Last week I finally had a chance to watch Dean Devlin and Roland
Emmerich’s GODZILLA again, as I had recently acquired this on disc. This film was released in 1998 and I felt at the
time it was quite okay. Looking at it with a 20 year period and several
newer Godzilla films behind us, I had some mixed feelings about it now.
Considering that the TOHO Films always dealt
with issues of the monsters going to or around Tokyo (or at least Japanese
cities), the intent with this American version of GODZILLA was always to have
it take place in America. And that it does, playing around New York (granted,
after a few international locations to show the beast is headed to NYC). We
also get a good deal of play out of the city itself as well, as several New
York landmarks do not survive the film.
With Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno as rather
atypical leads for such a film, the main characters do seem to have a good
background personality and character development. Even though some developments
are a bit on the nose ( the development between the boy and the girl of this
film), the cast does present a nice group of people to inhabit this world. (Did
anyone catch the Mayor and his Aide as a funny representation of the reviewing
team of Siskel and Ebert who were big in movie reviews at the time? I
did.) No, the problem was not in the characters.
Jean Reno, Hank Azaria, Matthew Broderick and Maria Pitillo
And in terms of the story, the story also does what a big blockbuster should do, present thrilling scenes, but also laughs and keep us on the edge of our seats. It did all that. So why do I have mixed feelings now about this film?
Could it perhaps be that I feel the monster in this film is simply not GODZILLA? I think that that is a very likely answer. My sister has always liked this GODZILLA better than the later films which have again used the original Japanese look of the monster. She found this GODZILLA to be more like a dinosaur, like something that was credible now and looked like just that, Patrick Tatopoulos’s design looks really like a dinosaur in our times today. But for a GODZILLA movie, that seems a bit out of place. We are not watching Jurassic Park 34 here. I have enjoyed the later films better as I felt they were simply a better fit for what we should see as GODZILLA. American version yes, but more recognizable as GODZILLA than anything else.
The Patrick Tatopoulos design
Producer Dean Devlin has stated he has regretted
they wanted to show GODZILLA not as a villain but just as a creature that tries
to survive. It is an understandable choice but then in the final scenes of
GODZILLA on the bridge as it dies, you also feel a twinge of pity. I felt that
that was most certainly out of place. In the Japanese films there were
always many more casualties than in this one and so there was no need to feel
pity if GODZILLA were killed. It would be back for a next film any way.
But there it is, in this American version: a moment where Matthew Broderick
almost says “Sorry” when Godzilla is dying on that bridge. I would prefer not
having that moment there at all. Just like that scene that follows where the
one egg that was missed in the mass incinerations hatches and brings us a next
Generation Godzilla again. I have always said that I hated that bit.
Howling to the moon?
If the film was not called GODZILLA, maybe that
would not have bothered me. And I have actually enjoyed watching the goings-on
of Broderick and his fellows, even if the French involvement with Jean Reno and
his associates was a bit on the weird side. But yes, I must say I do find the
later GODZILLA representation, in the 2014 film, better. David Arnold’s score
also seems to go all over the place, which is odd at times but it does have
some good themes there. I would almost like to say better luck next time, but honestly, I am actually looking forward to GODZILLA VS KONG in the current storyline, which will come out early 2021.
