Godzilla

[sdp]

Just watched Godzilla 1998 since I thought I'd post my thoughts on it. I've always liked this movie. I always loved dinosaurs and I knew of Godzilla but I was never able to see any of the movies. The closest I would ever get is see a few clips on TV. I still was a huge fan and knew all the monsters names and histories based off the bios on the back of the Trendmaster toys. I remember thinking Space Godzilla was the coolest thing ever. I didn't like the Hannah Barbera cartoon too much but would watch it since it was the only Godzilla thing I had access too. I would've been such a happy kid if I'd had broadband internet and were able to check out all the movies as a kid.

When I saw the teaser for Godzilla 1998, I was so happy I'd finally be able to see Godzilla. I liked the movie a lot even if I wasn't crazy for it, but it's because I was getting older and I think DBZ, Pokemon and video games had most of my attention at the time and not dinosaurs. I was excited for more. I watched the cartoon and also loved it. So yeah, you can say I am biased towards my opinion about the film since I saw it as a kid but I was indeed a fan of the original for far many years before.

The marketing for the movie was great, much better than the one for Godzilla 2014. It really felt like Godzilla was finally coming to the US, and it was everywhere, and most were all cryptic, never showing the full design of Godzilla. The soundtrack was pretty good as well. While the marketing for the 2014 movie wasn't bad it didn't reach the levels of the 1998 film.

Now the movie gets crapped by pretty much everyone, which is unfair and the new movie has plenty of flaws that people can nitpick apart like they have this movie. You can read more about that here. First the design; this is a reboot and while I loved the classic design more as a kid and now the 1998 design is still very much Godzilla. The original was inspired by a T-Rex and the at the time "Tripod" look he had, so it's only natural that the reboot would incorporate what we now know about the T-Rex. It's like those who go crazy about the dinosaurs in the new Jurassic Park movie having feathers even though ironically it was JP that first changed the perception of how the public in general viewed dinosaurs. Great design and I love that he is actually fast and agile and not necessarily slow and clunky. You actually feel bad for the guy when his babies are killed. As for him going out so easily, it never bothered me too much but looking at it now it is indeed a little anti-climatic, but you do have to take into consideration he got straight hits from a submarine and then not one but two rounds of missiles. Today I noticed something though, Godzilla is never confirmed dead, he is left ambiguously dead. Whether it was because they wanted to use him in a sequel either as the hero or a bad guy, leaving two possibilities of who Godzilla was going to be in the second movie this one or the baby that survives in the ending. We know the cartoon used the baby with the mother coming back to life as well.

Something I had read and knew about but it never hit me until this viewing is how it is indeed a lot like JP, some of the baby Godzilla scenes and the Taxi chasing scene are straight out of the first movie only done so much worse. The human story while not amazing is rather decent by monster movie standards, it's not good by any chance but when compared to others in the genre it's actually decent, this includes the acting. Now many of these parts can be picked apart but it's also a product of it's time, the mid to late 90s. I can already see the new Godzilla movie being made fun of by how gritty it's trying to be. The film is not perfect by any means but the amount of hate it gets is just silly, especially with how hard it can be to sit through many of the Toho Godzilla films.

I'll be watching the animated cartoon, which is generally well liked by the internet and it really is a cool show and shows what a sequel could've been if it had been given a chance.

Originally Posted by electric_sheep

Godzilla '98 is an awful, awful Godzilla movie but it's ok Zilla movie...

what the hell does that even mean?

jeeze, the Godzilla 1998 hate has always been ridiculous, especially after this movie. The name of the movie is Godzilla, so he is Godzilla whether you like it or not. Hell if people are such purists on what he should look like then they should call him "Gojira", they even mention that in the movie "It's Gojira, you morons". Toho approved the designs of the movie afterall.