Blockbuster Overload: Our ongoing series looking at movies that took the blockbuster genre to the extreme and perhaps to excess. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
What Is It?
After nuclear testing in the South Pacific mutates a marine creature into a gigantic reptilian monster, Godzilla makes its way to New York City, leaving destruction in its wake. Scientist Nick Tatopoulos joins the military’s effort to track the creature, only to discover that its arrival in Manhattan could lead to an even bigger problem.
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner
Crew: Roland Emmerich (Writer/Director), Dean Devlin (Writer), David Arnold (Music)
Original Release: May 20, 1998
What Were Its Excesses?
Like Jurassic Park before it (more on that one at this link), 1998’s Godzilla definitely had the feel that it was calculated as the start of a franchise, and the plan was to make plenty of money from it. But things did not work out so well, as this reboot did little to respect the long-running Japanese franchise, instead trying to make it more of an American-style blockbuster. In addition, it was hampered by questionable casting choices as well as a confused direction as it tried to position itself as a comedic action thriller.
A Closer Look:
Throughout the ’90s, writer/director/producer Roland Emmerich made a name for himself with successful genre films such as Universal Soldier, Stargate, and Independence Day and achieved a fair amount of clout by the latter part of that decade when deciding upon his next project to follow ID4. And so he chose to turn his attention to a United States-based reboot of the popular Godzilla franchise that had produced twenty-two movies in Japan up to that point. There was much trepidation among fans around the creation of an Americanized Godzilla (and who can blame them after the awful 1978 Hanna-Barbera Godzilla cartoon), but that did not deter Emmerich from moving forward with the project in his typical style of big, dumb movie-making.
The film still had the iconic lizard coming into existence as a result of nuclear testing, but it was those knucklehead Frenchmen exploding the bomb this time near the French Polynesian islands that set things into motion. Shortly after these tests, a monstrous creature launches a series of attacks at sea and on land as it makes a beeline for the Atlantic and New York City (apparently it heard that the big money is on Broadway). Nuclear expert Dr. Niko “Nick” Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick) is brought in because he specializes in how radiation can affect different species. He at first refuses to believe the military’s claim that this creature is a dinosaur mutated by the nuclear testing, but then he comes face to face with the monster, literally. He then lends his aid to the military’s campaign to destroy the monster before it levels New York City and/or produces offspring. At the same time, Nick’s ex-girlfriend, reporter Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo), remains in the city with her cameraman (Hank Azaria), despite the mandatory evacuation, in an attempt to get the story of the century.
While many fans cast a very dubious eye on any attempt to create an American version of Godzilla, the fact is that such an endeavor could have worked. With the advancements in CGI that we had seen in the ’90s and with several very capable filmmakers available, a Westernized reboot could have paid homage to the source material while also providing a new direction with significant momentum. Unfortunately, Emmerich and Tri Star only seemed interested in the property for its franchise potential and did little to make the movie appeal to longtime fans of the Japanese movies while also failing to deliver a film that offered a decent viewing experience on its own merits.
Now, to be honest, apart from the 1954 Godzilla movie, the Japanese franchise usually delivered cheesy, moderate- to low-budget monster flicks that provided little more than an excuse for Godzilla and his adversaries to wreak havoc on Tokyo and other unfortunate Japanese locales. But then they never took themselves seriously or tried to deliver something along the lines of a grand-reaching science fiction movie. So it’s not like Emmerich was pissing on high art here. Still, he should have at least taken into account the Japanese franchise’s large fan base, and he also should have put some focus into making a decent movie and not just starting up a new money-grubbing film franchise.
But even after all of that, his reboot at least had the potential of delivering a guilty-pleasure-type movie, sort of a big-budget spin on its Japanese source material, but it took several more wrong turns that kept it from achieving even that modest goal. First and foremost, he changed the appearance of the titular monster drastically from what fans expected. Now, that in itself is not necessarily a problem (though many of the Godzilla faithful would disagree), but there was no real reason for the change. Perhaps Emmerich was trying to present a more realistic version of the creature, but that did not factor into his take on the franchise, as there’s nothing even vaguely resembling reality through the rest of this hackwork piece of filmmaking.
Second, the film is just too damn long! It’s a Godzilla film; it doesn’t need to have a runtime of over two hours. And the sequence where Godzilla chases the taxi through the streets of New York seemed to go on forever and has to be one of the most ridiculously superfluous scenes ever added to a movie.
Third, was this movie a comedy or a drama? Because it definitely seemed confused over the matter. Emmerich did a good job of treading that fine line with Independence Day, but in Godzilla, these contrasting elements worked against each other and ultimately added yet another factor that helped derail this mess of a film.
In addition, the casting just did not work. Again, with Independence Day, Emmerich took a chance on a comedic actor (Will Smith), and that choice definitely paid off, helping launch Smith into the Hollywood A-list. But Matthew Broderick was just not the right fit as the lead for this movie. And lest you think I’m hung up on his Ferris Bueller performance from the ’80s, I must remind you that Broderick got his start as the excellent lead in an important early ’80s genre film, WarGames, and he also delivered a career high point in one of my all-time favorite movies, Glory. Broderick is definitely a talented and versatile actor, but he just seemed out of place throughout the movie, and Emmerich showed no ability to capture the same magic he realized with Will Smith in ID4. And the cast that Emmerich surrounded Broderick with did not seem to fit as well, again reflecting the confusion over whether this was a serious movie or a comedy (and that infantile stab at Siskel and Ebert with the characters of the mayor and his assistant added nothing to the film).
It was obvious there were big plans for this movie as the starting point of a franchise, seeing as it immediately set out planting the seeds for any number of sequels with the Godzilla eggs (and did anybody really believe that they destroyed all of the eggs during that attack on Madison Square Garden?). But contrived, calculated plots littered with copy-and-paste (or just downright bad) dialogue do not guarantee a flourishing franchise (but they can lead to it: Jurassic Park, the Star Wars prequels, Transformers, etc., etc.). And apparently Emmerich’s disaster of a monster movie proved enough of a disappointment that even though it made money worldwide, it never spawned any of its promised sequels (more on that below).
Why Was There No Sequel?
Godzilla made $136 million domestically and nearly $380 million worldwide against a production budget generally reported in the $125–150 million range. That meant it performed reasonably well at the Box Office, but it did not count as the huge success that Sony had hoped for, especially across North America. And it was not well-received, currently holding a 20% Tomatometer Score (based on critics’ reviews) and a 28% Popcornmeter Score (based on audience response) at Rotten Tomatoes.
TriStar had planned to do a trilogy of films (with possibly more to follow), but since the first entry stumbled out of the gate and failed to live up to expectations, this reboot ended up one-and-done. It did, however, get a sequel of sorts with Godzilla: The Series (more on that below).
Should It Be Rebooted?
It already has, and that has proven much more successful. In 2014, Gareth Edwards (Monsters) helmed Godzilla, and that was well-received and proved a success at the Box Office, launching the franchise (dubbed the MonsterVerse) that was hoped for from the 1998 Roland Emmerich film. It also felt much less calculated and did a good job of respecting the original Japanese movies while also expanding on the property with its larger budget.
Since then, King Kong has been brought into the fold, and four films have followed along with the Apple TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. More is on the way, and this version of the franchise looks to stick around for a while.
Interesting Facts:
Two previous Americanized versions of Godzilla had appeared in the states with the original film and Godzilla 1985 getting scenes added that featured actor Raymond Burr. the 1998 version was the first film to feature the Toho monster which was completely produced in the U.S.
Godzilla: The Series arrived on Fox Kids in Fall 1998, and it is considered to have delivered a better Americanized take on the franchise than the 1998 film. Production on it began before the movie premiered, and the plan was to take advantage of its popularity when it became a hit at the theaters (which it never really did). The series carries on directly from the big screen story, bringing in some of the same characters, and it follows a new Godzilla hatched from one of eggs in New York City. The giant lizard becomes more of a hero in the animated series, and the show follows his and the H.E.A.T. team’s encounters with many different kaiju. It ran for two seasons totaling 40 episodes.
Where Can You Watch It?
This movie is widely available on home video in Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD format, and you can also purchase it VOD or watch it with a subscription to Sony Pictures Core.
