Godzilla (1998)

Director: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Maria Pitillo, Jean Reno, Hank Azaria

Primary genre: Monster

While making the (first) American version of “Godzilla”, Roland Emmerich must have wondered whether he could top the spectacle of his box office smash “Independence Day” (1996). In this regard, he wholeheartedly succeeds assisted by a gloriously big production budget. Facing tough disaster competition from volcanos (“Dante’s Peak” (1997), “Volcano” (1997)) and asteroids (“Deep Impact” (1998), “Armageddon” (1998)) all within the same or the previous year, his radioactive and redesigned Japanese lizard lays waste in New York City and its world famous landmarks (e.g., Chrysler building, Madison Square Garden, take your pick) in creative ways (assisted by a trigger happy US army) mixing a variety of accomplished special effects that range from miniatures to CGI.

Similarly to his behemothic alien invasion, Emmerich builds up the arrival of his gargantuan monster in the first half with remarkable restrain under a rather ominous atmosphere which is further elevated by a real sense of scope and sheer scale that deserve admiration. Godzilla’s ocean rise is instantly iconic (the wave approaching the pier is the stuff of thalassophobia fuel) and his first encounter with a never ending rainy and bleak NYC is appropriately chaotic making use of excellent (and excessive) sound design and the densely packed architecture and its surrounding noise.

It is all very well made and occasionally fun. It is when we spend time with the plot and its human walking cardboards that problems arise. As it is to be expected in a monster movie, mayhem comes first and characters second and “Godzilla” is no exception. While the script attempts to have a less display of machoism and sex appeal in its cast, it still populates the proceedings with human figurines as opposed to interesting individuals. A miscast Matthew Broderick as everyday biologist Dr Nico Tatopoulos (named after Patrick Tatopoulos, the famous creature/production designer) has zero chemistry with ex-flame Maria Pitillo (who can’t act at least here) while Hank Azaria and Jean Reno barely register. If a “Simpsons” (1989-2023) on screen reunion is your thing, then you might be delighted though.

“That’s a lot of fish“

-Dr Nico Tatopoulos

Besides trying to animalized the king of monsters in his own movie as a creature looking to merely survive, the script does not go anywhere with that concept. A few superficial touches regarding nuclear testing are not enough to convince the audience for the film’s intentions. This humanity vs (mutant) nature conflict is simply pushed as a responsibility of France through Jean Reno’s government agent whose ulterior motives remain unclear till the end. Its lengthy running time adds another butt-numbing third act as Emmerich does not know when to press the stop button; if you think his “Independence Day” was a tad too long, just wait till you see this one excluding the charisma of the Goldblum/Smith duo. By the time, we are inside Madison Square Garden, Emmerich already tries to copy Spielberg’s “The Lost World” (1997) seeking to capitalize on a now long gone dinosaur momentum.

At the end though, it does not matter because if we judge the American version based on its visually destructive ambition and scope, it is a winner offering unique (and some could argue cult) spectacle of several iconic moments of mayhem and a cool new design. If only we could get an actual story as well, this could be something more than eventually an excessive and butt-numbing 90s blockbuster.

Bombastic, empty spectacle

+Beautiful destruction

+Scale, scope

+First half is absolutely suspenseful

+Characters try not to fit in typical action machoism and stereotypes

-But what characters?

-Miscast Broderick

-Lack of substance, emotionless