Add a Review

  • I honestly find this one probably the best of the Mothra trilogy. As any kaiju fan knows, the Mothra trilogy had a rough start and is basically known for two things; annoying child-centered story lines and fantastic monster fights. The series has struggled to balance this out and with this one I think they hit the high point. The story still centers on a child character, but this one is older and for the most part this story has little to no child humor. Still, the human angle of it all is thinly written and not very emotionally strong, greatly weakening the impact of the finale of the trilogy. You would think the writers would bullsh*t and say Ghidorah seeks to absorb the youth of the children or something, but no, he simply gathers them up. This movie is nowhere near the level of something akin to "Godzilla vs. Destroyer" (19950 or "Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys" (1999), two kaiju masterpieces from around the same time period.

    What it lacks in character it makes up for in kaiju fun. King Ghidorah, also known as Grand King Ghidorah in this film, looks just stunning. As a fan of the dragon since his debut in "Ghidrah: The Three Headed Monster" in 1964, this is inarguably the greatest rendition of the beast. Never before and never again has the three-headed golden monster looked this terrifying and magnificent. Its younger form, Cretaceous King Ghidorah, also looks quite fearsome. Got to give the Toho effects team props on their work for the monsters in this one. The monster battles in this one are spectacularly done, with Mothra taking quite a beating till the finale of course. If you're a fan of Mothra or not, anyone can enjoy Ghidorah kicking the sh8t out of the giant feminine moth. There are a few short city-stomping scenes in this one, not enough for some fans taste, but this is made up for in the kaiju-brawls. All the monsters look bad-ass here, including the two new Mothra incarnations. Armor Mothra I suppose is Mothra's strongest from ever and after the battle is over appears Eternal Mothra and it's a beautiful design. See this movie, as with the others, for the monsters alone.

    That and Toshiyuki Watanabe's score is pretty awesome, capturing the feel of a sci-fi/fantasy film. There's also some fun cheese with the prehistoric battle 130 million years ago while Mothra and Cretaceous King Ghidorah fight. As they do, a T-Rex and a Triceratops actually stare at each other in bewilderment before continuing to watch the battle.

    Nowhere near the pinnacle of Japanese monster movies but a fun watch.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Before I get into the actual film, a word for region one audiences (Canadian and American). You can't buy this film on DVD or VHS (you can buy RoM and RoM II as a double feature DVD). This hasn't been released on DVD yet, but in the future at some point there will probably be a DVD/Blu-Ray release. BUT BEFORE YOU GIVE UP, you can watch it for free (and totally legally) on Sony's website crackle.com. You can actually watch the entire RoM series if you want to see them before you whip out the cash to buy them on DVD.

    After being totally disappointed with Rebirth of Mothra II, I didn't have particularly high expectations for RoM III, but it was definitely better than I thought it would be. To start off with a complaint, it's with Grand King Ghidorah. He looks great, but his appearance is just bizarre. A giant monster randomly comes to Earth and takes children hostage? It makes no sense, even as a children's movie. My other complaint is that the monsters almost always look great, but the dinosaurs look quite cheesy.

    This one has almost no pacing issues, which is a great improvement over the last two films. But the plot of having two or three child leads with the screaming hero fairies and laughing evil fairy falls too closely in line with the films before it, and it ends up being a little repetitive. Maybe it's just me, but the film didn't try to branch out. I'm still not sold on the time travel aspect of the film, because although it doesn't create the billions of questions and controversies like Toho did the last time (Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, 1991), that's probably got more to do with the RoM series having a lot less baggage to it (if that makes sense).

    Its monsters also look the best, and we get the Armor Mothra, the most powerful Mothra we've ever seen (even today). For kids you could stretch its 5/10 score out a bit, but that's about it. Too many unanswered questions and random-ness going on to warrant much better. Such a shame given the quality of the actual monsters here.

    I would be pleased if Toho would bring Mothra films back again someday, but I'd lose the overly child themes. They seem to allow the film makers to dumb down the movies as if they think kids will care less about plot holes or acting. It's true, but it softens the experience for us older folks.
  • This movie is the third and last film of the Mothra trilogy. It concerns King Ghidorah invading earth and stealing children. Mothra comes to fight King Ghidorah and three battles ensue: one in the forest, one in the Cretaceous period, and one in the forest again. In the end, Mothra and the power of good prevail against King Ghidorah and the power of evil.

    Now there are quite a few improvements and good points about this film. King Ghidorah is an awesome monster, much more impressive than the 1991 version, Death Ghidorah, and Dagahra. Mothra is impressive too. The city destructions scenes are quite exciting and fun to watch. The monster battle scenes were able to recapture much of the intensity that the Godzilla movies had but the first two Mothras lacked. Though the film is still directed at children, the main character is a bit older and not as annoying as the kids from the previous entries were.

    Now, there are some aspects that really detracted from the film. The city destruction scenes, while exciting, are way too short. The previous two Mothra films had monster fights that nearly took up the entire middle portion of the film whereas this movie had one short one, one medium-sized one, and (following in tradition of the other two) a short final battle. The musical talents of Akira Ifukube are lacking as well. I also thought that the Prehistoric Mothra scene was quite contrived.

    Overall, it's a fun movie to watch but still doesn't live up to the level of Godzilla. However, it's still good to see King Ghidorah looking as magnificent as ever.
  • Like "The Terminator" in reverse, Mothra travels back in time to preemptively defeat a younger version of Godzilla's greatest foe, the evil three-headed King Ghidora, who we learn from Mothra's two diminutive priestesses that he's responsible for killing all of the dinosaurs and is now planning on killing the children of the world. So Mothra heads back in time to the "Land of the Lost" for kaiju-style fighting to stop Ghidora in a dinosaur-filled landscape. If you enjoy rubber-suited men pounding on each other on miniature sets, you'll very much enjoy this Mothra picture. It's nothing all the special, but for this type of film the special effects are solid, the story is serviceable, and and there was plenty of giant-monster-action. Here's to hoping Part 4 will revolve around Mothra having to get his parents to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance!
  • My favorite of the Rebirth movies mainly because of the crazy convoluted plot that, along with the special effects, add to it being a cheesy fun time.

    Suitable even for younger viewers ( though the plot might not be too easy to follow for them this time around,

    6 out of 10 from me, someone who isn't the biggest Mothra fan.
  • Right, third Mothra movie in 3 years (1996, 1997 and 1998). It started out alright, but then just got more and more stupid actually.

    I am glad to see that the 1998 movie didn't do what the 1997 movie did off of the 1996 movie, which was a blatant copy and paste job. At least the writer, Masumi Suetani, went for a whole new direction with "Mosura 3: Kingu Gidora raishu" (aka "Rebirth of Mothra 3"). So that was good.

    But that is where I have to stop for a moment and comment on that different approach, which wasn't all so good after all. In this third movie, Mothra travels back in time to stop King Gidorah. Yeah, time travels. You didn't read that wrong. That was a bit too odd for my liking. Sure, it was original thinking and out-of-the-box. But time travel? Come on...

    The movie does have the same level of special effects as the previous two movies, for better or worse. The effects are good enough for the movie, though they bear witness to being aged by today's standards. And you shouldn't be expecting to be blown away by an array of dazzling effects. However, I will say that they upped their game with the appearance of Mothra in this 1998 movie. So that was cool.

    And while we are on the special effects; odd how they managed to obtain a good level of effects on Mothra and Gidorah, but the dinosaur effects were just downright laughable and nowhere near being realistic enough to pass as being believable.

    The acting in the movie was adequate. Well, you know what you are getting yourself into here with this Kaiju movies. And for some reason the Mothra movies always have children as the main protagonists. And that was also the case in the 1998 "Rebirth of Mothra 3" movie.

    "Rebirth of Mothra 3" was enjoyable and entertaining for sure. I just personally wasn't a fan of the time traveling aspect. My rating of this 1998 addition to the Mothra legacy lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.
  • Like "The Terminator" in reverse, Mothra travels back in time to preemptively defeat a younger version of Godzilla's greatest foe, the evil three-headed King Ghidora, who we learn from Mothra's two diminutive priestesses that he's responsible for killing all of the dinosaurs and is now planning on killing the children of the world. Mothra heads back in time when Ghidora was younger and not as strong to the "Land of the Lost" for kaiju-style fighting in a dinosaur-filled landscape. If you enjoy rubber-suited men pounding on each other on miniature sets, you'll very much enjoy this Mothra picture. It's nothing all the special, but for this type of film the special effects are solid, the story is serviceable, and and there was loads of giant-monster-action. Here's to hoping Part IV will involve Mothra having to get his parents to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance!
  • This is one of the new REBIRTH OF MOTHRA trilogy films. As I have not seen the other two movies (though I have seen the original 1961 film), I will not say that this is the best of the series, though it probably is. Featuring the D**M COOLEST King Ghidorah design EVER and a look at a baby Ghido, this is cool film! But the dinosaur effects are the worst ever. I mean, they look like crappy-looking moving TOYS! NOTE: This movie is not released in the US.
  • r-c-s7 January 2006
    Warning: Spoilers
    This is definitely the worst of the 3 latest Mosura movies. The trilogy always went downhill. This time we have SFX that are not even worth mentioning, in comparison with the first 2 and in general. It is a 1998 movie but its SFX would look shallow even in 1978. The budget is VERY low and it shows. they try to cope with computer graphics, but can't go further than some mom&pop homemade holiday video. To give a clue, the scenes with dinosaurs look so terrible they make such 1970's show as Megaloman ( the lowest budget Tsuburaya )& I-Zenborg (another Tsuburaya production ) especially look like star wars III or Terminator II. I am disappointed i can't like this movie much, but alas i saw what i saw. They continue to trek the Disney path and to offer more children-oriented plot & subplots, thus borrowing from the Gamera franchise. This time the miniature witch Belvera turns to a good character & fights king Ghidorah, while she had teamed up with the first Ghidorah ( to me it's always the same monster, but some create a different character as "death Ghidorah" ). They have a couple good ideas in this trilogy, namely the super-Mothra, and the super-super Mothra in this last movie; giving Mosura more powers etc. Yet without adequate SFX (=budget) ideas get wasted. The miniature girls sing a lot & look increasingly like a rip off of say the queen child of the "Neverending story". A movie for children who won't be able to spot bad special effects. Still, low budget can't explain overall poor outcome. UK productions of the late 60-early 70's such as UFO & SPACE 1999 were notably low budget (Hollywood-wise), had poor SFX, yet managed to leave a mark because most plots were well constructed and acting was good: this is not the case.
  • dussaultjulien7 January 2020
    Warning: Spoilers
    Special enough The Rebirth of Mothra 2 and 3 are more interesting then the original Rebirth of Mothra. It's been interesting watching these three movies in a row for the past 3 days.

    We get to see Mothra pull a Superman and go back in time to fight a younger King Ghidorah. The adult Ghidorah was actually really great looking and the Prosthetics never disappoint when it comes to Toho. We get some updates in this one, but it's still a good and interesting story. I would watch it again.
  • The last of the three Rebirth of Mothra series is a really fine entry. Hopefully, the producers of this series will bring back more adventures of our flying Moth that saves the planet. In this film, the science behind can be a little to complicated for non-physics professors. King Ghidora kidnaps children and places them in a large egg-like prison. The three fairies "Moll, Lora and Belvera" return. Mothra is badly defeated by King Ghidora but there is one hope, to send Mothra back in time 130 million years to battle King Ghidora when he was younger and weaker. Mothra realizes that he cannot return and will die in the past. Moll sends him back but the power needed to do it kills Moll. Lora and Belvera are both trapped in the egg-like prison. The Moth finally is able to defeat King Ghidora in the past but mistakenly cuts off a piece of tail that will grow into another King Ghidora in the future. Mothra dies in the past but two dinosaur Mothra's put him in a time capsule of silk web. Both creatures make a new appearance in the future. This time the Moth has become an armor plated Moth. Can King Ghidora battle a tank plated Moth? Will the fairies remain two or return to three? Why would a creature want children? Excellent fight scenes and action. A must see battle of Moth vs Three-headed creature!
  • This is the 11th M.o.t.h.r.a movie. All the M.o.t.h.r.a movie are good. This one is not as good as the 12th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla M.o.t.h.r.a and King G.h.i.d.o.r.a. giant monsters on an all attack. It was not as good as the 13th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. It is not as good as the 14th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla Final wars. Still it is a great movie. See it. It is not as good as the 8th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla vs Space Godzilla. It is not as good as the 7th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla and M.o.t.h.r.a and the battle for the earth. It is not as good as the 6th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla vs G.i.g.an. It is not as good as the 5th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Destroy all monster. But still a very good movie.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    O.K., I am used to all the recent giant monster films from Toho Studios having very weird plots. All the third generation Godzilla films of the 90's are a case in point. However, the `Rebirth of Mothra' series, and this one in particular, really are amazing. It is like some really bad dream you might have while locked in a sweat soaked fever delirium. It keeps going and going, making less and less sense as it goes along. You keep hoping that you will wake up, but you never do.

    There are three little Elias fairies, two `good' and one `bad'. They find some little triangle things that fit into their swords, but two of them get mixed up and they don't fit in the swords they have. Then a meteor crashes into the earth. It, of course, is King Ghidorah, who apparently was also the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. He has returned for some unspoken reason, probably to kill off all mankind. But instead of just stomping on everyone and knocking down buildings like monsters are prone to do, THIS one flies around and little children start evaporating. Not the adults, just the kids. They are later found to be inside a huge dome (which is actually a rather neat effect), full of icicles and volcanoes that burp blue acid. Why King Ghidorah does this is never explained, but it is obvious to the fairies that he intends to `kill them'. The little fairies then call Mothra, of course, who is apparently composed of thousands of little Mothras who fly together, achieve critical mass, and then explode into one big Mothra. The fairies fly too close to Ghidorah, and one of the good Elias gets her hair permed and turns into a bad fairy. She tries to choke the other good fairy, but falls off the tiny little Mothra they use as a steed and falls inside the dome. The remaining good Elias convinces a little boy who is afraid to go to school to go inside the dome and rescue the good become bad fairy, because she always was convinced of the innocence of children.

    Now it gets weird. The remaining good fairy talks to Mothra and finds out the only way to defeat King Ghidorah is to go back in time, when he was much younger (and had much slimmer legs). But she won't be able to return to the present time, I believe, because the other fairy is now bad and trapped inside the dome. But, she goes back anyway, `sung' back by the remaining good fairy who then, in one of many very touching scenes, turns into a block of blue crystal. Mothra, on her way back through time, turns into something that looks like a cross between a flying fish, a wasp, and an F-15. She then finds Ghidorah busily chomping on a Tyrannosaurus. She fights him, and promptly gets her soundly trashed.

    Meanwhile, back by the big dome, the kid who the Elias conned into fighting Ghidorah jumps out and yells insults at the 800 foot tall, three headed monster. Ghidorah is sufficiently insulted and sucks the little tyke up and deposits him in the dome. He goes in search of the fairy. The other, original, bad fairy is also in the dome and the three all come together. The two fairies fight with swords, but since the little kid is there and is full of innocence and still afraid to go to school, both fairies undergo a radical change of heart. The three swords magically merge into one sword. They send their good vibes, over 150 millions years, out to Mothra and she wins by shooting out all sorts of rays and things from her head, her wings, wherever. She apparently dies anyway, and three Mothra caterpillars magically appear from somewhere and give her a proper sendoff. The dome disappears and everyone is extremely happy, except the one fairy who is still a blue crystal. The movie is apparently over.

    Then, a huge explosion in the sky occurs, King Ghidorah is back. This is not explained. Then, an earthquake happens and Mothra reappears as well. She had wrapped herself `in a time capsule', according to the kid who knows everything, and reappeared `just in the right time'. It is like that whole half-hour when Mothra went back in time never happened. They fight some more, and Mothra wins by dropping him in a volcano. Everyone is happy again, and they figure out a way to turn the blue crystal back into a good fairy. Presumably, the kid, having stood up to a three-headed monster, now has enough courage to go back to school.
  • The music/soundtrack good The characters are good The actors all did good (except the main character but he's a kid so you wouldn't expect much from him anyway) The stories surprisingly good The scg is especially good And the costumes and Kaiju designs are some of my favorites
  • Warning: Spoilers
    The closing instalment of the REBIRTH OF MOTHRA trilogy features more CGI effects than ever, along with a wider-ranging plot which includes a time travel aspect that sees our kaiju travelling back to prehistoric times! Well, at least it doesn't repeat itself. Given that the sci-fi elements make up such a large amount of the running time, there's less emphasis on the kids this time around, apart from one sullen youth who has no warmth or charisma at all. But the effects are cool, the drama non-stop, and the action a lot of fun, particularly with the inclusion of the wonderful King Ghidorah.
  • Rebirth of Mothra III (1998) is a movie that I recently found on a random streaming service. The storyline follows King Ghidora arriving and terrifying Earth. Meanwhile a group of children have also been trapped and need to be rescued. Mothra tries to stop King Ghidora and badly fails. It is determined the only way to stop King Ghidora is for Mothra to go back in time and kill King Ghidora when he was a child.

    This movie is directed by Okihiro Yoneda (Rebirth of Mothra I) and stars Miyuki Matsuda (Audition), Atsushi Ohnita (Hideyoshi) and Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla 2000: Millennium).

    This is easily the best best film in the Mothra modern trilogy. The storyline, special effects and villain (King Ghidora) were all outstanding. King Ghidora is very well done, the dome used to hold the children is entertaining and the miniature monsters are well created. The biggest issue with this picture is the terrible CGI. The premise had a lot of potential but the CGI kind of ruins it. I will say the monster battles are excellent and a must see for fans of the monster universe.

    Overall, this is the best modern Mothra film that I would score a 6/10 and recommend seeing once.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    This is the third and last Mothra (Mosura) movie of the 1990s, and is, what I think, the best of them all-far more superior then its prequels. Here, we see the Elias fairies-Moll, Lora, and Belvera-given a more important purpose in the movie. They combine their powers of wisdom, love, and courage to battle King Ghidorah!

    The storyline is incredibly superb, combining suspense, excitement, sacrifice, and hope, making the plot of the movie staying intact and keeping the suspense built up, making you eager to know what comes next. Toshiyuki Watanabe's music score is beautiful, haunting, and refreshing. The songs sung by Moll and Lora are soothing and elegant. The special effects are great, and we get to see some city destruction, unlike in the two previous

    Mothra entries. We have no annoying kids, overdone effects, and a childish story in this film. Instead, we have imaginable effects, heroic characters, an intriguing story, and a breathtaking rescue mission.

    King Ghidorah looks terrific as usual, and Mothra has two new forms in this movie, making it endlessly powerful. Although the male lead in this story is a kid, he did a good job in his role, and is not annoying as the kids in Mothra 2. His courageous act to go inside King Ghidorah's tomb to rescue the kids inside is breathtaking, as is the sword-wielding scene between Lora and Belvera. Moll says a very touching message to the male lead: "When arms can't reach, mind can," which reminds us that there is hope everywhere, and when it seems that the heroes were being overcome by sorrow, tragedy, and terror, hope is always there. This film also has several settings, unlike Mothra 2, which most of the scenes were set in this underwater fortress, where all the endless running and screaming rendered the movie totally boring and unremarkable. Mothra 3 gives you many scene settings, including a forest, a labyrinth, Kind Ghidorah's dome, Infant Island, the city, and the past where dinosaurs lived. We get to see a whole batch of dinosaurs in this movie. The "going back in time" scene is just another intriguing plot element in the film that adds on to all the excitement and suspense.

    Overall, a fantastic movie that is among my very favorite sci-fi movies from Toho. Great directing by Okihiro Yoneda and a great story by Masumi Suetani. This movie was so good that Toho should of produced more Mothra movies with the beautiful Elias fairies, using the elements from this movie that makes it great. Unfortunately, this would be the last Mothra movie, until Mothra reappears in the newest Godzilla series. But, a great movie to end Mothra's trilogy.

    Grade A
  • I think that this movie is a lot better than the two previous ones. King Ghidora looks perfect, probably the best I've ever seen him. Mothra is of course, my favorite. She looks really cool too, especially in her armored form. There is more city destruction in this movie which is good also. I like the theme to the movie "If your arms can't reach the mind can." The acting in the movie is splendid. The only thing that I think could be improved, is how everything happens. Like, when Mothra throws King Ghidora in the volcano and then he later comes back. Another good thing, is that in this movie they bring out more about Moll, Lora, and Belvera. I really hope they make more movies with Mothra as the star, because she has a great potential to be extremely popular.
  • ebiros219 October 2005
    8/10
    Great
    I had bit of a frustration about these '90s Mothra movies. That its special effects could be little more realistic etc. But now I think about it, these movies were kicking a** with bigger and brighter than life cinematography and plot when everything in our world was turning towards darkness (if you think about all the sci-fi, super hero movies that came out in the '90s and how dark they were). Here finally someone had a plot where motivation for destruction was not anger, but force of nature is trying to stop another force of nature from causing catastrophe.

    I just think these movies are great because it depicts another world that isn't like ours but brighter and people living in it is brighter too. Topics of Mothra series was more geared towards the world than say like Batman, where it was just about Bruce, his personal issues and few bad guys. Mothra series was talking about things like destruction of nature, and value of our children.

    When everything around us was getting darker, it's a real treat to throw these bigger and brighter than life movie up on the screen and just kick back for 90 minutes.
  • Alright I really enjoyed this movie. There were many things that I enjoy in a good kaiju flick, that were seen in this movie. First off, Mothra is looking the best of her 90's forms, and King Ghidorah looks pretty good as well. Second, the plot isn't half bad...if you can get over the somewhat childish aspect of it. A few things that I didn't like were how the Alias & Belvira looked different than they did in the previous movies. Another thing that bothered me was the dinosaur graphics. Clearly they spent too much money on Mothra & Ghidorah to put good effort towards a T-rex. But these are only minor details, that I got over pretty fast. I suggest you find a good Japanese cut if you want to see the movie at it's finest, however the English Sci-fi TV version isn't half bad.
  • By far the best movie of the Mothra Triolgy. This movie has one thing that the other 2 didn't, a lot of city destruction. Oh and the new King Ghidorah looks so good. And all of the special effects of him flying through buildings is so well done, it has to make you wonder what is in store for us in Godzilla 2000. Also Mothra gets into a new form of course, which I think is the best of them all, that is here Metal Mothra form, it is just so cool how she slices and dices Ghidorah up. If I would have to make a complaint about this movie it would be that a kid is a main character (groan!), and that all of the dinosaurs look really bad in this movie. But still a great movie minus these things.
  • I been a daikaiju fan all my life. So, it was interesting for me the Heisei Mothra trilogy. I think when Godzilla was retired in 95, Mothra took over as main monster. I have to admit the Heisei trilogy delievers, especially Mothra 3, which finally aired in the US, courtesy of SciFi Channel. In my opinion, Ghidorah didn't look so bad...a$$. You had this feel Ghidorah was a true Asian Dragon in this movie, he was my favorite overall...and Mothra wasn't bad herself. Makes me wonder if other Toho monsters will be given a shot at the own movie...*Rodan! Rodan! Rodan!*