Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

The Basics: A nefarious, greedy SOB teams up with three other men to bring back an opal from a distant island...things go wrong, people are betrayed...monsters are unleashed upon mankind...Gamera kicks a$$ and takes names

The Plot: Ok, the Plot sections of these talkbacks seems reduntant to me...as it's pretty much summed up in "The Basics." You want more of a broken down approach see the movie or read the wiki link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera_vs._Barugon


The Kaiju:
Gamera: He's back baby. This time he's a bit of a brawler and he doesn't save any kids on screen at least. The suit itself it an improvement over the last suit, and features some pretty menacing eyes as well as the ability to walk on four legs. Apparently that was Yuasa's goal along to make Gamera a 4-legged monster to further differentiate him from Godzilla. I think, I prefer Gamera walking about mainly on 2 legs for the most part, but I also like that he can go about on 4 legs in this film...would have been kind of cool to see him do that in the Hesei era.

Barugon: I love this guy. Creepy lizard monster with insto freezo ray. I love how he can destroy a city just by walking around and existing. I also like the eerie calm after his first attack...there are no fires or sirens, just silence, great stuff. His sound effects are superb as well. The suit itself it pretty good for its day, with the toungue effects being a standout. I wonder how much that head weighed as the string holding it up is pretty visible throughout the film...

The Acting: Actually, the acting is pretty darned good in this film. Kojiro Hongo makes an impressive debut here and even the island girl is serviceable here (ZING!) but let's not kid ourselves here...this film is tied with the original Mothra for having the most vile human villain in kaiju film. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this film's villain is the absolute worst but I know some of you will have issues with that. Onodera is so evil it's awesome. He crawls on board a military boat and just shoots a soldier point blank He rats out everyone through the course of the film...I love this guy

The SPFX: Great stuff. Barugon's birth is well done. This is the first film to feature Gamera's saucer mode done practically and it looks pretty good here. The minatures are excellent. THe city destruction and "frost" scenes are superb. The monster battles are great, bloody fun and different in tone from that of Toho's at the time. The scorpion looks a little fake, but about on par for the time, I don't mind it but I felt the need to find something to critique here.

The Other Stuff:
-The score is pretty good with a memorable, easily hummed theme
-The opening is very remminiscent of Ultraman with the swirling lava colors
-It's a shame that Yuasa wasn't able to direct this film but there are moments when you can still feel his touch on the film
-I think it's probably the "best" made of the Showa Gamera films though it's not my favorite, but it's up there
-The first two Gamera films are oddball's, it hindsight it's amazing that Daei ever got the franchise they did out of Gamera...the first film is just meh, and this film is great, but I could see it boring kids with its plot at times..
-I love the monster violence in the Gamera films...it feels more real, more of a sense of danger present....
-And I also love the dramatic, anthromorphic monsters in the Showa Gamera series...these aren't just animals, these monsters have personalites...

http://xenorama.blogspot.com/2011/02/wa ... -1966.html

once more the US cut helps out a rather dull monster movie outing. there's not nearly enough monster stuff and main characters are mostly unlikable though the hero gets turned around in the end.

it may be a better monster movie than the rest of the bunch, but it's definitely not the best Gamera movie of the original series.

This is almost certainly my favorite Showa Gamera film. Setting aside the excessive padding (military strategizing and exposition that ends up being repeated in narration, with which the AIP cut dispenses to great effect), this one has pretty much everything going for it.

People often complain that Gamera doesn't have a whole lot of screen time, but when he's there, he's there. He's got a lot of attitude and I dig it. The fights are great, with some wonderful money shots, my personal favorite being the suckerpunch--the slow pan in as you see Gamera pulling his hand back, then POW! Barugon is really cool with his rainbow and freezing abilities, which make for a nice counter to Gamera's fire.

The human story is easily the most compelling of any in the original run of films, with interesting characters and a nice narrative flow that's disrupted only by the aforementioned planning sequences. Onodera is arguably the nastiest human character in the genre, possessed so fully by greed that he'll stop at nothing, even going so far as to beat an injured man with his own crutch and drop not one but two lockers on top of him, and as if that wasn't enough, he goes ahead and takes the guy's wallet and burns the building down while he's at it! It's a joy to see Barugon swallow him along with that precious diamond.

I've also got to comment on , which is very driving and memorable from start to finish. It's the perfect accompaniment for this highly enjoyable picture.

It's interesting how the "War Of The Monsters" edit cuts footage without cutting exposition. There are a few scenes where, in the original uncut film, dialogue is delivered, and then it cuts to a reaction shot. In the "War Of The Monsters" cut, the dialogue will continue over the reaction shots, thereby cutting the running time without really removing anything. That being said, this thing still drags hardcore.