Varan The Unbelievable
Note: This review is for the United States cut of the movie. It is basically an entirely different movie. I hope to revisit the Japanese version of Varan at a later date.
Release: 1958 (Japan), 1962 (United States)
Director: Ishiro Honda (Japan), Jerry A. Baerwitz (United States)
Company: Toho
The acting wasn’t very good in this. It wasn’t bad but you can tell it was phoned in from the actors present. Myron Healey and Tsuruku Kobayashi have no on screen chemistry at all. Now, I know what you are saying and I agree. The human scenes are usually something we suffer through to get to the kaiju mayhem. But sometimes the human parts aren’t ridiculously terrible and tedious. I think had the monster scenes been better or more memorable it would have made the weak acting a little more forgivable.
People give a lot of hate to the original Godzilla movie for the added scenes with American actors. I get that, I think it’s valid as Gojira is a superior movie but I also think it was mostly done well. You do miss out on some of the themes but I think they kept a lot of the spirit of the original movie instead of just making a new movie here.
What I hear is the biggest strength of this movie, the music, was largely removed for this film. You get some of it during the monster scenes, which are decent, but that is about it.
Director: Ishiro Honda (Japan), Jerry A. Baerwitz (United States)
Company: Toho
Notable Cast:
Myron Healey as Commander James Bradley
Haruo Nakajima as Varan
Plot: Navy Commander Jim Bradley is sent to Japan. His goal is to test a chemical that will desalinate water. These tests wake up a monster referred to as Obaki. It rampages a bit before being defeated.
The Monster: Varan isn’t a bad kaiju. He’s a cool lizard with spikes on his back. You don’t get to see the scene in this movie but he can fly around like a flying squirrel. I would say he’s one of the better designs I have run across in this type of movie.
Varan does exist in the same universe as Godzilla. I first encountered him in the original Godzilla game for NES. I didn’t know what movie he was from at the time, most of the early bosses in that game are from side movies, but I had strong recollections of the game. A few years later I finally saw Destroy All Monsters which is a Godzilla movie from 1968. This one features an alien race taking over most of the monsters in the universe and this included Varan. I don’t believe he did much in that film though. I finally encountered this film when I started deep diving on the Godzilla universe as a whole in the 2000s.
Plot: Navy Commander Jim Bradley is sent to Japan. His goal is to test a chemical that will desalinate water. These tests wake up a monster referred to as Obaki. It rampages a bit before being defeated.
The Monster: Varan isn’t a bad kaiju. He’s a cool lizard with spikes on his back. You don’t get to see the scene in this movie but he can fly around like a flying squirrel. I would say he’s one of the better designs I have run across in this type of movie.
 |
| Varan in Godzilla NES game. |
Thoughts: So the plot review is short but there really isn’t a lot to this movie.It runs little more than an hour. There is a lot of talk between Bradley, his wife and the villagers. The monster attack is fairly quick and uneventful for the most part.
Frankly, this movie is a mess. Most of this is a reshoot and it’s obvious they did this on the cheap. If they didn’t want to invest heavily in the movie, then why didn’t they just dub the original movie instead of making new footage? They really only used a little bit of the Varan footage and even then they cut out the flying scene which made him memorable.
Frankly, this movie is a mess. Most of this is a reshoot and it’s obvious they did this on the cheap. If they didn’t want to invest heavily in the movie, then why didn’t they just dub the original movie instead of making new footage? They really only used a little bit of the Varan footage and even then they cut out the flying scene which made him memorable.
The acting wasn’t very good in this. It wasn’t bad but you can tell it was phoned in from the actors present. Myron Healey and Tsuruku Kobayashi have no on screen chemistry at all. Now, I know what you are saying and I agree. The human scenes are usually something we suffer through to get to the kaiju mayhem. But sometimes the human parts aren’t ridiculously terrible and tedious. I think had the monster scenes been better or more memorable it would have made the weak acting a little more forgivable.
People give a lot of hate to the original Godzilla movie for the added scenes with American actors. I get that, I think it’s valid as Gojira is a superior movie but I also think it was mostly done well. You do miss out on some of the themes but I think they kept a lot of the spirit of the original movie instead of just making a new movie here.
What I hear is the biggest strength of this movie, the music, was largely removed for this film. You get some of it during the monster scenes, which are decent, but that is about it.
 |
| Varan |
Ultimately, you kind of just sit back with this one and wonder why they made the choices they made. I don’t think there is some timeless classic hiding away in the Japanese cut of Varan but I do think they could have released a better product here by keeping that cut or at the very least using more of the Varan footage from the original version.
Verdict: This one falls into a really bad spot. You want a movie like this to either exceed your expectations and pull off something good or be charmingly terrible as a film. This doesn’t achieve either of those and you are left with a fairly bland giant lizard movie. I would say this movie is only worth your time if you are deep diving the Toho catalog of kaiju films and I would say without having seen it to go with the Japanese cut of the film. I am going to score this *1/2 for being competent but ultimately a forgettable film.
Where to View:
Amazon Prime Streaming
Buy the DVD (paid link)
Where to View:
Amazon Prime Streaming
Buy the DVD (paid link)
Comments
Post a Comment