I really enjoyed the last Gamera film (Guardian of the Universe) but did mention that this trilogy may be hard to write much about unless they made something a little more substantial than raw entertainment about a giant flame breathing turtle. With the same director, Shusuke Kaneko, at the helm for the entire trilogy, this seems more possible than in most circumstances, but who can really be sure until we watch the movie? So rather than waste a lot of preamble talking about the production, let's get to the meat. Gamera is played by Akira Ohashi while the titular Legion is Mizuho Yoshida. Let's get it on!
If You Haven't Seen it Before
- A meteor strikes Japan and in the title sequence a cross explodes before becoming part of the title card? It was... very weird.
- With no evidence of a meteor able to be found (except a very cool looking crash site), investigators conclude it may have just been ice that crashed to Earth (thereby being destroyed upon landing).
- At a Kirin beer warehouse, two guards see a crab or insect like creature destroy 10,000 cases before staring at them with its spooky eye.
- A subway is stopped by the spooky eye monster and the first person to see it is exploded in a gush of blood. The passengers seem to be victims next, as the area is cordoned off by police. The police go under to find the alien species Legion, who swarm and kill or injure the police as well.
- A giant plant/egg-looking thing manifests in the middle of the city. Simulations determine that it is set to launch itself into space toward a new planet, destroying at least a 6 kilometer radius around it. Green energy gathers into the object, causing an Aurora Borealis effect in the middle of Japan. Turns out this is all oxygen, making it risky to attack the plant/egg because of the resultant explosion, but when the object launches itself into space the resultant explosion will also be devastating.
- Gamera reappears, flying out of the ocean and toward the Legion hive. Being able to breathe fire, Gamera can also suck in the oxygen surrounding the hive. He damages it with one massive fireball before bashing it to death.
- The remaining Legion climb onto Gamera and engulf him while they seem to shock, bite, and stab him.
- Gamera takes off using his rocket legs, shaking off the Legion on his body as his furiously spins (and killing many). Having been wounded, he also splatters his green blood across the city.
- Following this, a giant Legion Queen bursts from the hive and flies away. Two direct hits by missiles don't stop it, and a new hive is set up in Sendai.
- Gamera appears again to destroy the hive, but the Legion Queen intercepts him and they do battle. She wins after stabbing and laser beaming him, but has to leave him for dead. Gamera uses the last of his strength to keep the hive/seed from making it into space, but it still explodes, destroying Sendai and Gamera with it.
- With Legion still active and Gamera dead, humanity prepares to make its final stand. While hopeful, there seems to be little expectation that the JSDF can handle Legion on their own.
- Asagi, the girl with whom Gamera forged a bond in the previous film, goes to the body of Gamera with the expectation that he will rise again. As she does this, Legion and the JSDF begin their battle.
- Just as Asagi stated, Gamera is revived and immediately takes flight toward Legion. Apparently, now the military realizes Gamera is trying to stop Legion and decides to cooperate with him.
- Gamera and the JSDF work together to destroy both the Legion Queen and Legion Swarm. After Legion unveils a new trick, Gamera is nearly defeated before being saved in the nick of time by air support.
- Badly wounded and still not fully recovered from his near death experience, Gamera unleashes his final weapon: absorbing...the sun?... and the plates on his chest opening up to release a tremendous beam of fire/plasma. Legion is completely destroyed in the blast and Gamera is clearly exhausted.
- Gamera takes a final look at the JSDF troops below him before flying away on his rocket legs. The military is relieved, not only to have survived the battle with Legion but also that the obviously incredibly powerful Gamera appears to be on their side (for now).
- This final point is emphasized by the last line of the movie, with the main woman of the cast saying that Gamera is not the defender of humanity but of Earth, and if we keep killing the other life on the planet... "We wouldn't want Gamera against us, would we?"
Kaiju Notes
- Baby Legion is just... crabs but with giant eyes. Baby Legion kinda sucks, though I do find their blue hues quite comforting despite their unimpressiveness.
- The Legion Queen, on the other hand, is a cool design. Retaining the crab like look but escalating it into a single scary beast, the arc of spikes/claws/legs surrounding it makes a dominating silhouette and an effective weapon. The giant horn on its head that can shoot lasers keep the Legion Queen threatening at distance.
- After confronting Legion in the third act, Gamera lands and seems to "skate" around at great speed across the city. It's actually incredibly cool to see, as very few kaiju move as quickly at any point. While the fireballs Gamera launches don't seem to have much effect, the novelty of the shot is notable (and badass).
- Gamera's final attack is clearly one of the most powerful we've seen in any kaiju movie thus far, but it goes almost entirely unexplained and is confusing. I am hoping or expecting it to be further touched on in the future, but I'm not sure I agree with the choice to have something so "deus ex machina" happen right when your hero seems to be defeated.
Right away, I want to touch on a strange direction choice made when the military/police were going into the train tunnel to rescue survivors: a brief photomontage begins right when they rush to the scene. The beginning and end of the montage is abrupt, making it look like a DVD skipping rather than an artistic choice. Because I literally watched it on DVD, I had to check a few times to assure myself that it wasn't just skipping through a scene (confirmed by finding a digital source). Though the dialogue and music maintain through the montage indicating that it's an intentional choice, the abrupt beginning, end, and briefness of the segment is quite jarring. Just a really strange directorial decision. On the other end of choices, there is the above mentioned scene near the end of the film where Gamera seems to floating through a city while he confronts Legion, either using his rocket legs to stay extra mobile or the sheer momentum with which he arrived on the scene, but either way it's an incredible sequence. So... the direction has definite pluses and minuses. The montage for the rescue will stand out as a strange choice, but Gamera basically roller-blading through the streets of Ashikaga is going to stand out even more because it rocks.
The destruction of Sendai is an affecting sequence, seeming to intentionally mimic the nuclear bombs that hit Japan 50 years before this movie. The screen goes completely white outside of seeing buildings be torn apart by the force of the explosion, and the blast radius grows before leaving a massive crater where Sendai used to be. If not for Gamera's body encased in stone, it would be indistinguishable from a devastated city as a result of war. It's an excellent example of how the series has evolved even being just 2 films into the Heisei era trilogy: using both new technology and a new lease on the life of Gamera to do things that are truly worth writing about. Whether it's just cool effects and fun monster fights or using the movie to speak on the horrors of violence, the destruction of Sendai is the most evocative but not the only example of this film using everything it has at it's disposal to make some of this feel like it matters.
The period of time where Gamera is believed to be dead is another example of the above, less reliant on special effects to send the message. After spending incalculable time and expense in trying to destroy both Gamera and Legion, they are eventually left to realize that they've possibly doomed the world by hampering Gamera's clear goal of fighting against Legion. The hopelessness they feel without Gamera seems to be the only time they appreciate him, but it makes a degree of sense in the context of the film. Gamera continues to destroy cities and landmarks while he fights these monsters, and while he clearly intends to stop Legion it can't be argued that the collateral damage doesn't have its own incredible cost (in human lives). It's a situation where there's no good choices but the military makes the worse one, and the end of the movie reflects this. When they go to hopefully stop Legion the general tone is one of hopelessness, but with Gamera dead there's nothing else to do but try. And when Gamera awakens humanity cheers but remains fearful of him (because of course they should be).
The question at the very end of the movie is truly the theme here: "we wouldn't want Gamera against us, would we?" Especially after channeling some sort of energy at the end of the movie and launching a spectacular beam of energy, humanity has to confront the fact that Gamera is here to help and if he were not there would be very little hope for them. But he remains a force of destruction, even if he only appears when there's an even larger threat looming. It seems to me to be an exploration of power and the appropriate use of it, ultimately unable to make a definitive statement but acknowledging both the necessity and terribleness that is power. Whether it be military or kaiju, Attack of Legion seems to lament that any of it is necessary at all, while making a truly entertaining giant monster movie at the same time. It's incredibly impressive.
Next: Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris!
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