Godzilla vs. Mothra [Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for Earth]


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This 1992 film (ゴジラvsモスラ) seems as if it were written within a LSD trip. It is fantasy Keiju madness and I relished it regardless of its nonsense plot elements including the environmental message regarding earth destroying corporations​, meteorite crashing onto the planet to awaken a giant, explosive-breath lizard (Godzilla) a pair of harmonious pint-size twins called the cosmos who tell us of nature's protective creatures (Mothra and the darker, more insect-like Battra) and how mankind has really screwed up with their destructive blunders upon the planet, & Yokohama subbing for Tokyo (they finally catch a break) as a battle of monsters wreaks havoc across the city, leaving buildings leveled and an amusement park losing its Ferris Wheel. Explorers (Tetsuya Besso and ex Satomi Kobayashi) and a rep for a tree company being protested near Mount Fuji (Takehiro Murata) locate the egg of Mothra in caterpillar form and Cosmos, the smiling, environment-friendly twins you can hold in your hand like Barbie dolls. Godzilla is now loose, stomping in the waters towards Yokohama, encountering Battra and, eventually, Mothra. Battra teeters between villain and hero, while Godzilla is almost exclusively villain. Mothra eventually cocoons and emerges a beautiful, multi-color winged creature, with these emitting glittery sparkles (resembling glitter snow, or something) and electric lightning bolts but it is more aesthetic than badass. Battra has this unicorn-like horn that fires off blasting flame closely resembling Godzilla's own fire-breathing destructive force. Battra is black, more insect than moth, and is ornery. According to Cosmos, Battra was to infiltrate a meteor in 1999 hurtling from space toward Earth. When Godzilla takes a nice bite out of Battra and breathes fire into the shit-yellow bleeding wound, it will not be able to go on. Godzilla is "sealed" by Mothra's mystical "glyph" (it's cool visually although this is surreal from a storytelling standpoint) once he's dumped with the lifeless Battra in the ocean to remain in captivity! This wacky content is delivered so seriously with characters looking out at the monster mayhem with transfixed faces. One girl always delivers the line, "Godzilla." Another takes in how his company is in the shits due to environmental outrage in the forms of monsters. A family maintain conversations with Cosmos as they light up in a glow and sing. Mothra sends off glitter that covers Godzilla, which would appear to serve as irritant rather than punishing. Mothra is pretty not intimidating, but she gets to fly off into space to save the world. Sucks to be Big G, losing to Cute M. Well, Godzilla did have to take on both of them for its tenure on screen...so that could be its excuse. A city is left in fiery rubble, still. Big G still let's folks know it leaves structural devastation in his wake. The actors, meanwhile, serve as mainly background noise and there is the eco-friendly message on not inviting the wrath of giant monsters. I always liked the 90s revival of the Toho classics, and despite being strange (or maybe because of it...) ゴジラvsモスラ is not without lots of models being obliterated, including tanks and planes (of course!) and monsters blast apart whatever appears in front of or around them. Except Mothra...she's saintly.










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