Leofwine_draca GAMERA THE BRAVE is the last, to date, of the Japanese Gamera series of kaiju movies. It's a cheap and cheerful affair that manages to entertain despite the cliches of the story and the fact that it doesn't really have much in the way of budget to play with. For the first half of the running time, this is a cutesy, child-focused adventure in which a kid grieving for his dead mother finds a hatching turtle egg. He soon takes Gamera home and watches him grow to an incredible size. The second half of the film is a low-rent kaiju flick through and through, with Gamera combating a bigger and more fearsome opponent; the usual destruction ensues. Although this is cheesy stuff, packed full of dodgy CGI effects you're likely to laugh at, it does the job and I found it quite endearing despite the overload of sentiment.

OllieSuave-007 This is the first and only Millennium series Gamera that was ever filmed, returning him as a kid-friendly monster who this time is raised by a little boy named Toru (Ryô Tomioka) when he was first born and then grows up in full adult monster form, just in time to battle the evil, man-eating monster Zedus.Of all the kid-themed Gamera movies, this is actually the best one to feature a kid as the main character. He is not annoying or screaming songs like the kid characters in the earlier Gamera movies and his relationship with Gamera is actually quite heartfelt. There is also some strong character development between Toru and his widowed father Kousuke (Kanji Tsuda), who in the movie's prologue witnessed a Gamera sacrificing himself to destroy the Gyaos birds, which I thought gives the movie a heroic, yet sad touch. There are also scenes where Toru frolics around the beach in a lazy afternoon with friends and where he reminisced about his late mother Miyuki (portrayed by Megumi Kobayashi of the "Rebirth of Mothra" trilogy). All this adds some pensive drama to an otherwise monster-action-packed film.The special effects were quite good and the story has some decent monster action and battles (you really want to root for Gamera to defeat the cruel Zedus), though I thought the human drama does tend to drag the movie a little somewhat. It's not as thrilling or suspenseful as Gamera: Guardian of the Universe or Gamera: Attack of the Legion and it does not surpass most of the Godzilla movies in overall entertainment, but this is one of the better of all the Gamera films in my opinion.Grade B-

ebiros2 This movie is made as the 40 th anniversary movie of the Gamera series. The movie is made by Kadokawa Herald movies instead of the now defunct Daiei movie studio that made all previous Gamera series movies.In 1973 Kyosuke (Kanji Tsuda) witnessed Gamera defeating a herd of Gyaos by exploding itself. People at the time thought Gamera sacrificed its own life to save the people. 33 years later, Kyosuke is a recent widower with young son Tooru (Ryo Fujioka) who is in fifth grade. One day Tooru sees a red glow on the neighboring island. When he gets there, he finds a sea turtle egg. The egg hatches and he finds a small turtle inside. He names it Toto and raises it secretly in his bedroom. One day little Toto is found flying above his father's head. The suspicion arises that Toto is actually another Gamera. Soon Toto disappears from Tooru's home. In the mean time, there are mysterious shipwrecks in the ocean. The culprit turns out to be a monster called Jidas. Jidas comes ashore and threatens Tooru's home town. Toto reappears, now grown into a monster sized turtle, battles Jidas to protect Tooru's family.The movie was conceived to appeal to preteen audience, and the team work between Tooru and his friends and Toto becomes the central theme of this movie. Tooru backs Gamera saying "Toto is still a baby. So I need to give hims support.".In this 40th anniversary movie, Gamera goes back its roots as friend of little children. Watch the teamwork between the children and Gamera to fight their nemesis Jidas. There're more emotion in this movie compared to the "Heisei Gamera Series (1995-1999)" and the battle between Gamera and Jidas is not the central theme, but communication between Tooru, his friends, and Toto becomes the focus of this story.This movie is more story driven than any of the previous Gamera series movie, and is recommended for viewing.

Chung Mo The original Gamera series quickly aimed for the 5 to 8 year old set after two attempts at the standard "adult" monster film typified by the Godzilla series (although these kept lowering the age bracket with each film). Gamera films usually revolved around turtle loving children put in peril by aliens until their rescue by Gamera. The children sometimes would help Gamera either by cheering him on or in a more disgusting case, going into his body and fighting a parasite infection. Strangely, the original Gamera films features more gore and gross damage to the monsters then the Godzilla films ever attempted. The revived series directed by Shusuke Kaneko featured a more mature approach although Gamera had a psychic connection with a teenage girl. Kaneko also introduced a more integrated approach to the kaiju genre and raised the bar for all kaiju films. The re-revived series has aimed to return to Gamera's roots in the 1960's, once again presenting Gamera as "friend of all children".Director Ryuta Tazaki comes from Japanese sci-fi action television with quite a resume with the Japanese Power Ranger Shows and never ending Kamen Rider series. This film shows little of his TV roots as this film is very well directed, well photographed with some modest experimentation with visuals and sound design. The film has a sort of naturalism that you don't usually get in a kaiju film. The hero just lost his mom to a car crash and his friend is afraid she won't live thru a heart operation in the hospital. THe parents are working class shop owners. A few moments of over-sentimentality and cuteness are here but the rest of the film makes up for it. The special effects live up to the level of the Kaneko Gamera films with a couple of shots that are excellent. Tazaki doesn't have Kaneko's dramatic flair for the action scenes but they are well done. As a note, this film does have some rather gross green gore when Gamera is hurt during the fights, this may upset children here in the west.Once again Gamera sets a high standard. Recommended.