Kaijûtô no kessen: Gojira no musuko (1967) Directed by Jun Fukuda

What were they thinking? Let's introduce a baby Godzilla and hopefully it will appeal to young kids? In any case, this movie works out as a rather silly (yes, even more so than usual) and campy one.

Out of all of the Gojira movies that I have seen so far, this one definitely feels like the least 'Gojira like'. It's a different movie in style and tone and doesn't even seems to focus as much on the kaiju fights this time around. The movie as a whole feels too warm and happy, which doesn't sound like much of a complaint but it's actually something that turns this movie into a far too goofy and campy one for my taste.

A lot of this of course has to do with the introduction of Gojira's son in this movie. Instead of an exact copy of his father, he's one weak, stupid, annoying, ugly little guy, who for some reason also makes donkey noises (perhaps that answers the question of who's his mother?). He's mostly there to serve as comic relief and he even manages to turn Gojira into a bit of a softy. Of course it's cute and amusing to watch but it just isn't what a Gojira movie should all be about in my opinion. Perhaps I would have been fine with it if this movie wasn't a part of the Gojira series and Gojira himself got replaced by any other random giant creature.

But fact also remains that the movie just isn't the best made- or most interesting one either. Even though it's not a slow movie and there is plenty happening in it, I still felt bored while watching it, due to a lack of variety. The entire movie is set on one and the same tropical island and maybe really for the first time ever, the Gojira and human plot lines of the movie don't feel connected well enough. Gojira is just stomping around and trying to teach his son some new tricks, while occasionally fighting off a giant mantis or spider, while all of the humans on the other side of the island are constantly busy doing other things, such as experimenting and conducting research, all in regards to trying to find a way to control the weather. So where is the conflict? There really isn't any. Gojira and his son really aren't interfering too much with the researchers work and I also feel that this movie truly could have benefited from the presence of another strong and big creature, opposed to Gojira, such as Mothra or maybe King Kong again.

But that simply wasn't the direction this movie was going for. It was trying to be a more playful and family friendly movie. And really, I still might have been fine with that, as long as things were fun and entertaining enough to watch, which however just isn't always the case for this movie.

5/10

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