Rebirth of Mothra (1996)

Truly Dreadful Film

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is the first of 1990s Mothra trilogy after the death of '90s Godzilla in 1995. The tone of this trilogy is very different from that of Godzilla's. In this movie, Mothra is the protector of earth, and when a monster which threatens to destroy earth's habitat, Mothra comes to rescue. I rather liked this movie because of its beautiful cinematography and a plot that was not based simply on destruction, but about the importance of protecting our environment. While American cinema was busy producing darker movies in the '90s, this series positively bucked the trend with its brilliant color and putting nature before humans.Casting was okay. It had a good central focus for a change called the Elias. But for the most part, Toho can use better actors in all its movies. Watch this, and you'll be treated to the most beautiful colors you've ever seen.

Death Ghidora is a terrible three-headed monster that is released when a seal is removed from his tomb. Little fairies Lora and Moll must call upon the aged Mothra. This Mothra won a previous battle with Death Ghidora many, many years ago but that was when she was still a young Moth. Now, the years of battle and time have taken its toll on her body. She has an egg waiting to be hatched but when the battle begins it is not ready. Off to save the world once more is Mothra. Like a battle weary fighter, Mothra tries to pull off a "Rocky" ending. Inside the egg her youngster senses that "Momma" is in trouble and hatches early. Can baby save Momma? Can Momma and baby Mothra team together and defeat the evil. Can the little fairies defeat the evil fairy "Belvera?" This film is a good story of "evil vs good" and also of "family!" A must for all those fans of Japanese monster films.

I got this DVD more then a year ago in L.A. Being a long- time Godzilla and Co. fan, and seeing a DVD with a double feature of Rebirth of Mothra, and Rebirth of Mothra 2 was just too silly for me not to buy. Rebirth of Mothra is definitely that, silly. Sometimes it's a good kind of silly, other times it's just a boring silly. The plot was a typical kaiju (Japanese for monster, i.e. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, etc.) plot, with a seal being removed and a wicked monster coming out to wreak havoc on the planet. The human acting wasn't that good, really. The special effects were pretty cool in places, and bad in others and there was some pretty good cinematography. Most of the kaijus I've seen, which is a hell of a lot, tie the humans into the story somehow. That way you're not just watching two bigass monsters going at it for 90 minutes. Most of the time, the human plot is cheesy but still entertaining. Rebirth of Mothra is not one of those. The human plot, if I could even call it that, was boring and pointless and pretty much just had a couple bratty kids sitting on a mountainside watching the battle. If that's not bad enough, some of the lines seemed to be spoken in telekinesis, considering it was just blank stares looking at each other. I don't know whether to blame the writing, the directing, or the acting for all the blank, meaningless stares. All the humans were pretty horrible actors, and the bad dubbing didn't help any. The only three who were actually pretty cool were the three faerie girls. They weren't the same as the twin faeries from previous Mothra movies, and they weren't even twins. Actually, they looked totally different, but that's ok. They wore cool costumes, carried most of the story, and even sang a song or two. And the evil faerie sister, trying to use Desghidorah for her own evil ways, was actually pretty cute, so that's always a plus. The special effects had its ups and downs. There were a few really great looking scenes, and Desghidorah (which was pretty much like a black King Ghidorah with four legs) was pretty badass looking. Mothra looked pretty cool in a few scenes, too. There was the usual caterpillar version crawling around for a little bit which looked the same as always, if not a little worse then in older movies. I don't really want to give it away, but the underwater Mothra scene looked really good. The only problem is, there can't be the same kind of action that's in a Godzilla movie, and cause Mothra just isn't as tough or limber as Big G. She can fly around and shoot stuff, but that's about it. This is pretty evident through most of the movie, when Mothra's getting beaten pretty badly. But there is one pretty cool scene near the end where it actually convinces you that Mothra CAN kick some ass. Overall: It's a so-so kaiju, with a couple cool fight scenes. It's mostly pretty boring, focusing on human's who don't really have much to say or do, other then run around, doing silly stuff. It's worth a rental if you're into these kinds of movies.

This film has many colorful and beautiful sceneries, especially the forest scenes. Mothra begins a new solo adventure, battling Desghidorah to save Earth's green landscape. She hatches an egg and out comes her son MothraLeo. To pick up where his mother left off, MothraLeo battles Desghidorah to the finish.There are amusing battle scenes and great special effects by Koichi Kawakita. And, there is a fine score by Toshiyuki Watanabe. This movie is a big change from the concepts of the original Mothra of the 1960s. The two tiny priestesses are not twins like the original one who were portrayed by The Peanuts, and each one in this movie is actually given a name: Mona and Lora (the "Elias"). They have an evil sister named Belvera who favors Desghidorah's mission to turn Earth into a barren landscape. The central character in this movie is a kid who helps Mona and Lora battle their evil sister. The scene where the Elias and Belvera riding on their "Mothra" pets and shooting rays at each other at the kid's home is too childish and took away to much time in the movie. The scene is more associated with kids' shows or cartoons. And, MothraLeo's powers are very excessive. Its releasing of rays and beams make MothraLeo act more like a robotic creature. Though all the creatures in this movie are worked out well, there are limited emphasis to the human characters and overall, the movie is more kid-oriented. The Mothras in this movie are not treated like the Sacred Goddess in the Mothra films from the 1960s, but more like superheros ready to defend Earth. And, there are no natives worshiping Mothra in this film as in the 1960s Mothra films, making Mothra seem less sacred, as it was suppose to be according to the original concept. But, the ever-so-popular "Mothra's Song" (sung in Malaysian as always) returns and is performed by the Elias. Some new songs are introduced also. A serviceable movie, otherwise, to spend 106 minutes on a boring day.Grade C