Talkback Thread #19: Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

[HayesAJones]

I like it, but even I, with my admittedly low standards, admit it's pretty bad. Battra's cool though. A badass version of Mothra? Sign me up for that!

[Guardian7]

I watch this film quite a bit.
It does have some pretty tragic aspects about it though.

The human center of the movie is rather dull and could have been done a bit better. I personally found the banter to be annoying between the divorced Ex's (Wife and Husband) and found Takuya (Ex- husband) to be particularly galling of a character. I mean come on... he robs and basically steals, neglects his kid and snipers off one liners at his Ex because she is bitter that he is such a loser (Which he is - certainly he is not nearly as endearing of a character as bank robber Yoshi from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster). The character of Takuya did not redeem himself much as the film progressed. Yeah he did some things that were on the road to redemption for his past character flaws... but people just don't change that dramatically in my experience. A bit more could have been done with him to continue to show him as growing other than dressing nicer.

The Ex- wife Masako is caught up with dealing with her job and cretinous co-workers, A daughter that needs her (and one she is forced to lie to about her "loser" father) and dealing with the overbearing ex-husband Takuya who is really more full of himself then he has a reason to be. I think she tries her best to deal with the situations that occur throughout the film and frankly I am surprised her character remained as composed as she did Takuya. Plus I really found his treatment of Masako and the chuckles he got from the other men on the cast at her expense to be really bothersome. She was probably the most stable character of the lot. Only thing that might have made her performance better is if she had knocked Takuya on his ass (Especially after bailing on his own kid at the Airport - what a low down dirty dog thing to do to his own kid).

The Character of Kenji Andoh - the man in charge of the expedition. Was rather fun.
He was nerdy and certainly not an "outdoorsy" type and he played that all very well. Overcompensating for the trip to the island. You really can't fault the guy for doing his job... he did as he was told and even to the point of fighting for it (in the case of the "Releasing the Mothra Egg Scene"). Kenji is the one character that actually showed true growth of the entire cast of characters that appeared. He was all about the company that he represented and then did an about face when he knew what they were doing was wrong. Faced off against his boss for it and truely came off as a stronger character for it. I personally found him to be the best presented character of the series.

Miki Saegusa's character was a dismal shadow of her previous appearances. It was very disappointing that she didn't play a more central role (and should have gone to Infant Island). She was basically all stand and pose, not her most unmemorable role. How sad. PLUS they never really touched on her abilities except for sensing Godzilla (Which is truely the center of her character in these films).

Shobijin/Cosmos: Okay... I really do not like this particular take on the Twins from Infant Island. I miss the Native Islanders and I felt it really took away a lot from the Mothra Mythos to eradicate them from the HEISEI history.
The Cosmos are not the Shobijin in my eyes. So therefore I didn't much care for them. Yeah they were similar enough... but later films almost gave them this sense of being some residue of Mothra and not their own independent beings (just my take - most likely because I am not into them). They gave a standard "We are captives!" performance (which has been overdone at this point) and they could have actually had them free themselves for once (Which would have been great fun).

Most of the other human characters in the film are rather forgettable. So I am not going to bother with them.

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KAIJU:

Godzilla: Though his name is in the title he is as many have mentioned in this post, as being more of a bit player. Which is fine in my mind. Godzilla is established enough of a character that for him to take a bit of a backseat and still be strongly featured is not a bad thing. He had some great scenes and appeared in most of the fights (and was always the dominate one in this poster's view).
What more could have focusing on Godzilla have brought to this particular film. He is a rampaging monster and certainly filled that role (as he always has) quite nicely. Yeah there were some SFX goofs and some stuff that was "So-So"... but in all I felt his performance was pretty dead on for the type of creature he is.
The only thing I got out of the whole thing was a sense that Godzilla couldn't quite figure out what was going on. He seemed confused at times. It would have been nice if Miki had filled in a few gaps here as to why Godzilla was attracted to and pursuing the other Kaiju (and possibly how he knew they were there).
Other than that... I thought Godzilla did a fine job in this movie. He did bag and tag Battra and nearly did the same to Mothra. GO GODZILLA!

Mothra: Biggest Complaint? Very stiff looking. She was very vibrantly colored and though I prefer her as a craftier combatant (ala Tokyo S.O.S.), I thought the energy blasting was kind of fun (certainly a different take on her but no biggie - I like energy beams).
I REALLY love the scenes with Larva Mothra (My favorite form of this character) and the water scenes look pretty sweet in this.

Battra: First off I hate that Rodan's vocals were used for this character... BUT... What a kick ass looking monster Battra's Larva form was. I loved the huge unicorn (Megalon) head spike. I also thought the energy blasting from this creature was SWEET-AS-HELL!
The fact that Battra-Larva took on Godzilla is pretty damn impressive and frankly they didn't need to transform Battra to adult form in my opinion (Much the same was as I feel about Destroyah).
The morphing to the winged Battra was a great scene. Much fun and possibly the most spectacular FX scene of the film. Unfortunately Adult Battra suffered the same woes as Mothra and looked VERY stiff and more like a dinosaur-fly than anything like Mothra (Which I would have preferred personally).

Mothra vs Battra flight scene: This is probably one of my favorite scenes. It is cool when they are flying over the city and near the bridge and lancing one another with their powers. Very cool!

The end was not a predictable as I thought it was going to be (yeah it did mirror GvKG a bit)... but it was Mothra and Battra (both wounded) working together to defeat a destructive creature like Godzilla.
I loved it when Mothra dusted Godzilla and turned his power against him. VERY NICE! Looked awesome!

The very end was okay... I especially liked it when Mothra circled and did that ring of (whatever) energy around where Godzilla and Battra went down.

The humans returning the Cosmos to Mothra in the end was of course a total rip from Mothra (1962)... and everyone waving at the end was kinda boring (only cause the exact scene had been done previously).

Final Comment: Even at the very end of the film... Takuya's character (even all cleaned up wearing a suit) still failed to impress me or come off as remotely sincere. But maybe I am being too hard on him.

Cya
G7

[godzilla1996]

In my opinion, this film always seemed boring. We don't get much action. Hey, it's like a Kiryu film! Other than that, Mothra and Battra are not executed very well, and seem kinda stiff, but Battra is still cool. It's neat how Battra is a sort of "kill all humans..." However, he has good intentions. This brings us to Godzilla. The Big G seemed out of place. They Should Have gone through with Godzilla vs. Bagan, and put this movie in the ROM series. While Godzilla's suit looks nice, his beam is the worst in the series. It is more like a laser than an atomic blast. Still, it did become Godzilla's biggest money maker, and we have to give it props for that.

[Starfishman]

Even though it made a ton of money but this film is easily the most boring Godzilla film ever. Not much action and Mothra & Battra seemed lifeless plush toys rather than animals and Godzilla looks totally outta place and the dubbing for the US verseion is so bad. This is easily my least favorite Godzilla films ever

[Julia Bristow]

I see that G&M: BFE gets a ton of hate. Me, it's an alright film nothing special but let's come up with some positives for this film in if any of you have any.

My positives for this film:

A great Akira Ifukube score
Some of the effects looked great
Battra's Imago design IMO was very cool
I also loved the whole "Protect the Earth & its enviroment" message (though it gets a little heavy handed at times)

[Lord Gappa]

-The Ifkukube score
-Battra's character
-the Protecter/Save the earth theme/plot
-Special effects

[therealmccoy]

Everything everyone has said already, plus it was nice to see Akira Takarada in it, even though his performance was limited. He was always one of my favorite actors in these movies.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

The score.

That's about it.

I agree with this.

Other than the score, it's the worst Heisei film. Just watch either Mothra or Mothra vs. Godzilla instead, and you'll get more enjoyment out of those films.

[Legionmaster]

The score.

That's about it.

Which is half lifted from previous films anyway.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Fun Fact: Bob Eggleton considers this film to be one of the more watchable of the Heisei films.

...Who is Bob Eggleton? I've never heard of him.

[therealmccoy]

I agree with this.

Other than the score, it's the worst Heisei film. Just watch either Mothra or Mothra vs. Godzilla instead, and you'll get more enjoyment out of those films.

Hell, half of the movie was shit lifted from those two anyway, so you wouldn't be missing much; besides the overabundance of the "save the earth" theme.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

I agree with this.

Other than the score, it's the worst Heisei film. Just watch either Mothra or Mothra vs. Godzilla instead, and you'll get more enjoyment out of those films.

Hell, half of the movie was shit lifted from those two anyway, so you wouldn't be missing much; besides the overabundance of the "save the earth" theme.

If anyone wants a good "Save The Earth" themed daikaiju film, just watch Mothra or Godzilla vs. Hedorah. Problem solved.

As for everything on Bob Eggleton...coo'.

[TokyoVigilante]

- I actually prefer the modern (Heisei/Millennium) takes on the "Mahara Mothra" over the original Peanuts version. The score overall is pretty great.

- As Mini-Godzilla often points out, having a pair of characters who are divorced as protagonists is pretty original. So I'll give it positive points for having some pleasant characters.

- Battra Larva is my favorite (original) Heisei monster. He wrecks all kinds of shit in this movie. Movie gets props for having this monster around.

That's pretty much it, really.

[G-fan4life]

I think that this film is alright....
I don't see it as a Godzilla film really it feels more like a Mothra series Pilot to me (ish)

But I really enjoyed battra's design and abilities, and I get a good laugh at the cheesy Indiana Jones reference and feel of the beginning.

I found the divorcees refreshing in the beginning and then it was annoying and Cliche that they get back together again.

[therealmccoy]

Battra Larva is my favorite (original) Heisei monster. He wrecks all kinds of shit in this movie. Movie gets props for having this monster around.

One of the few good points of this movie. Battra's caterpillar form was badass. Godzilla couldn't even beat him. I always like seeing new monsters, and he was one that worked.

[TokyoVigilante]

Battra surprise body-slamming Godzilla to the ocean floor was one of the cooler moments in the entire film. Even as an awkward bobbing head prop, Battra still managed to come off as a total badass.

Not a fan of the Imago form, though.

[therealmccoy]

Also, the beams for Battra fit him well. They just looked out of place on Mothra. I liked the twist on her poison powder, but I could've done without the beams. It was just more fun watching her beat the shit out of Godzilla with her wings.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

If anyone wants a good "Save The Earth" themed daikaiju film, just watch Mothra or Godzilla vs. Hedorah. Problem solved.

What if you don't like Mothra or Hedorah? I actually like Mothra, but I don't own it. And I'm not too big on Hedorah.

Then don't go looking for a "Save The Earth" message in a diakaiju film.

[KaneLocke]

Um, positives, positives...

Battra Larva is one of the most aesthetically pleasing heisei kaiju. And, um... the Mothra songs are always fun. The score wasn't too terrible.

Besides that? I despise virtually every other aspect of the film.

[therealmccoy]

I thought the new version of the Mothra song sounded nice. I really liked the peanuts, but the two girls in this movie really did a fine job taking their place.