Son of Godzilla

Starring: Tadao Takashima, Akira Kubo, Beverly Maeda, Akihiko Hirata
Directed by: Jun Fukuda
Rating: G
Genre: Science Fiction, Foreign
1967

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of scientists on a deserted island fight to perform an important experiment, but have to fend off giant Praying Mantises and Godzilla, who arrives to protect his newborn son.

Review:

Tim: I've said this before, but it is more apparent here. Any time you anthropomorphize Godzilla, this is a bad thing. Unfortunately, this film does just that, giving him way too many human qualities. Godzilla and his son (it feels so strange writing that) act not like a lizard and their offspring, but a human and their child. This is hard to swallow. We have Godzilla educating his son, napping with him, and playing with him. This movie made me really miss the original Gojira, with Godzilla in all his infamous terrorizing glory.

While I would much rather have a destructive, evil Godzilla, I can't help where the franchise decided to go. So, I'll do my best to buy into this shift in tone for the franchise. I can say that there are some positives to this film. I always like when Godzilla faces new enemies, and we have a number of those here. We have giant praying mantises and a giant spider. These are both new monsters, and genuinely fun to see.

Kamacuras is the giant praying mantis, and I have to admit that it looks pretty effective. It is a bit chilling to see a 160 foot tall praying mantis. Kamacuras is cool because Godzilla faces not one, but four of these praying mantises. This results in some pretty cool fight scenes. I also really enjoyed Kumonga, the giant spider. Kumonga is able to spit a sticky webbing from its mouth, which is very similar to whatever Mothra would shoot at its enemies. I actually think this is fun, and I enjoy seeing rival monsters covered in the webbing. Like Kamacuras, Kumonga looks somewhat realistic and impressive. These two monsters are fun to watch. Unfortunately, they make Godzilla and his son look stupid and silly in comparison.

The film's story works well enough. For the second straight film, events take place on an isolated island. I'd like to think this was done for some important reason, but I'm sure it's just because it is cheaper to film here, rather than trying to recreate Tokyo in miniature. The scientists and their experiment is a bit far-fetched (and I didn't understand how freezing the island would help generate more crops in the world, but ok), but I was able to play along with it. The humans weren't great, but their stories were interesting enough to keep me engaged. As time wore on, the humans grew on me more and more.

I would have liked this movie more, but the scenes between Godzilla and his son are just too absurd. I didn't care for these much at all. Minilla, or whatever the son was called here, mostly crawls or stumbles along, making annoying sounds and acting like a spoiled human child. These scenes drag the movie down. I really didn't care for this aspect of the film. It's these moments that detract from the film's effectiveness.

Son of Godzilla does many things right, but just not enough. The strengths of the film are overshadowed by the pure silliness of the entire thing. I don't believe this is a terrible movie, because the intentions were right, and the movie has fun with itself. However, we deserve better than this.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster