Very well executed

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

After spectacularly reviving the GAMERA franchise and following it up with one of the best kaiju sequels ever made, director Shusuke Kaneko and Daei Studios were on a roll and certainly had both the tools and the momentum to create a fitting end to their trilogy. However, they also had a heck of lot to live up to. REVENGE OF IRIS is a very unique monster feature and definitely still within the territory of the best GAMERA flicks ever made, but it's also a small step down from the well-rounded masterpiece that came directly before it. It's worthy of a buy, but it makes a few decisions that lessen its appeal to me.The story: Japan turns against Gamera when his battle with the Gyaos devastates a city. At the same time, an angry young woman (Ai Maeda) raises a monster of her own to reap vengeance on Gamera.My biggest complaint is that Gamera himself has relatively little screen time, with his scenes relegated to the first and last half-hours of the film. However, this disappointment is softened by the prolonged presence of his enemy, Iris. From a dramatic perspective, I'd argue that Iris is the single best kaiju villain ever created. For a character who doesn't speak, he is perfectly written, with his relationship with Maeda's character being particularly well-conceived. It makes for a unique take on the human-monster bond that other movies of this sort have broached and absolutely hits it home, with one of the most dramatic climaxes I've seen in films like this. The only downside? – about half of all shots featuring him are computer-generated, which more or less demolishes the aesthetic balance established in the previous movie.Then again, I can't be too critical of the CGI. Its quality is excellent for something produced outside of America in the late 90s, and it occasionally makes for some impacting visuals; virtually all of the above-cloud battle counts. It also helps set a surprisingly sinister tone. Great lengths appear to have been taken to make REVENGE OF IRIS the darkest and bloodiest of the trilogy. Gamera, for one thing, has been given a revamped design and looks particularly fearsome. His initial CG-enhanced battle and its effect on the city is nothing short of apocalyptic – completely justifying the nation's turn against the monster and making for a scene we had never before seen in his features.Even outside of the monster battles, the production scenes are surprisingly high. And while the film suffers from a cast way too large for its own good, the dramatic performances are roundly good. I am delighted to see Ayako Fujitani's role return to prominence, though the aforementioned Ai Maeda is the one who really steals the show.Daiei Studios would not produce any films after this one, which is a major disappointment for a company as storied as it, but the fact that its last effort was such a good one counts for something. Gamera ends this particular stage of his existence victoriously, because REVENGE OF IRIS – as well as its two predecessors – is a triumph. Again, it's not without its faults, but it leaves an impression that I believe all kaiju films you watch subsequently will be judged by.

I was surprised about how much people praise this film, I just finished viewing it, and I'm not that impressed. "Well you just didn't get the superb plot". Oh I got it, I just think it's stupid. Ayana somehow lifts a immovable stone, which causes some tentacle monster to hatch. So she raises it with the intent of sending it after Gamera. Was I supposed feel some sort of emotion when the characters and story progress. One, Iris looks cool, but frankly isn't a huge threat. Maybe for a little kid Iris will stir up some tension, but I didn't see any danger. And I was right, because he just gets his stomach ripped open in one punch, and is down for the count.The plot was very sub par for a trilogy final. This film pretty much goes like this: 40 minutes of set up, 1 hour and 20 minutes until some thing happens, and 1 hour and 47 minutes of MEH-NESS. Seriously, you wait almost an hour and a half for like 2 minutes worth of monster fighting. What's the point of them putting three different monsters in this film, and have no fight scenes. It feels almost like they wanted to make a good movie, instead of a monster movie, I watched this to see monsters blow sh-t up, not some BS revenge story that is completely ridiculous.I feel as if I should address the scene where Ayana offers herself. It's like some Japanese hentai. Let me repeat her words " Iris, I'm so hot(as she opens her blouse), what...HAHAHAHAHA? Then Iris grabs her with his tentacles. What was the deal with that, HAHAHAHAHA, I can't stop laughing. Oh yeah, the subtitles for this film are atrocious, you miss half of the dialogue because it doesn't even show up on the screen. But it is nowhere near as bad as the Godzilla vs. Megalon DVD, they pretty much just changed the dialogue for that.I may not think to highly of this film, but that doesn't mean it's bad, it's actually very well made for a monster movie. But other than the quality, the 90's Godzilla films are much more enjoyable and fun to watch. This film is very violent, I would compare it to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah with the amount of carnage, but this film goes more into graphic detail, which is surprising.I didn't care about any of the characters, the plot was just fine, there was no action, and it was genuinely unpleasant. But I still recommend watching it you like monster movies.

I enjoyed all three movies in this set of films of Gamera from the 90's. This one had only a couple of issues or it could have been the best of the bunch, instead of being on par with the other two. One, one the blu ray I had the subtitles were kind of off in that it would not show what the characters were saying all the time. I ended up missing huge tracts of dialog thus being a bit confused about these two characters who seemed shady, but I just could not tell what their motivations were. Another problem is the fights just are not as good as the one's in Attack of Legion. Still, I liked the opposing monster's origin in this one as it is not just a random type attack as the Legion monsters seemed to be, but an off shoot of the monster Gyaos, whom Gamera faced off in the first film. In fact, he faces off against a couple here too. A young girl whose parents died during Gamera's fight with Gyaos hates the giant turtle because she blames him for their deaths (though I blame the cat). She wants revenge, but how is a girl going to fight the super powerful giant turtle? Well she ends up entering a forbidden cave and finds a monster, a cute critter she names Iris. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is being overrun by a bunch of the Gyaos monsters. Suffice to say things are getting out of control as the humans still try to decide if Gamera is friend or foe, though Gamera does not exactly endear himself during his fight with Gyaos in a crowded city. Good film, just needed a bit more on the final fight and I could have used better subtitling on the disc though that really is not the fault of the makers of the film. The ending is somewhat somber, and leaves you wondering what is going to happen, and it is an answer you are going to have to come up with on your own. Are you a positive thinker, or negative one?

With the releases of "Gamera: Attack of Legion" and its predecessor "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe", Shusuke Kaneko had proved to cinema-goers to he not only knew how to make a good monster movie, but he knew how to make an artistic and enthralling monster movie. For the third film, he was given a larger budget and a longer production schedule. And the final result is not only the best of the three Gamera films, but, in my honest opinion, one of the two or three greatest monster movies ever made.In the third installment of the trilogy, the Gyaos—the ferocious bat-like monsters that Gamera fought before—have resurfaced in vast numbers. And as Gamera combats both the Gyaos and evades the military, a young girl (Ai Maeda) who lost her parents four years prior when Gamera crushed their home in Tokyo, stumbles upon an infant monster whom she names Iris and begins to bond with, hoping one day that the little creature will become strong enough to exact her revenge on Gamera."Gamera: Revenge of Iris" contains everything that you could ever want in a movie. It has great characters, a strong plot, a solid story, breath-taking special effects, and a powerful foreboding sense of disaster. Quite uncommon for any monster movie, let alone a Japanese one, the tone of this movie is mysterious and cynical and dark, as it is essentially about mankind pushing itself to its own extinction through its vanity and lack of concern about the environment, which is what stirred the Gyaos and Iris. Compare this movie to the first entry of the trilogy and the tone is vastly different. Of better still, compare this film to the Gamera movies of the 60s and 70s…and there is no resemblance.The film is famous amongst kaiju (Japanese monster movie) fans for the quality of the visual effects and yes, they are spectacular, just a step below what Industrial Light and Magic produces. The monsters are usually portrayed using the traditional suitmation process, but there also some full or partial computer-generate shots and the composition of these two elements in seamless. The pyrotechnics are outstanding, but a terrific effect is Gamera's eyes, which are able to display the illusion of intelligence and emotion quite effectively. And that is the real strength behind the visual effects. Unlike a great many Hollywood productions, they are used with imagination and artistic tactics as opposed to just being thrown senselessly and without purpose at the audience over and over again. The effects are used to stagger the imagination, but also to give the monsters personality. Gamera is darker in nature in this film that he has ever been, as he is seen oftentimes crushing and burning people to death while fighting other giant creatures. But what's greater is the personality of the antagonist monster, Iris, who starts out looking cute and sympathetic, but develops into one of the most evil and fearsome cinema villains I've seen in a long time.Next to the effects being used imaginatively, their greatest strength is the fact is that they are used appropriately, where special effects should always be—a strength to the story. And the story in "Gamera: Revenge of Iris" is nothing short of fantastic. It's a fresh, original plot, one we are very unfamiliar with especially in a movie of this genre. And the characters—the human characters—are three-dimensional and developed into human beings as opposed to just filling up time and simply explaining the plot to the audience. The movie brings together cast members from the previous two movies and introduces new ones and, with a few exceptions, are all very well-played and developed. I admit I was not all that fascinated by the presence of the characters played by Tooru Teduka and Senzi Yamazaki. But that's okay, since there was lots of presence and personality coming from Ayako Fujitani, Shinobu Nayakam, Yukijiro Hotaru, Yuu Koyama, and especially from Ai Maeda as the girl with a hatred for Gamera. Notice how again Kaneko emphasizes the presence of women in his monster movies when they are typically reserved for love interests and screaming their lungs out at the sight the monsters. By contrast, the men are rather squeamish and weak and fearful, best personified by Yukijiro Hotaru who once again returns as the nervous and pessimistic Inspector Osako.In regards to the music score, Ko Otani has outdone himself. His previous two scores were nothing short of terrific, but this time he has composed a soundtrack so versatile and ear-warming that there's not a single weak cue to be found. Everything, from the mysterious motif of the opening, to Gamera's upgraded theme, to the bombastic notes of the ending is a fabulous contribution to this fabulous film.All three entries of Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera trilogy achieved my highest rating and they are all worth it because they not only updated the image of a monster that was once in Godzilla's shadow, but brought an artistic look to themselves and replenished the fascination for this rather unique and overlooked genre. And the very best of them all is "Gamera: Revenge of Iris", which is a thoroughly enthralling and welcomed cinematic experience from start to finish. Not because it has the most elaborate effects—that's a service—but because it encompasses it all and surpasses its eye candy content with a sound and fresh story. Out of all the monster movies this amateur critic has seen—and that's probably more than a hundred—this is one of the best.