Renaissance de Mothra 2

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 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.

After kicking the butt of Death Ghidorah, Mothra takes on Dagarah, a creature who was genetically engineered to destroy garbage which went wrong (don't they always?). It's producing starfish-like creatures called Barem, and Mothra's the only one who can stop Dagarah before he destroys the world!

Mothra's more or less the same in this movie (apart from the final battle). The same beam weapons as before, but gets a colour change courtesy of the healing powers of Ghogo.

Dagarah's an odd one. It's original, I'll give it that, but apart from that, it's not a particularly good monster. It's good how Mothra can't touch him, especially when he dives deeper beneath the sea. Apart from that, it's not much good.

AquaMothra is one of the best Mothra forms I've seen. The CGI-fuelled sequence with the multi AquaMothras shooting their beam weapons inside of Dagarah is pretty surreal, but it's meant to be!

Ghogo's one of the most bizarre points of the movie. You can actually see the wire which it's attached to when it bounces! Even more bizarre is its human-healing properties: its urine. I wonder if it's any relation to Trumpy from Pod People, like a mother's niece's friend's friend's sister's person-who-they-met-in-the-mall's cousin's school-friend's pet. Ghogo, you can do magic things! (It's called evil. Or is it more like goofiness?)

I'm not going to talk about the kids. The Elias are not much different. Moll's still determined to stop the creature and Belvera, where Lora is still the unsure, emotional one. Belvera doesn't get much screentime, and when she does, it's in the company of those two nimrods she hired. Garu Garu's back, but its more mechanised this time. When Mothra lifts Dagarah out of the water when it's been killed (or something like it) the princess says something, Mothra's tractor-beam loses hold, and DAGARAH LANDS ON THE TEMPLE, COMPLETELY OBLITERATED!!! Was that meant to happen?

At the end of the movie, there should have been a prelude to MOSURA 3 with King Ghidorah heading towards Earth....

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.

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.