aka Attack of the Legion.
Everyone’s favorite fire breathing and flying turtle returns for the second chapter of the 1990’s revamp. When an alien menace threatens Japan, the Earth’s guardian gets his scaly hide kicked repeatedly by a superior foe. Brutal fights, massive destruction, and science fiction horror show this series is not aimed at little kids anymore. UPDATED for making of extras.
Gamera was always something of a joke to me while I was growing up. Of course I was a dedicated and loyal Godzilla fan, so a giant turtle that flew by spinning was sure to be a target of my disdain. It did not help that the movies were aimed at very little kids who could cheer him on in fights and revive him by doing so. It was not mere corn, it was buttered corn with sugar sprinkled on it. I prefer salt, thank you very much.
So when I declare the trilogy begun with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe contains the best kaiju (giant monster) films to ever come out of Japan, please note that there is no sarcasm involved. Gamera 2: Advent of Legion manages to do the impossible and that is to turn the ridiculous ideas of the original films into something cleverly entertaining. Attention to detail, character development, and excellent pacing are to be found in abundance. It is almost enough to convince you that a turtle can fly.
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In classic science fiction fashion, the flick begins with American space radar picking up an incoming object headed for Japan. Notified of this, Sapporo Science Center calls up one of their own to warn her that a meteor is headed in her direction. This is inconvenient due to her chaperoning school children on a night time astronomy outing. Midori Honami (Miki Mizuno) starts to call the kids in but a flash in the sky means it is too late. But the kids do not mind, because they get to see a giant meteor crash in the distance in the mountains. I am with the kids on this.
The next day, two officers from the chemical warfare division show up to check out the impact site. Colonel Watarese (Toshiyuki Nagashima) and Hanatani (Tamotsu Ishibashi) find their routine mission to check for hazardous materials to have a slight problem. The meteor is not there, though the damage from its landing is.
Back at the science center, cutting edge technology like Netscape and dial up modems are being employed to investigate the odd meteor. Okay, there was a little sarcasm in that sentence, but that screen capture brings back memories of the early days of the Web for me. But they aren’t the only ones with technical difficulties, which inspires Honami to venture out to the crash site later that night.
There the car she is in stalls out as every electrical device stops functioning. Overhead, the sky is filled with an odd green light like an aurora. Running into the soldiers there, they soon get help restarting the SUV and the Colonel gets a chance to chat up the beautiful girl. His attempt to look cool while lighting up a cigarette gets her attention, but not the way intended.
A cameo appearance at a brewery with monster infestation problem brings back former detective Osako (Yukijiro Hotaru) now employed as a lowly security guard. His reason for being there is amusing and tragic at the same time, as a monster attack on cases of beer leads to great losses of…
…Beer. Yes, you read that right. If you cannot handle the wanton destruction of alcoholic beverages, this is not the movie for you. For some reason, having a horror movie like scene with beer bottles as the victims appealed to me.
The first glimpses of the alien life forms from the “meteor” are well handled and the creature design is a nice mix of strange and insect. But the critters are not content to wipe out thousands of bottles of beer, so they move on to a more traditional target in Japan: a subway train. With a bloody attack on a train driver and passengers, the mood of the movie becomes considerably darker.
The vicious man sized monsters have chosen to nest with the result being a large plant like pod that grows out of a building in Sapporo. When the police sent in are wiped out, the military intervenes and none of the dithering in the previous movie is there to prevent them from taking action. Heroics and frantic efforts to understand just what in the world is going on lead up to the big star finally making his appearance.
It is quite an entrance by Gamera as he does not hesitate to destroy the pod, which is building up to a city destroying explosion. However, the victory is a short lived glory for the aliens swarm out from under the ground to overwhelm the giant turtle. One thing this movie series was applauded for was its introduction of CGI to kaiju movies, but the scene where the aliens crawl up Gamera is flat out horrible. I adjusted the capture to show just how bad the effects were.
In stark contrast, the practical (ie: rubber suit) effects are superb for the close ups of the agonized giant turtle staggering through the city trying to dislodge the creatures biting him. It made my skin crawl in sympathy.
The CGI does a little better when Gamera lifts off to spin the creepy crawlies off of him. Here the creativity of the director shows when green blood sprays the buildings of Sapporo for alarming effect. It is exactly what would happen if such a thing were possible in reality. Once the giant turtle is gone, a much bigger creature emerges from underground to fly off and this CGI is pretty well done for its era. Once again, the Japanese military is shown in action and they take on the bigger monster effectively for once.
Another familiar face from Gamera: Guardian of the Universe shows up when Asagi Kusanagi (Ayako Fujitani) pops up at Sendai Station. She and a friend are on their way to ski and it is explained her father is now in New York. Ominous foreshadowing occurs when she warns him it is more dangerous there than where she is. Little does she know that Honami is researching Gamera on the Web and has found out about her link to the monster.
Speaking of Honami, she invites Watarese and her computer geek colleague, Obitsu (Mitsuru Fukikoshi) to her room to figure out what to do about the aliens, now called Legion after the Biblical reference from The Gospel of Mark. One of my favorite moments in the film comes from this setup, when her very concerned father silently frets over his pretty daughter having two men in her room. You get the impression he could go serial killer on Honami’s guests at any moment. That is a proper father!
Of course, Sendai is the next place for an alien pod to pop up and evacuations begin before it can explode. When Asagi and Honami meet being loaded onto a helicopter, it is up to Gamera to protect them from the giant Legion creature. It is a gory brawl and Legion is quite a bit more powerful than the turtle. When the battle takes a tragic turn, an unexpected death leads to a dire battle to save Japan and possibly the world. What was just a giant monster film turns into more of a war movie for the final act.
Thoughts
After managing to make Gamera a more interesting kaiju in the previous movie, director Shusuke Kaneko and writer Kazunori Ito took things to the next level. No longer campy, there is an air of excitement, loss, and drama along with a dark sense of humor. Nobody is safe and the sense of human suffering is enhanced by grounding the movie in many real world details.
One thing I thought while watching Advent of Legion was that it had a seinen anime flavor to it. Surprise, surprise – it turns out Ito wrote the Patlabor television series and movies, plus the legendary Ghost in the Shell movie and .hack video game screenplays.
Horror movie sensibilities were also employed to ratchet up the tension successfully with the blood and monster gore increasing dramatically from the earlier film. This not rated movie is not suitable for young kids at all and falls in the PG-13 category in my opinion. Death is not as impersonal or distant like in most giant monster movies where you just see the fleeing crowds get wiped out.
While not a slow starter by any measure, Gamera 2 becomes a better movie as it progresses. Resolving many of the problems I had with the first in the reboot series, it is a solid film from beginning to end. Attention to detail to every facet of the production helps immensely with suspension of disbelief, which is amazing given the star is a giant flying turtle.
Speaking of flying, the redesign of the suits between the movies lead to a big improvement in how Gamera looked. The morphing of the arms into sea turtle like flippers when flying makes perfect visual sense, as well as aesthetic sense. Looking more fearsome and gnarled, the rest of the suit is less goofy looking and more reptilian.
The soundtrack is more bombastic in this outing and keeps up the quality seen in other aspects of the flick. On the visual side, the cinematography is always interesting and often beautiful.
I highly recommend Gamera 2: Advent of Legion to lovers of giant monster movies, anime fans, and those who enjoy a high quality B-movie. Teenagers and up are the appropriate audience, but parental discretion may open it up for some tweeners.
Technical
UPDATE:
Being the other movie on the same Mill Creek Blu-ray disc that I reviewed earlier, much of the same commentary applies. Now that I have a dedicated Blu-ray player, I can report that I still cannot get into the extras listed on the case am an idiot. They reside on the third movie’s disc in the trilogy set.
The 1.85:1 widescreen transfer is very grainy and I would say the picture lies halfway between DVD quality and a good BD. Colors are well saturated and the 5.1 audio is crisp in both Japanese and English. The latter dub is serviceable and does not distract from the movie, but of course the original performances are to be preferred. DTS-HD is available in Japanese with Dolby Digital for both.
I am puzzled why the title was changed for the U.S. release from Advent of Legion to Attack of the Legion. It is odd, since the title is rendered in English in the Japanese opening title screen.
Extras:
Ninety minutes of extras showing the making of the movie is usually a “yahoo!” moment for me, but the way they were presented made it a grind rather than a delight. One hour of it involves location shooting and presented without an commentary. Glacially boring for the most part, the on location segments go behind the scenes for tank footage, pigeon wrangling, rehearsing falling down, parties, oni pelting, and anything else they could think to throw in there with a minimum of editing.
Things pick up in the final half hour which dwells on the monster suits and practical effects shots. The workout the kaiju actors go through is grueling and torturous with no glory other than giving a good performance. Watching them do a dry run for the Legion costume outdoors provided an amusing moment when a passerby wondered what the costume was for. I have to say they did a good job at a non-humanoid critter.
Seeing how the Gamera costume is put together was interesting. We are shown what is in the turtle’s head – servos and a motor. The screen capture of the careful setup of models becomes more impressive when the next scene was the little set being blown away. All that work gone in a second – it reminds me when my mother would make caramel popcorn. It didn’t last long either.
I am amazed how many different Gamera puppets were used, all in different scales. The smallest one is about the size of a real turtle, interestingly enough.
Some directors can be dictatorial jerks, but Kaneko seems to be a fun guy to work with. He definitely has a sense of humor and had some fun congratulating Akira Ohashi (Gamera) and Mizuho Yoshida (Legion) on their final day of work.
BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!
It was a nice piece of continuity to show the Tokyo Tower still a wreck from the failed missile strike on Gyaos. The addition of construction cranes was a good touch.
A knife blade head on the giant Legion is a nod to Guiron from the original series, a monster that had to be one of the most ludicrous ever seen in a kaiju film. There is nothing silly looking about this suit, thankfully.
Killing Gamera at the two hour mark was surprising and sobering, especially in regard to the nightmarish way it happened. Having him fail in his mission was an interesting decision by the film makers. Being the friend and champion of kids in the 1960’s incarnation, it made sense to have a nod beyond having Asagi return. Their gathering with their mothers in the ruins of Sendai to pray and mourn made actual sense in the context of the story.
Those prayers triggering a spectacular resurrection involving the sparks from the fire barrel was a lovely scene that avoided being juvenile or silly. Instead, it was a metaphysical moment based on the power of faith that I found rather endearing and even sentimental. It does come at a cost for Asagi, however.
What is it with the Japanese and tentacles? At least these ones were more like a jellyfish and whipped around with devastating effect. While I pointed out the earlier CGI that looked terrible, here is an example where it was used very well to enhance the practical effects. The final battle between Gamera and Legion is one of the best monster bashes ever put on celluloid.
All I could think about how Gamera won the battle was that it was straight out of shonen manga and anime. A power up from out of nowhere leads to a final move to destroy the enemy in spectacular fashion. Nope, nothing familiar about that.
I will concede that it was visually interesting, especially how Honami and Asagi see the strange waves of light moving through the sky as they go to Gamera. Actually, lights in the night sky are a sign of power gathering for both Legion and Gamera, come to think of it.
“Sayanora, Gamera” never sounded this sad in the original series. Asagi looks as heartbroken as her pendant.
Extra Captures
The JSDF helped out a lot in the making of this movie, so there is a lot of machinery for military buffs to ogle. The Type 90 main battle tank and the older Type 74 get some quality screen time, though they take a beating from Legion.
Rarely seen is the Japanese F-1 attack jet based on their supersonic trainer. I have always found it to be a lovely plane and the scenes of ones being loaded up with real bombs was a treat. It is also contains a rather good talk between an older maintainer and a younger one.
Ah, the venerable Huey is present again. Such an iconic helicopter, it has been used to add realism to films for decades.
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