Godzilla vs. Mothra

I loved this one. The battle in the sea was a bit distracting as it genuinly looked as if it was filmed in a pool, which it basically is. But other than that, brilliant.

Another bas special effect monster that fights Godzilla. For fans.

The two tiny women return for what is essentially Godzilla vs Battra, but Mothra is too popular so they include her too.

The Godzilla films of the Heisei era apparently jumped through various sub-genres. Accordingly, "Godzilla vs. Mothra" is a family-friendly adventure film with fantasy elements and quite a few "tributes" to "Indiana Jones." However, I prefer the more serious parts of the franchise. Furthermore, I don't particularly like Mothra and her two fairies. At least the movie follows a somewhat more distinct plot line this time, with Godzilla playing more of a supporting role. The whole thing didn't appeal to me, though. But it's also not one of the franchise's worst installments.

The climax, really the entire third act, is pretty good. Other than that it's pretty middling. One of the weaker Heisei big G flicks.

Compared to the original Mothra vs Godzilla, it is bad. As it's own within the Heisei series, I'd say it's about on par with Godzilla vs Biollante.

The message is too obvious, even more so than the original. And, geez the overacting here is terrible. Not even good in the campy sense. It's just bad.

Battra is an okay implementation into the series but didn't show enough of him being destructive... at all. Mothra killed more than Battra. This is just one example of how this movie lacks general common sense in some areas.

The only credit I give to this movie is that some shots in this movie are just great. Most artistic camera work I've seen in the Godzilla films so far in some scenes. They are mainly to enhance the sub-plot of the family in this film. Which is cute, but adds nothing to the film when they are not drawing a connection to anything else.

The message of the story is, be good to the Earth so it doesn't send a giant bat to fly around angry and do basically nothing.
It's so infuriating, Godzilla was already the prime example of what our mistakes have done as I have said many times before. Why do we need another? Hedorah was good for the fact that they were born from pollution, which the everyday person contributes to way more than the military complex. If the point of Battra was for this, they missed the mark. Battra does not pose a threat compared to Godzilla.

Coming off the back of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, this was a big letdown.

**4/10**

Not fantastic. It barely held my attention.

Having vanished for more than twenty years, Mothra returns to the Godzilla franchise in this soft character reboot / retooling. Along the way, we're introduced to her sworn nemesis: a spiny, red-eyed counterpart named Battra whose appearance and life cycle closely mirrors her own. As we're told, by way of several human adventure scenes stolen shamelessly from the Indiana Jones movies, these two have clashed, retired and returned multiple times over the length of recorded history. Now Godzilla's in the mix and meteors are falling and, having learned nothing from the fate of past evil corporations, a particularly naughty business has kidnapped Mothra's tiny, singing twin handlers for use in some sort of ill-defined publicity campaign.

Seems like the amount of fiery carnage and radioactive laser beams has increased from the previous standard (if anything, the kaiju brawls are a little too numerous) and, while the accompanying effects work remains a touch clunky and obvious, that's at least on an upward-trending curve. Environmental righteousness was all the rage in the early 90s, so we get a bit of guileless Captain Planet morality sprinkled in with the proceedings, just in case anyone was in the mood for a lecture. That message somehow resolves into a moth sprinkling golden dust through outer space, though, so (naturally) take it all with a grain of salt.

Neither the best nor the worst chapter in the series, it's serviceable if a hair over-long. Mothra's bright coloration is a nice counterpoint to the murky browns and greys that usually flood the screen during these rubber-suit dustups.

I may have asked this question before but...Why am I doing this to myself!?!? Do I really need to watch all of the Godzilla movies? In production order no less? Oh, how I long to watch the original film again.

Godzilla movies are so similar to each other I can't keep any of them separate in my mind anymore. This movie is the middle entry from 'Heisei' series of Godzilla movies and returns us to the magical world of Mothra. The egg, the tiny fairy twins, the magical life-giving glitter or whatever it is supposed to be. Because this one stars Mothra, you get the whole "Save the Earth" theme practically hammered into your melon. Heavy-handed doesn't even begin to describe this. Guess what? An evil corporation is destroying the Earth. Ever heard that one before?!? You have to wonder...Just how can movie makers, be they American, Japanese, or whatever, not get tired of constantly blathering on and on about companies being bad.

This movie was made 20 years ago and it's the same thing I see today in movies and it's the same thing I watched 40 years ago (I wish I could forget 'Silent Running'). I like the Earth as much as the next guy. I live here, too. But the Earth will be here long after all of us wasteful, evil humans are gone. You see, what "Save the Earthers" are really about is saving their own hides. Their actually worried about something uncomfortable happening to them while they're still walking the planet.

Anyway, getting off of the soapbox, I thought the special effects even took a big step backwards here. Mothra's fuzzier, Godzilla is stiffer, and the buildings are "cardboard-boxier" than other entries in the 'Heisei' run of G-films. At least Godzilla is a bad guy in this.