Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996)
aka Gamera 2: Region shurai
Article 5645 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-8-2019
Directed by Shusuke Kaneko
Featuring Toshiyuki Nagashima, Miki Mizuno, Tamotsu Ishibashi
Country: Japan
What it is: Big Turtle vs. Ugly Bug

A meteor shower brings a group of giant insects to Earth that could bring about the destruction of the planet… unless Gamera can come to the planet’s rescue.

This is the second of the three movies from the nineties that revived the monster Gamera, and I always marvel how they not only leave the original series in the dust, but are even better than the Godzilla movies from the nineties. The special effects are a vast improvement, the stories are less silly, and the monsters are quite scary. Whereas the Godzilla movies of the eighties and nineties were often overelaborate and confusing, the Gamera movies were fairly straightforward. However, the addition of a character who has a psychic link to Gamera is no more effective than a similar character in the Godzilla movies; she does little more than assure people that Gamera will come to the rescue when the time is right. Still, that’s a minor quibble, and this is a very entertaining kaiju for fans of the form.