Having vanished for more than twenty years, Mothra returns to the Godzilla franchise in this soft character reboot / retooling. Along the way, we're introduced to her sworn nemesis: a spiny, red-eyed counterpart named Battra whose appearance and life cycle closely mirrors her own. As we're told, by way of several human adventure scenes stolen shamelessly from the Indiana Jones movies, these two have clashed, retired and returned multiple times over the length of recorded history. Now Godzilla's in the mix and meteors are falling and, having learned nothing from the fate of past evil corporations, a particularly naughty business has kidnapped Mothra's tiny, singing twin handlers for use in some sort of ill-defined publicity campaign.

Seems like the amount of fiery carnage and radioactive laser beams has increased from the previous standard (if anything, the kaiju brawls are a little too numerous) and, while the accompanying effects work remains a touch clunky and obvious, that's at least on an upward-trending curve. Environmental righteousness was all the rage in the early 90s, so we get a bit of guileless Captain Planet morality sprinkled in with the proceedings, just in case anyone was in the mood for a lecture. That message somehow resolves into a moth sprinkling golden dust through outer space, though, so (naturally) take it all with a grain of salt.

Neither the best nor the worst chapter in the series, it's serviceable if a hair over-long. Mothra's bright coloration is a nice counterpoint to the murky browns and greys that usually flood the screen during these rubber-suit dustups.