Pretty much King Kong but way better.

The directing is certainly a huge step up from Honda's efforts immediately before this one. The color scheme is much more robust, the characters more enjoyably written and identifiable, and the score blended unique orchestral and tribal sounds together very well. The shot composition relies less of pans and more on tense wider and close up shots, and the trademark use of scale was used in both a new smaller way as well as the trademark crushingly large way. There really isnt a single second wasted in this script, although some themes regarding religion were a bit shoddy. Poking fun at America using a fictional city was really funny, and the token Americans saying really stupid lines was hilarious as well. The tone of this film is definitely more lighthearted than Gojira, but still more or less serious at the same time. The exploitation of indigenous people, atomic testing, and the media all come into play well more often than not, and the characters felt way more developed than they normally would've in a kaiju movie. I found myself getting invested not only in the cutesy fairy girls, but in the business surrounding the kind hearted reporters and a doctor just trying to make things right.

There's a certain uplifting energy to this film that is just infectiously joyous. Everything about Mothra is cute in a weird way, as she is basically the mommy of an island. The story was generic I suppose, but pulled some thematically different punches with some really great pacing and acting. I think this is where the idea of a "protector" kaiju emerged from, but I could be wrong. The destruction scenes were a little bit subdued, but Mothra never intends to hurt, only nurture and protect.