Tuesday, November 15, 2016

THROWBACK REVIEW: Godzilla VS Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)

Godzilla VS Mothra, The Battle for Earth is a very special film to me for very personal reasons. Why is that? Well, it's the first Godzilla movie I ever saw as a child. Yes, this was the film that started it all. I don't remember when exactly I saw it, whether it was 1998, 1999, or 2000, but this was the film that introduced me to the Big G. I'm glad to say that, because unlike so many other Americans my age, or whatnot, a lot of them were introduced to Godzilla through the Tristar Roland Emmerich film. Well...I remember briefly my father talking about his limited exposure to Godzilla, talking about a film he liked. Godzilla VS Mothra.  So one particular trip to Hollywood Video (remember that place?), I found it.  Or a particular version of it I should say.  I think he was originally talking about the 1964 picture. I didn't see that until later on. But I picked this up, and this would start a trend of Godzilla video rentals that lasted for weeks.  It drove my parents absolutely insane. But for better or for worse, it started my love for the franchise. And watching it as an adult, I will say that I was still pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Despite some very silly choices in storytelling, it has some kick-ass action, decently developed character, and some of the coolest monster battles of the franchise, making it one of the better entries of the Heisei era. Despite me laughing at some of the absurdities of this film, watching it, I was a kid all over again.

As with the previous film, it needs to be said that the copy I own is an English dub. But as it was the dub that I started out with all those many years ago, I wouldn't have it any other way here. Despite some flaws with the dub...like a little girl sounding like a grown woman...it's not terrible. You know...aside from some laughably stupid lines that may or may not be the dub's fault ("Please tell Mothra to stop, otherwise he's gonna kill so many people! If you do, I'll tell my daddy not to steal anymore and I'll make him get a real job!"). Yeah...there are those moments.

Though it doesn't explicitly state when this film takes place, it apparently takes place one year after Godzilla VS King Ghidorah. But as you all know, I think that film sucked, so this worked in my advantage as a film that just kinda seemed to drop that film like a dozen eggs. We see a meteor crash into the sea...causing no tsunami's or anything else that it would logically create (in fact the splash is laughably small), and it awakens Godzilla. It apparently instead causes these typhoons and other crazy events that uncover Mothra's egg, and awaken a completely new monster to the franchise, Battra, who is described as the "black Mothra" and he is a badass! We go from this meteor, to one of our characters, a thief of artifacts stealing some artifact from some place of significance, we get an Indiana Jones style scene where this thief has to escape this booby-trapped temple, and he's arrested in the process, and reunited with his ex-wife, where they go to Infant Island and...(sigh)...here we go.

This is where I think the story gets really stupid.  This film, despite being in the Heisei era, has a lot of Showa traits in it. Such as the Cosmos. You know...those two little little girls that are like...Mothra's guardians or something? I never understood their roles in these films. I never liked them. They do nothing in this film but talk about how humanity is destroying the Earth, forcing this really simple and unneeded environmental message into the story, about how the Earth is angry at humanity and is getting revenge through monsters and natural disasters. You can say what you want about the purpose and meaning of Godzilla, but this is a really stupid plot element that isn't executed well at all. Back to the Cosmos, the only other thing they do in this film is sing. Yeah they do that in the Showa films, but man...it gets really old in this film. And the film seems so intent on focusing on them whenever they sing their...Mothra spells or whatever the hell they are. Unfortunately the weaker story doesn't really hold up on its own. Despite some pleasant mirrors to the original Godzilla VS Mothra, involving a big company interested in Mothra's egg and whatnot, there's not a very strong story here. A lot of the subplots involving the company are straight up dropped halfway through the film it seems. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the characters are actually likable enough for the most part to keep my attention. So kudos there, movie.

What else keeps your attention? The monsters of course. We get three of them in this picture, with Mothra, Battra, and Godzilla. All are surprisingly really well developed, and a real treat to see on the screen. Though I will say, I didn't like just how stupidly powerful Godzilla's durability seems to be. My main point here is that I still in no way am willing to believe that Godzilla could get submerged in an underwater volcano...and swim all the way into the mainland through the lava. Come on. Burial in a volcano, in a hibernation is one thing. Swimming? I call shenanigans. Just a little too much, movie. I also don't like how they abandoned his more animalistic roar. But that said, his design is really great in this film. And his atomic breath looks like...100 times better than what it did in the previous films. When it comes to Mothra, this development is some of the coolest we've seen on screen.  While we've seen Mothra hatch before, we've never seen it actually evolve into its adult stage. And it is done actually pretty well. I also love how durable Mothra is. Most of the time I remember, Mothra was usually hit once in the air and down. Here, it can take quite the beating.  And Battra? The only thing I didn't care for for him was the fact that he just instantaneously transforms to his adult stage. Other than that, his attacks, his appearance, his scenes are all incredibly awesome.

And I gotta dedicate an entire paragraph to the monster fights.  They are easily the best of the Heisei era so far. And they start off pretty quick too! Right after we see Godzilla emerge from the sea, there's a really intense fight between him and Mothra in its larval form, and then Battra comes along, and there's an even BETTER fight! Here Godzilla Battra have this colossal battle underwater, which may sound boring, but honestly...it's about damn time. It's actually one of the most intense fights of the entire franchise, and one of the best. And I gotta say, it's a pretty lengthy battle at that, not too rigid, very fluid, which isn't a trait seen enough in the battles of these films. Even if the underwater fights make no sense because they take place in super deep water that apparently Godzilla has no problem standing knee-deep in (Still waiting for an answer to that nonsense, Toho). And if those fights weren't enough, the conclusive battle is a real treat to watch from beginning to end. It really feels like one of the most immersive battles of the film as the city itself crumbles around and on the monsters as they combat one another. 

But with all this impressive stuff about this film, I am surprised that the film seems a little unpolished. At times, the scene transitions were incredibly quick. It wasn't as jumbled as Godzilla VS King Ghidorah, but it was still noticeable.  Other problems included small goofs that just should have been noticed. A few times when Godzilla is obviously roaring, yet there's no roar heard, at one point I swore I could hear the wheels and motor that propel that large Mothra larva, just small things like this that should have been taken care of. The music, very traditional for the Godzilla films, but enjoyable for the film. All this put together...I still believe this film was the perfect film for me to start out on in my Godzilla love.

I may be somewhat biased here, but I am giving Godzilla VS Mothra: The Battle for Earth a nice three star rating out of four. It definitely has problems. But it does make up for its problems with semi-decent characters, and just really fun action. It really did Mothra justice if you ask me, and there's just not enough films that really highlight Mothra in this manner. I feel like Mothra always has to take this backseat to Godzilla, but this film really makes Mothra stand out as a force to be reckoned with if you ask me. 15 years later or so...I'm still giving this film a big thumbs up. And I should say as an added bonus...with America now having the rights to Mothra for our future Godzilla-Kong cinematic  universe we are slowly but surely building, I am excited to see if we can give just as much justice to this monster, as we have Godzilla. We can only wait and see.

Please feel free to suggest any films you'd like me to take a look at in the future. Leave a comment down below explaining your own thoughts and feelings to this film, and as always, thanks for reading.

Final Verdict: 3/4

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