Here's what you need to know; when a violent storm washes Mothra's egg onto Japanese shores, it quickly ends up in the hands of greedy entrepreneurs looking to make money off of it, stirring Mothra from her island home as she and her fairies try to retrieve the stolen egg. Things escalate when Godzilla emerges and goes on a rampage, and with the military powerless to stop him, Professor Miura and his reporter friends Sakai and Nakanishi call on Mothra to help them, a fight which will be Mothra's last, and where Japan's fate hangs in the balance.
I loved Mothra, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would and while I was just going to skip ahead to Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster for obvious reasons, I decided that I simply had to take a look at Mothra vs. Godzilla; the first time Godzilla and Mothra would meet and far from the last, it's a piece of both these monsters' histories that I would feel guilty about ignoring, so here we are, looking at the film that spawned one of cinema's longest and most entertaining feuds, Mothra vs. Godzilla.
Unlike Mothra, Mothra vs. Godzilla was a film I watched a lot when I was younger, being one of the Godzilla films my mum got her hands on back in the day, but now, having seen Mothra just a few nights ago, I can honestly say that it's cheapened this film quite a bit for me at least. One way that this film takes a turn is in its tone; Mothra vs. Godzilla's tone is more similar to Rodan's than it is Godzilla's or Mothra's, which is to say that the film exists between those two extremes; harrowing and depressing and family friendly fun. While this pays off big in the Godzilla scenes, it means that the films characters suffer, being much more conventional than those in Mothra. The film basically reuses Mothra's cast of heroes and villains in a figurative sense, but also in a literal sense as the actor who plays Professor Miura also played Chujo in Mothra. It is a bit of a bummer then that this film then introduces a completely new cast of characters, all of which serving the archetypal roles that their counterparts served in Mothra, only with none of the goofy charm. We're back to the days of struggling to recall names as this film ends up fairing only a little better than Rodan. The film's villains are a lot like Nelson too, only missing all the maniacal charm that Nelson had, they're now just greedy, money obsessed idiots. I think I'm sounding a little negative here, but none of the characters are annoying, they're just kind of dull, even with the odd moment of levity. They're not as flat as the heroes of Rodan, but compared to Godzilla and Mothra, they don't even come close. The fairies do return however and are given a lot more to do in this film than they had in Mothra, with Emi and Yumi Ito returning from Mothra and lending their voices to even more Mothra songs, both old and new, and all awesome.
The film doesn't exactly change the game in the story department either; in reusing the archetypes of Mothra, it also ends up reusing most of that film's story beats as well. The McGuffin this time is an egg instead of fairies, but the gist is the same; greedy capitalists steal something that isn't theirs to make money and a plucky gang of reporters and scientists try to stop them. But then you throw in Godzilla, who just appears out of nowhere half an hour in in an admittedly pretty awesome scene, at which point the film starts to diverge from what came before it. The Godzilla side of the story is nothing new; Godzilla's on a rampage and the military is trying to stop him, and even without the fascinating themes of the original film, this is rather compelling to watch, and made all the more so by some fantastic suit and model work, not to mention Akira Ifukube's music, which is fantastic as usual. The Mothra side of the story plays out much like it did in her solo film; with the slimy villains meeting their dooms as a result of their own greed and short-sightedness. But there is something about this side of the film that I really like, and that's how the island natives feel about the heroes. The natives initially not caring about Godzilla destroying Japan is a very interesting idea, one that's entirely understandable, this leads to a pretty interesting conflict as the heroes try to reason with their better nature over their distrust of the outside world. Adding to this dilemma is that their Goddess is old and dying, making her decision to leave the island and fight Godzilla a surprisingly impactful one. This positions Godzilla and Mothra as opposing forces; Godzilla being a cruel, unsympathetic engine of destruction, and Mothra being a loving, compassionate force for good, which fits their characters very well, even if this Godzilla's a bit of a clumsy moron.
This wasn't the first time Godzilla brawled on-screen, there was Godzilla Raids Again in 1955 and King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962, but this was his first show down with Mothra, or the Thing as they insist on calling her because, again, I'm saddled with the American cut, so how well does Mothra vs. Godzilla handle its biggest selling point. Even with Godzilla being clumsy and stupid sometimes, the scenes of him levelling cities and getting shot at are as entertaining as they've ever been, and while some of the effects really don't look that good anymore, anything that involves miniatures is still top of the class material. Mothra vs. Godzilla sets a new high standard for model work, but overall, I think that the effects generally hold up better in Mothra and Rodan, even with how good Godzilla and particularly Mothra look in this film. The Mothra models used in this film look amazing, even better than the ones used in her own film, and her design has received minor updates, mainly her more pronounced legs, which she uses to grab and claw at Godzilla. Meanwhile Godzilla is still suitmation at its best, the design is a cool update on his look, and certainly looks meaner than he looked in King Kong vs. Godzilla. Continuing about the visual effects, while the integration of life-sized objects and miniatures vary from decent to outright laughable, it's nowhere near the black magic that they pulled off in Mothra, they did nail the integration of the fairies though, who never look out of place and whose tiny size the film sells excellently, plus they sing catchy, nostalgic songs so of course I like them, I grew up on this shit.
But let's stop digressing, you're here to see Godzilla and Mothra fight, and when the film finally gives you that at the one-hour mark, it's... interesting. Many of the shots that feature both monsters look really good, and as usual, the miniature work as Mothra blows away entire buildings with her wings are top, just as they were in her own film and Rodan. It's almost comedic how powerless Godzilla is against it too, as he stumbles and eventually falls. The problems really start to arise though when Godzilla and Mothra take each other on in close quarters, which might the single campiest scene of any film I've reviewed in this special, though that's sure to change. The puppets and extreme close-ups of this sequence are rough, and this fight generally fails to sell Mothra as a worthy opponent to Godzilla. But as I alluded to in my review of Mothra, her design doesn't lend itself to destruction and combat, it is a beautiful design for sure, but there's a reason Legendary gave her a radically new look in King of the Monsters, one with a sleeker body and massive claws; because the classic Mothra design is a bit clumsy in the fight scenes. The fight between Godzilla and Mothra is also very brief, with Godzilla continuing his rampage after Mothra dies, her egg nestled beneath her wing, which is a beautiful image. This isn't the end of the fight however, because the film's climax is a pair of Mothra Larva fighting Godzilla. Well, I say fighting, but really they just shoot webs at him, and one of them bites his tail and gets thrown around at one point. Even by the standard set by Mothra's fight earlier, this is a bit anticlimactic. That kind of sums up the monster fights in this film, anticlimactic; they're brief and they push the effects to their absolute limits in a bad way, and the film is made all the cheesier for it.
A Monster Egg?!
Mothra vs. Godzilla is considered by many to be a quintessential film in Godzilla's long and colourful history, and in many ways, it is; just not necessarily for the right reasons. It lacks the complexity and intrigue or the goofiness and charm of the Godzilla or Mothra, respectively, with a central cast that essentially recycles Mothra's fantastic heroes, and a story that essentially recycles the story of Mothra, only now with Godzilla thrown in. This works as intended, being completely functional, but it ultimately feels unfulfilling in the shadow of Mothra. Then there's the effects, which vary from the best visual effects the series has seen up to this point, to 60's sci fi cheese at its absolute finest, with amazing model and costume work and a hysterical fight scene that it's difficult to take seriously. I could never say Mothra vs. Godzilla is bad, it's certainly a visually impressive film most of the time, has an outstanding score, and I personally have a lot of nostalgia for this film. There is a certain appreciation that this film deserves, but if given the choice, I'd personally take Mothra every time.
No comments:
Post a Comment