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Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
John Boyega (2 more)
Great Sfx
Tokyo Show down
Monster Mash
A simple and short action film that pacts a big punch. It doesn't disappoint when it comes to the action watching giant robots and alien creatures have a scrap in a major city. Would have been nice to see a few more robot designs and more alien screen time. If you liked the first one you'll enjoy this.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Gamera: Advent of Legion (1996) in Movies

Mar 15, 2019 (Updated Mar 15, 2019)  
Gamera: Advent of Legion (1996)
Gamera: Advent of Legion (1996)
1996 | International, Sci-Fi
9
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Startlingly sophisticated mash-up of the giant monster and alien invasion B-movie genres; second in Shusuke Kaneko's trilogy of Gamera movies. A meteorite brings the gestalt organism Legion to Earth, specifically Japan (of course). Scientists and the army embark on a desperate race to figure out how to stop the various manifestations of the creature, but may have to rely on their unlikely ally: the giant nuclear turtle Gamera.

The bare bones of the plot make it sound fairly absurd, but the combination of a clever, cine-literate script that knows exactly when to play it loose and when to get to the point, and superbly accomplished special effects mean this is one of the highlights of the Japanese monster movie tradition; arguably very influential within the genre, not least for the way it plays with all the classic tropes and manages to rationalise many of them. The design of the antagonist monster could have been a bit less weird, but you can't have everything I suppose. Exceeded in its crazed grandiosity only by the third part of the trilogy, but still outscores that in the script department.
  
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
1955 | Sci-Fi
Stop-motion monster movie with Ray Harryhausen's special effects. Odd goings-on in the Pacific lead the authorities to suspect a giant radioactive octopus is on the loose. Sure enough the beast is soon dry-humping the Golden Gate Bridge and menacing downtown San Francisco (at least, those parts within tentacle-reach of the seafront).

The bits with the octopus attacking the city are put together with Harryhausen's usual verve and skill, but - as ever - they are mostly confined to the end of the film; the rest of it is rather like a stolid Navy training film entitled 'How to Deal with Giant Octopi': functional but uninspired, and (apart from a sluggish romantic subplot) almost entirely procedural. Hits all the beats of the atomic sea monster subgenre, but doesn't have the sense of fantasy or fun that the best known films of this kind have. Some good stuff but threatens to drag even at less than 80 minutes in length.