Son Of Godzilla (1967)

Sometimes, quite often actually, I watch movies that are a lot of fun, but prove to be very difficult to consider reviewing. But part of the reason I watch many movies is to also review them. Son Of Godzilla is one of those movies. I had a blast with it. I'm not sure how much I have to say about it though. Let's give it a go anyway.

Written by the prolific Shin'ichi Sekizawa and less prolific Kazue Shiba (this is the second of only two screenplays that they worked on), what you have here is a kaiju movie that feels even more aimed at children as the last one I recently watched. Some may view that as a bad thing, but it depends on what kind of Godzilla movie you want on any given day. I enjoyed this, and I am glad that I am finally discovering it now, along with the many other kaiju movies I am finally catching up with.

The story concerns a team of scientists who are busy doing weather-related science stuff on an island. Of course, that's not all that happens on the island. There's a mysterious woman (played by Bibari Maeda) living in the jungle, some large praying mantises, a large egg set to hatch a baby Godzilla, and some kind of giant spider that should be avoided. All of these elements come together as a reporter (played by Akira Kubo) finds himself in the middle of a bigger story than anything he could have imagined. Oh, and Godzilla is due to turn up, of course.

Director Jun Fukuda returns to this long-running movie series with an instalment that clearly revels in the variety of creatures and adventures available. The script may be silly, but it's also undeniably fun, and often feels more like a Jules Verne adventure than a Godzilla movie for most of the runtime. I understand why that may displease some, but I loved it.

Both Maeda and Kubo are decent human players in the middle of the madness, and joined by some familiar faces (including Tadao Takashima, Akihiko Hirata,  and Yoshio Tsuchiya), and they react convincingly enough to the parade of wonderful creatures who end up on the island alongside them.

The style here is cute, as opposed to anything approaching fearsome or realism, and I can't say that I mind cute being the aim when a story involves both giant praying mantises and a giant spider. While it's all safe and clearly fake, it's also still easy to appreciate as something put together by people working hard to put a variety of practical effects onscreen in a way that captivates and entertains younger viewers. Very young viewers might still get a bit scared by a couple of scenes, but most should be just fine, and there's no maximum age limit on enjoying this kind of thing, thankfully.

6/10

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