La Planète des monstres

On an island in the Pacific, a team of scientists under the direction of Professor Kusumi (Tadao Takashima) is working to perfect a weather control system while dealing with giant praying mantises and the arrival of reporter Maki Goro (Akira Kubo). When then the test of the weather system malfunctions due to interference from somewhere on the island a radioactive storm is unleashed that decimates the team's equipment and communications leaving them to deal with the further enlarged mantises (dubbed Gigantises) who unearth an egg containing a baby Godzilla that whose cries are summoning its father.

Son of Godzilla is the eighth film in the Godzilla series and the second to be directed by Jun Fukuda as the original team of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsubaraya were assigned to the Rankin-Bass co-production of King Kong Escapes following a previous attempt going awry which lead to Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. Per the direction of Toho, Son of Godzilla like Ebirah also saw itself set on an island location as a cost saving measure and were also directed to make a movie appealing to the date crowd with the idea that a "cute" baby Godzilla would appeal to women. In the years since its release it's gained a reputation as being one of the lesser films in the series as well as introducing the divisive character of Minilla and you can certainly see why in the end result.

In terms of the effects work the human structures look better than the ones like the Red Bamboo's fortress from Ebirah (most likely because they don't try to get too ambitious with it) and the effects work used to bring to life the Gigantises and Spiga the giant spider are nice looking in a way that almost reminded me of something like Them!. Godzilla's appearance isn't at the height of the Showa era as from certain angles his eyes maybe feel a bit too pronounced, but at least his characterization feels more consistent from Ebirah where he was shoehorned into a King Kong role. And then we have Baby Godzilla or as he'd come to be known Minilla. Charitably speaking Minilla could be described as a "love him or hate him" character in the series and he does have defenders but I'm not among them. While I'm not against the idea of Godzilla having offspring (I thought Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II handled that quite well), Minilla's design just doesn't look appealing and I think it comes from how they've tried to anthropomorphize it too much. Minilla's face is more sunken in compared to Godzilla and complete with a more stout and wobbly appearance it feels like they've made a hybrid of 40% of Godzilla's trait with the remaining bit seemingly modeled roughly on the appearance of a human one-year old or less baby and it does not work at all and just looks off. The movie also continues the trend of more anthropomorphic behavior with Minilla and Godzilla and coupled with the repetitive and often grating noises Minilla makes a lot of scenes that try to be cutesy just don't work. In terms of the monster fights Gigantis and Spiga don't pose much of a challenge to Godzilla and I felt they were good monsters for something like a "man vs. Monster" type story, but in a Godzilla movie they don't measure up.

As with the last few movies the humans aren't terribly interesting with the only real character coming from Maki Goror and Saeka played by Akira Kubo and Bibari Maeda respectively, but that's only by comparison most of the science team on the island is pretty interchangeable with not much sense of identity established to them.

Son of Godzilla is a series entry I don't typically revisit and for pretty good reasons. While some of the effects work on Spiga or Gigantis is commendable, many of the issues seen in Ebirah are carried over. Hardly the worst of the series, but also not reaching the level of "good".

Easy to laugh at it, but if you give yourself over to the experience you might feel some real emotion from this oddity. Godzilla is back and he's traveling to an island. On this island are a team of scientists, a reporter, a plan to stop world hunger, and giant insects. Godzilla's here to find his son. Like the previous effort, this is set on an island. Not my favorite setting for the city stomper, but this time it didn't detract from my enjoyment. Your enjoyment will all depend on how willing you are to see the ferocious monster as a dad. He's a reluctant father at first. A protector to his heir, but not all playful and loving. As the film progresses, he teachers his son the ways of atomic breath and even rubs him on the head to congratulate him. The film is aimed as a much younger audience, with Minilla being a constant source of slapstick humor. A tail in the face here, tumbling down there etc. The big insect monsters are pretty darn decent if unimaginative. The final scenes in the snow are really sweet, and as long as I'm still entertained, I'm willing to see a more human Godzilla.

Wow! I expected something along the lines of GODZILLA'S REVENGE, what I got instead was a pretty exciting giant monster film. Sure Minya does make for a few cutesy moments but I didn't feel these were overdone as badly as they could have been. Plus I thought the ending embrace was quite moving..of course it does work to take some of the hard edge off of Godzilla so some may hate it for that. I'd recommend this one mostly to older kids who love science fiction adventure stories and who won't be frightened by all the cool-looking giant insect critters. Too bad Minya and Godzilla look so thoroughly silly and goofy in comparison.

To look at the other reviews, one can see that many don't appreciate this film. It is understandable why someone may not like it. No one dies. No cities are destroyed. It has a hopeful ending. Baby Godzilla is overly cute and cuddly. The list can go on, but I feel that these attributes as well as the setting, the story about scientists on an island trying to change weather patterns, and the overgrown monsters of a spider and several praying mantis, along of course with Godzilla enhance the film and make it one of my favourites of the series. Not one of the best, however. Baby Godzilla is a real hoot to watch, and seeing Godzilla practice fatherly ways with him is fun to watch. We get to see a human side to a killing machine. Don't get me wrong, the film is hokey - but for me it brings back memories of my childhood when on many a summer day I would be camped in front of the television watching a Godzilla film.

Despite being enjoyable films, the last two Godzilla installments had not matched the success of Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964) and had fallen below expectations at the box office. In an effort to boost audience attendance, Toho Studios made the decision to soften the king of the monsters and give him a cute baby son. The first Godzilla film to be geared directly towards children, Son of Godzilla (1967) is harmless fun and sweet - the cinematic equivalent of a gum drop. Alas, the film proved to be the most poorly attended Godzilla film yet. Either Toho's kiddie approach had backfired or the film just couldn't compete with the rising popularity of television.

Son of Godzilla (1967) shouldn't be the first Godzilla movie you see, or even the second or third. With the Godzilla suit from Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965) torn and frayed, a new one was constructed. Unfortunately, it is one of the most poorly designed suits in the series - bulky legs, large doll-like eyes, and a toad's head. However, it is arguably better than the one audiences would behold six years later in Godzilla vs. Megalon. If you have small children and want to introduce them to kaiju films, I recommend Son of Godzilla.