Godzilla Mothra

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah / Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth

-Columbia/Tristar Studios (1991/1992)

Summary

Its two, two Godzilla films in one!

My Thoughts

For a long time Godzilla didn't get the DVD treatment that he deserved in the states. Aside from the few bad releases of older Godzilla films, there weren't any of the newer films available except for Godzilla 2000, the American Godzilla (curses!), and three double feature editions. Now days things are a little different and the releases get a little more respectability than a crappy double feature. Still, these double packs haven’t been re-released yet so we are stuck reviewing this set. This double feature edition contains one of my favorite Godzilla films of all time, and a rather dull one, but more on those later.

As for the edition, it leaves a lot to be desired. First of all, these films are presented in full frame, hideous and ugly full frame. The prints are also pretty dirty and the video quality is average. The surround sound mix is practically non-existent. This set is best purchased if you like Godzilla and realize you're probably never going to see these films in any other format.

Now, onto the films. Beware though, it’s a spoiler minefield.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah was the follow-up to the reincarnation of Godzilla that was Godzilla vs. Biollante in the early 90s. I haven't seen that film in a long time, but from what I remember it wasn't half as campy as this one, or even one third as campy. This is how Godzilla films work for me; ultra bad yet highly entertaining. This just happens to be one of my favorite Godzilla films because it is so hilarious and this is the one Godzilla film to watch, if you only ever saw one.

The plot is a little complicated, but clever for a bad B flick. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah begins with the appearance of a UFO over the skies of Japan. The Japanese make contact with the visitors who turn out to be from the future. In fact, they are called Futurians. What a stretch! The visitors are all white guys except for the sole female named Emmy who says appropriately, "I'm Japanese!" At first I didn't know what to make of these visitors, but since you can ever trust a white man I knew trouble was brewing.

The Futurians let it be known that Japan doesn't exist in the future because Godzilla turned it into a nuclear wasteland. They offer to help the Japanese by going back in time and getting rid of Godzilla before he was transformed into a super powered radioactive killing machine. I don't understand why the white men from the future need Japanese to go back in time with them, since they don't provide any assistance whatsoever to their mission, but who am I to criticize white men from the future? They go back to the time of WWII during the attack on a Japanese held island where pre-radioactive dinosaur Godzilla is hanging out. The Futurians bring along these things called Dorats, three cute little critters with ESP powers. The reason for bringing them is clearly explained, "If we get lost, they'll cheer us up!" Why, that's the first thing I'd want if I was lost! The time traveling team watches Godzilla, the dinosaur version, decimate a whole company of American soldiers, not bothering to disturb the Japanese soldiers in the least. He's badly injured from the attack and is left to die by an American commander who accepts the death of the landing force and gives up the island by saying, "that island doesn't need military people, it needs scientists!" That's the kind of attitude that won us the war.

The sneaky white men take Godzilla back to the present and throw his carcass in the sea, leaving the Dorats behind. Of course, by the time they get back to the “present,” King Ghidorah is soaring around blowing shit up. The white men double-crossed the Japanese by leaving the Dorats to get hit by the atom bomb that was supposed to transform the dinosaur into Godzilla! The best part of all of this is that the motivation for doing so is that Japan will rise to become the dominant nation in the world and the white men are essentially jealous of her might and power. It is about this time that Emmy switches over to the good side. Why did the white men bring a Japanese woman along for their plot to destroy Japan? What did they think would happen? My theory is that they are just stupid crackers. Will Japan be destroyed by evil crackers from the future? Watch for yourself in one of Godzilla's greatest films.

Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth

As we've stated before here at Digital Monkey Box, Godzilla continuity is all screwed up. In this film the first Godzilla must have happened, but its not really acknowledged what has come afterwards. Mothra definitely didn't fight against Godzilla or alongside him in this film, because it’s her "first" appearance here. Whatever the case, the The Battle for Earth begins with an Indiana Jones rip-off scene. Our hero… well who really cares about what the people are doing anyway? The important part is a giant asteroid lands near Japan waking up Godzilla from his sleep, it also causes a ruckus that uncovers a giant egg on an island, and worst of all, unleashes the dangerous Battra. Battra is the “evil” looking Mothra for those of you not in the know. I've always liked Mothra and the best part of Mothra being back is the creepy little twins! Yay! They tell the heroes that Mothra was a guardian of Earth thousands of years ago. The ancient society that lived on Earth angered it (the Earth being a living creature) so it created an anti-Mothra called Battra to destroy all of humanity. Mothra and Battra fought in an epic battle that ended with both of them dead, but each apparently had eggs sitting around just in case. Back in the present, a royal battle ensues when all three monsters meet up.

In The Battle for Earth, Godzilla isn't really bad, but he's definitely not good. I wasn't ever sure of his motivation in this one, but I'm thinking it was more or less to kill every other big monster in sight, and then go destroy Japan. Mothra is the eternal good guy in this film and it was a little disappointing. Perhaps my love of the 60s films has tainted me, but Mothra and Godzilla didn't team up to defeat the big bad guy. My biggest problem with the film is that it is mostly a Mothra film and only sort of a Godzilla film. He doesn't get a lot of screen time and by the time the big battle rolls around, it's really not that great.

I was a little let down by the film, because it really is the B side to this double feature. For a Godzilla film its rather ho-hum, but it is nice to see Mothra again.

Extras

Sigh, this edition is bereft of extras. There are trailers for each film, but nothing else, not even motion menus!

Score:

Films:

Ghidorah: 8.5

Mothra: 6.0

Extras: 2.0

Edition: 6.0

-Paul

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