Varan the Unbelievable on AllMovie

Director Jerry A. Baerwitz created this uninspired, problematical monster story by using footage from a similar but different Japanese monster flic by Inoshira Honda (he who started off Godzilla and followed up with Rodan, Mothra, Monster Zero and more). Viewer opinion overwhelmingly sides with Honda's film. In this story, the Japanese and U.S. military are working together in the Pacific on a Japanese island with a salt water lake, trying out an experiment to desalinate the water. Their desalination technique wakes up a prehistoric monster, Baran, from the longest nap on record. Understandably piqued, the monster sets off to trample down Tokyo in revenge. Some audiences may feel that Baerwitz' treatment of the Japanese in this film should have set the monster against Hollywood.