In the second instalment of the Gamera reboot, one has to be patiently waiting for the monster to ever show up. The direction the plot takes is a strange one, as the film predominantly focuses on bland human characters trying to sort out the events that are clear and obvious to anyone watching the movie with an even minute degree of attention. The overly explanatory dialogues also don't add to the excitement whilst watching “Gamera 2: Attack of Legion”, as a rather generic and derivative story of alien invasion is short of any element of surprise. Kazunori Ito's screenplay lacks verve and doesn't focus on the essential element of monsters and clashes between them.
Buy This Title
After Gamera's clash with Gyaos, the eponymous titan left the earth to come back in order to defend Earth from Legion, a swarm of insect-like aliens. Their moniker derives from a biblical reference adding an apocalyptic degree to the humans' struggle for survival. Gamera's foes' aim to destroy and colonise the planet has to be stopped by a joint effort from Japan's Self Defence Force and Gamera.
Although often shot like a horror movie, “Gamera 2” fails to offer any thrill because of the lengthy scenes aimed at creating an interesting dynamic between the characters. It seems as if the director, Shusuke Kaneko, forgot what the focal point of the film should be, namely: Gamera and his fights with alien foes. The end product is a flawed and shockingly repetitive, which really proves to be especially underwhelming bearing in mind the particularly entertaining first part of the reboot.
A lot of elements of the film are surprisingly weak, especially given the quite high $6.5 million budget. The subpar and awkward acting, particularly of all the extras, creates an almost amateurish feel, whilst overly dynamic, hectic editing is at times confusing and not in touch with an actual events depicted on screen. Kow Otani's music adds a degree of grandeur that screenplay mostly fails to produce, whereas Junichi Tozawa's cinematography is quite generic but is able to occasionally surprise with a more inspired, wide angle shots that correlate with the terror of the Legion.
“Gamera 2: Attack of Legion” doesn't match the quality of its predecessor. Numerous product placements at times imply, that the film was actually a feature length advertisement for Kirin beer.
