Friday, March 21, 2014

Son of Godzilla: Countdown to Godzilla's Return #8

This is a film that most fans seem to be split on. They either like it, or hate it. I'm going to check it out for myself.







This movie introduces the son of the King of the Monsters, otherwise known as Minya or Manilla, but they never named him in the movie itself. He looks so pathetically stupid, and nothing at all like his father. One reviewer, James Rolfe, said that he looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. I agree.

I don’t want to give too much away. I would suggest finding this one and watching it on your own.

The plot is about a handful of scientists on an island trying to make a weather controlling device. Lucky for them, the island is full of giant praying mantises. Of course, one of the steps in their first experiment involves radioactivity, and we all know what that means. Something goes wrong, and a 4 day long radioactive storm ensues. During those 4 days, the mantises grow about 70 ft taller, and start attacking a giant egg. It hatches, and out comes the baby Godzilla. He continues to get beaten by the bugs, but soon his dad arrives and fends them off.

Throughout the movie, Godzilla proves to be a tough parent. He just drags his kid around and tells him to shut up and live with it, threatens to hit him, and clobbers him with his tail. What a mean dad. But, in the end, our King shows his softer side that doesn’t come out too often. This is literally the happiest and most light hearted Godzilla film... the last one that was good, anyway. I was surprised that I liked this. It’s got its flaws, sure, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad Godzilla movie. I’ll just get my little nitpicks out of the way.

First of all, Godzilla’s kid is hideous. He has a total derp face going on, but still not as derpy looking as King Kong. Speaking of weird faces, Godzilla’s head looks more like a mutated frog. It kinda bugs me. And there are a lot of bugs in this movie, such as the praying mantises, also known as Kamakuras, along with Kumonga, a giant spider. Nothing too great about them, but both pose more of a threat than Ebirah and his stupid condor ever could.

It also focuses a lot on the humans, and that can be disappointing to some people. They’re not as annoying as the ones from the previous movie, but I could still care less if Kumonga ate one of them. I’m not even going into detail on the dubbing. It’s obvious what I’m going to say. I guess I should be used to it by the 8th movie.

As for the positives, I have to say that the kaiju look a lot bigger than in the last few

installments. Good angles, perspectives, properly scaled miniatures, and well done compositing effects do the trick. The suits are okay, but the puppets are awesome. With so many strings (which are visible at times but who cares?) I’m impressed at how good they moved. One more thing is the soundtrack. You can tell from the beginning that this isn’t going to be a serious, fate of the world Godzilla film, just by the music. It’s not too bad.

In conclusion, this is a fun movie to watch with kids, or if you’re by yourself. I would know because I am forever alone... Anyway, I enjoyed this one. If you find it anywhere, consider getting it. For someone like me, it’s worth it. Full of cute moments with ugly monsters.

FINAL RATING: 35 / 50
STORY: 3 / 5
ACTING: 3 / 5 

CHARACTERS: 3 / 5 
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 3 / 5 
COMEDY: 4 / 5 
SOUNDTRACK: 3 / 5 
TONE: 4 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 4 / 5 
REWATCH VALUE: 4 / 5 
OWNING VALUE: 4 / 5 

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