His plan isn't super solid though, as Michi is able to immediately guess that he's on one jet leaving for Rolisica today, so he's probably on that. Speaking of Rolisica, they decide to send two "Atomic Heat Gun" to Tokyo, with which to blast the big cocoon. They arrive the next morning, by which time, Mothra is completely encased. There's this neat detail about them firing the guns and announcing when they're gonna do it. There's even a count-down. That was cool, as opposed to them just firing immediately. They open fire, and the cocoon just erupts in flames. Across the sea (I'm assuming, I don't know where Rolisica is supposed to be, but Japan is an island), Nelson hears of this attack, and celebrates, believing the beast to be dead. The girls, on the other hand, do not believe, and keep singing.

Mothra also doesn't give up hope, and the cocoon hatches! Finally, an hour and 10 minutes into the movie, Mothra, as a true moth, emerges. She's pretty neat, actually. She immediately takes off (I thought newly emerged moths/butterflies had to rest for a while after hatching?), and takes off for Rolisica. So do the main characters, in search of Nelson, who has an APB out for him. On the road, a huge crowd find him and gathers round his car, calling for him to come out. This gives him flashbacks to the natives of the island, so naturally, he pulls out a gun and gets out of the car! The police show up, Nelson shoots one of them (!!!), steals an old mans cane for some reason, and then gets shot down by the cops! Holy Shit! What an insane way to wrap up the Nelson story line, movie! He deserved it though.

The girls are found as the main characters show up, as does Mothra, who's straight up Rodan-ing all over the city. It seems she, also, is large enough to send cars flying with a flap of her wings. She even knocks down a building, but I'm not sure if she ran into it, or if it was the force of her wings. Apparently, thousands of people die in this flight! That's a ton of people! On the ground, a nearby church looks and sounds like the symbols from the cave, and the girls singing, so Chujo develops a plan, and this all seems like a bit of a stretch, movie, but okay, what do you have for us?

It's actually not too bad a plan. He asks the military to paint the symbol giant on a nearby airport landing area, and have all the church bells rung at exactly 3 o'clock. This all goes down without a hitch, though Mothra does destroy some more buildings. It seems she also has, just, crazy powerful wings. Neat. She also tips over some boats proving that it's not only loose lips that sinks ships. Uh, is this thing on?

Anyway, the rest of the movie happens flawlessly. Mothra lands as Chujo releases the girls. They thank our heroes for all they've done, and walk over to the great moth (it takes a while). I guess they climb onto her antenna, it's impossible to see at that scale, and Mothra flies off, back to her island. It's only long after she's gone that Michi realizes she forgot to take any pictures.

The Review

THIS MOVIE HAD EXACTLY ZERO (0) DINOSAUR PICTURES IN IT, SO I GIVE IT A 10/10. Actually, it was pretty good. I don't know if I was just happy seeing a movie in color, and in English, and in glorious HD (probably due to YouTube) but I was actually pretty impressed with it, especially as down on Mothra as I was at the top of this article. I'm still not crazy about the creature, but we'll get to that.

It was good! I thought Nelson was an interesting villain even if his ending was completely out of left field. The reporters were funny and likable. Chujo, who ended up being the main character was a little one-dimensional, but he was damn sexy so it's okay. It was also pretty weird. There was a lot of stuff that happened without any explanation, like why the military was so back and forth with Nelson. Or why Shinji was in the movie at all. Or where the island people came from. I wonder if I watched a version with some stuff cut out. It's hard to say. It also reminded me a little of the King Kong story, which is fitting for next week. Group of people, including the good guy and bad guy, goes to a strange place, where the villain finds an unusual thing, takes it back to the mainland for profit, and experiences terrible consequences. Tale as old as, well, at least 1933.

As for the monster, I think I agree with my statement about Mothra being (so far) the lease interesting of the monsters. She did all the same stuff Rodan did, but slower. Crushing buildings and flinging cars with just her wings, that was cool and all, but we've already seen it. Speaking of which, I thought Mothra was supposed to be a good guy. She was, obviously, but she killed a lot of people! Thousands of them! Just to get to the fairy girls! What the hell? They didn't deserve that. Anyway, she didn't really do anything. Her presence just scared the people into giving up Nelson so the fairy girls could go with Mothra. That's not exactly god-like power or anything. I mean, no offense, but in a fight against Rodan, what's Mothra gonna do? Maybe she can do something else that I'm not yet aware of, and that will change my mind. It's possible. Plus, she spend most of the movie as either an egg or a larva. It's just so weird.

I've definitely never seen this movie, by the way. I've seen a Mothra movie, but it wasn't this, I'd remember. I can't say a single thing that might have happened in it, but it did have the girls in it. It'll be interesting to see how that evolves over time. I'm sure the girls are not in the new movie. We'll see.

So that's Mothra. I really liked it, it may be one of my favorites that we've seen, even if Mothra was a bit underwhelming. I'm excited to see how she fares against Godzilla in the future. Also, she's probably the first monster to survive the movie she was introduced in. Godzilla, Anguirus, and Rodan all died in their maiden voyage (Spoilers for King Kong, I know how that ends). So that's an interesting note, but it probably doesn't mean anything. And that's it. Join us next time when we travel to Skull Island (is it Skull Island in the next movie? I don't know) and meet the mighty Kong, in... King Kong! Bye, everybody!