TALKBACK: Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy

[angilas]

[MouthForWar]

Yeah, the Heisei series was far from unsuccessful. It was the biggest Godzilla had been since the 60s. The Mothra trilogy was them aiming for both a younger and more female-centric audience.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

I think we're confusing "I dislike the Heisei series" with "The Heisei Series was a failure". Not really the same thing. It's my least favorite era for sure, but I can't deny how successful the movies were, despite their lack of effort.

[jellydonut25]

I don't know what I was thinking when I typed that. Odds are, I'd been drinking.

[EricDent]

Rewatched it last night, it's still a fun movie.
Loads of cool effects, the Elias are cute (especially the one in blue), and the monster battles are good.

Will watch the other 2 movies soon.

[Gwangi]

Because I had not seen the third movie, that had been my most antipicated one, and of course it had the return of King Ghirdah. Now unfortunately, I found it to be the weakest entry of the three. The first movie had the best story, but I found the second one the most livelest. Still, it does not make me a fan of this triology. I can chalk this up as a neat idea from Toho, but not well executed (and I hope Legendary's Mothra will not shoot out beams from practically everywhere in her body. That was a Kawakita thing and best to leave it at that).

[Gentleman]

Say what you will about the movies themselves, the designers got their Ghidorahs right. Death Ghidorah is awesome, in my mind the best quadrupedal kaiju before or since, and Grand King Ghidorah is just that: a magnificent representation of the beast. Whether the movies lived up to them is up to you, but dang, those Ghidorahs.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

The enemy monsters were my favorite part of these movies. Grand King Ghidorah is probably the best design for King Ghidorah as far as my tastes go. He managed to bridge the Heisei 1991 look with the 1964 look.

If only he was not as stiff.

I prefer the 64 cackles and shrieks, but hearing the feint Satan laugh in his shriek was pretty amusing.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[MouthForWar]

Since there isn't much to say about these movies, I just renamed this as a talkback topic for the whole trilogy. Especially now that they are on Blu-Ray, I figure this topic will become more active with more people revisiting them.

I just revisited the first one for the first time in about 8 or so years on the new Blu Ray. Its still... not that good. As a kids movie, it might be OK, but that's about as much of a pass as I can get it. The themes are way too heavy handed. Especially when it just derails the narrative for five minutes just to remind you about it (like that weird scene where the guy in the hospital flips out at the dad for killing trees or whatever... wtf) and the structure is just weird. There's no real second act. It takes awhile to get going, then the original Mothra dies, then Death Ghidorah does some stuff off screen, the baby comes back and kills him in like 3 minutes and its over.

Maybe the monster just hasn't aged that well, but I remembered Death Ghidorah (oh sorry... "Desghidorah" ) being much more impressive. He's way clumsier and wobblier than I remembered.

And this is when Kawakita just lost his damn mind with the beams. Every five minutes, a monster fires another beam out of nowhere and it has no different effect than any other beam.

And man, the effects on the fairies haven't aged well either.

Also, Belvera might be the most obnoxious antagonist in any kaiju film ever.

I give this one 2.5/5, and that's on the generous merit of "well its a kids movie".

Now onto part 2... now THIS is gonna be rough.

[klen7]

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

I'm finding the first film not even really holding my interest that much. I think I can give it a pass on the kid's film mentality too, but I also think it's actually some of Kawakita's best FX work...it's certainly leagues better than anything in the later few Heisei Godzilla films. It's certainly got some of the familiar symptoms of a Heisei Toho film in the effects department, but it's also executed consistently better than the other 90s films, especially with regards to Death Ghidorah. I actually don't think he's too floppy or awkward looking...he comes across more naturaly than most of the stiff Heisei kaiju and the Mothra larva in this movie is a HUGE step up from the 1992 Godzilla film. And HUGE might be understating it. The biggest knock I think I have is one of scale (I know some of the green screen effects are lackluster but those have never really been a highlight from Toho). The Mothra Larva is BIGGER than the Imago. It's awkward how tiny the adult Mothra feels in this.

That said, it's the STRUCTURE of this movie that's killing it for me. The pacing is ATROCIOUS, and a lot of the scene-to-scene actions of the characters (and kaiju) are kinda confusing and stilted as a result. I'm often sitting here wondering just what exactly certain characters are doing in between being shown once and the next time they're on screen. The movie loses track of its action alarmingly often, considering it's not that big a cast of characters/kaiju.

Also, yeah Belvera's actions and motivations are just plain straight nonsensical.

A 2.5 out of 5 feels about right. It's watchable at least. I'd rather be watching this than most of the 90s Godzilla movies.

It honestly might feel more like a 3 if some of the singing and stuff didn't just literally stop the movie dead in its tracks and look like a crappy amateur music video from one of those booths at the mall where they tape you in a green screen and then put you in a disco or a beach or in this movie's case, a wall of fire...

[MouthForWar]

I just revisited the second one and holy sh*t, its awful. Its even worse than I remembered (and I remembered it being awful).

Probably the absolute worst Toho kaiju film. It was always bad, but time has treated this movie incredibly cruel, with some of the worst wire works and green screen effects I've seen in a Japanese production. I could at least see what the first RoM was going for, but this doesn't even hold up on a "well its a kids film" level. Just god awful in every single aspect.

The peeing Gogo creature sucks, the treasure plot makes no sense, the characters have no motivations to do any of the things they do, Aqua Mothra isn't very impressive, Daghara has a cool design but adds nothing to the plot.

.05/5. I hate it.

I remember the third one being alright. Lets see if that changes.