Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
[モスラ対ゴジラ]
Director: Ishiro Honda
Starring: Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, The Peanuts
Synopsis:
In the aftermath of a typhoon, a giant egg is discovered that a greedy promoter seeks to make into a spectacle, unaware of the disaster waiting to happen.
Impressions:
Doing a little look into some of the response this film has gotten, it would appear that it's generally well-regarded, which means that I might be in the minority here. While I found it decent, it did feel a bit like a retread of Mothra's first outing, only with Godzilla as an antagonist. I felt Godzilla was undermined a bit in his final antagonistic outing in the Showa Era fumbling around like he does. Also, it feels backwards having adult Mothra for the first fight and the larvae for the second one, but that's what we got. I found the human plot to be a little too hamfisted for my tastes and it has a number of aspects that I personally dislike. As for the effects, the limited articulation on Mothra does hamper the effectiveness of the big fight, but considering the level of the tech and the budget, it's still a respectable effort. As I understand it, there's much worse to be had in the Showa Era, so my opinion might improve in retrospect, but for now, I'm going to say take it or leave it.
50/50