Renaissance de Mothra 2

Well, why did we need three "Rebirth of Mothra" movies with a year in between one another? Seems a bit excessive and cashing in on the success of the Kaiju genre.

Regardless, I sat down to watch the 1997 movie "Mosura 2: Kaitei no deikessen" (aka "Rebirth of Mothra 2", just shortly after I had sat down to watch the 1996 movie "Rebirth of Mothra". Wait... Something is amiss here. The two movies were almost clones of one another, just with minor changes to them.

In both movies, Mothra is reawakened to come to fight another Kaiju that has been stirred from its slumber. First it was a three-headed reptile, then it was a winged aquatic reptile. Two miniature women ride around on a miniature Mothra and calls forth Mothra from her sleep. A group of children are drawn into the fight against their own wishes.

Yup, the 1997 movie was essentially just a clone of the 1996 movie. And that was a shame. Whereas I enjoyed the 1996 movie, seeing everything again just with a different enemy, different children, and such, didn't really do much to win me over.

That being said, if you haven't seen the 1996 "Rebirth of Mothra" movie, then you will definitely like "Rebirth of Mothra 2" - as they are essentially the same movie. But for us that have seen the previous movie, this was a bit of a shallow cash-in.

But wait, in this 1997 movie Mothra becomes fully submerged in salt water. One would think that a moth and salt water is not the best of combos. But I guess a Kaiju moth is impervious to that and survives it regardless.

There are minor changes between the 1997 and 1996 movie, but not enough to really make the two movies different. A shame really.

I thought this was a really enjoyable movie, though aimed very much at kids. It reminded me of the old-style Gamera flicks, but with an important difference: the kid-heros behaved much more like real children than the insufferable brats of 60's monster movies.

However, my adult-brain has some reservations about it. Most of all, I found the inevitable "what I learned from the Monster" message appalling: the kids suggest it's best not to know too much, and much better to stay uninformed and let God straighten everything out. That's probably not the interpretation the film-makers wanted, but I thought that was what came across, loud and clear.

Another problem -- less serious and actually kind of endearing -- is the poverty of the special effects. Oh, don't get me wrong: some of the effects are first rate, especially those involving Mothra's transformations; and the matte shots are way ahead of the first "Mothra" (1996), where I found myself thinking of bad 70's sci-fi. But I've never seen more visible wire-work outside of a Full Moon picture. Otherwise impressive shots of Dagahrla streaking through the skies are ruined by the obvious cables running from its back. Then there's the Gogo, that bizarre Furby-like creature that creates miracles by peeing on things... even when you can't see the wire attached to his head, you just KNOW it's there.

Much more fun and far less ponderous than some of the later Godzilla flicks, this movie will appeal to anyone who has a lingering affection for the old Gamera movies, shortcomings and all. Just try not to think about it too much...

This movie is the first sequel to the first solo effort following the Hesei Godzilla series. Like the first one, this movie is directed toward kids. In this movie, three kids are searching for a treasure of an underwater civilization while Mothra battles an underwater monster called Dagala, who was a product of the civilization. This movie has a very fast pace and some really good special effects. Dagala is an impressive monster as well. However, the special FX crew went way overkill on the monsters' powers. I've never seen so many different types of energy weapons from both combatants. I felt like I was watching a light show instead of kaiju fight sometimes. The underwater Mothra was also too much. This movie also contains some corny scenes (i.e. "jumping" over the chasm and the water slide scene). Overall, this movie is a fast-paced kaiju film with some good special FX and extended fight scenes. However, it does not match the epic quality that the Godzilla series reached.

The sequel to Rebirth of Mothra is surprisingly much more

entertaining. The cast is a lot better, and a lot less pointless.

The sets are pretty cool and much more interesting then the first

one. The plot is pretty much a typical kaiju plot, with the same

Captain Planet stuff the first one had. The new monster, Dagahra, is

pretty cool, too.

One of the main things that killed Rebirth of Mothra was the human

interaction and how pointless it was. Thankfully, this one has a lot

better and a lot less pointless human interaction. The main

characters are still kids, but they're a lot less annoying then the

ones from the first one. There's also more for them to do, and no

blank stares! It's a lot more like the usual kaiju plot and it helps

make the movie more entertaining.

Another thing that was kind of boring with Rebirth was the sets. It

was pretty much just forest. This is a lot more interesting, with a

city being demolished, and a bunch of cool water scenes, as well as a

great looking ancient pyramid that comes out of the water. The

inside of the pyramid is a bunch of corridors that are like part Last

Crusade and part Stargate.

The plot is a typical kaiju/Captain Planet one. Humans do bad

things, like polluting the oceans; monster comes to wreak havoc for

it. The little twin faerie girls of Mothra, Moll and Lora, come to

the rescue and call on Mothra to fight the creature off. Belvera,

the bad faerie sister, tries to stop them. They're costumes have

changed since the first movie, and they still look pretty cool, but I

liked Belvera's old costume better. At least the Captain Planet

stuff isn't as sappy as it was in the first movie.

Dagahra is pretty cool looking, but not as cool as some of the other

baddies in other kaiju movies. The fight scenes were a lot more

action packed and a lot steadier then the first, which helped keep

the boredom at bay. But still, I tended to get bored while watching

it. While Mothra can kick ass, his powers seem to be so weird and

varied that it's almost like there isn't anything he can't do.

Mothra can even transform into Aqua-Mothra to fight underwater, as

well as turn into a bunch of Mini-Mothras to actually go INSIDE

Dagahra and fight the little poisonous starfish critters it can shoot

out.

Overall: Rebirth of Mothra 2 is more entertaining then the first one,

but it's still a mediocre kaiju movie. It goes from kinda

entertaining, to kinda weird, and finally just kinda boring. Like

the first one, it's worth renting if you're a fan.

The sequel to the 1996 "Rebirth of Mothra" and like its predecessor it is a mixed bag. In all technical reasoning, this movie's characters suck more ass than the first one's. For some odd reason, the writers thought it was a good idea to mimic the 60s Gamera movies and center the film on child characters. Thing is, 60s Gamera sucked ass, so how was it in any way a good idea? In doing so the human angle is entirely botched from the start, and ruins the movie's remote chance of standing up to Godzilla. It's even more painful in the dubbed version, so please, if you can and at all just stay away from the English dubbed DVD. That means you Sony.

It's a real shame, considering almost every other aspect is done quite well. Mothra Leo is a beautiful rendition of the giant moth, and Dagahra is an impressive foe, looking pretty bad ass. The fight scenes are pretty well executed, although there's some over kill with Mothra and all those laser beams. The temple of Ninai Kanai itself is an awesome miniature and there's actually city destruction in this one. And composer Toshiyuki Watanabe is no Akira Ifukube, but the score is well done and I have to admit some moments were made truly awesome because of it. And let's not forget the final battle where (Aqua) Mothra delivers the bad-ass final blow. I enjoyed the monster scenes and special effects quite a bit, but when the monsters are not on screen I get annoyed.