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A vicious trio of giant nasty flesh-eating reptilian birds called the Gyaos awaken and start preying on hapless human beings. It's up to gigantic flying fire-breathing prehistoric turtle Gamera to stop them before it's too late. Director Shusuke Kaneko, working from a smart script by Kaznori Ito, treats the story with commendable seriousness and maintains a constant brisk pace from start to finish. This film further benefits from solid and credible acting from an appealing cast, with especially praiseworthy work by Tsuyoshi Ihara as brave, eager, likable naval officer Yoshinari Yonemori, Shinobu Nakayama as tough, gutsy ornithologist Mayumi Nagamine, Akira Onodera as shrewd agent Naoya Kusangi, Ayako Fujitani as Naoya's cute, sweet psychic teenage daughter Asagi, Hirotaro Honda as sniveling cowardly wretch Mr. Saito, and Hatsunori Hasegawa as the hard-nosed Colonel Satake. Moreover, the first-rate special f/x are often stunning, the guy-in-a-rubber-suit beasts are genuinely gnarly and impressive, the elaborate mondo destructo scenes deliver the pulse-pounding goods, and the exciting monster fight sequences are staged with considerable aplomb. Ko Otani's spirited score really does the rousing trick. Junichi Tozawa's glossy, dynamic cinematography likewise scores a bull's eye. Why, we even got a pertinent ecological message tossed in for good measure. A very neat and immensely entertaining winner.
score 8/10
Woodyanders 13 July 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1910016/ |
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31-3-2021 18:05:28