Rebirth of Mothra/Trigun Badlands Rumble

I’ve already said that I’m a fan of Godzilla and due to this I have recently be looking into other movies that fight into the genre the big G occupies, known as daikaiju (Giant Monsters.). I mentioned back when I was talking about “Godzilla: Final Wars” that I have a particular fondness for the movies of the Heisei era (Roughly 1984 to 1995ish) that I started looking into other things from that particular time period to expand my horizons in. The first thing I picked up was “Rebirth of Mothra” which peaked my interest because, well, Mothra has always kind of been the silliest of Godzilla’s enemies, with the possible exception of Hedorah the giant sludge monster. My first thought was wondering how Mothra would fair in her own movie again as she was first seen in “Mothra” in 1961 (no I haven’t seen it, but it could still be potential review material.) before taking full time work in the Godzilla movies. How was it? This movie is just weird. Not weird on the level as something like a David Lynch film or early Coen brothers movie, but still really damn weird. Featuring things like Mothra’s twin fairies riding on a miniature version of Mothra called Fairy and then getting into what can only be described as a dog fight with another, evil fairy riding what I went on to call the flying Derp-asaurus (according to Wikipedia it’s really called Garugaru but I can’t recall a specific time that they said it in the film) The plot is that Mothra has laid an egg to continue on her work as Guardian of Earth, draining a massive amount of her life-force. But at the same time a logging company has uncovered a prison containing a great evil sealed long ago and I’m sure you can see where this is going if you have a working brain. However, the plot isn’t really what daikaiju films are about, it’s the monster on monster battles that bring in the audience and as such having a stock plot is not that big a deal, but half the time this feels like a balls to the wall monster battle and the other half is like a bad Disney movie about a family coming together. That said the effects are all good and it’s all fun if you like that kind of thing, but there really isn’t much to say other than it’s an average at best monster flick that doesn’t do anything significantly special or different other than a few wtf moments that are more just odd than entertaining, I recommend it if you really like Mothra but that’s about it.

3 little fairies out of 5

 Since I had little to say on this choice of movie for this week, and it took me awhile since the last post. I’ll fill out this one with another review, and since we’re in Japan this time, let’s talk anime. “Trigun” is a famous manga by Yasuhiro Nightow about a lone gunman named Vash the Stampede, though in contrast to the typical stereotype of the uber gun man that can kill six people before anyone else could fire a shot, Vash actually hates violence and has sworn to never kill anyone. The story is much more about how he travels the frontier world of Gunsmoke and changes peoples lives for the better while trying to come to terms with a dark past that hasn’t quite finished with him the way he’s finished with it. It was adapted into a very well received anime series and just last year we got a follow up to the show in the form of a feature length animated movie. Done by studio Madhouse, who also did the original series, the animation is very fluid with great attention to detail and characters that never go off model, not to mention fight scenes and gun fights that would make even the great John Woo blush. The story is such that 20 years in the past Vash gets caught up in a bank robbery where the gang turns on their leader, who has now come back seeking revenge. Along the way he runs into old friends MillyThompson and Meryl Strife, but also fellow gun slinger Wolfwood appears as the body guard of the gang leader, Gasback. Also along for the ride is Amelia, a female bounty hunter that Vash can’t seem to leave alone. “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” is the kind of thing that I’d like to see more of when it comes to action movies. It’s serious when it needs to be, but it can be really funny without being stupid, unlike some other movie I saw this summer that I promise I will stop going on about, and it also knows how to make the action pop and get you on the edge of your seat. I went to a screening of this movie that was dubbed because while it is originally Japanese, I strongly prefer Trigun’s dub if for only for one reason, Johnny Young Bosh IS Vash. The way this character is, equal parts serious goof ball, bad ass and philosophical mentor, is really really hard to pull off without having the right balance and while in Japanese on the show it’s ok, it worked so much more for me when Bosh was doing it because he just seems to feel comfortable with the role in that way people like Harrison Ford naturally just slid into the roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones. All the other people do the job just fine though as a fan of the original series I was rather disappointed when I found out that Jeff Nimoy wasn’t voicing Wolfwood in the dub but I’m just nit picking at this point. The point is that “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” is well worth the watch, I dare say even if you don’t like anime you should give this a watch. It’s fun, funny and well just plain old fashioned entertaining. At this point it’s not out on DVD yet, though it will be available September 27. Track it down if you can.

 4.5 trick shots out of 5

 Next up: Fright Night (2011)