This is How Movies Should Be Made

A Disappointing Continuation

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This film is hilarious. For example, Tatopoulus' line "That's a lot of fish" contains the most basic element of humor: brevity. The movie consistently delivers such intended laughs and never takes itself seriously. All of the characters melded well, and it's puzzling that Maria Pitillo's performance should have been considered sub-par. To this view, she was convincing and engaging. And so what if the movie lacks the "spirit" of Godzilla? It also lacks the ludicrous special effects of the Japanese versions.

I'm a big fan of Godzilla, and I was very excited for this movie. I remember getting Godzilla on video, and I use to watch it several times. I remember watching it on television on one Sunday, and it was just as enjoyable. The movie was actually good, and feel it may be a little underrated. The plot was interesting, and that was probably the best thing about this movie. The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that there wasn't enough of Godzilla which was a surprise considering the title of this movie is: Godzilla. What I don't understand is why this movie gets a lot of hate. Yes, it does have its flaws, but so do most movies out there. Maybe a lot of people were expecting this movie to be like previous Godzilla movies, but that's obviously not going to happen in Hollywood - at least for now. Unlike other Godzilla movies, this Godzilla movie has a good story for audiences to follow. The movie is a bit long, but I feel that's a good thing because it's interesting to follow. Like I mentioned, the plot is very good. It gets even more better as the movie progresses. I could watch this again if I wanted to since it was enjoyable. If you're a fan of Godzilla, you would like it otherwise you won't.

Many Godzilla purists rejected this CGI-based reinterpretation of the story (#23 in the series) but it is not a bad kaiju outing in its own right. The Toho release (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, 1995) preceding Emmerich's version continued the trend toward improbable monsters, new-age subplots, and self-righteous greenery and I found the US version to be a refreshing return to the original concept: humanity vs. a single, destructive monster born of radiation. Typical of Emmerich's unsubtle style, everything is very big (Godzilla) or very numerous (e.g. helicopters) and the human drama of the 1954 original, which treats the monster's destructive rampage more as a tragedy than an adventure, is replaced by light-weight shtick, primarily revolving around the Roger Ebert-lookalike mayor (apparently an Emmerich in-joke). Godzilla itself is (IMO) quite well done with a very different look from the original (reflecting 'iguana' rather than 'dinosaur' origins) and the production has fun with the sheer scale of the monster. The opening credit scenes, which establish Godzilla's genesis, are extremely good and the film builds well from there to the arrival of the monster on the shores of Manhattan Island. The cast is fine: Mathew Broderick's playing the scientist who seems to always guess correctly and Maria Pitillo and Hank Azaria as intrepid reporters (both tropes familiar to anyone who has watched the Japanese films). Jean Reno is great as the French secret-service agent trying to ensure that the role France's nuclear tests in creating the current disaster remains unknown and he (and his team) have best lines in the film, riffing on both Gallic unflappability and the challenges of running a clandestine operation in America. Within the context of the film, a general plausibility is maintained (other than reconciling Godzilla's size and its ability to fit in the New York subway system) until the 'third act', an overdone and ridiculous chase scene that is by far the weakest part of the film. Future Japanese entries in the Godzilla franchise make the occasional amusing dig at Emmerich's fish-eating version of the iconic kaiju, but overall, I thought that the film was a worthy effort at 'Americanising' Toho's famous monster and liked the film more than most viewers (based on IMDB) and certainly more than most Godzilla-philes.

Weird script, bad acting, didn't feel anything like godzilla.