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The most successful
Godzilla outing of all time, in terms of revenue,
Godzilla vs. Mothra is actually a rather
forgettable entry in the long running series.
The story itself is a rehash of previous films,
the characters and acting are sub par, the Mothra
and Godzilla characters aren't handled nearly
as well as they should have been, and the special
effects are adequate at best. However, despite
its flaws, the film is a tolerable entry in the
Godzilla series that at least can boast decent
pacing and features any amazing score by maestro
Akira
Ifukube.
To give a brief summary of the
plot, one could simply call it a crewed remake
of Mothra
(1961) with Godzilla and Battra thrown into the
mix. To sum up the story: a meteorite collides
into the Earth, which sets off a chain reaction
that unearths Mothra's egg on Infant Island and
wakes Battra out of his artic confinement. An
expedition is quickly dispatched to Infant Island
to assess the damage. While there, the expedition
stumbles upon Mothra's egg and two tiny Cosmos,
an ancient society that once ruled over Earth.
The Cosmos expose their follies, how their scientists
had constructed a weather changing device which
angered the Earth and spawned the Black Mothra:
Battra. The Cosmos continue, explaining how Mothra
rushed to their aid and defeated Battra; however,
the machines were destroyed in the confrontation,
causing massive floods that only allowed a few
Cosmos to survive. The expedition then wonders
if humanity's progress might be upsetting the
Earth, as the Cosmos then reveal that Battra has
likely already awoken. Shortly after, Battra is
sighted nearing Japan, as the expedition decides
to ferry Mothra's egg back with them. Battra makes
a quick stop in Japan itself, causing widespread
damage, before the beast retreats back underground.
Meanwhile, Mothra's egg is assaulted by the freshly
awoken Godzilla, who briefly battles Mothra and
later Battra, as both the King of the Monsters
and the Black Mothra become trapped in an undersea
volcano. Mothra returns to Infant Island, and
the expedition returns home.
Kenji Andoh, the man in charge
of the expedition, refuses to come back empty
handed, however, and kidnaps the two Cosmos. The
Cosmos quickly pray to Mothra for help, who makes
her long descent toward Japan. Meanwhile, Takuya
Fujita, another member of the expedition, steals
back the Cosmos. However, Takuya, instead of help
return them, attempts to sell the two in order
to make a tidy profit. The plan doesn't pan out,
as Mothra arrives outside of the hotel where Takuya
is staying and the Cosmos are released so they
can assure Mothra that everything is fine. The
Self Defense Force, unaware of this new development,
opens fire on Mothra. They are quickly told to
halt their actions, but it's too late. Mothra,
slightly injured, goes to the country's capital
and builds a cocoon. Meanwhile, Godzilla emerges
from his volcanic confinement near Mount Fuji,
as Mothra emerges from her cocoon and Battra emerges
from the sea. The three monsters all descend on
Japan at once, with Battra and Mothra eventually
setting aside their differences to fight off Godzilla.
While the climax differs greatly
from its 1960's predecessors, the overlying story
is mostly a reiteration of Mothra
(1961), excluding the very weakly explored environmental
subplot and the expanded kaiju "roster." This
film doesn't borrow exclusively from the 1961
film, though. The introduction to Godzilla
vs. Mothra's lead character, Takuya Fujita
played by Tetsuya Bessho, sets up a scene obviously
made to imitate Raider of the Lost Ark's
brilliant opening sequence. This is complete with
the lead escaping only to find himself surrounded
at "weapon's point" (spears in the Raiders
of the Lost Ark, guns in Godzilla vs. Mothra)
forcing him to forfeit the excavated artifact.
Unfortunately, Tetsuya Bessho is no Harrison Ford,
and the scene is poorly executed with bricks actually
falling onto the lead during the sequence. Another
event that was obviously culled from another film,
although this one is thankfully from Toho, is
the end of the climax. The finale, in which Godzilla
is dumped into the water by his adversaries, is
clearly just a rehash of the ending to Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991), and isn't any
more satisfying the second go around. Beyond the
obvious "inspirations" and borrowed
plot points, there isn't a whole lot to Godzilla
vs. Mothra's story. Furthermore, it would
have been nice had the environmental issue been
explored more, or just dropped altogether. As
is, it feels like an afterthought, and the correlation
between a meteor hitting Earth and humanity's
disrespect for nature seems like a stretch at
best.
As with most of the Heisei Godzilla
entries, a cast of well developed characters become
an issue here. One has to at least admire the
attempts at character development shown, though,
like the scene of the leads crowded around the
fire as a picture of Takuya Fujita's daughter
is discussed. Unfortunately, scenes like this
feel like they are cut short, before they can
actually dig very deep into the characters. The
relationship between the divorced parents is an
interesting angle, as at least it's exploring
a new type of character for a Godzilla film. The
"man out of his element" character, Kenji Andoh
played by Takehiro Murata, is a nice touch for
the exploration scenes on Infant Island, but like
a lot of the other aspects it feels only half
touched on. In regards to Miki Saegusa, played
by Megumi
Odaka, she ends up with her most unmemorable
role yet. The character feels entirely tacked
on, given almost nothing to do while her character
is left completely unexplored. She worked fine
as a minor character in Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989), but two films later
one would expect to learn a little more about
her. Her psychic powers aren't even mentioned
in this entry, something which will seem incredibly
odd to those unfamiliar with the character as
she tracks down the Cosmos with her telepathy.
As for the acting, it wouldn't
be right to say that it was poor, but then the
movie features no memorable performances either.
It certainly pales when compared to its 1964 predecessor,
Mothra
vs. Godzilla. Overall, the acting is sub
par. It does its job, but doesn't add anything
to the film and there are a couple of cringe worthy
moments, although thankfully they are often brief.
One example includes Tetsuya Bessho wailing after
Misako when she leaves him in jail, where the
editor should have used some foresight and cut
early. As always, the English speaking actors,
and Tetsuya when he speaks English as well, are
handled abysmally in this film. These segments
are rare, confined to the introduction with the
meteorite and the bartering for the Cosmos, but
they are awful enough to be a distraction for
anyone fluent in English.
Looking past the human roles, Godzilla
vs. Mothra's other characters don't fare much
better. The film is probably most infamous in
this regard for its portrayal of Mothra. The spirit
of Mothra, in arguably her best role: Mothra
vs. Godzilla (1964), was one of determination
against impossible odds. The Mothra in the 1992
film, however, has been given a huge boost in
power. She now boasts both antenna beams and the
ability to shoot lightning from her wings, as
her scales reflect energy attacks. Granted, Godzilla
is still the most powerful monster in the film,
but the gap has certainly shrunk between the two
combatants. Also in this regard, Godzilla is no
longer the clear antagonist in the film. There
is no emphasis placed on his threat, like there
was in the 1964 film, as the monster simply shows
up on cue to battle the Mothra Larva and again
for the climax. This was likely done to keep one
guessing if Godzilla or Battra will be the film's
true villain, but the overall product suffers
for it. Also, the sound effect used for Godzilla's
ray is noticeably weaker this go around, losing
the pitch in frequency and making the ray sound
"cleaner." Not nearly as imposing as it did in
Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991). It may be a
small detail, but considering the fact that it's
used so much in the film it does become an issue.
Beyond the monsters, Mothra's trademark fairies,
dubbed the Cosmos this time around, resurface
after being absent from the big screen since the
closure of Ebirah,
Horror of the Deep (1966). The Cosmos
do their job well, quickly explaining Mothra and
Battra's back story in the film. Although it would
have been even better had their explanation been
accompanied by some flashbacks, but given the
limited budget I suppose that's too much to ask.
As with just about every entry
in the Godzilla series, the special effect work
here tends to be uneven. Sadly, Godzilla vs.
Mothra is one of those films that tend to
do more wrong than right. Some effects do work
well here, such as Battra's transformation, while
many more segments, like Mothra's legs while lifting
Godzilla, fail to impress. Also, the Battra and
Mothra Imago props look rather stiff and completely
unconvincing. Godzilla vs. Mothra is also
the film which "pioneered" the astonishingly slow
wing movement when the creatures are in flight.
Granted, all of the shots with Mothra/Battra and
Godzilla in them had to be slowed down for Godzilla
to look right; however, special effects director
Koichi Kawakita should have compensated for this
by making the wings on both Mothra and Battra
move faster so that they looked at least credible
when slowed down. Despite the inadequacies of
the flying props, both the Godzilla suit and the
Battra Larva suit look nice, even if the Godzilla
suit doesn't look as spectacular as it did in
the previous two films.
On a more positive note, the pacing
in Godzilla vs. Mothra is actually handled
well until near the end. The film has a strong
start, introducing the principal characters before
sending them off on an expedition to Infant Island.
The entire Infant Island segment is well done
too. The location shooting works wonders here,
as Ifukube's Infant Island theme gives a great
nostalgic feeling. The sequence is padded, nicely,
with the three preliminary characters' quirks,
while a bridge action scene is done as to not
lose anyone's attention. The film continues at
this nice pace, quickly exploring the back story
of Mothra and Battra with the Cosmos, before inter-splicing
some attacks with Battra as the story continues
to develop. The film then reaches the halfway
marker with Godzilla, Mothra, and Battra battling
in the water. The two antagonist monsters disappear,
as the Cosmos are kidnapped so Mothra can have
her own city destruction sequence. Mothra then
emerges from her cocoon, in a sequence which seems
to drag on, despite numerous inter-cuts with reactions
from onlookers, and the film continues to go down
hill from here, sadly. The pacing is further marred
by the film's lackluster climax. It's not nearly
as exciting as the earlier confrontation, due
to the lack of performance permitted by the Mothra
and Battra flying props, and goes on for far too
long. Despite the poor closure for the film, the
rest of the pacing is still handled relatively
well.
Without a doubt, Godzilla vs.
Mothra's strongest aspect is Ifukube's wonderful
score. Where as his work for the previous year's
Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991) featured only
updated themes, Ifukube does himself one better
here with a nice balance of new cues while still
including updates to some of the composer's classic
music. Some of Ifukube's better work on the film
includes Battra's theme along with an update of
the Self Defense Force March, from The
War of the Gargantuas (1966). As with
just about any film featuring Mothra, the movie
also features a great deal of vocal work. While
most of the songs here are simply culled from
Mothra
vs. Godzilla (1964), they still work well
in this film. In particular is the song done for
Mothra's decent into Akasaka, which occurs near
the middle of the movie.
In conclusion, with a lack of truly
memorable moments and a story that feels like
a crewed rehashing of previous Toho films, Godzilla
vs. Mothra is one of the more forgettable
films in the Godzilla series. Despite the film's
own shortcomings, though, it's still easy to see
why the film ended up being a huge success. With
a re-release of the 1964 classic Mothra
vs. Godzilla in 1980 doing banner business,
it attracted more of an audience than Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah during its theatrical
run, it seems that simply any film with Toho's
two best known characters would have been a success.
In fact, the immense hit of Godzilla vs. Mothra
prompted Toho to reuse the character often to
try and repeat the film's success, with Mothra
appearing in seven more films in the 12 years
that followed.
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(2.5/5)