GODZILLA VS MOTHRA (1964)
Tagline: Nothing Like This Ever On the Screen!
(Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi) [PG]
As a scientist, I feel partly responsible…
Note- the MPA was too lazy to give this movie a rating so I did. This movie is also distributed as MOTHRA VS GODZILLA, GODZILLA VS THE THING, and a few other variations of that. This is the 4th movie in the series.
So after a hurricane, Mothra’s egg blows into the freakin ocean and ends up near Japan. I am not sure how close “Mothra Island” is to Japan, but apparently it's far enough way for Japan to have no issues doing nuclear tests on it that jack up the island so bad that everything pretty much sucks there. Anyway, a rick dude buys the egg after figuring out it would cost about as much as “x” number of chicken eggs. Everyone is basically totally fine with that except his business partner who punches him in the face and two fairies from “Mothra Island” that are going to sing us all into a coma before this thing is over. Godzilla is awakened by construction in the area, and in order to save Japan, a group of people that don't suck must convince Mothra’s fairy friends to get her to come to fight off Godzilla. Can Mothra save Japan? How is a giant Moth possibly going to even stand a chance against the King Of The Monsters?
First off, this is the “dizziest” Godzilla we get in any of the Godzilla movies. I mean, he must have just been super sleepy for most of this thing because he falls into stuff, trips into a building, and just gets pissed and starts jacking it up. He hardly even touches a part of Mothra’s abdomen or near it and goes falling down a hill. I mean this dude is not coordinated at all.
Design-wise, of the older films, this is one of the best Godzilla suit designs. He looks pretty menacing and it’s fantastic. Godzilla is also not your friendly neighborhood Godzilla in this. It’s actually the last film in the Showa era where Godzilla is depicted as menacing rather than as more of a hero or at least a reluctant hero. Mothra is also pretty great in this especially given that in this movie she’s basically in the process of dying. This is also the movie where "Skeleturtle" gets it’s cult following. On Mothra island, there is a turtle skeleton that I think was supposed to be dead, but you can see it move and even blink. TOHO eventually categorized it as an actual Kaiju, so there you have it. There are not a ton of city destruction scenes in this movie, but there are some really rad scenes with Japan’s army fighting Godzilla with lightning-like weapons. Some of the shots in this thing are pretty goofy looking, but for the most part, we get a great version of Godzilla in this. The acting is pretty good, but this does come with trademark early TOHO sexism, so if you are someone that isn’t from the ’80s hates that stuff (or isn’t just a hardcore G-Fan), just be aware.
I only own this on VHS. It was part of a series of films that were distributed to support the American GODZILLA 1998 film. I think you can pick up a DVD of this thing but it’s at least $30.00 still. I haven't looked into the Criterion series very much, but that would be a Blu-Ray set but not all of that comes in English, just subtitles. That's great, but I personally prefer English dubs.
To this day, for me, this is a pretty solid entry in the Godzilla canon drawing a 5 out of 7 rating.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TOHO COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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