It's a curious thing - I KNOW I've seen at least some if not all of Mothra in my life (probably in that one week where I watched a bunch of monster movies in a marathon that was made possible by, ironically, Emmerich's Godzilla), but it didn't stick out the way that Godzilla: King of the Monsters or some of the others did (even the bad ones like Godzilla's Revenge). I think I know why as well: if I were a real little kid seeing this, I might not take to it as strongly as other monster movies that feature more of, well, the monster! Mothra *her*self is not even really seen in her full winged glory until around the last ten minutes of the movie, and before that when she hatches from an egg (long story... actually, not really), she's a larvae crawling across oceans and land to mess up things while searching for the two identical twins who have been taken away from the island from whence it came.
I say this, and yet seeing it now as an adult I found myself enjoying it as a quasi-guilty pleasure. Or is it even that 'guilty' so to speak? The director is Ishiro Honda, who was behind many Japanese Kaiiju flicks, including the original Godzilla, and he gives us characters that are fun to watch. Are they exactly fresh or original? No, probably not, but that's part of why I had a good time with this movie - he and the writers seem to embrace the dumb clichés of the characters like the (at first) bumbling comic relief in the fat reporter, or the villain who looks like he was born with a scowl and evil eyebrows, or his accomplice who seems to be missing an Edward G. Robinson voice-over dub whenever he smokes a cigar. There's also the sorta bland hero and heroine, and, almost as a good luck charm, the great Takashi Shimura appears as the newspaper editor (and even in a seemingly thankless role where he's largely at a table or on the phone he gives as much dramatic tension and listening skills as an actor like him should do - yes, listening, watch him damn it!)
So in a sense this does and doesn't have the issues that something like the 2014 Godzilla movie had; that had weak human characters and, while impressive, not as much Godzilla as one might've liked. Here, the characters and the actors playing them (one of them in this English dub is "Nelson!"!) commit fully and bring some real emotion and reaction to what is essentially more of a quasi Skull Island movie than something we'd usually see with Godzilla. Think about it - a bunch of scientists go to an island because of reports from some guys who are rescued that there's some radioactive things going on, and when they arrive there's a tribe of natives guarding some heavy secret... and then the two little women arrive (who sometimes, when picked up by actors hands, are literal dolls).
But in a shallow level the lack of more Mothra in the run-time is disappointing. And yet again when thinking about it, it's almost a challenge of a monster movie for the filmmakers after several films (and more to come) that are just guys in rubber suits, it's ambitious that they attempted to have a flying puppet (albeit one that's more cute than an outright threat), and there's even an odd delight that a giant larvae-slug-what-have-you is causing destruction for several scenes. The characters around them are somewhat stock but with enough personality that you can be carried along as it being a movie on its own. And then the... destruction happens and you can see all of the toy soldiers on top of the toy tanks and all of the toy trucks and obvious fake bridges. Which, of course, adds to the delight!
You couldn't make this kind of movie today, it's basically impossible. In a way it's sad - this kind of hokey, dopey filmmaking with obvious miniatures (more-so when seen on a big screen) would be completely CGI-ified and the destruction of the cities and people would have to take on more dread and menace. And would there be a back-story for the two ladies? Or would the villain be as cartoonish as he is here with his snarl and occasionally overwrought comic-villainous-muahaha laughter? Who knows? All I knew was sitting there watching this (in a Rifftrax style presentation by the way, one of those times where it's a riffing on a movie that's not really all that bad) Honda and his team were out to do a riff on the 'Kong' formula of monster being taken out of its environment (plus those enigmatic, delightfully gleeful women) and the havoc is immense. As a movie of its time, taken today, it holds up. Kinda.
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