Godzilla

1998 • 138 minutes
3.6
1.39K reviews
20%
Tomatometer
PG-13
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

Leaving a trail of capsized ships and demolished cities, a monstrous reptile known as Godzilla makes his way towards New York City. Seemingly impervious to traditional weaponry, Godzilla will destroy Manhattan unless scientist Dr. Nick Tatopolous and mysterious French insurance investigator Philippe Roache discover how to stop the monster's rampage. GODZILLA is directed by Roland Emerich and written by Dean Devlin, the team behind INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Rating
PG-13

Ratings and reviews

3.6
1.39K reviews
Kyle Vansteelandt
December 27, 2021
Most of this movie is so tedious and stupid. The film has an impenetrable plot, because of the heavy lack of originality, awful characters, worthless background information, and a running time that clocks in at 139 minutes. The film has an uninspired, simplistic story that it wafer-thin that is stretched out to two hours and nineteen minutes. The characters are making bland fools of themselves. the characters are also structured in a stupid cartoony way. Not even the names for the characters are that good, because they are unoriginal ("Audrey" from little shop of horrors), forgettable, and there is one name ("Animal") that is a ridiculous, pointless name. To make matters worse, there is a parody plotline of Roger Ebert (Michael Lerner) and Gene Siskel (Lorry Goldman). Instead of film critics, they are the mayors of the city with the chemistry of villains and sidekicks (in a protagonist way that is). Matthew Broderick as Dr. Tatopoulos was making himself look like a young nerd of himself. The acting went from mediocre to bad and flat. The moments of serious mediocre acting is not going to fool us that these characters are actually intelligent and mature, due to the dumb writing and dumb dialogue. There are moments that are ripping off Jurassic Park, like baby Godzillas attacking characters in a building (Velociraptors) and a Taxi chase scene with a full grown Godzilla (jeep chase with T-rex). Godzilla in this film is a cool monster (in a rather unusual way); He is a colossal and muscular mutated marine iguana that can disappear in the streets, and he has the ability to burrow, and run. The design of this Godzilla looks like a menacing monster from the prehistoric times, and the way he moves is smooth with lumbering magnificence, but, compared to other big budget movies, the execution of this CG Godzilla is poorly implemented in the film, which makes the CGI look unconvincing and relatively cheesy. It's a poorly rendered CGI effect. And the fire that Godzilla breathes does not look realistic either, it looks more like a fire explosion coming forward. Unfortunately, I don't have an opinion on the music score, it's just your typical large-scale orchestral score, It's just there, it exists. the score is big and powerful, but it does not have the flavor or punch to grab my ears attention with overwhelming results. The film does have some memorable large-scale imagery and it looks decent as a spectacle. In conclusion: This "Godzilla" film shall not be a member of a family called "The Legacy of Godzilla and the Kaijus" because of the lack of originality, the low ambition of it's entertainment value, cheesy CGI, bland and unlikable characters, and an impenetrable story that makes no sense. 1.5/5 Not Recommended.
38 people found this review helpful
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Housemaker 08
March 16, 2021
Would rate in negatives if it were possible If it weren't for the fact it has the godzilla name it would be fine but... its not worthy of the godzilla name #1 it freaking died from an oversized firework #2 its an overgrown iguana literally it lacks the fact of being a nuclear dinosaur #3 NO ATOMIC BREATH IT LACKS THE SIGNITURE TRAIT OF GODZILLA #4 It looks nothing like godzilla, all others look similar enough to understand but without the name you would never know on this one
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Jack Daniel
October 7, 2014
Back in 1998, the hype of many shot though the roof in anticipation for the first American adaption of Godzilla. Needless to say, the film, for the most part, didn't live up. The movie was little more than action director's CGI wet dream with poor acting and lackluster set pieces. The treatment towards the Japanese monster icon was also as tasteless as the film itself. A rental if you haven't seen it.
6 people found this review helpful
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