Time to check back in with the giant laser firing, winged insect who always has a pair of cuties with him. Yes, its time to tackle the second movie in Mothra’s trilogy from the 90s. For all you Mothra fans out there, you may not like what I have to say.

As strange and destructive creatures called Barem spread across the ocean, another mysterious creature named Ghogo appears. Ghogo befriends 3 kids named Shiori, Yoji, and Kohei who wish to help stop the the Cosmos Twins, Moll and Lora o stop the Barem from consuming the world. As they work towards stopping the Barem, they soon find that Barem are being spread by a monster named Dagahra. Moll and Lora have no choice but to summon Mothra, but even his power may not be enough to stop Dagara and the Barem from covering the ocean.

As promised its all down hill from here. This film is basically the Goonies with giant monsters and sadly the humans are less charming this to around. The trio doesn’t really have anything in terms of memorability behind them what they do and offer no real skills or talents that would help them on their adventure. Truth is that they are just the kids who were lucky enough to find Ghogo and decided to help.

Mothra does gets two new transformations in this movie. The first is called Rainbow Mothra, which I will admit I didn’t really notice until writing up this review that it took place. The wing shape and color changes a bit but the attacks stay about the same. Maybe blame that old VHS fansub version of this film I used to watched. The second form, Aqua Mothra is much more distinct with its shape and color. It also has some interesting attacks but the weird look to him may turn off a few of the Mothra fans out there. I haven’t heard people complain about it but I think he looks too much like a flying fish myself. I’m sure that’s what they were going for with the design aspect but I’m just not feeling it myself.

The environmental message here is much thicker than the one in the previous film. The movie states that Dagahra and the Barem were created to eat the waste of man but that didn’t work and ended up destroying the ancient civilization instead. I personally prefer Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster when it comes to the environmental message mixed with Kaiju. This didn’t really grab me as much.

Moll and Lora regrettably don’t have a chance to grow much this film and get no actual character development. They are still just supporting characters to the humans and don’t get to shine. There really hasn’t been anything to help describe who they are and what makes them function other than they serve Mothra. They care whether or not humanity is destroyed but that’s about all we get to know about them.

I hate to keep comparing the Mothra and Gamera trilogies, especially since Gamera’s three films are vastly superior. Still both came out a time when Godzilla was nowhere to be seen. They were the monsters in the spotlight and while Gamera performance was phenomenal, Mothra really didn’t make any strives or impact with his movies. The Gamera trilogy totally reinvented the monster from his comedic films in the 60s and is some of the best giant monster movies to come out of the 90s. The Mothra Trilogy really becomes a treat mostly for the Mothra fanbase and few others. And if you think this is bad, wait until I get around to the third movie.

Rating: B-