And I’m being informed that Rolly the Ghostly Red Octopus was never paid for her role in this Shakespearean drama, because, you know, Shakespeare.
Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion (1996) is a step back in the progression of the Gamera franchise. In our last breathless episode, you’ll remember, it was clear that the producers had come into a few extra bucks, which they spent mostly on the scriptwriters and the actors, with just a couple of extra dollars invested in the special effects. The result was a story that felt more adult and less silly than the average Gamera episode up to this point.
In the current episode, I fear the story is a little less interesting. Part of the problem is the reversion to a space-based monster, Legion, which is basically a giant insect with a tremendous swarm of electricity-sucking, mosquito-like children. There’s some chemistry involved in their birth and eating habits, but it didn’t add to the tension. The acting was maybe a little worse, and definitely not a further upgrade. For those who remember the character Asagi Kusanagi, the girl with the connection to Gamera in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, she makes an appearance, maybe acting as a communications conduit for a pack of children to beg Gamera to wake up and fight, but it’s a triviality: we could have had the kids throw rocks at the giant turtle with equal dramatic effect.
It is true that the storytellers reveal one more Gamera capability after he (she? it? – do bioweapons – see previous episode – have a gender?) has been utterly skewered by laser beams, but this had the repulsive taste of a deux ex machina, and not a legitimate plot machination.
So, two guys in rubber suits have a tussle. Watch out for the kids, who make gory messes out of a few humans. My sense of More improvements? was disappointed. Yours may be, too.
