Son of Godzilla (1967)

Going into this movie I thought my first sentence of a review would involve the words---rock bottom. To my surprise, I'm not going to use those words. There were some things to like in this Godzilla movie aimed at a younger audience.

What I liked:
The humans were a more engaging group than usual. The scientists had long time Godzilla actor, Hirata Akihiko, there to help them. An intrepid reporter had parachuted onto the island where the scientists were running tests to try and attempt to control the weather (nothing scary about that!) and he found a young woman who has been marooned on the island since her archaeologist father had died there years ago. The humans ran into problems having little to do with the monsters on the island and it gave them added depth as they had to work together to survive and get along.

Several giant praying mantis lurked in the jungle were a threat to the scientists and sleeping under the ground was a giant spider waiting to go all Shelob on them. The fights involving the giant monsters were all pretty well done and interesting.

If watching with children- Godzilla and his newly hatched son (which raises a lot of questions in and of itself from the mythos) are very affectionate, not scary, so this movie would be appropriate. Instead of frightening, Godzilla comes across as cuddly. There are a lot of loving interactions as Godzilla teaches his son to use his powers and also protects him. Minya protects his papa, too. And for once, Tokyo or some other town is not annihilated. Kamacuras and Kumonga might be too much for small children or those with arachnophobia.

What I didn't like:

Minya's/Baby Godzilla's costume was about as ugly as they could make it and Papa G's didn't look much better this go around. Kamacuras and Kumonga were styled better. Big G has battled far greater enemies and shouldn't have struggled as much as he did with the giant island bugs. Maybe his poorly created face caused him to feel inferior and he fought down at their level.

The sound department couldn't decide what noises to give Minya so they used a puppy, cat, lamb, and even donkey on different occasions to try and make Minya sound cute and helpless. I struggle anytime Godzilla is anthropomorphized to this extent, though it’s certainly not as bad as in Godzilla vs Megalon.

Overall, by setting aside the fearsome, destructive original Godzilla and accepting this era's kinder, gentler anti-hero, I could enjoy this movie for what it was. The humans were more compelling than in most Godzilla movies which helped as well. The truly scariest part of this whole movie was the humans' hubris in thinking they were wise enough to control the weather and not create greater world-wide catastrophes.

Read More