Rebirth of Mothra Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Rebirth of Mothra Blu-ray Movie Review

Revisit the Rebirth.

Note: 'Rebirth of Mothra' is currently only available as part of a bundle with 'Rebirth of Mothra II' and 'Rebirth of Mothra III.'

Japanese loggers, working fervently to meet quotas and beat nagging environmentalists, unearth a unique fossil, some sort of medallion that the company's owner, Mr. Goto (Kenjirô Nashimoto), gifts to his daughter, Wakaba (Maya Fujisawa). Little does he know that it's actually a seal holding back the past, a past that will soon come to influence the present. He inadvertently releases three small beings, the kindly Moll (Megumi Kobayashi) and Lora (Sayaka Yamaguchi) who travel atop a Mothra creature they call "Fairy," and their sister Belvera (Aki Hano), a woman who has turned on her sisters and now works for the forces of evil. Wakaba and her brother Taiki (Kazuki Futami), along with Moll and Lora, set out on an adventure to save the world from certain destruction at the hands of Belvera and the summed monster Desghidorah.

Rebirth of Mothra Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rebirth of Mothra's 1080p transfer ranks as one of the best in the recent string of Kaiju movies brought to Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The image is nicely filmic, firm and consistent in its quality. Light grain provides a handsome film-like overlay, interrupted only by a few random pops and speckles. The image is a touch flat, but details are crisp across the board, from human faces to earthy terrain at the logging site, from Leo's slimy larvae body to human clothing lines. Colors are fair, a touch drab but handling green vegetation, Mothra's blue eyes, and colorful monster attacks with commendable accuracy. Black levels and flesh tones both satisfy.

Rebirth of Mothra Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rebirth of Mothra features a serviceable DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack, one each for the original Japanese and another for the English dub. The English track produces shrill dialogue that's much tighter and more natural in Japanese. Otherwise, the two tracks don't see much separation, save for perhaps a hint of greater fullness in the Japanese track. Heavy sounds of logging at the beginning or big monster battles throughout the film are met with satisfactory power, albeit with slightly muddled details. The track does well to spread its elements across the front soundstage.

Rebirth of Mothra Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sony's Blu-ray release of Rebirth of Mothra features Teaser 1 (1080i, 0:31), Teaser 2 (1080i, 0:36), Teaser 3 (1080i, 1:02), and Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:08). All are presented in the original Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0) with English subtitles.

Rebirth of Mothra Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Where else but in a Kaiju movie will audiences find a slimy seconds-old larvae doing battle against a giant three-headed dragon monster-thing? Godzilla may be the genre's face, but Rebirth of Mothra captures its essence as well as any of the Godzilla films. It's ultra cheesy, not particularly dramatic, and the human characters are tacked-on at best, but it's ridiculously fun in a brain-dead sort of way, whether in terms of its cheesy acting or nearly slow-motion battle scenes between clearly phony monsters. All the charm makes the movie worth a watch, and Sony's Blu-ray release is, technically, a sound way to see it. Solid picture, decent enough two-channel lossless audio, and a handful of trailers make this a disc every genre fan will want to own. Recommended.