Review of "Mothra," a science fiction horror movie

Review of

Mothra, a science fiction horror movie

Three out of five stars

 When I was young, the local television station had a show called the “Creature Feature” that aired at 10:30 on Saturday evenings. It featured cheaply made horror movies that could appear on network television and the “Mothra” movies were part of the inventory. Even then, we were amused by the cheapness of the special effects in the battle scenes.

 It was clear even to a boy that the military vehicles and soldiers were toys like we played with out in the grass. However, that was part of the fun. After viewing the movie we would construct mock battles where our plastic tanks and soldiers would align against an old piece of cloth that was Mothra in caterpillar form.

 The acting is bad, the villains laugh too much, the special effects look ridiculous to modern eyes and the plot of the natives on a tropical island is silly. Despite all that, this is still a movie where you can grab a six-pack of adult beverages, pop a large bowl of popcorn, sit down with some friends and have a good time laughing and snickering at one of many low-grade horror movies produced in Japan in the late fifties and early sixties. After all these years and hours of viewing, watching the Japanese people mouth words that have no synchronization with the English you hear still amuses me.