Jesus, one of the greatest monster movies of all time, "Gamera 3: Revenge of Irys", seriously. Directed by Shusuke Kaneko, with incredible special effects by Shinji Higuchi, this film delivers, a true masterpiece. Even my sister, the Godzilla hater, admits this film is THE sh*t!!!! She actually asked me am I going to buy the other two, to which I obviously responded "Hell yeah!!!". This movie shows us a new view of Japanese monster flicks, with a much appreciated darker tone and very complex characters. Although I have yet to see the first two Heisei Gamera films, also by Kaneko, this one alone proves Godzilla may have met his match. Compare this film to the highly disappointing "Godzilla 2000", a huge let down after the American G-film by Roland Emmerich. Don't get me wrong, Godzilla is the unrivaled King, but some of the 200s films have been lacking. "G3" brings alive the monsters with bold and fearsome looks, a great improvement considering the Showa horrors ( the 60s and 70s Gamera films just sucked compared to the Honda G-flicks of the time. The Jun Fukuda ones, still not as bad I guess). Gyaos and Gamera are just bad-ass and beautifully rendered on screen. The best version of both monsters ever!! The Shibuya fight scene was amazing to say the least. I've recently fallen in love with Irys, he's simply perfect: the original design and origin, the deadly cool weapons, and that whale-growl of his. The head has no real eyes or mouth, yet gives off an aura of BAD-ASS-NESS. I haven't been this impressed by a monster since Destroyah. Irys simply looks like a god more than a traditional mutant dinosaur or bug. The battles are astonishingly realistic and don't hold back, a move seen in only a few monster flicks. Gamera severing his own hand was an extraordinary plot idea, showing his sacrifice for mankind. Great character moment, really.

The CGI is astonishingly good, myself loving the air battle sequence. This movie brings a seriousness to the aftermath of these monster rumbles that puts the film on a older audience, although I doubt kids will dislike all the superb action. "G3" shows that with the proper director and a big enough budget, Japanese monster films can stand up to the American Hollywood titans. Also, Koh Otani's music is excellent and is a key ingredient in the movie. Otani's music can be horrific, tragic, mystical, heroic and even comedic, basically anything Kaneko needs it to be. The score for "Godzilla 2000", excluding the Ifukube themes, was terrible. This film really is a landmark for the monster industry. Looking at the equally beautifully made "GMK", one can see Kaneko truly can handle a G-film with the same great quality. The only millennium Godzilla movies to even compare to Kaneko's impact on both Godzilla and Gamera is "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" and "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." Taking a glance at Tezuka's work as well, one can see the horrible mistake of allowing Ryuhei Kitamaru direct Godzilla's 50th Anniversary film. Having Kaneko directed it we could have had another masterpiece instead of a choppy-fast paced- non artistic- rock/ tech no score style of the wreck.

Now that that's said and done, the only other thing that bothers me is the quality of the DVD....it's INCREDIBLE!!!! I would of preferred a serious commentary though, but whatever. Japanese theatrical trailers and TV spots, an interview with Shinji Higuchi, behind-the-scenes- footage, and MORE!!!! This movie is packed with interesting bonus material, and it wasn't even released by a mainstream distributor, considering I've never heard of ADV films. Sony-Tristar, come on, at least give us interactive menus!!!! Anyways, a great film, on my Top 15 list for sure, "Gamera 3: Revenge of Irys" is a film to remember.

This time around, the enemy is a tentacled creature called Iris, raised by schoolgirl Ayana Hirasaka (Ai Maeda),who intends to use her 'pet' to take revenge on Gamera, who she blames for the death of her parents. Ayana develops a symbiotic relationship with Iris, but the girl finds herself in danger from the creature as it reaches adulthood, and only Gamera can save her.

With only one Gamera movie left to go, I've given up hope of seeing a really good film featuring the giant jet-propelled turtle. I had hoped that the '90s trilogy, of which Revenge of Iris is the last, would do the trick - it seems to be fairly well regarded by most kaiju fans - but I wasn't impressed: the special effects are great, but the plot is unnecessarily convoluted and there's not nearly enough monster action. Too much time is spent on the bland human characters when we should be watching buildings topple as the monsters duke it out. As with the previous films in the trilogy, the potentially fun action is frequently interrupted by cutaways to army personnel doing meaningless military stuff, as if anything they could do would have any real impact on Iris or Gamera.

4.5/10, generously rounded up to 5 for the part where Gamera using his fireball breath to sever his hand, which has been pinned to a wall by one of Iris's pointy tentacles -- that was cool!

I enjoyed all three movies in this set of films of Gamera from the 90's. This one had only a couple of issues or it could have been the best of the bunch, instead of being on par with the other two. One, one the blu ray I had the subtitles were kind of off in that it would not show what the characters were saying all the time. I ended up missing huge tracts of dialog thus being a bit confused about these two characters who seemed shady, but I just could not tell what their motivations were. Another problem is the fights just are not as good as the one's in Attack of Legion. Still, I liked the opposing monster's origin in this one as it is not just a random type attack as the Legion monsters seemed to be, but an off shoot of the monster Gyaos, whom Gamera faced off in the first film. In fact, he faces off against a couple here too. A young girl whose parents died during Gamera's fight with Gyaos hates the giant turtle because she blames him for their deaths (though I blame the cat). She wants revenge, but how is a girl going to fight the super powerful giant turtle? Well she ends up entering a forbidden cave and finds a monster, a cute critter she names Iris. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is being overrun by a bunch of the Gyaos monsters. Suffice to say things are getting out of control as the humans still try to decide if Gamera is friend or foe, though Gamera does not exactly endear himself during his fight with Gyaos in a crowded city. Good film, just needed a bit more on the final fight and I could have used better subtitling on the disc though that really is not the fault of the makers of the film. The ending is somewhat somber, and leaves you wondering what is going to happen, and it is an answer you are going to have to come up with on your own. Are you a positive thinker, or negative one?