totally new approach, to the Japanese giant rubber monster genre. This film has a tight script, a heavy soundtrack and is cut in a faster pace than the Godzilla films of the 90s (And Godzilla 2000 for that matter). I've watched this film over and over, and I still enjoy it as much as the first time I saw it!
The origin of Gamera has been rewritten in this first film in the new series (G2 1997, G3 1999); Gamera is not an ancient race of giant turtles, that has accidently been awaken by nuclear testing - He's/She is some leftover biotech weapon from the anchient civilazation of Atlantis! He's left as an guardian against the people of Atlantis biggest biotech blunder; The Gyaos!
The story; A population of Gyaos have hatched on a island. The islanders and a professor and his team gets eaten. A huge floating atoll is found in the pacific - Is there a connection?
The Gyaos move in towards the Japan mainland, and attempt is made to capture the creatures. The Atoll inreases speed towards this location, Gamera arises in the harbour - The battle can begin!
A very enjoyable movie! Contains not so much digital effects as the later Gamera films - The gyaos for instance look very rubbery. But Gamera new "flame trower" is impressive. It's also fun to see him do the real Kaju thing; Wreck the tokyo tower...
The most remembered line in this film; "I would like to take you out, in a monster free Tokyo..."
This dubbed version has a more pumped up sound track then the subtitled version.
Looking for Gamera 2 and 3?
In Japan a Dvd box has been released, containing G1/G2/G3 that carry English subtitles. Japanese Dvd:s does however have a region 2 coding. Try to find Cd Japan, Japanese site, in English - That's all info I can give here

This was a great film, I love Gamera and all monster Kaiju, and I picked this up at Hollywood video out of plain curiosity. I loved it, the final battle scene was amazing and Gamera was very impressive. All in all this is a film for all true giant kaiju lovers, it's great, but in my opinion Gamera is no Godzilla. I highly prefer Godzilla over Gamera but this was a great film.

Before I review the importance of this film, allow me to digress.
Why is a film that incorporates CGI considered to have "better special effects" than effects done using minitures and costumes? To this point, within a couple frames:

a> You can tell "immediately" if a creature is done in CGI.
b> You can tell "immediately" if a creature is a costume.

In both cases, the effect is ineffective in that you know it's a special effect. Something either looks convincing, that is "real" and you can't identify the technique used to create it, or it does not. It's a boolean thing. Having said that, the Japanese effects >tradition< of using minitures and costumes is as equally unconvincing as CGI - however, the live action style is more vivid, and interesting. I prefer the elaborate minitures, costumes, and physical effects and find them far, far, more entertaining than something produced on a laptop with a 3D software package.

Secondly, realize that most Japanese kaiju flicks are done on a 10 million dollar budget. It was amazing in the 60's as it is now that an effects film can be realized at all with such a paltry budget. The shooting schedule of this films is also break-neck.

The reason this Gamera film is important is that it re-defined a genre. Many films and filmmakers try, few succeed. It's "The Unforgiven" (western) or The Excorsist (horror) of kaiju.

Most negative reviews of this film cite effects techniques and dubbing (it's nearly impossible to accurately dub english/japanese it's a different language, of course the lips won't synch...) These reviewer are xenophobic.

In summary, Gamera is an IMPORTANT film as it redifined an entire genre. Critics who point to effects technics and dubbing are xenophobic. Long live minitures and rubber suits! The Japanese (not the US) make the best anime and big bug, saturday matinee sci fi from the 50's to today.

Gamera:GOTU is wonderful, modern approach to the monster movie. By starting with the first discovery of the monster, it allows the world to be much closer to ours. There is no 50 year history to reinvent or rewrite. There are no Maser Beam Tanks to be destroyed. The movie is about what happens to people when monsters are discovered today.

This movie has a great attention to detail: all of the hardware used by Japan is accurate and modern, monsters showing up effecting commodities and stocks, background characters, the construction of the miniture buildings, etc.

The special effects are second to the story, and not the reverse. This is a great improvement over many modern Hollywood movies.

For those curious if Gamera or Godzilla is the better series, the answer is simple. Take a Saturday and rent this movie and Godzilla Vs. Destroyer or Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla. With this fine double feature, comparing the least of the modern Gameras movies vs the best of the modern Godzillas, a personal preference will develop. My money's on your money going to the turtle.

This is definitely not your parents' Gamera. Completely gone are the cheesy, low-budget SFX of the Daeie 60's. Quite simply, the new suitmation techniques flat out blow the Godzilla Heisei series out of the water...and this is a die-hard Godzilla fan saying that. The new effects are positively magnificent...a lot of Hollywood SFX artists who are going CGI-happy should take a long , hard look at this film, as well as its two sequels ("Gamera 2: The Attack Of The Legion" is also available here in the States)...they would learn a LOT. Both Gamera and his arch-rival Gyaos look positively terrific, and their rampages of destruction are first-rate. And a funny surprise is Steven Seagal's Japanese daughter as Asagi, the girl who psychically links with Gamera...she has ten times the acting talent of dear old Dad. This is a must-see for sci-fi fans of all sorts.

As most people know Gamera or Gammera as he was first known was the "friend of children" back in the sixties and the main competitor to Godzilla. Now Gamera is back and better than ever. No longer is he fodder for the boys at MST3K.
Today Gamera is the Guardian of the Universe. In the movie Gamera must protect Japan and ultimately the world from the invasion of 3 flying, flesh-eating lizards. Gamera the massive turtle quickly eliminates two of these, but then fights the third in a massive oil refinery show down.
The primary difference between this movie and the modern Godzilla movies is that the special effects are actually something to look at. For example Gamera flies numerous times and it somehow looks believable unlike the Gamera of yesteryear where you could sometimes see the strings. Every effect is done well including Gamera's flight and fireball, and Gaos' lazer breath. However sometimes it is obvious that effects are CGI.
The movie is a rather basic monster film but its production and special effects are what seperates it from the herd.