Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth was Toho's attempt to follow up one of the best movies in the Godzilla franchise (vs. King Ghidorah) with another classic Godzilla villain coming back and being re-introduced to the public. They did a bang up job with Ghidorah, and that film is widely regarded as one of the best in the entire Godzilla series, so why not revisit one of Godzilla's other most-well-known opponents in Mothra, and follow up with that, right? Well, right- except, wrong.
I'm not going to rag on this one too much. It's not like, the worst move ever or even the worst Godzilla movie. It's just forgettable, slower paced, not nearly as innovative or interesting, and the villains aren't as good. All those points compounded with the fact that this film doesn't flow as easily, and the plot is sometimes confusing.
One thing in it's favor is that it is a direct sequel to the previous Ghidorah film. When Godzilla arrives, he is still evil. Previous to the big G stomping in, we had the appearance of a gigantic egg at the beach, along with Mothra's two spokeswomen, the tiny little twins who sing that awesome "Mosura" song. The egg of course hatches into weird larva form Mothra, that brown slug looking thing that no one likes. While it is in this form Godzilla first appears, and since Mothra is generally friend to mankind, Mothra starts to battle Godzilla.
However, soon Mothra's ancient opponent Battra also appears. Battra is like a big, evil Mothra essentially, and battles Mothra for a while. Godzilla and Battra drive Mothra away, where the larva spins it's web and turns into moth-form Mothra. Then, randomly Battra turns good and Battra and Mothra team up to defeat Godzilla. Godzilla kills Battra in his last action, and the movie pretty much ends there. Actually it ends rather randomly as Mothra is sent into space to deflect a meteor heading towards Earth (in a plotline that has never been mentioned before and hasn't been mentioned since).
The movie's not that bad, it just is hurt by the fact it was obviously rushed to come out, it suffers from the typical plot convenience thing: Why do these things happen, well, because that's how it is in the script. Don't question it.
Once again, the actors in these movies are decent enough, the dubbing is hilarious and awesome. I don't stick to subtitles with movies like these. They aren't supposed to be taken seriously. Who the hell cares what they're actually saying when the movie involves weird worm creatures fighting a giant mutated dinosaur! C'mon people, just enjoy the overacted, ridiculous job the voice actors did.
In the end, it's just another entry into the Godzilla series, and I'm sure I'll forget the plot to it in like, a week or two. See it if you're a completion-ist, if you love Godzilla, if you want a solid 10-20 minutes worth of kaiju fighting, or if you are even mildly interested. But it's not a good one to show someone who is unfamiliar with the franchise, or one to watch if you're tired or easily distracted.
I give it a 3 star rating, mostly due to the fact I love Godzilla and believe just about every Godzilla film deserves at least 3 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment