Gamera vs. Barugon1966

64/100 In the late 60s, a new genre of Kaiju movie opened up, where the monster stuff was merely an added bonus upon a thrilling spy movie. Gamera vs. Barugon is one of these movies, and it...kind of delivers? The plot is pretty good, but I would've liked more Gamera (as Kaiju fans all over the world have repeated for multiple of these movies). The special effects are also the best of Showa Gamera, which of course means its poor and ineffectual. Gamera himself is in this movie for a grand total of three scenes, and while its very fun when he shows up, the majority of the film is dedicated to Barugon, one of my favourite Gamera foes. He's a chameleon monster, which makes it very clever that he shoots a rainbow beam, and his other powers are just as delightfully weird, with him shooting a freezing beam and using his extendable tongue as a boxing glove. However, the main highlight are the humans of this movie. While its a pretty mediocre Kaiju movie, this is a great jungle adventure movie. All the characters are really great here, and the lack of kids is appreciated. Keisuke works nice with an arc about learning about his greed, and acts great in the scenes where his friend dies to a scorpion, or where he learns of his brother's death. The rest of the cast are varying degrees of good, but the star of the show is the villain Onodera. He's nothing complex, but the film really makes you hate this uncaring monster, who only wants money. In a way, he is basically a human version of Barugon, as they both greedily chase after a diamond with no regard for anything else. Overall, this movie averages out to be a pretty good standard for Gamera movies, going forward. Its nothing too spectacular, but its a nice, simple movie.