Watang! Nel favoloso impero dei mostri

GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (AKA GODZILLA VS. THE THING) (3+ outta 5 stars) I remember going to see this movie at a kiddie matinée as a tot. The ads never showed what "The Thing" was... but I expected some big, mean, scary creature that would be even more formidable than 'Zilla himself! I sure wasn't expecting... a giant moth. (Or a pair of baby slugs for that matter.) Now, of course, this all sounds pretty ridiculous to all the non-Godzilla-fans out there... but, of all the Godzilla films ever made, this is the one that is most fondly-remembered. There are some great scenes in this one: Godzilla's best entrance ever (he comes bursting out of the earth tail-first) Godzilla taking apart some grand Japanese architecture piece by piece is still impressive even when you *know* that it is only an actor in a suit taking apart a miniature model. Plus there are the two, tiny twins who come to Tokyo from their remote island paradise to ask for their giant radioactive back after it washes up on a Japanese beach. Mothra is, well, he's a giant moth... and he's on the verge of dying... so how much of a fight is he going to put up? But he only has to occupy 'Zilla until the egg containing his successor hatches. Anyway, silly as it all sounds, the movie works really well... definitely the 'Zilla movie to watch if you've never seen one before.

Two years after the rather underwhelming but financially successful King Kong versus Godzilla, Toho Studios continued its most important franchise with fourth entry Mothra versus Godzilla. This movie is one of the highlights in the franchise and its best movie of the sixties along with Invasion of Astro Monster. The story has many interesting facets such as greed, perseverance, renaissance, sacrifice and spirituality.

After a terrible typhoon, a strict news reporter and his creative photographer find a mysterious object in the debris. A gigantic egg is also discovered next to a village and quickly bought by a greedy entrepreneur and the backstabbing businessman behind him. Two tiny twin girls from Infant Island reveal that the egg belongs to gigantic moth Mothra and that the dying gigantic monster will be reborn as a larva once the egg hatches. The entrepreneur and businessman ignore the twin girls' warning and the complaints of local fishermen but soon get into an argument regarding promotion and wealth. Meanwhile, the reporter and photographer contact a professor and they discover that the mysterious object is a radioactive scale. When they investigate the place where they found the debris again, they are immediately stopped by a selfish politician who wants to avoid negative articles. However, the ground suddenly starts to shake as Godzilla rises from the underground as it becomes obvious that the radioactive scale belonged to him. The king of monsters goes on a rampage and attacks the city of Nagoya. The military isn't able to stop the monster this time around. The reporter, photographer and professor ask the tribe from Infant Island to send Mothra as her egg is also likely to get destroyed by Godzilla. The tribe is initially hesitant to agree but the twin girls convince them and decide to summon Mothra to fight Godzilla.

This highlight in the franchise convinces on multiple levels. The film criticizes egoism, greed and ignorance by spreading powerful, relevant and even timeless messages.

The story is quite diversified with its many twists and turns. The story about the greedy businessmen is as captivating as the reporter's, photographer's and professor's quest for truth and the dramatic battle between the two titular gigantic monsters.

The settings are particularly exotoc this time around. Especially the scenes filmed on Infant Island are splendid to watch. The rituals to summon Mothra are certainly highlights as well.

The speciall effects have greatly improved since the previous installment. The opening scene with the terrible typhoon is already quite impressive. The gigantic egg is stunning to watch. Aged moth Mothra, a resilient Godzilla and the larva that hatches from the egg are beautiful as well. Even the fight choreographies between the monsters are of a rare intensity.

Mothra versus Godzilla might not reinvent the kaiju movie genre but it's an impressive return to form for the frachise after nine years. This movie sets the bar for all upcoming Showa Era Godzilla movies. Fans of the franchise will find everything they like about it here such as sympathetic characters, moral lessons and impressive monsters.

As a major fan of the original dark, haunting kaiju movies, I very much enjoy watching "Godzilla vs. Mothra" even though I still can't understand why they call Mothra "the Thing" (maybe it's just in the Americanized dubbed version).

Godzilla's appearance in this movie is very good, however, there are some problems with his mouth in this movie. They are very wobbly and that's because in the sequence where Godzilla emerges from underground, the suit got damaged and the mouth got loose. And later on, the head caught on fire, although if you ask me, that was pretty cool and showed how invincible and invulnerable Godzilla really is.

The music's superior with legendary composer Akira Ifukube campusing the score. Eiji Tsuburaya handles the great special effects and Ishiro Honda's talents as a director come through in this movie.

"Godzilla vs. Mothra" (1964) has been known for a very long time as probably the best Godzilla film, in many circles even over the first one, and rightfully so. All the elements were probably at their best for this film - the script was entertaining from start to finish; the characters were likable and interesting; the music was at its most powerful and memorable; the filmography was its most striking; and the monster action incredible. This was also the movie with, hands down, the greatest Godzilla costume ever created.

Known as "Godzilla vs. The Thing" before being changed to the present title somewhere along the line, I cannot stress enough what a great film this is. Godzilla makes an awesome first appearance, and from there the movie actually features a lot of very realistic rear-screen photography of Godzilla roaming around real Japan landscapes and streets. There are some truly amazing shots of Godzilla coming from behind real buildings and mountains, as the usual crowds run for their lives. For some reason, Godzilla films in the original series very rarely used this process after this film, and in the rare case they did, it didn't look nearly as good as it does here.

I am very fortunately to actually own this film on the Simitar Godzilla DVD box set release from 1999, which features this movie in perfect quality and in widescreen. This box set is of the highest quality, totally blowing away the insulting Sony Godzilla DVD box set with some of the same movies, including "Godzilla vs. Mothra," only in very poor quality. If you have the hundreds of dollars to spend, finding a used Simitar DVD set is the way to go.

Of course, another plus is that this is the only Godzilla movie ever to have monster scenes filmed for the American release that were not included in the Japanese release. Of course, seeing this on widescreen rules!

This is also a landmark film because this is the last film of the original series where Godzilla is completely on the bad side. Absolutely not to be missed by any serious monster or sci-fi/fantasy fan.

I grew up on the fancier Godzilla flicks of the 1980s and 90s, so it took me a while to accept the flabby-faced, goofy-lookin' Godzilla of the 1960s. Even in his first appearance, the big G looked a lot more convincing, and menacing, than he is here. This film, like the one that preceded it, is part of a downward trend in the series' production values. It certainly is tough to take seriously.

But...so flippin' what? Despite screamingly obvious flaws, this flick is a blast. The surprisingly rich storyline involves corporate greed, nuclear testing, and totally bizarre mysticism. The science fiction and fantasy elements blend well, and it's fascinating as always to get the occasional insight into Japanese culture.

The acting is obviously good, even in the dubbed version, and some of the directing isn't bad (although Honda did a much better job on the first film - perhaps he had less money for this one). The fights are a bit silly, of course, but there is the occasional thrilling moment, such as when Godzilla's head gets set on fire, and when he melts a whole mess of nicely detailed model tanks. Ifkube's dramatic score elevates the film considerably, except of course when he gets into wailing horns turf, which is when I always reach for the "volume down" button.

If you can't stand the cheese, stay out of Godzilla's way. If you can, there's some fun to be had here.