Up to this point, Godzilla movies had been moving closer to becoming children's fare. With "Son of Godzilla", the series is full-fledged kids' stuff. The storyline features a team of scientists working to control the weather for the benefit of mankind. Their testing is occurring on an island which just happens to be the destination of Godzilla, who is traveling there to meet up with his son Minella. While hatching from his egg, Minella is roughed up by some giant insects. Godzilla comes to the rescue and proceeds to train Minella in the fine arts of being a giant monster, that is when he's not sleeping or just lumbering around the island.

Let's get to the problems with this movie. Godzilla spends a lot of time roasting giant insects with his atomic breath. If you are looking for hand-to-hand monster combat or building-smashing chaos, you've come to the wrong movie. The Godzilla suit itself is the worst looking one of the series so far. The small, almost toothless jaws, the round head, and huge bulging eyes make this Godzilla suit nearly unsightly. Minella is ridiculous. He stumbles and flops around and sound at times like a donkey when he's not whimpering like an injured dog.

The giant insects, specifically the spider (Kumonga) are highlights. There is some sparse but neat miniature work also. The actors that portray the scientist, reporter and native girl are as serviceable as any other Godzilla flick, but the story is so un-engaging it doesn't matter.

==Please note: This review is for the original Japanese subbed version==

I am conflicted about this movie. On one hand, it's trash and I hated every second scene. On the other, it has an odd charm that I couldn't shake the entire time.

There is hardly a story, so I feel no need to even dive into that, as the script seems to not want to either. Same human plot as Ebirah, just the scientists are... good? Who knows anymore with these movies. What we do know, is that Manilla (Godzilla's son) looks as stupid as he sounds. Godzilla also has this terrible new face going on. This is probably the derpiest he has ever been.

As for foes in this movie, the giant mantises and spider are not threatening at first, but as the story continues and that charm I mentioned before starts to settle in more. I actually began to feel for Godzilla and his son a little bit. However, this is vastly overshadowed by the absence of one key detail; sanity.

It's total crap, yet I under the surface is a heartwarming story that just did not pan out the way they were hoping. Probably because they were way too kid-friendly about it instead of having the raising of a child revolve around the essence of what Godzilla is, a subject and result of human failings and mistakes. You can do a lot with that, but they were already too deep in this trap they have placed for themselves in regards to the audience.

**3/10**

>See my Godzilla ranked list: https://trakt.tv/users/corruptednoobie/lists/godzilla-films-ranked?sort=rank,asc