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Gamera 2 - Attack of Legion Director: Shusuke Kaneko Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Running Time: 100 minutes Studio: A.D. Vision Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-04-29 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 "Just Keeps Getting Better And Better!" Gamera 2 is superior than the first! But the entire series has been getting better with each new film! The special effects, acting, and story are top-notch! A must have for any fan of giant monster movies! "The best monster series ever." If you think this is the best, wait for Gamera3, that movie has some of the best cg I've ever seen in this type of movie, with a compelling story too. It's terrific that Gamera2 is finally coming out in America, I knew there was a reason I didn't buy the bootleg on ebay. The great thing about Gamera (besides the excellent effects) is that it's a monster movie that you can take seriously, it doesn't go for the cheap and cheesy thrills like most of the Godzilla films, but wraps up the impressive action in a compelling story. This is definitely one of the most fun movies I've seen, and thank god it comes with a Japanese language track on the dvd. "Hilarious!" And by that I'm not talking about the fact it's guys in rubber monster suits, because I always take the movies seriously. I'm referring to some of the more unique extras on this disc. ADV has some interesting "Outtakes"... which are actually select scenes with alternate dubbing in areas. Such scenes are Gamera commenting on his accidental building smashing, and the last scene with several takes. Also included is an approx. 12 minute long alternately dubbed "Lake Texarkana Gamera" where a lot of the military scenes have been taken and made into a short where most of the voices make the characters sound like hillbillies. Very funny. On to the rest of the disc, plenty of other extras which prove to be quite interesting. The movie itself keeps all the Japanese text for the title, credits, etc. unlike ADV's last release. Let's hope G3 meets or goes beyond the quality of this DVD. "Wonderful Kaiju! ...with some horror mixed in." Most fans know this movie as Advent of Legion. At the time of this writing, Amazon.com is showing that title too, but the DVD is actually using the title Attack of Legion. Since I prefer the subtitled version, I actually prefer how this DVD was made compared to the previous one. When I saw the preview on the first DVD, I was afraid they were going cover up some of the creativity used in the titles. I was surprised they left all of the Japanese titles in place - including some Japanese subtitles for the English spoken in the opening scene. The downside involves the English newscasts if you prefer subtitles. If you notice there are no Japanese subtitles for them. There is Japanese spoken over the English - with the English track's volume level reduced. There are no titles for this. You do have to struggle to hear the English for those parts only. You aren't missing much though. This concerns the Japanese audio only. If you listen to the English version, the newscasts were dubbed too, and there is no problem hearing these segments. When using the Japanese track with subtitles, this DVD is alot like my fansub but with the titles translated too. Overall, the English voice acting is pretty good. Some good, some not as good. ADV seems to have decided to have a little fun with the English dub. By accident, I found a fairly bad joke near the 50:50 (minutes:second) mark in the English dub only. There are no subtitles for the Japanese spoken at that moment, but the joke's reference didn't exist in 1996 so this was definitely added for the dub even if the original Japanese had a similar meaning. It involves a man using a mobile phone during a chaotic moment. Subtitles aren't needed. That's the only added joke I've found so far. The small Legions provide some nice bits of horror such as the subway scene near the beginning. It a little tame compared to some American films, but it's still good. There are a few cheesy scenes like when a web site crashes, but the story itself is still nicely done. There is a little more humor than in the first movie. There were some debates between Godzilla and Gamera fans over how Legion was too similar to Destroyah (in concept). I understand the points, but I see too many differences to view this as a Destroyah [imitation]. (I'm a kaiju fan. Not simply Gamera or Godzilla.) Most of the extras are nice. You have the second part of the Shinji Higuchi interview. There are also Japanese trailers and TV spots. I have mixed feelings over the ADV produced extras, but this isn't the first DVD to include material where the English voice actors have a little fun. The DVD of Legend of the Last Labyrinth (anime) also had something similar. Among the ADV previews, there is a Gamera 3 preview. If you haven't been watching the Higuchi interview, here's a glimpse of why many of us have been commenting on the film. I feel the new Gamera movies show what kaiju can have. ...what the genre can be. The filmmakers involved haven't limited themselves to what's worked in the past. The only traditional element that remains is having a man in a monster suit walking on a miniature set of a city. Even the monster suits appear to have more detail than those in most other kaiju films. Here, they mixed some CGI into the process too. Gamera 3 uses even more CGI. I also feel the overall editing and photography represent something fresh when compared to the Godzilla movies of the early 1990s. (There were no Godzilla movies between 1995 and 1999. Gamera 2 was released in Japan in 1996.) I highly recommend this movie to any kaiju fan, and some non-fans might enjoy it too. "Been there, done that." It is amazing how the japanese do not improve the plot, the acting and the overall special effects to make a movie up to standards. Gamera 2 is better (in the FX department) than older versions, but still behind the times. Overall: MEDIOCRE.