1998 Godzilla

• Directed by: Roland Emmerich
• Written by: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Ted Elliott
• Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo
• Run Time: 2 Hours, 19 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAfd8SaG4T8

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s an Americanized version of Godzilla who makes his way to New York. It’s heavy on the action, with enough humor to thoroughly take the edge off the massive destruction and body count that is played down. The creature look, and the whole feel of the movie, are quite different from the original series of films. It’s quite entertaining, but not a good fit in the series.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on old footage of nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific and the native egg-laying lizards of the area as credits roll.

A fishing boat in a storm sees something weird on the radar. Suddenly, a giant claw rips through the side of the hull and it goes badly from there.

Dr. Niko Tatopoulous drives to Chernobyl. He electrifies the soil and takes worm samples. At least until a helicopter lands from the US State Department. They have something bigger for him to work on.

In Tahiti, Philippe Roache, a doctor, talks to the lone survivor from the fishing boat; he’s radioactive now. When asked what he saw, the old man says, “Gojira.”

In New York City, Audrey and Charles talk about the promotion she wants. He just wants to cheat on his wife with her.

Niko is taken to study a gigantic footprint. Lots of footprints and destruction. His new boss, Elsie, explains what they know. They follow the footprints to a huge shipwreck. Philippe is there, and he’s with the news crew. Niko starts collecting samples.

That night, more fishing boats run into trouble. Colonel Hicks, the guy in charge of the investigation, hears about this. The creature seems to be heading toward New York City. Niko thinks it’s a new species created by radioactivity from the ocean.

Audrey gets advice about the news business from Lucy and Victor. She spots Nick on TV and likes what she sees. Meanwhile, an old man on the pier catches a really, really, really big fish, but it gets away. Godzilla meets the Big Apple, and it’s messy, right in the middle of Mayor Ebert’s speech.

Audrey sees Godzilla and decides that’s gonna be her big break. Victor grabs his camera and gets to work taping the monster; he almost gets squashed.

Nick and the others discuss how Godzilla has managed to hide somewhere in the city. The city, meanwhile, is in the process of being evacuated. Philippe talks to the mayor and plants a bug on him; he’s some kind of spy who doesn’t like American donuts and coffee.

Turns out, the monster may be hiding in the subways. Everyone does things to help with the search. Nick suggests leaving a pile of fish to draw in the creature. This works really well, much to his surprise, as they come face to face.

In the ensuing battle, the Chrysler Building gets blown up, as do many other landmarks.

Nick and Audrey meet up by accident, and it’s awkward for both of them. She gets lots of information about the new monster, and he’s more than happy to talk all about what he’s learned, including that the monster is pregnant by way of asexual reproduction. He’s… nesting. A lizard can lay up to twelve eggs at a time! Audrey then does a full news report on the story.

Nick tells the mayor and the colonel his fears about the eggs. Audrey’s boss steals her story and uses it as his own. Nick gets fired but then is immediately kidnapped by Philippe. He’s with the French intelligence, and he’s got a whole mini-military setup of his own. Victor, the cameraman, follows them and spies on the spies. Philippe convinces Nick to work with them.

All the characters head down into the subway to look for the nest and narrowly avoid getting trampled by the big guy. The monster dives into the river, where a submarine awaits him with torpedoes. One sub ends up sinking themselves, but another hits the creature and they assume it’s dead.

Nick, Philippe, and Victor head to Madison Square Garden, where the eggs are. They find three eggs. Then they find more. Many more. The group starts planting bombs on the eggs, but they didn’t bring enough. All the eggs suddenly start to hatch all at once. There is much running and screaming as the babies pursue them all through the subways.

Audrey and Victor go to the broadcast booth and start reporting. As her boss reports about people wanting to return to the city, she comes up with footage of the nest and hundreds of babies. Nick tells the military what to do to keep the lizards from spreading.

We go back to running and screaming as the babies pursue them. Meanwhile, the military is going to blow up Madison Square Garden within a few minutes. The wacky Frenchman leads them outside just as the missiles hit.

As the movie ends– no, the big Godzilla gets back up, clearly not dead. He looks at all the dead babies on the ground and there’s more running. And driving. Godzilla is fast. Godzilla ends up grabbing their car and chewing on it. Godzilla gets tied up in the Brooklyn Bridge’s suspension cables, which allows the fighters to hit it with their missiles.

The monster collapses from its injuries and dies. Everyone celebrates except Siskel and Ebert, who argue. Audrey gets back with Nick and quits her job. Philippe steals Victor’s videotape and sneaks away mysteriously. As the main characters all walk away and make jokes, we zoom back in on the Square Garden and see that at least one of the eggs has survived…

Brian’s Commentary

Why do all the helicopters fly between the narrow buildings when they could simply fly over them and look down? This isn’t the Star Wars trench, these are buildings.

There’s a lot of silliness and humor here, and that may be the biggest weakness of the film (Siskel and Ebert jokes, really?). This is a summer blockbuster action movie, not a horror film. Matthew Broderick plays the same character he always plays, which is just too silly to take even remotely seriously.

The fully CGI monster, although very well done, is hardly recognizable as Godzilla; they were going more of a “Jurassic Park” looking lizard creature. It’s different from what we’ve seen in the past, but at least it’s well done. He’s got fire-breath, but it seems like something they threw in because they felt like they had to– it only shows up twice.

It’s a fun movie, really well made, but it’s a lousy Godzilla movie.

Kevin’s Commentary

There were two sequels in mind, but it wasn’t well received enough domestically for them to go through with it. It did much better internationally.

This version feels like it left all the horror elements behind and embraced the action. And embraced humor and silliness. It was noticeable how the creature design was different, more of a four-legged lizard who could stand on his hind legs. And he swims really well.

I thought it was too different from the originals. In fact, I read online that at the time there was a nickname circulating “G.I.N.O.” Godzilla In Name Only, and I don’t disagree. I’d say that I enjoyed it quite a bit for an entertaining movie, but it didn’t seem like much of a Godzilla movie.