GODZILLA
Vs. MOTHRA
REVIEW DATE: 2/22/99
Godzilla vs. Mothra
is a bit of an anomaly. Usually with vintage monster movies, I have some trouble with the
monster but the acting and unbeleivability of the story line really get to me. With this
movie, the exact opposite is true, the acting is pretty darn good, the characters are
likeable, and (amazingly) believable. I say amazingly because the acting in these movies
is usually, shall we say, sub par. The monsters, though. . .
The plot of this, the 4th Godzilla movie, would begin the trend of what I call plot recycling. Almost every other Godzilla movie up until Godzilla's "death" in 1995 would simply be a variation on the following theme. To wit: A natural disaster (in this case a hurricane) awakens Godzilla who heads for Japan for reasons no screenwriter has ever truly explained. At some point another monster would show up that ether (a) wants to stop Godzilla, or (b) is even more of a threat then Godzilla. In this case, screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa (the same person who wrote King Kong vs. Godzilla) chose option "a".
What the above-mentioned hurricane also does is uncover a giant egg. Fishermen bring it ashore and sign it over to a big company called (believe it or not) Happy Enterprises. Happy Enterprises soon sets the egg up in a giant incubator, which is made of glass so everyone can come a see the worlds largest soon-to-be omelet. This is probably the smartest business idea anyone has ever had in a monster movie.
Things are complicated when two foot tall women who
talk (and sing) in unison show up, calming to be the heralds of the eggs true owner,
Mothra. They beg the owners of Happy Enterprises (*snicker*) to give them the egg, but,
being the capitalists pigs that they are, the owners only want to put the girls on
display, too. Disappointed, the fairies bid goodbye to our reporter characters (you just
knew reporters would have something to do with this didn't you?) and ride Mothra back to
their island.
Our reporters this time around consist of Top Dog reporter Sakai (Akira Takarada, who was in the original Godzilla) and his overly artistic camera girl, Junko (Yuriko Hoshi, who wasn't in the original Godzilla). Both interact with each other well and have some great chemistry together, which is more then I can say for other actors and actresses in daikaiju movies.
And what would a Godzilla movie be without Godzilla, right? Thankfully, Sekizawa's script doesn't keep us waiting to long before the big guy shows up. In one of his most dramatic entrances the big G bursts out of the ground (!) and goes on his requisite rampage of destruction and death. When weapons become (predictably) useless its up to Sakai and Junko to go to Mothra's island and beg the priestesses for Mothra's help.
Unfortunatly, the natives of Mothra Island aren't to keen on the idea, and the chief shoots it down with a really cool "You-nuked-our-island-until-it-glowed-so-why-should-we-help-you?" speech. Will our human's convince the natives to send Mothra to help?
Is there any doubt?
Like
I said, acting here is above par for this series of movies. Indeed, it's probably above
par for the whole genre. However, I do have some beef with the monsters. For Godzilla
vs. Mothra, Godzilla got a new suit, making it the 4th in 4 movies. This one is
slightly less bulky with a shorter face and longer tail. I have no real problems with the
design per say, except for one element. At several points during the movie,
Godzilla's upper lip shakes back and forth, almost as if it isn't attached correctly to
the inner frame of the suit's head. In other words, it looks like he's doing a
Richard Nixon impersonation.
Mothra for this movie was scaled down to look
smaller next to Godzilla (in her own movie Mothra had a
wing span of about 800 ft, here it was cut down to 400 ft), and that redesign yielded
mixed results. In early shots, Mothra looks ragged and old. But then, Mothra is
slowly dying so I can overlook that. What I can't overlook is the obvious use of
marionettes for close-up shots. Five different ones were used, but, thanks to the
direction of Ishiro Honda, I'd wager, I only noticed two. Still, that's two to many for my
taste.
Also what irks me is Godzilla's behavior. First, he breaks out of the ground he goes on a rampage. I can handle that. What gets me is the following question: "Why does he stay?" I know some G-fans would cheerfully overlook that question without bating and eye, but I, on the other hand, prefer a little character motivation for my main character. But, sadly, its not to be, Godzilla just shows up and walks around Japan with no real rime or reason. *Sigh*.
But if you love monster movies (and aren't a movie critic) then do you really care about these things? No! You want to see monsters fight, and fight they do. My thanks go out to the fight coordinators for coming up with some quite original ways that a giant moth could fight a fire-breathing dinosaur. The fights accrue often enough, and throughout the second half of the movie, we barely go ten minuets with out seeing Godzilla smash something. What kind of monster movie fan would I be if I didn't like this movie? I ask you that.
RATING (OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)
A CRAPPY ONE, THAT'S WHAT KIND.