Monster and Kaiju Movie Thoughts and Impressions

#20 Godzilla and Mothra the Battle for Earth

My copy of this is on the other side ofGodzilla vs King Ghidorah and doesn't have a subtitled track, so I'mnot sure how much is dub creation and isn't. One thing that standsout is the really goofy over the top voice they give this old guy whoseems to mostly be there for reaction shots. Another stand out iswhen the Cosmos ask Mothra not to hurt any more people and Mothraturns right around and crawls straight through a building. I'mguessing the line there was a bit different in Japanese. I seem torecall finding some of the banter between the divorced characterskind of funny, but I can't remember a specific interaction now thatI'm sitting down for it, so there wasn't anything too memorable thereI guess.

The overall movie feels a lot like areboot of the original Mothra movie that's being speedrun a bit tofit in an evil twin and Godzilla. Enough of the movie is on Mothrathat it feels really weird that she gets written out of the rest ofthe Heisei movies, or at least it seems like the Mothra Rebirthtrilogy should have tied in to some degree. Kind of a Pilot with nofollow up or something.

I haven't seen this movie very oftenthough, I've just been more prone to rewatching Showa or Milleniumseries than Heisei, so I was a little surprised by how aggressive andeffective Battra actually is, especially as a larvae. The flying formactually seems like a bit of a downgrade in battle power for him butit's still kind of cheap that he can just decide to assume it andglows for a bit while Mothra still has her whole cocoon process. WhenMothra's egg hatches and she's using the ship to keep some coverbetween herself and the other kaiju I have to say, that ship istough. It takes a lot of laser blasts, attacks that destroy groups ofarmored vehicles, like a champ. - speaking of that, the fact HeiseiGodzilla is willing to blast little larval Mothra at the get godefinitely establishes him as more persistently villainous than ShowaGodzilla who fought Ghidorah for doing that. Heck, it took a longtime for still a villain Showa Godzilla to retaliate against Mothralarvae (though he was a threat to the egg? I guess he had a smallwindow for 'acceptable target' there)

It's mostly a case of not having manyscenes in Destroy All Monsters, but I think this is the mostdestructive Mothra I've seen. Plowing through buildings and ships,it's kind of funny after hearing about how Toho insisted Mothra notkill anyone in 2019's King of the Monsters. Still she's definitelythe least dangerous of the movie's three kaiju. Which reminds me inthe first Mothra movie a telepathic link meant it was inevitable thatMothra search for the fairies/cosmos/shinobin but here they activelysing for her to come get them which I can see as coming off as muchmore premeditated destruction. Kind of weird when they tell Mothra togo back and Mothra doesn't take them along at first. I guess it's sothe attack and cocoon can happen.

Everyone being surprised that Godzillasurvived a lava bath is sort of funny with the time gap betweenReturns and vs Biollante in mind, but I guess this Godzilla didn't gothrough that, because of the time travel from the last movie? Or heboth did and didn't? Dang, previous movie goofs everything up. Deepbreath, it's a loose continuity, 'something kind of like the lastmovie might have happened, but maybe it didn't is the rule here. AndYET! Mothra's still written out of the series.

Is it just me or is that climacticbattle really weird looking? Maybe it's just because I'm from a ruralenough an area I'm used to seeing all of Orion pretty easily, but itjust does not feel like a night sky to me. Could be effects failure,but I can't say for sure without asking someone from a city with nostars in the sky. The big deal made of Battra catching the Ferriswheel before it falls on Mothra is kind of funny too, sure she's moredelicate than the others, but if she can hang with a pair that foughtthrough volcanic activity it seems odd she'd bee threatened by aheavy bit of metal. Well, whatever, it establishes that theinsectoids are allies now and they can do their team up, it worksfine. Battra seems to take a lot of damage easily here but I supposethere's run time to consider.

Two movies in a row there's a sacrificeto drop Godzilla back in the sea to save Japan, but this time he'snot tied up in a bunch of mechanical grapples so it seems like he'dprobably get back up more easily than last time even though theyglossed over the fact he should be pretty entangled with Mecha KingGhidorah's body. Sigh, loose continuity.

It's a shame we haven't seen Battraagain outside of side media like games and comics. I've seen peoplesay that he and Megaguirus make each other redundant, but aside fromthem being spiky flying insects I feel like they have very differentroles and personalities so that they don't really do that.