Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris – 1999
Revenge of Iris. Gamera is back, the Gyaos have returned in greater numbers than before and once again they threaten all life in Japan. But this time they’re not alone. Iris, an old mythological monster – a legend, is awoken as a young girl discovers an egg in an ancient cave. The egg hatches and brings the baby Iris to life. Soon, however, it has grown to a gigantic size and threatens the world as we know it. Once again Gamera comes to the rescue. Although the government still hasn’t decided which side he is on. But even when attacked by Japanese self-defense forces, he keeps fighting the other creatures. To the death if necessary!
Once again, the mythological feel is present. I welcome that! It’s not necessarily important that the myth is based on true myths either. I’m satisfied with the myths created for the purpose of the movie. On the bad side, the Iris monster looks ridiculous, at least at times, and especially as a baby. I don’t think we needed that cute moment at all! Still, there is not the kind of rubber glory that I liked so much in the first film. Too bad!
Entertaining monster
That is to say that this is a film where the monster models aren’t as obvious as before. You can still tell that many shots are tricked and combined to make the monsters seem larger. But not as much as in the first cardboard city scenes. It might seem like a self-contradiction. But it is quite more entertaining when they look more fake! That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the turkey qualities I’m after in Revenge of Iris, but it is good fun to see the tacky environments.
But let’s leave the physical aspects of the monsters and how they’re made for a moment. I think that there are plenty more philosophical aspects than before here. I wrote about it in the previous movie and claimed it wasn’t a necessary thing for a monster movie. Here it turns out quite well. Gamera refuses to give up and keeps fighting no matter what and that’s an obvious metaphor for dedication in general. Dedication and the ambition to follow through!
Revenge of Iris is a worthy final to the trilogy even if the end makes you wonder if there originally were more movies to come. I don’t need more at this time, there are other monster movies to be seen but who knows, I might explore the original films from the sixties someday!
