The Gamera series is more consistent than Toho's Godzilla. That doesn't mean I like Gamera more...hardly. It just means that going into a viewing of a Gamera flick, you know you are going to get something juvenile and corny (the exception is Gamera vs. Barugon). Let's just say watching Gamera will bring a few laughs, a few scratches of your head, and when it's over, you know you've sat through mediocrity in the Kaiju genre.

This time mediocrity comes in the form of Jiger, who seems to draw from Gamera's earlier foe, Barugon, except that Jiger is really, really bland (and stiff). Gamera gets beat up early and spends much of the movie out of commission and nearly dead and most of the time while that happens, Jiger is...sleeping.

Gamera movies bring their own brand of brutality. This time, Gamera gets spikes through his arms and legs. He manages to remove the spikes from his legs by hammering one end against a rock until it pokes out far enough for his big turtle mitts to grab it. Later, a larvae from Jiger gets injected into his lung. This isn't bad until it's explained by scientists who show actual footage of an elephant's trunk being sliced open with hundreds of white worms spilling out. I've seen plenty of gross-out Horror films, but I'd say this footage is as gross as many of them. Hey kids! Let's cut this animal open! Look at all those worms!

The most off-the-wall, but par-for-course Gamera moments is when Gamera sticks snapped off telephone poles in his earholes to keep himself safe from Jiger's sonic super ultra waves (or something like that).

For my money, this isn't the best Gamera movie but it's another strangely entertaining one.