Reappraising Roland Emmerich's & Dean Devlin's GODZILLA (1998)

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.