Gamera is back... For those of you who liked the US version of Godzilla (I hope there aren't too many), this is a movie that you definitively won't like. It is indeed way closer to the original monster movie Spirit than the Emmerich superproduction is. A young girl, whose parents where killed by Gamera when he first fought Gyaos in 1995, finds an egg of a creature (which she names "iris", therefore the title) and raises it in order to kill Gamera. Although nice-looking, Iris is a blood fed creature, and quickly turns to be a danger for Humanity. Fortunately Gamera is still here... I was fascinated by this new Gamera. The special effects are impressive, the destruction scenes are astonishing (the first fight in Shibuya is incredible, but wait to see the Kyoto Station sequence), but in spite of this, the special effects are not the core of the movie (contrary to Emmerich's Godzilla). The human characters are as important as the monsters themselves. Although some are really "cliche" (especially the Dreamcast programmer, though funny, is pretty "useless"), the 2 heroines are well developed. The directing is quite common, nevertheless the flying sequences look very good. If you see it with the eyes of a common US movie goer, you'll hate this movie, as it may look ridiculous in a first viewing. However, the importance of the characters (the "fusion" of the girl with Iris appears to me as the discovery of her own sexuality) and the fact that the monsters are so closed to the natural calamities that strike Japan regularly (just like during the Kobe earthquake, it takes a quite long time for the Japanese government to react, and it's even more striking in Gamera 2) is more relevant that the rubber suit aspect of some closeups. Although it is not a new idea, this new Gamera flick deserves to be seen if you like monster movies and if you have not seen any, it's a good starting point.
