Quickly moving on after Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah proved to be a box office hit, production ramped up for Godzilla's next battle - his 19th film - this time against another popular adversary: Mothra. Toho didn't want to try introducing new monsters to the series without having some old favorites to headline the cast. So, with Mothra firmly set as the film's co-star, Toho decided to add in a kaiju that had been on the drawing board for a couple years - Battra, the evil version of Mothra. It's described as "black Mothra" in the film, though its appearance is certainly more grotesque than that of Mothra. In addition to bringing back both the larva and fully-formed versions of Mothra (which hadn't been seen 1966's Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster), the film also includes the mini twin princesses, known as the Cosmos here. With all of the essential elements in place, Toho delivered one of the series' most successful films ever, becoming the highest-grossing entry (unadjusted for inflation) and coming in second at the Japanese box office to Jurassic Park.
This is the first film of the series that I have no memories of whatsoever. Although I hadn't seen the previous entry, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, until many years after its release (it didn't get a U.S. VHS release until 1998), the books and pictures I saw of that production made me feel like I knew it. This film was the first one to have no childhood link, no memories of a building excitement to finally see the film proper. But it's easy to understand why this was such a hugely successful film for the series. The story itself is admittedly one of the least-engaging of the series, coming across like a half-cocked comedy with flourishes of an Indiana Jones picture. It's really the battles that make this film, with all three kaiju featured prominently, with numerous battles taking place throughout, culminating in a spectacular showdown at a giant Ferris wheel.
The opening of the film is ripped straight from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with an archaeological excavator, Takuya, dashing through an ancient temple after stealing a prized artifact. He's arrested, but offered the chance to be set free if he goes with a group to investigate an island where ruins have been found. He reluctantly agrees. When the group arrives, they find a massive egg and a hidden cave, where they come upon the Cosmos, two diminutive girls who are the protectors of Earth. They are informed that the egg belongs to Mothra, an ancient deity that fought against Battra, the "black" version of Mothra, when mankind tried to control Earth too much. A recent meteor strike has reawakened Godzilla, and the Cosmos fear it has also stirred Battra from its slumber. The egg is taken from the island via a massive platform towed in the ocean, but en route to Japan the ship is intercepted by both Godzilla and Battra. A battle ensues once the Mothra larva hatches, with both Godzilla and Battra getting in some big hits before Mothra retreats when the two titans decide to take on each other. At the ocean's floor, a large fissure opens up and swallows Godzilla and Battra in mid-battle.
Once back on the mainland, the Cosmos are kidnapped by corrupt members of the Diet of Japan. Mothra enters the city to rescue them, but instead finds a waiting army that launches a full-scale assault. Wounded, but not dying, Mothra makes her way to the Diet building and uses her webbing to form a cocoon. While Mothra metamorphoses, Godzilla reemerges from Mt. Fuji, while Battra returns from the sea, now in a final winged form. Mothra hatches in time to battle Battra, a battle she is losing before Godzilla shows up to get it back on with Battra. Unfortunately for Battra, it quickly loses the fight against Big G, but before a death blow can be dealt Mothra gets back into the melee and uses her "special powers" (in quotes because who the hell knows exactly what it is she's doing) to temporarily disable Godzilla. While he's down, she confers with Battra and forges an alliance, both of them seeing Godzilla as the bigger threat. The final battle sees the newly-formed tag team taking on Godzilla at the amusement part grounds, eventually knocking him down and carrying him off before Godzilla bites Battra and blasts it with his atomic breath, mortally wounding it. Mothra drops them both into the sea and heads off into space to stop some meteor that Battra was supposed to handle, but, you know, now it's dead and all...The end.
I found this to be the first entry in the series where I really felt no investment in the storyline. The faux Indiana Jones opening was bad enough, but there are so many moments of bad dialogue and forced humor peppered throughout that it's really hard to find much to like on the human side of things. It comes down to greedy businessmen and corrupt politicians, something that, coincidentally enough, the first Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964) deal with. But that picture had the benefit of '60s charm and sensibility, whereas this has nothing all that enticing.
This was the third time that Megumi Odaka returned as Miki Saegusa, the chick with ESP who seems to have the hots for Godzilla. Seriously, check out how she reacts to him during her run on the series. When she first appeared in Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), there was something for her to do: trying to get inside Godzilla's mind. When that proved far too difficult (he made her pass out from his will), she came back in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) in a diminished role, essentially serving as mental liaison to Godzilla. She knows when he's arriving before anyone else. Here, she mainly helps out in finding the Cosmos and making some minor predictions about Godzilla's movements. I was never terribly fond of her character, seeing little value in someone mentally communicating with Godzilla, but over the course of her character's arc she did kinda grow on me. The series continued to keep familiar faces around during the Heisei era, too, but Miki is the only character to be featured in more than two Godzilla movies. Saegusa has said she'd love to return to the series decades later, as Akira Takarada has, and I say I'd welcome seeing her pop up in a new Toho production twenty years from now. Assuming they're still around and making Godzilla movies then...
Where this picture largely succeeds is in the monster battles. Some films in this series shy away from showing Godzilla until nearly an hour has passed, while others show him early and often. This movie employs more of the latter's formula, with Godzilla glimpsed early on when the huge meteor hits Earth. Fro that point onward, we get a number of battles between all of the principal monsters. I really loved Godzilla's underwater battler with Battra. Cinematographer Masahiro Kishimoto got some amazing wide angle shots that show off the beautiful environment created for these two to do battle. And his work during the climactic battle at the amusement park is, again, replete with outstanding camera work. Once the three-way melee starts going, it rarely lets up for anything else to be shown. And Battra is a formidable opponent for both Mothra and Godzilla, too. The choreography and impressive suit actor work more than make up for any lackluster moments with the human cast.
Godzilla got a minor facelift once again. This new suit ,the BatoGoji, featured changes like golden-hued eyes, pronounced ribbing on the neck, a slightly smaller head, and a minor rearrangement of the dorsal plates. The look is very much in line with Koichi Kawakita's overall design for the Godzilla of the '90s, and I like that he went back and made small, but noticeable, changes for each subsequent film. Honestly, it wouldn't feel like a Godzilla movie if something wasn't changed a little between each entry.
Akira Ifukube returned once again to provide the film's score. I wasn't terribly impressed with his work here, as it features a re-working of some classic themes alongside new compositions that, frankly, aren't nearly as memorable. It's a shame because I really dug what he did for the Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah score. It's not bad by any means. Think of it like Ennio Morricone's oeuvre - he's never done an outright bad score (although, admittedly I haven't heard all 200+ he's done), and even his most "lazy" work is exemplary. But because Ifukube set his own bar so high, it's telling if he doesn't quite reach it. I will give him credit for Mothra's themes here, which are these haunting, ethereal interpretations of her classic melody. They're utterly beautiful.
On a more pressing note: this film is another candidate badly in need of a new Blu-ray release. The current DVD, from Sony/Columbia, is a full frame motherfucker with a shitty 2.0 English dub track (good god!). It is deplorable in every sense of the word. I was fortunate enough to find a decent widescreen DVD bootleg, which appears to have been sourced from the Japanese release. With Godzilla's 60th birthday upon us this very year, I'd say it's high time we get every goddamn movie in stunning HD.
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