Vicious behemoth beast Jiger attacks Japan during an annual science fair. It's up to Gamera to stop the foul fiend. However, Jiger has injected the heroic flying prehistoric turtle with its parasitic offspring. Can two little boys save Gamera in time? Director Noriaki Yuasa, working from a fairly dark and twisted script by Fumi Takahashi, relates the entertaining story at a constant brisk pace, maintains a generally serious tone throughout, and stages the fierce and lengthy monster fight set pieces with a reasonable amount of skill and flair. Moreover, there are also pleasing moments of large scale mass destruction with Jiger demolishing a major city and surprisingly harsh bits of violence (Jiger cripples Gamera by shooting needles into all of his limbs and turns people into skeletons). The Expo Center in Osaka makes for a neat, novel, and interesting setting. The shoddy (far from) special effects possess a certain endearingly shoddy charm. Tsutomu Takatuma and Kelly Varis are solid and likable as the two little boys who help Gamera. Akira Kitazaki's vibrant widescreen cinematography and Shunsuke Kikuchi's bouncy score are both up to speed. Plus you gotta love Gamera's incredibly cute'n'catchy theme song. A fun creature feature.

This is a children's movie. Is it a great children's movie? No.

But, it is an enjoyable children's movie. Sure Gamera looks like he was constructed at the last second out of an old shopping bag; and, Monster X looks like something that you pulled out of a Salvation Army drop-box. But, this movie has children as the main characters, doing the bulk of the heroics and making the bulk of the sound decisions...

There are a tremendous number of plot-holes in this movie; but, if you've got children, and a little patience, you can enjoy ninety minutes of pig-headed adults, brave children and flying turtles...

Also, there is a certain resemblance to the science fiction novel Blameless in Abaddon...anyone else notice?...

This Gamera entry takes awhile to get into, but once the plot gets underway, it's a heck of a lot of fun. When a strange monster attacks the Earth and start sinking ships, Gamera comes to the rescue, but this monster is one step ahead of him. It shoots needles into Gamera's body which creates a growing larvae inside him which then grows like a monster in the "Aliens" movies. Scientists create a little submarine in which a Japanese and Caucasian boy travel into Gamera's body to locate the larvae and kill it so Gamera can become well take care of the other monster.

With a unique plot like this and plenty of unintentional humor, this ends up being an enjoyable entry in the "Gamera" series. The dubbed English version has voices that are either extremely shrill (the little American girl) or amusingly against type for the character that they are used for. The funniest sequence of course is the visit into Gamera's body, and these two boys are certainly heroic. The bouncy score is an added plus. It's comic book fun at its most thrilling level. You know that things are going to end happily, but with silly adventures like this, half the fun is getting to that conclusion.