Oh boy the time has come. We're finally up to this point in this series where I must now discuss the first American Godzilla movie directed by Roland Emmerich. I have a lot to say about this movie so sit back and enjoy.

A film so hated by fans that Toho went ahead and retconned this movie to make it apart of the original Toho Godzilla series. The monster in this movie went from being Godzilla to just Zilla. Leaving most fans to refer to this movie as G.I.N.O. or Godzilla In Name Only. The biggest problem with this movie is that it's called Godzilla. If you were to call it something else then it wouldn't have this bad of a wrap. I mean it still wouldn't be very good. But, at least it wouldn't be as hated for its failed attempt at being a Godzilla movie.

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My First Disappointment: 
In order to talk about why this movie was such a disappointment I have to first take you back to when this movie first was released. The marketing for this movie was everywhere and it was fantastic. They never showed the monster in any of the trailers. You had to see the movie in order to see what Godzilla looked like. (Although some of the toys revealed his design, but this was back when the internet was in its infancy stage so most people weren't spoiled). So instead of showing us what Godzilla looked like the marketing team had to describe Godzilla for us. There were signs saying his foot is as big as this bus or his tail is as big as (insert whatever here) and so on and so forth. Plus there were a ton of tie ins with various toy companies. There was this bizarre music video collaboration with Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page.

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You also can't forget the amazing Taco Bell tie ins with that talking chihuahua. (I really wish Taco Bell would bring him back).

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Combine that with some great trailers, the director of Independence Day, and they hype for this movie was off the wall with excitement.

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Then finally the movie was finally released and it was awful. Mainstream audiences didn't like it and Godzilla fans hated it. This isn't the movie they thought it was going to be. I remember when I first saw it and wondered why it was called Godzilla when it didn't even resemble the character.

Zilla:

Here is where our first issue arises. This monster is supposed to be "Godzilla" Go ahead and take a look at this thing. Would you think that this is supposed to be Godzilla!? Outside of the dorsal plates just being there this thing doesn't resemble Godzilla at all! On its own I think Zilla is actually a pretty cool looking creature. However, as something that's supposed to be "Godzilla" it doesn't even come remotely close to resembling the character. But, that's not the only reason to hate on this movie. There's a lot more that it gets wrong in the Godzilla category.

Size Does Matter:
Thats the tagline of the movie. "Size Does Matter." If that's supposed to be he case then why is this "Godzilla" so small? Why is he running from the military!? He's supposed to be practically indestructible! It's not like they are using some sort of super weapons or there's another monster after him. It's just the standard military that takes him out! What a load of shit! Also, How come he doesn't breather fire!? This is Godzilla! The atomic breath is a trademark of the character. Why wouldn't they include that!?

Ripping Off Jurassic Park:
It's one thing to pay tribute to Jurassic Park. After all it's one of the greatest movies of all time and was a phenomenon when it came out. However, this movie tried to be more like Jurassic Park then it did Godzilla. For instance when "Godzilla" gives birth and lays hundreds of eggs in Madison Square Garden (somehow nobody notices) the babies hatch and look more like and act like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park!

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From the way they move to the way they act. These are the velociraptors and not Godzilla! Don't get me wrong I love the raptors. They're one of my favorite dinosaurs behind the T-Rex, but it's so blatantly obvious what they're trying to do with these things. I don't see the need to ripoff Jurassic Park when Godzilla has plenty of great material to adapt. It's just dumb.

What Could Have Been:
Shown below is an image from an earlier attempt at a Godzilla movie before Emmerich took over. (What do you know it actually looks like Godzilla). Oh and he fights another monster! Something we don't even see in the 98 version.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2015/05/10/godzilla-unmade-the-history-of-jan-de-bonts-unproduced-tristar-film-part-1/
The above article I have posted a link covers what the original American Godzilla movie was going to be before TriStar said no and brought in Emmerich instead. Just reading this version makes me mad because it actually sounded pretty cool. It had a bit of a unique take but it still would have been Godzilla. If only we could have gotten this version. But, sadly we never did. I think it would have been better received and I think fans and general audiences would have found it to be entertaining.

Plot/Summary:
Ok, so the only way I can think of to go over this movie is to do a summary of what goes down and to talk about things I don't really like. So let's start with the beginning. In the beginning of this movie we see nuclear tests taking place and we also see a ship getting attacked by "Godzilla" or in this case Zilla. Afterwards we are introduced to to Dr. Niko Tatopoulos also known as "the worm guy" played by Mathew Broderick.

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Now I like Broderick as an actor. But, he's not very good in this movie. In fact nobody is good in this movie. The only tolerable actor is Jean Reno. But, nobody can save this movie. Anyways, Broderick gets brought on to study this mysterious creature that's been popping up because he researches the effects of radiation on wildlife (specifically worms).

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Eventually, they are able to track down the creature (Zilla) all the way to New York City. Why this thing travels from the Pacific to a severely populated area like New York City is beyond me. So anyways Zilla makes his first big appearance  and I will admit that it is a pretty good first scene. However, it's then all down hill from there.

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So anyways Zilla finally arrives in New York City. (I assume it's during hurricane or monsoon season because it's always fucking raining! Like for reals there are no sunny days in the rest of the movie!) After his initial attack he then disappears. There's even a line in the movie where the Worm Guy says that "This is a place where he can easily hide." Yeah a city of a couple million people is a perfect place to hide. (That last sentence was sarcasm by the way).

So yeah Zilla spends a lot of the movie hiding from the military instead of just destroying them. Something the real Godzilla would never do! Only coming out when there's a lot of fish to be eaten.

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Anyways, outside of The Worm Guy and the military we also are unfortunate to have to follow some more obnoxious/annoying character that I hate. (A lot of them are coincidentally played by actors from the Simpsons). But, the character I hate the most is this girl named Audrey... She's the Worm guy's ex girlfriend who walked out on him and she's super annoying. She's also trying to become a reporter and is so desperate to do so that she steals conveniently labeled "top secret" files from The Worm Guys tent and gets him kicked out of all operations.

(I wish that one of those Velocizillas had eaten her).

Outside of Audrey we also have to follow her annoying friends and also the Mayor and his advisor who are supposed to be parodies of the movie critics Siskel and Ebert.

Here is what I don't get though. If you're going to try and make fun of Siskel and Ebert (two critics who ripped on your other movies). Then why not have Zilla eat them? What's the point of putting them in a monster movie and not have them get stomped on or eaten!?

It doesn't make any sense. Anyways at one point Zilla shows up and we get our big reveal of the monster and well let's just say that the cgi doesn't hold up quite so well. Granted this is 1998 so I'll cut it some slack.

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After this scene we finally get some action (that's pretty average) where Zilla runs away from the military and the military destroys most of the city. (They make the military look really dumb in this movie).

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After Zilla disappears again The Worm Guy uses a pregnancy test (used for humans) and is able to determine that the creature is pregnant. How a pregnancy test tailored to people works for a giant radioactive Kaiju I'll never know. Just roll with it.

Anyways, after The Worm Guy.. ok I know he has a name but I just like calling him the worm guy lol. So after The Worm Guy determines that the creature is pregnant he tries to tell the military that they have to look for the next. Unfortunately due to idiot (I mean Audrey) he gets kicked off the operation. But, don't worry the French are here to help him out.

You see the French feel responsible because it was their nuclear testing that ultimately created Zilla. So they go off searching for the nest which is at Madison Square Garden. How nobody knew that this thing was nesting there is beyond me. After the Velocizillas hatch the military then blows up the garden killing all the baby's zillas.

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After this Zilla who earlier was "apparently" killed by the military (but they never recovered a body) shows up and tries to kill the remaining characters. What follows is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen with Zilla getting trapped on the Brooklyn bridge and the military manages to kill him with missiles! Have these idiots never seen a Godzilla movie. Conventional Missiles aren't supposed to kill him!

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So Zilla dies and we get that moment where we're supposed to feel sad. But, it's not working for me. The movie also ends on a cliffhanger with one egg remaining that hatches leaving the door open for a sequel that never happened. (Thankfully).

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Originally this was going to be a trilogy but after everyone hated this movie TriStar decided to scrap it. Although we did get an animated series that continued the story from the movie (although it did kind of retcon the events from the movie). However, I will say this about the series it was so much better than the movie and it was at least more faithful to the character of Godzilla. We at least got some cool stuff with it and it did manage to fix a lot of the characters and make them more interesting and you know what I kind of enjoyed it. We got some neat new monsters and the animation was nice too. Once I finish talking about all the movies I'll come back to talking about the Animated Godzilla stuff.

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So that was Godzilla 1998 and yeah it's not very good. But, it's not the worst thing ever. While it's true that it's the first time i ever felt disappointment while watching a movie it has also been nearly 20 years since it came out and with the Legendary reboot having come out I have gotten over it. As a Godzilla movie it fails. However, since Toho retconned this movie into being apart of the Toho series I'm willing to look at it more as its own thing. I kind of feel bad for Zilla seeing as it's actually a pretty cool looking monster on its own. It's just that it unfortunately has to be associated with this movie and that kind of sucks. The best things about Godzilla 1998 is that it lead to the Animated series and that it got retconned into being in the Toho series. (Leading to a funny scene in final wars).

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Lol this scene cracks me up. Oh and before i forget to mention it. The musical score is actually pretty memorable. But, other than that this movie sucks. Anyways, I feel like I've said enough about Godzilla 1998. If you want to discuss this movie with me further be sure to leave a comment below. I'm looking forward to reading the comments on this one... As always thank you all for reading this. Next time I'll be back to talk about the millennium series. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and I hope you have a nice day.