This is one of Toho's Kaiju movies that I was always trying to own but could never find at a decent price. I suppose I could have paid to stream it, but I'm a little bit obsessed with owning giant monster movies on physical media. It had always been selling for more than I wanted to pay, either used or new, but I recently found it for about $30. I don't know if a bunch of DVDs were just manufactured or what. It seems weird if they were, but I was pretty thrilled to find this.
The choice to use the Frankenstein monster seems strange but there's a lengthy backstory as to why it happened which I'll pass on telling. Frankenstein (they don't call it the "monster" here) is awfully underwhelming, as is Baragon. Baragon has been in a number of Toho movies even though he's probably about the least threatening monster the studio ever came up with. It's a cute beast if nothing else. The fights between the two are mediocre and I got pretty bored with their last battle. There's rarely a moment when the scale of the beasts is well-defined. Most of the time, they appear to be just a couple of five-foot somethings roughing it up on a movie set.
The human characters are enjoyable, especially during the first half. Kumi Mizuno is magnetic and such a good-hearted character. Nick Adams is charming and likable. Tadeo Takashima doesn't have quite the draw of the aforementioned duo but it's probably because his character isn't quite as noble.
Even though this movie is pretty ordinary, I'm still excited to be able to add it to my watched list of Toho Kaiju films.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 5BlockedParent2022-03-05T15:46:50Z
This is one of Toho's Kaiju movies that I was always trying to own but could never find at a decent price. I suppose I could have paid to stream it, but I'm a little bit obsessed with owning giant monster movies on physical media. It had always been selling for more than I wanted to pay, either used or new, but I recently found it for about $30. I don't know if a bunch of DVDs were just manufactured or what. It seems weird if they were, but I was pretty thrilled to find this.
The choice to use the Frankenstein monster seems strange but there's a lengthy backstory as to why it happened which I'll pass on telling. Frankenstein (they don't call it the "monster" here) is awfully underwhelming, as is Baragon. Baragon has been in a number of Toho movies even though he's probably about the least threatening monster the studio ever came up with. It's a cute beast if nothing else. The fights between the two are mediocre and I got pretty bored with their last battle. There's rarely a moment when the scale of the beasts is well-defined. Most of the time, they appear to be just a couple of five-foot somethings roughing it up on a movie set.
The human characters are enjoyable, especially during the first half. Kumi Mizuno is magnetic and such a good-hearted character. Nick Adams is charming and likable. Tadeo Takashima doesn't have quite the draw of the aforementioned duo but it's probably because his character isn't quite as noble.
Even though this movie is pretty ordinary, I'm still excited to be able to add it to my watched list of Toho Kaiju films.