Mosura 2: Kaitei no daikessen

This film was almost entirely uninteresting and boring. Throughout the time I was watching it, I considered at least five times changing the channel because I was getting so bored. But I wanted to see the movie for the monsters.

There are several reasons why I dislike this film. And the first and most main reason is the main characters. They're children! Annoying little children! Like in the Showa Gamera films. They really get on my nerves throughout the film, for the movie concentrates mostly on them and not the monsters.

But when there are monster sequences, this film will keep its viewers watching. Like your average Heisei monster film, the battles are pretty good with lots of 'beam-war' action. Maybe this is just a flaw in the English dubbing, but the antagonist, Dagahrah, I pronounced something like "Dagarlah." So, watch this movie only for the monster sequences. But if you didn't like the Heisei Godzilla fights, don't watch this movie at all.

The first "Rebirth of Mothra" was truly an interesting movie but the second incarnation is weak. All three of the little fairies: Moll, Lora and the evil Belvera return which helps this movie. Mothra is no longer just a youngster from the first but a more mature Moth with new weapons to save the Earth. The best weapon was the ability to change into an underwater Moth. She was like a "slick" looking submarine as she was swimming. Another weapon was the ability to break into little Moths, with the "battle smarts" to battle the evil creature Dagarah internally. Talk about giving someone "heartburn." Dagarah sure had a pain in his stomach. He needed to learn that swallowing your enemy is not the "best policy." The weakest part of this film was a little doll like thing called the "Ghogo." It was supposed to contain much power but this was really hard to believe if you "judge a book" by its appearance. It was so child-like that this film seemed like a "kiddie-fair" whenever you watched this creature move around.

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.

I started watching this on a whim, since it was uploaded as Japanese dub with English subtitles, which is how I prefer to watch the kaiju movies. I hadn't seen the first 'Rebirth of Mothra' before this one, so I may have been missing some context for it.

It definitely seemed more of a kids' movie than some of the kaijus I've seen.

I give it major deductions, particularly for its heavy reliance on greenscreens & early-gen CGI, which made for a lot of unbelievable scenes. I was surprised at the amount of blood shown on the shirts of the two human antagonists in one of the later scenes - & even more surprised to see them in the scene immediately following to be wearing perfectly clean shirts!

I give it one star for the studio of the ancient city, which was surprisingly ornate, one star for the explosions & such which they look to have put a lot of work into, & three stars for Moll & Lora. Those two cuties were the stars of the show for me. I wouldn't mind wifing that Sayaka Yamaguchi, to be honest.

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.