Underrated Kaiju spotlight: Baragon

     Whenever fans talk of Kaiju there are a few that everyone knows. Godzilla, King Kong and Ghidorah to name a few. There are other Kaiju that exist in and beyond the reach of TOHO Studios. Many Kaiju that are mentioned from time to time, but ultimately overlooked. I would like to shine the spotlight on a few of these Kaiju from time to time. I want to talk about Kaiju that are awesome and deserving of much more recognition than they get. The perfect starter for this kind of thing would have to be the underground wonder himself, Baragon. Now I don't want to go into an extensive filmography for several reasons. Baragon being in only few movies and games is forefront to those reasons, though. I simply wish to talk about how I was exposed to this monster, spotlight some cool things he has done/is capable of, and share why I just think the monster is awesome and why more people should check him out. So let's get right to it.
     Unlike most other Kaiju fans I was not exposed to Baragon in the normal way. Growing up in the 90's I had a collection of Godzilla and other monster movies. Based on covers of some of those movies I knew that monsters existed that I don't see often (Baragon, Varan, etc). In my youth, I was much more ignorant and only really focused on the big G. Through my obsession I got most of the Godzilla games for various consoles. Godzilla: Save The Earth was my first big exposure to Baragon. When I unlocked him I didn't know what he was, only that he looked pretty cool. To this day he is my favorite monster to fight as in that game, with Jet Jaguar coming as a close second. I was exposed to a very cool Kaiju. Not long after that, I saw GMK for the first time and loved it. Though it was brief, I got to see a cool new Kaiju show his stuff.
     For the years to come I had a growing fascination with monster. Kaiju like Baragon caught my eye simply with how powerful they could actually be. In the few movies Baragon has been in, he has shown some pretty terrifying skills. Baragon has a seldom-used breath attack where he shoots, what appears to be, red hot lightning. In Godzilla: Save The Earth, even, Baragon has another breath attack where he essentially barfs burning magma like a garden hose. Yes, it is as funny and terrifying as it sounds. This big bad Kaiju can even travel into and out of the underground as if he were swimming and while moving through the earth he carries the force of an earthquake. By simply movie, Baragon can shake and shatter the earth more than many other Kaiju have shown to be able to do. To me, the most endearing quality and greatest power of this guy is one thing. Baragon has Tenacity for days. Baragon will always rise to meet a challenge and will keep going even after taking hits from insanely strong Kaiju like Godzilla.
     Despite such terrifying presence and persistent arsenal, Baragon does not have the best track record when fighting other Kaiju. Most Kaiju fans know and accept that Baragon is not among the strongest monsters and will likely lose most monster battles. That won't stop the bugger from trying though. That persistence of his honestly does inspire me to go after new things even if there is a chance of failure. Baragon is a tough Kaiju that holds his head up high knowing that he has faced every challenge thrown his way. That stalwart pride never wavering, even for a loss. Baragon will never go down easy and he knows it. Even if that bugger goes down he will do his best to make his foe WORK for it.
     Even with his prominent tenacity there is one more distinct advantage that Baragon has that many monsters do not. Baragon has one of the simplest designs, yet is so easily recognizable. I have said before when talking about other things, but simplicity tends to be best. The easier it is to understand or conceive something, the more fun you can have with other aspects of the medium and creation. While Tokusatsu does have  a reputation for re-using monster designs and suits, anybody can see the back plates and immediately attribute them to the watchdog that is Baragon.
     Truthfully that is the best way to describe Baragon. He is a giant Kaiju watchdog that will remain steadfast through it all. I dare say, this Kaiju is even adorable. Nobody can convince me otherwise, fight me. Keep geeking out my fellow Kaijuphiles. In the future I will gladly shine a light on some other Kaiju that deserve it. Kaiju Kidd signing off!

The Meg mini review and impressions

     As a monster movie fan I have a particular fascination with shark movies. The fact that of all the "killer animal" movies that exist, sharks get their own sub-genre is rather cool. They are absolutely some of the most terrifying and interesting creatures in the world so it is easy to understand why that is. With so many shark movies it is a shame that most of them are...less than good. Jaws set a bar for quality that may not ever be truly met. Many recent filmmakers decided to use this as an excuse to make bad movies for the sake of making bad movies (though that is a topic for another  day) After monster movies were considered a joke for so many years it filled me with so much joy to see two shark movies in recent years rise up as, not just good shark/monster movies, but just good movies. The first was The Shallows(2016) and the other was this years surprise hit, The Meg.
     I will say outright that I was not expecting anything from this movie. I know that, by nature, monster movies will always have this level of camp that is just so hard to overcome. worst part is, the bigger the creature, the bigger the hurdle to overcome. So a giant shark was naturally cheesy that all I wanted out of this movie was some good campy fun. The movie caught me off-guard right away with how serious it takes itself and how serious and rational the characters are in just about every situation. Before I get ahead of myself, I should talk about the basic plot. Without getting into too many spoilers, a new exploration and research station was built to map and catalogue an uncharted region of the ocean. The initial tracking sub goes down and everything is going as well as it could be. Theories were right and a whole new ecosystem hiding in the depths is discovered. Something goes wrong when something is attracted to the light of the sub and attacks it causing the it to wreck. With few places to go, the crew looks to a former crew-mate to help retrieve the sub and save the crew.
     Upon rescuing the crew it is discovered that megalodon has survived in this sealed biome and is aggressively drawn to the light sources around that depth. The crew escapes but during the escape a thermal vent opens up part of the "ceiling" separating the warm water with the megalodon and the normal cold water at the depths (it also probably didn't help that the explorers showed the shark that the ceiling was not in fact solid). The shark is then free and the rest of the movie is a chase to stop the shark before it causes any real trouble. I have said it before, but simple focused plots are the best and this movie hardly ever loses focus.
     While the plot grabbed me well enough, what really surprised me was the characters. With the exception of one questionable action by Morris towards the end, The characters acted fairly rationally given the weird circumstances and nature of the movie. This is one of those few movies I can say I didn't truly hate any of the human characters. In a sci-fi shark movie, that is quite an accomplishment, at least to me. For honestly dumb reason's my favorite character is the Wall. I know how that sounds if you haven't seen the movie but, trust me it's a person and not architecture. Heck even the child actor was fine. Her performance wasn't spectacular but the movie had the foresight to take her out of shots before she may have started to become annoying. On the whole it felt like not no character was wasted.
     I suppose the last thing to address is the shark itself. Of course, the shark is entirely CG so if you are against CG animation don't expect anything else. That being said, the CG is really well done. Design was easy, it's a shark. The creator's were able to focus on making that shark look as decent as possible. The behavior of the beast is extraordinarily believable and well thought out. The Megalodon is drawn to vibrations and light sources to hunt. Considering most of it's life was spent hunting fish and squid that use bio-luminescence it makes total sense for it to have the same if not greater light sensitivity to some other sharks.

     Despite how much praise I give this movie, I can say that it is not perfect. Most of the elements that I described while good, are not exceptional. Also, as I stated early on, there is this general cheesiness and campy atmosphere that comes with these movies that is very hard to escape. The beach scene in this movie does kind of derail it back to Syfy original movie territory. Even with that, the movie moves at a brisk pace, has decent characters and decent effects. I honestly recommend this movie to just about everyone. I can't say this is movie of the year, but has definitely earned some recognition. Go see The Meg and have yourself a good time.