I knew that this wasn't going to be as good as Destroy All Monsters, I definitely knew that, but there was still a part of me hoping that it would be. Every kaiju movie viewing is a chance to discover a new favourite, whether darker or lighter in tone (and this is very much in the latter camp). I'm not going to "bury the lead" here though, this is certainly not as good as the movie I just watched last week, but I still had a lot of fun with it.
The story concerns a young boy named Ichiro (Tomonori Yazaki), who visits Monster Island in his dreams, witnessing some Godzilla battles and becoming friends with Minilla AKA Son Of Godzilla. Ichiro doesn't often have his parents at home, both are very busy workers, and he has a problem with bullies tormenting him. He might also have a problem when he explores an empty factory that is being used by a couple of bank robbers.
Although once again going down the route of recycling some footage from other movies in order to keep costs down, this is another feature from director Ishirô Honda and writer Shin'ichi Sekizawa. Although you cannot say that every film from this duo is a guaranteed winner, they did more for Big G and co. in this era than anyone else, whether presenting Godzilla as a dark and terrifying force of nature or, as became more common, a temperamental ally to humans whenever they were being threatened by other strange creatures.
Honda and Sekizawa know what people want, even if they have to fit the better stuff around a plot that gives younger viewers someone to more easily identify with. There are decent action moments here, mainly in the first act, but the film is also helped by the ongoing hardships affecting Ichiro, which often play out a lot better than the scenes that have him talking with Minilla in moments that feel like odd PSAs aimed at schoolchildren.
Yazaki is fine in the main role, and Sachio Sakai and Kazuo Suzuki do well enough as the bank robbers, but it's unsurprising to find that, yet again, this is all about the monsters. The human characters work better than some of the past assembled casts, benefiting from the fact that we don't need a large selection of scientists, military personnel, doctors, and so on, but nobody can ever be the main attraction when in a movie with Godzilla.
Despite it being a bit childish and silly, I still enjoyed this a lot. It's a playful fantasy for younger viewers, but delivers just enough kaiju action to placate those who may not enjoy the grounded content not set on Monster Island.
7/10
If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do
consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A
subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share
No comments:
Post a Comment