Godzilla (1998)

[the ghoul]

The movie has nothing to do with Godzilla. It's a shame that there is so little creativity left in Hollywood that they thought they had to name the movie and the monster Godzilla to get people to go and see it.

[Archivist]

Not to mention that the beginning of this so-called Godzilla completely ripped off the Japanese movie Gamera from the 90's starring the exquisite Shinobu Nakayama (Jet Li's girlfriend in Fist of Legend).  Did I just abundantly abuse the opportunity to tangent to Shinobu?  Oh, so I did.

[JaseSF]

Sure it's a big dumb popcorn movie from Roland Emmerich and it'd be passable enough as a cheesy monster movie if as others have said it hadn't been paraded as a "Godzilla" film which it clearly isn't. It's much closer to the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms although that film is still miles and miles better than Frogzilla.

[Flangepart]

The real Godzilla don't run from anybody. This thing has to. Nuff said...
Actually, this guy says a lot of what I think too...just with a lot more swearing than I'd use.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/2685-godzilla-1998

[indianasmith]

I rewatched the end of this with my daughter yesterday - I still like it, no matter what you purists say!!!

[RCMerchant]

I hated it. It's a slap in the face to  Godzilla fans.
And I am a Godzilla fan.
The new Godzilla movie better look like f**king Godzilla.

[InformationGeek]

I rewatched the end of this with my daughter yesterday - I still like it, no matter what you purists say!!!

Don't worry!  We can be the odd 5% who liked the film buddies!   

[Jitters]

This was a movie I actually worked on when I was doing practical effects work for a short time.  There were rubber suits made *spoiler* for the baby zillas and a huge animatronic head covered with a rubber skin.  The time they actually take up in the film is a matter of mere seconds though.  Hard to imagine the waste of having the crew working on it for about a year and the millions involved for less than a minute of screen time.  When Tatopoulos revealed the concept artwork for the Godzilla design I saw some sidewards glances and knew the general consensus.  I hated it, but warmed to the design somewhat after being around it for a while.

The movie is horrible though.  Stupid, illogical, meandering, physics-defying, etc., etc.

The opening credit sequence is interesting and really is the best part of the movie.  Too bad the whole thing didn't look like that.

[Chainsawmidget]

Personally I think its disgraceful and its not just because of the laughable 'Zilla' design but more so the story, the ridiculous amount of plot holes, the acting, the inconsistencies, the crappy CGI and the clear disrespect of the source material.

Most of those reasons apply to the majority of the Japanese movies as well.

Sure there are a few exceptions here and there, but Godzilla movies have never been known for their story telling or acting.

[The Gravekeeper]

I guess I'm one of the few people who liked the Zilla design. It almost looked like a creature that could work. As for the rest of the movie, yeah, it's pretty bland. But it led to a fairly decent Saturday morning cartoon (yeah, I was a kid when this came out so my standards were lower, but it's still a decent kaiju cartoon).

[Chainsawmidget]

Personally, I don't think it was a bad movie, but it wasn't a good Godzilla.

[Flick James]

Look, it was a bad movie in most of the ways that a movie can be bad. This is a bad movie site, so it stands to reason that some people are going to like it. Ultimately, who gives a s**t? I would watch it if somebody paid me for my time, but that's about it. If you enjoy it, heck, watch it as many times as you like. I do believe that there is a certain amount of objectivity in considering it a bad movie, however.

[akiratubo]

Most of those reasons apply to the majority of the Japanese movies as well.

Yeah, but those movies had giant monsters fighting with beam weapons, gorilla aliens, mad science, robots, and entire cities getting destroyed.  Plus, they were all rather short.  The '98 movie was extremely long and had but a single monster who got comparatively little action.

[Robocop]

Most of those reasons apply to the majority of the Japanese movies as well.

Yeah, but those movies had giant monsters fighting with beam weapons, gorilla aliens, mad science, robots, and entire cities getting destroyed.  Plus, they were all rather short.  The '98 movie was extremely long and had but a single monster who got comparatively little action.

What akiratubo said. I will also add that a lot of the Japanese Godzilla movies kinda knew they were silly and over the top, so they played up that angle which is part of the reason why they are so entertaining. On top of that, the fact that the productions were tight budgeted meaning they stuck with the traditional old fashion method of a man in a suit smashing constructed sets in the age of CGI, further increases charm. Although it must be said that the Japanese have attempted some CG in the later installments for certain scenes like the Zilla/GINO reenactment & Godzilla swimming under water both in Final Wars.

[FatFreddysCat]

I re-visited the Emmerich "Godzilla" last night for the first time since its theatrical run... and I kinda wish I hadn't.

Mind you, I'm far from a hardcore "Godzilla" fan. I've seen my share of the Big G's films but I couldn't tell you the difference between the "Showa era" or the "Millennium era" or whatever. All I knew was that the.. thing on screen in Emmerich's version was NOT Godzilla. It was an iguana with a thyroid problem.

I was unaware that the "real" Godzilla kicks the crap out of the Emmerich version in "Godzilla: Final Wars." I'm gonna have to track down a copy of that one just to see that!!!