A reboot of the movie series featuring everyone's favourite flying turtle-like kaiju, Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe is good fun for those already familiar with the IP.
The Gyaos are also back for this adventure, looking to cause mayhem and destruction in Japan until the arrival of Gamera. Always one to protect any children, first and foremost, Gamera this time forms a strong bong with young Asagi (Ayako Fujitani). This bond helps Asagi to inform others of what Gamera is trying to do, but that doesn't mean that everyone will view Gamera as an ally, especially when the government sees all of the damage caused by its actions.
While not on a par with the special effects of many other mid-'90s blockbusters I could mention here, this is certainly a step up from the crude charm of the earlier movies. The "lo-fi" approach feels like a decision that has been made to avoid alienating fans, but there are some nice little details and clarity added to the creatures and their wider range of actions this time around.
Writer Kazunori Itô, who had a great 1995 with his work on both this and Ghost In The Shell, does a very good job of delivering some facts for the uninitiated while also keeping things moving along for everyone eagerly awaiting some Gamera and/or Gyaos action. The same can be said for director Shûsuke Kaneko, doing more than enough to satisfy all-comers without hitting nowhere near the heights that he would reach in the years ahead (having given us even better kaiju movies, as well as the first superb live-action Death Note movie in 2006).
Cast-wise, things are also pretty good. Fujitani is likeable enough as young Asagi, and Tsuyoshi Ihara, Akira Onodera, and Shinobu Nakayama do well as other main characters trying to figure out how to put an end to the giant creature battles before Japan suffers too much collateral damage. You get the usual selection of authority figures (police, military personnel, and, ummmmm, civil servants), but the plotting allows for Asagi and co. to remain the clear focus while moving around in the shadows of the kaiju.
It's not quite as fun as some other instalments in the series, but this does what is required to successfully reboot everything, allowing us to get a couple of movies that are even better (well, I know the next film is a favourite of mine, but I'm being presumptuous about the as-yet-unseen Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris). Whatever your personal preferences when it comes to individual instalments in the series, this should keep you happy enough if you've watched the other films that came before it.
7/10
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