G: minus 24 days

Gojirathon is me just writing up some thoughts about the movies I see while I conduct my little marathon of Godzilla-movies in anticipation of the new Hollywood retooling. Why Gojirathon and not Godzillathon? Well, because Rolfe already did his Godzillathon as part of his Monster Madness, and I don’t want to steal his work. I’ll be using the terms, G, Big G, Godzilla and Gojira somewhat interchangeably… since I can be a bit lazy at times, when it comes to these things.

Son of Godzilla (1967)

Oh, dear lordie. This series is really taking a dive with this one. Yet another time there’s some guy that gets on an island. This one is yet another island. I can’t really remember the name since the subtitles didn’t match the name that was on the map and the characters kept calling it some third name. Suffice it to say. It’s another one inhabited by giant monsters.

Here we follow some humans that try to create a way to control the weather, though not as a super-villain weapon mind you. But for battling world hunger. I might have to forgive the naive way of regarding weather to be something one can manipulate at will without catastrophic global consequences since environmentalism and global warming wasn’t really a thing, I guess for the general public at the time. But really. They see no danger in using this technology even in the right hands?

And we’re also introduced to some newcomers among the monsters. First there’s a giant Praying Mantis that is roaming the jungle. After the first experiment these creatures grow to become Gimantis (using the spelling from the subtitles provided). These promptly find a giant egg in a mound of rock. Crack it open and who is there but not Minya. Or Minira. The supposed “son” of Godzilla. This is kind of strange as Godzilla is always referred to in masculine terms, and apart from the one that was eaten away by the Oxygen Destroyer ™ we haven’t seen any other of the Gojirasaurus species alive. So for all I know the paternity here is kind of dubious. Anyways, Godzilla himself shows up and for some reason decides to raise the runt as his own. Then there’s some fights with Spiga, a giant spider. And I guess director Ryuhei Kitamura was a fan of this one since all three are represented in his own love-letter to the era in Gojira: Final Wars.

Hey, Godzilla. Remember cities? Remember your penchant for destruction of pagodas? Remember armies trying pathetically to thwart your onslaught? I mean. I wouldn’t exactly like it if they were all about stomping cities. But we’ve done the Monster Island story far too long now. Let’s get back to some metropolitan destruction.

And another thing. They are really slumping when it comes to the miniature photography at times. The joins in the sky-backdrop clearly visible many times even on this sub-HD version I’m watching. Heck, they even left in a shot where the camera clearly pans up showing areas over the backdrops. Wires holding limbs up clearly visible. I’m not the kind of guy that would readily say that wires showing is bad in all cases. I forgave it in Monster Zero because of the outrageous plot for example. But here it just felt like the filmmakers just didn’t really care enough. Things are starting to become rather run of the mill now. And I hope they shake things up in the next one, Destroy All Monsters (1968). Supposedly one of the main inspirations for Kitamuras take on Final Wars. Or am I thinking of All Monsters Attack (1969)? I don’t know. All I do know is that I’d be so glad if I didn’t have to see Minya throw a temper tantrum again. He’s not cute. He’s… I don’t know what he is. But cute isn’t the word I would describe it…

Be Seeing You!