Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)

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 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 previousMothra 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

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.

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.