Varan Movies

Varan the Unbelievable

You know what's really unbelievable? That this B&W snore fest was made by Toho four years after Godzilla, and two years after Rodan. It's a real step backwards for the Japanese monster movie.

A village in a remote part of Japan worships a god named Varan, and forbids people to approach a certain mountain. Scientists from the outside arrive in the area, ridicule the villagers, approach the mountain, and then almost immediately get trampled by a giant lizard. The lizard then flies to Tokyo Bay (this scene was cut from the American version of the film, which actually reduced the level of unbelievableness) and hangs out while the humans have interminable conversations about how large a shell will have to be to pierce Varan's hide. Then it's discovered that Varan will eat a flare if he sees one, so they put a bomb on a flare and before you can say "Taco Bell," Varan is dead from a really bad case of gas.

The special effects aren't much of an improvement over Godzilla, let alone Rodan. There is no human interest in the story, unless discussions about artillery interest you greatly. Varan is a neat design, though he looks pretty skinny when he stands up. Maybe that's to sell us a bit more on the 400-ton lizard gliding around. But the movie fails to interest, and that's why Varan only appeared in Destroy All Monsters after this.

Destroy All Monsters

Destroy All Monsters was probably the last great Godzilla movie. In the year 1999, all of the world's monsters have been imprisoned on one island. Aliens release the monsters and demand all governments surrender to them. Earth's scientists release the monsters from alien control, but the aliens retaliate by unleashing King Ghidorah. The climactic monster battle is the most ambitious kaiju scene ever filmed.