Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I always thought Irys looked more like a Final Fantasy summon than anything

As for how I'd rank Kaneko's kaiju films:
G2
G3
GMK
GOTU

Yeah....I think GMK has some intersting stuff in it BUT I've never really liked it all that much.

So far nobody has answered my question. Who/what is Irys and why is a mutated Gyaos protecting a family's shrine?

I've reach the end of my Gamera odyssey... for now. Hopefully I'll see The Brave by the end of the month, then start on the Showa series after. Today I watched the film that enraptured and inflamed the fandom in a way only GINO and GFW can compare in recent history (with different reasons and results).

Gamera 3 (dons Rocky and Bullwinkle announcer voice)

The Revenge of Iris
(or)
The Incomplete Struggle!

Far slicker, far more modern, far more mature than any kaiju film released then or in the following decade. It's no wonder it became the pinnacle of kaiju films in the minds of so many fans: it was the one in this cynical age that you could show people and they wouldn't laugh. Nowadays I think that's pretty stupid idea, and after decades of people demanding grim and gritty-ness from genre fare the pendulum has swung back and the whimsical and campy have been reevaluated and reappraised among nerds of all stripes (good).

But let's look at G3 as a movie and not as the stuff that accumulated around it. Does it hold up? Yes. While not as tight or satisfying as G2, G3 delivers interesting ideas that comment on the genre, the franchise, and ties up the themes of the trilogy and delivers the most polished and ambitious special effects ever in a Japanese kaiju film... Oh, and it's entertaining and often thrilling.

I appreciate the economy and tightness of G2, but G3 really doesn't have any interest in that. A slower film, it's lets things sit for a while and stew as the various parts of the plot are brought in until they all come together in the third act. Like I said, I find G2 more satisfying, but there's nothing wrong with this very different approach. The only cavat? I think clarifying Asukura and Kurata's motives and beliefs would help some (or maybe illustrating their zeal more). As is they're only slightly less opaque than the villains in the first Hellboy film, and they have the disadvantage of lacking a clockwork, nazi, zombie, ninja.

I also like the whole structure of this trilogy: a first film that sets up that conflict, a second film that's a self contained story that has the main story arc ticking away in the background almost unnoticed, then bringing it all together in a final film that takes the plot introduced in the first film to it's climax while tying in the seemingly unconnected second film. Well done.

The funny thing about the Gamera trilogy is that upon rewatching I'm surprised by just how much it honors the old Gamera franchise it supposedly dumps on. Asagi's connection to Gamera is a reformulation of the connection between Gamera and the kid main characters in the old films, Gamera is a heroic defender of Earth (really get this from G2), the kids who come to Gamera's seemingly lifeless body in G2 and instigate his revival, even the freakin' healing coma is present!

Even the darkness of Gamera 3 fits in with the Gamera legacy: it's plays with our preconceptions of Gamera. We see a film that's darker and with a scarier Gamera who inadvertently decimates a city and are left to wonder if Gamera has forgotten about the human race - but it's all a blind! A trick! In the third act we find Gamera is still the heroic defender he has always been. We even have the villianous Kurata basically quoting the aliens from Gamera vs. Viras in saying Gamera's weakness is his fondness for humans!

^You must have been.

In my mind the list of totally brilliant giant-monster-on-the-loose films from American begins and ends with King Kong and Them!

I don't think anyone is ever going to convince me that this trilogy is anything other than God-tier kaiju filmmaking.