The pacing is terrible, including a nearly 40-minute lull right in the middle where the monster is never even seen. The logic in the script is even worse. How can the monster crush a helicopter but not the cab containing the main characters? How can he crawl underground when he can't even get into an above ground tunnel? How can you lose a 200-foot tall monster in New York City?
GINO changes in both color and size in every scene, proving that not even the special effects team had a clue. The pitiful "Jurassic Park" knock off towards the end (taking place in Madison Square Garden) is filled with phony animatronic baby G's and even worse CG creations. It looks like this was filmed on some sort of Universal Studio theme park ride. This film now looks even worse than it did back during its premiere.
But even after all of this, the films biggest disgrace is to the die-hard fans. A J.D. Lees (the creator of the fantastic fanzine G-Fan which I have had the pleasure of writing for) look-alike is crushed during the monsters first appearance simply because he rightfully stated negative thoughts on the film. Toho explicitly laid out the ground rules for the film that were completely ignored. It took a massive fan revolt just to make it SEEM like the creature can breathe fire. This just proves that with all the money in the world, you still can't beat the magic portrayed by a man in a rubber suit. (No stars out of *****)
Available only in 2.35:1 widescreen (with a rumored pan & scan version supposedly replacing this one soon), "Godzilla" looks pretty good on DVD considering the depressingly dark nature of the film. Black levels, so important to the film, are strong with only a few minor instances where they lighten up. The few scenes with color show nice flesh tones and contrast. A little bit of heavy grain can be evident at times, but the overall picture is strong enough to overcome this issue. (****)
If anything ended up right about this film, it is the audio. Here it is on DVD and it sounds just as spectacular. In fact, this disc sounds so good, even the menus punish the viewers sub-woofer. Action sequences toss positional audio from every direction, assaulting the listener and attempt to immerse them in the dull on-screen action. Every step this redesigned creature takes the LFE channel to work. It is absolutely impossible to pick out a single scene that works best. Just pick an action sequence and go. (*****)
Article comments
1 - Ralph Preedy, Hoboken NJ
In my opinion, Godzilla (1998) was a travesty. I went in hoping for something good and came out totally disappointed. Godzilla looked horrible. Devlin and Emmerich should have followed Toho's guidelines for the movie. It probably would have made a difference. If they make another in the future, please stick to Toho's advice and follow the "King's" roots. The Japanese Godzilla will always be No. 1.
2 - Corey Page
You have to keep in mind the target audience. If you think a movie buff would be entertained by this travesty, you are wrong, but for the common people who couldn't tell you who even directed the deal and just want to see a giant monster trample through New York, you are spot on. Although true Gojira Fans are very dissapointed, i can tell you that they didn't see it more than once and left half way through and didn't buy the DVD. The average person just wants to see some good ol fashioned building destroying, rockets flying carnage.
3 - Rage of Godzilla
Forget all you guys Godzilla was freaking awesome and there's other people that like it to and beside all the other Godzilla's suck this Godzilla or should I say his name Zilla was freaking awesome and
his death was also sad but the ending was also awesome cause when that one egg survived and came out Zilla Jr they just ended that was the most bad-ass scene