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 or the final film in the "Mothra" trilogy, Toho
Co. decided to use fan favorite monster King Ghidorah to end the series with a
flourish. Sadly, this film doesn’t live up to anyone‘s expectations. With a
confusing storyline and poor special effects, the movie ends the series with a
whimper instead of a bang.
The film begins with a fiery meteorite crashing to Earth,
carrying King Ghidorah within it. We are told that Ghidorah was responsible for
the mass extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth millions of years ago, and has now
returned in the present day with the same fate in mind for humanity. As
Earth’s defender, Mothra arrives to fight King Ghidorah, but is easily
defeated. In order to defeat his foe, Mothra must journey back to prehistoric
times and destroy that first -- and less powerful -- incarnation of King
Ghidorah.
What truly stands out are the monster suits sculpted for
this film. King Ghidorah is given a fantastic and evil design, truly a cruel and
malevolent work of art. The prehistoric version of Ghidorah is equally as
impressive, as well as being impressively detailed. Both incarnations of the
villain display a wicked magnificence that personifies him as pure villainy.
Mothra also looks better for her final solo outing. Her wings move more
convincingly and the suit looks more textured and realistic. Her armored form in
the finale is fiercely sleek and the best she has ever looked in any film. All
Mothra and King Ghidorah need is a good movie to go with their good looks.
Unfortunately the script is frequently illogical, with plot
holes large enough to march a parade through. When King Ghidorah is rampaging
through cities, the armed forces are never called out to stop him. Watching the
film, you get the impression that aside from the main characters, no one else is
terribly concerned about King Ghidorah and impending extinction. The film tries
to insert a message about individuality, but that is soon abandoned. Mothra’s
journey to the past is also quite confusing; it is never really explained how
she could journey millions of years back and forth through time. When King
Ghidorah regenerates from a small piece of his tail, it makes the previous
battle pointless and Mothra’s efforts futile. The film tells us that King
Ghidorah derives his power from innocent children, but if so where did he get
his power in the age of the dinosaurs? How does Ghidorah manage to reappear
minutes after his modern counterpart disappears? Some careful script doctoring
could have salvaged this film into a decent movie, but it’s a shame no one
bothered to do so.
While the monster suits are fantastic, the rest of the
special effects are anything but. The computer generated effects mesh poorly
with the live action footage, appearing cartoonish and superimposed. Mothra’s
computer generated trip to the past looks more animated than realistic. The
prehistoric scenes are laughably bad; especially the foolish looking dinosaur
puppets and the toy Tyrannosaurus Ghidorah eats. A film like this needs
realistic looking special effects to help the audience suspend disbelief and be
drawn into the story. "Mothra 3" lacks that, much to the movie's
detriment. If the monster onscreen doesn’t look real, how is the audience
suppose to believe it is real?
A good musical score would have helped, but that’s
lacking as well. Occasionally, the score lends atmosphere to scenes, but for the
most part it's ineffectual. This is especially evident when King Ghidorah is
onscreen; there are no dark and ominous music accompanying his appearances, as
there should have been. His menace is entirely visual, with no music to
accentuate his evil. The editing is poorly done, and occasionally causes
continuity errors to occur. The crux of these problems is the limited resources
invested in the production. Toho Co. obviously put less of an effort into the
film than they did their recent "Godzilla" films. "Mothra 3"
has the feel of being hurried, and it shows.
It’s a shame to go into a film with high hopes, only to
have them dashed, but that's what happens with "Mothra 3". What could
have been a fine kaiju film instead became a quick fix for "Godzilla"
fans in-between sequels. Mothra and King Ghidorah deserved a lot better.
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