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...