Mothra vs. Godzilla

Mothra vs. Godzilla is a 1964 Japanese action-adventure film. It was directed by Ishiro Honda, written by Shinichi Sekizawa, musically composed by Akira Ifukube, filmed by Hajime Koizumi, edited by Ryohei Fujii, distributed by Toho, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and Toho, and it starred Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, The Peanuts, and Hiroshi Koizumi. It's the fourth movie in the Godzilla series, and is often considered to be one of the best of the franchise.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Great acting.
 * 2) This is the first movie to include one of the most famous monsters in the Godzilla series, Mothra. She started in her own self titled movie, Mothra, but she's undoubtedly best known as an enemy of Godzilla.
 * 3) This movie marked the last time that Godzilla took the role as an antagonist. That's why the next film released in the same year, that Godzilla finally became a true hero.
 * 4) Amazing practical special effects.
 * 5) The final fight between Godzilla and Mothra's two offspring is really engaging.
 * 6) Excellent soundtrack.
 * 7) The movie has a corporate bad guy who wants to sell the twin fairies to make money. He makes for a good human villain.
 * 8) Good pacing.
 * 9) The film manages to have the right balance of comedy and drama, with human characters that the audience does not mind spending time with.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) For a brief period in the US, the film was called Godzilla vs. The Thing and the poster was very misleading since it showed Godzilla fighting a spiky tentacle monster while military shoots at him, and it also showed the Golden Gate Bridge being destroyed, even though the film doesn't take place in San Francisco whatsoever.
 * 2) *Speaking of misleading, when the film was released in Italy, it was called Watang! Nel favoloso impero dei mostri (English: Watang! In the Fabulous Empire of Monsters) and the poster showed Godzilla fighting a Lovecraftian horror. What does "Watang!" even mean?

Reception
Mothra vs. Godzilla has a 90% critic rating and a 67% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.3/5 on Letterboxd, and a 6.5/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB).