The rebirth of Gamera in the later half of the '90s was surprising. "Guardian of the Universe" and "Attack of the Legion" were two of the better Kaiju-themed movies, probably ever. There was nothing very smart about them, which is par for the giant monster course, but they had some very good special effects and a lot of Kaiju stomping action. There's fewer annoying kids ("Kennys") throughout, which means Gamera can be portrayed in a darker fashion.

This makes the third and final installment, "Revenge of Iris", all the more disappointing. The kids are back so there's a strike against it right away and the annoying "Mother Earth" themes return to excess. This is prevalent in many of Japan's giant monster flicks, but it's just taken to an extreme in "Gamera 3".

There's plenty of Gamera battles in the first act and it's immense and brings a lot of impact, as much as any I can remember in a Kaiju movie made up to that point in time. But the whole thing comes to a screeching halt in the final act, just about time that Iris matures to an adult. Iris is a terrible creation. It looks like a weird combination of Transformer and balloon animal. It floats around and settles in a stadium where it sits and has a slap fight with Gamera until it all mercifully ends in an anti-climactic mix of green blood and fireballs.

Other than the opening scenes of Gamera scuffling with Gyaos, "Revenge of Iris" is kind of dull.