| Godzilla versus Mothra Released: 1964 MPAA Rating: G Genre: Super Monster Nuts and Bolts: Godzilla has risen again to rampage through the cities of Japan. A small staff of newspaper reporters stumbles upon a mystery that may lead to the only means of stopping the monster. Watch as two small faeries reveal the secrets of their island God, Mothra! Summary: Hurricane A strikes Torada Beach in Japan. A giant mutated egg from nearby Mothra Island (Also known as Infant Island) washes up on shore. Businessman Kumiyama stakes a claim on the egg in the name of in the name of his boss Banzo Torahata, CEO of Happy Enterprises. On the scene are reporter Ichiro Sakai and photographer Junko 'Yoka' Nakanishi. Sakai and Yoka report their findings while Happy Enterprises begins building a huge incubator around the egg. The following day, two tiny faeries known as Shobijin appear before Banzo Torahata. They beg him and Kumiyama to return the egg to Infant Island. The two businessmen attempt to capture the Shobijin, but the faeries elude the two taller men. Fleeing into the neaby woods, the Shobijin find Sakai, Yoka and Professor Miura. They plead with them to help them return the egg to Infant Island. Miura declares that they really don't have the authority or the resources by which to help them. Dejected, the faeries return to their native land. The three return to the area of land where the egg first came ashore. An earthquake strikes and the creature known as Godzilla emerges from the Earth. Godzilla begins rampaging across the beach and soon reaches a nearby city. As buildings topple beneath his rampage, the Japanese embassy calls in the American Navy. The fleet comes to support the Japanese army armed with state of the art Frontier missiles. The frontier missiles only delay Godzilla though and the big dinosaur continues on his rampage. Sakai, Yoka and Miura come up with an idea to halt Godzilla’s destruction. They go to Infant Island and beg the natives to convince the Thing known as Mothra to fight Godzilla for them. The Shobijin respond by saying that Mothra will not fight for them since they refused to help them return their egg. Yoki explains that millions of lives may die if Mothra does not come to their aid. The Shobijin agree to petition their god. The aging Mothra agrees to help and flies off to fight Godzilla. Meanwhile, the army decides to bait a trap for Godzilla. Using tanks and missiles, they plan on herding Godzilla into a secure area where they will entangle him with ‘artificial lightning’ nets. Godzilla returns to Torada Beach and destroys the incubator containing the mutant egg. I guess its Godzilla’s intention to make an omelet. Mothra appears and attacks Godzilla. He beats his wings with such intensity that the prevailing winds drive Godzilla back. As Godzilla pitches over, Mothra drags him away by his tail. He then produces a fine yellow powder that proves to be poisonous to Godzilla. Godzilla burns a hole through Mothra’s wing with his atomic breath. The aging bug flies off to die. Godzilla wanders off and falls prey to the army’s artificial lightning nets. These only slow him down for a short while and Godzilla takes off for Iwa Island. At this point, the mutant egg hatches and two Mothra larvae emerge. They follow Godzilla to Iwa Island and engage him in combat. Working in unison, the two larvae spin twin streams of webbing, which eventually bind Godzilla up. Unable to maintain his balance, Godzilla stumbles off of a cliff into the sea. Note: This film is also known as Godzilla versus the Thing and Mosura Tai Gojira. Acting/Dialogue: The acting is as crappy as one might expect, and the dialogue is probably some of the worst I’ve seen in a Godzilla movie to date. (Although not as bad as some of the stuff from Destroy All Monsters!) Gore: None. The grossest thing we see is a bloody nose after Kumayama busts Torahata in the snot locker. Guilty Pleasures: None. If the little faerie chicks whipped their boobs out, that would’ve been something, but all they really do is sing stupid songs and annoy the shit out of everyone. The Good: I liked reporter Jiro Nakamura. He didn’t get much screen time, but he provided nice bits of comedy relief. He also seemed to nurse a bizarre obsession with hard-boiled eggs. Mothra looked kind of cool when he was sitting within his temple on Infant Island. He almost looked majestic. I really can’t think of anything else good to write about this one. The Bad: This movie is just dumb. How much of a threat can an over-aged killer moth REALLY be? Not only that, but Godzilla was Mister Two Left Feet throughout the whole movie. He kept tripping over his own feet and tail on numerous occasions. I swear, I think he hit the dirt more because of his own drunken stumbling than because of any attack that was visited upon him. Godzilla really needs to lay off the Heineken. Not only that, but there’s no conceivable reason why Godzilla COULD’NT kick Mothra’s ass! He didn’t even get a good hit in! Not one! Unless you count the burn mark across Mothra’s wing, and to be honest I think that was just a lucky shot. Then there’s the matter of the two evil businessmen. This was a sub-plot that really went nowhere. In the end the two end up screwing each other over. Kumayama beats the snot out of Torahata and Torahata in turn shoots Kumayama in the chest. Ultimately, this made no difference to the overall story. Then there’s the matter of those two stupidly annoying little faerie chicks. All they really do is sing Mothra’s praises. Literally! That’s all they friggin’ do! Bitch and sing! The other natives of Mothra Island are really annoying as well. It’s actually quite humorous watching their horrendous performances. And what’s with the ending? Godzilla is done in by some atomically altered spider webs? What the fuck is that? We just saw him shrug off state of the art Frontier missiles and electro-nets. I have a hard time believing that some web-spitting bag of puss can slow him down. They web him up and chuck his ass into the water. So what! Why end the movie there? Godzilla could EASILY climb back up that cliff and eat those two little slugs like a plate of finely cultivated escargot! Uggh! This movie is just dumb. Easily one of the worst things to ever come out of the Godzilla franchise. The only reason I’m not giving it a rating of a 1 is because I KNOW that there are actually crappier ‘Zilla flicks out there. Great Lines: “The End” --Ending credits. Overall Rating: 2 out of 10 severed heads. |
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