What with the release of the newest Godzilla film nigh (the first Godzilla film in 10 years), most audiences seem to be waiting in breathless anticipation. Godzilla occupies a unique niche in popular culture, having settled into a groove of affection that can only be carved by out decades of sheer longevity. There are few out there who have seen every Godzilla film (although I have), but many still adore the giant nuclear amphibian as a kind of elder statesman of genre cinema.
As such, at this particular epoch, with so much eagerness floating in the air, few seem eager to recall the last time America tried to make a Godzilla film. In 1998, director Roland Emmerich made a bloated, 139-minute English-language Godzilla in America, using mostly American actors, and reinventing the Godzilla mythos from scratch. Many of us recall this time with utter clarity, and recall especially the overheated vitriol that came with the movie, i.e. that despite its high box office numbers (it did make a then-whopping $136 million) it was being touted as one of the worst Hollywood blockbusters of all time.
Well, here at CraveOnline‘s Trolling (“We stomp the loved and vaunt the hated”), the very phrase “one of the worst Hollywood blockbusters of all time” gets our little fingertips a-burnin’. If something is as hated as Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla, then it is most certainly ripe for a deep reconsideration. And, after some elucidation, we have easily come to the following conclusion: Godzilla doesn’t suck. Indeed, One might even say that the 1998 Godzilla RULES! Let’s look this iguana monster deep into the eye, and find the real truth of this lovely and underrated classic.
Is the film too long? Indeed it is. Is the plot convoluted? It’s safe to agree with that. Is the main character a bit of a drag? I suppose he is, a bit. But the triumphs of the 1998 Godzilla may outstrip the negatives. What we have at the end of the day is a fun, spirited reinterpretation of a movie legend using a modern idiom, a new story, more human characters, and up-to-date special effects. What we have is a good monster movie.
Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling here on Crave, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
6 Reasons Why Roland Emmerich's Godzilla RULES!
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Cool Redesign
Roland Emmerich chose not use the traditional Godzilla design for his movie, wanting to create something entirely original and striking. And while Godzilla had previously been an upright-standing, crinkly-skinned monster with a long neck and a long, whipping tail, this new one was more like an square-headed iguana that leaned forward, resembling a dinosaur. It may not have been what we were used to, but the new design brought out the creepy, animal nature of Godzilla. Here was a monster that behaved like an innocent creature. A mere piece of Mother Nature's menagerie, accidentally created by man. That was the original idea in 1954, and the new design brought that back to the Godzilla equation.
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New York
The 1998 Godzilla takes place in New York, and it's very much a New York movie. It's surely blunt about its own local color (Emmerich is not exactly known for his subtlety), but one can't ignore that New York's “we can deal with this too” attitude is in every frame. The neuroses of the main characters, the bustle of Manhattan, the flipness of the locals, and the jumping yellow New York taxis all give Godzilla an impeccable sense of place. Godzilla wasn't just smashing up any city. It was one we all knew and felt.
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It Addressed the Mispronunciation
We've been mispronouncing it for years, and openly continue to do so. The original monster in the 1954 film was called Gojira. Go-JEE-ra. The American studios that ported it over Stateside either heard it wrong or read it incorrectly, and somehow came up with the only-kinda-close pronunciation of “Godzilla.” All Godzilla fans know this is wrong, but decades of the mistake being repeated have kind of solidified the incorrect version. In the 1998 film, for the first time, we addressed that the monster was called Gojira, and that Americans got it wrong. It took until 1998 for America to openly admit its mistake. And the film did it in a comedic context, making the admonition rather amusing.
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It's Fun
Many may be shocked to find that – if they were to go back to the original Godzilla film – it is a dour, downright somber movie. It's all about tears, tragedy and death. In the ensuing decades, Godzilla became something of a raucous badass, and the Godzilla series became something fun and even plainly goofy. Emmerich wisely eschewed a lot of the original tragedy (which has been occasionally hauled out of mothballs in previous Godzilla sequels) and made what is essentially a comedy film with a monster in it. I won't say that the comedy is golden, but the overall tone of the film seems to be a silly one, full of breath and life.
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Human Scale
In the previous Godzilla movies, very few of the human characters stood out in any significant way. They were all technically about human characters, but human drama was always tertiary to monster mayhem. And it's easy to see why: Godzilla is too large to interact with humans in any significant way. Humans can't fight him hand-to-hand, so the drama is always about whether or not Godzilla can best an equally giant foe (hint: he always can). In the 1998 Godzilla, we were treated to hundreds of 7-foot-tall baby Godzillas, allowing the humans to be threatened on a more palpable, relatable basis. This was the first time we got this in the Godzilla series, and its an important detail.
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The Effects Rock
Roland Emmerich is part of a school of Hollywood directors who can only work with an enormous budget; his films (however you feel about them individually) are typically special effects extravaganzas that truly exploit the nature of big-screen cinema. As such, he knows how to film impressive visuals with clarity and flair. Godzilla is mostly a CGI creation in this film, but Emmerich ensures that he has weight and reality. Some of the shots seem a little lightweight, but for the most part, the monster and the destruction all look awesome. The effects still look impressive 15 years on.
