GODZILLA (1998)
Starring: Matthew Broderick (Dr. Niko "Nick" Tatopoulos), Maria Pitillo (Audrey Timmonds), Jean Reno (Philippe Roache), Hank Azaria (Victor "Animal" Palotti), Harry Shearer (Charles Caiman), Kevin Dunn (Colonel Hicks), Arabella Field (Lucy Palotti), Doug Savant (Sergeant O'Neal), Vicki Lewis (Dr. Elsie Chapman), Michael Lerner (Mayor Ebert), Lorry Goldman (Gene), and Godzilla as himself
Directed by: Roland Emmerich, Written by: Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich
Rated PG-13 for violence, mild profanity, and mild sexual innuendo
Reviewed by Doug Skiles
He is bigger... than a breadbox.
Plus he's mad, he's bad, and he's either green or grey/black depending on your point of view. He's Godzilla, and he's been a long time in coming to Hollywood. Back in the summer of 1992 I got a small poster advertising the coming of this Tri-Star film, to be released in the summer of 1993. He didn't come. JURASSIC PARK (1993) dinosaurs came, but no Godzilla. Well, now it's the summer of 1998. Five years is pretty damn off target.
Still, now that he's arrived, he certainly did it in style. $120 million dollars were spent on the big guy. Not bad for someone who's essentially a reptile with a nasty growth spurt.
Godzilla's story, in this new film, is that he was a simple lizard who got nuked. Yes, while merely a young egg at a nuclear testing site, a bomb was dropped in the area and the resulting radiation has caused our little green friend... well, he looks green to me... to grow to enormous proportions.
This incident isn't without precedent - turns out that Dr. Niko Tatopoulos - you can call him Nick - has been studying the effects of radiation on the earthworms in Chernobyl in the Ukraine. It turns out that they've grown 17% in size since the incident there on April 26, 1986. With his experience in the effects of radiation on biological specimens, the U.S. military is soon calling on the good doctor to help investigate a new creature who's managed to take out a sub and go traveling across Panama. The only survivor of the sub attack is a Japanese man who seems only able to say one word - "Gojira."
Turns out that this "Gojira" is heading to New York. He gets there, causes trouble, and pretty soon a local reporter has gotten ahold of a video of the previous sightings of this beast, leading to the network's anchor, Charles Caiman, misinterpreting the Japanese man on the tape and calling this gargantuan beast "Godzilla."
GODZILLA is yet another example of a movie that's dumb... but fun. Often very fun. Of course, it's from Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the creators of INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996), which was a prime example of "dumb fun," although it glorified we Americans a bit too much. I imagine it didn't play too well outside of this country. Well, I'd say that GODZILA is a better film, if only because I prefer the green guy to anonymous aliens.
Fans of the classic Godzilla will be pleased to note a few things. Godzilla's roar still sounds pretty much the same, a scientist is still the hero, and Godzilla is once again bugged momentarily by electricity in one scene, as he was in KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1962), even though electricity didn't bug the big G at all back in the original GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1954). There's a few other touches from the past, too, that I won't reveal here.
The characters are paper-thin, but at least everyone does their job well. There's really not a person in the bunch that doesn't perform satisfactorily - it's just a shame that their parts weren't written better. Of course, compare these characters to those in all of the old Godzilla films, and they're look like they've got a full psychological profile by contrast. Hank Azaria is a particular standout, and Jean Reno is the epitome of cool, as he always is. Matthew Broderick is surprisingly strong as well. Maria Pitillo plays her role quite nicely, but the fact is, she has the most underwritten role of the group. She seems to be there primarily to take up screen time and act as a love interest for Broderick. Still, I doubt anyone else could've played the role much better, and I'm sure she's happy to be in such a major release film.
Oh, I should mention the Siskel and Ebert mayor and sidekick. Yes, the mayor is named Ebert, and his assistant is named Gene. They also use "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" symbols for campaigning, yelling at each other, etc, throughout the movie. I'm not sure if it was a homage or an insult, but either way, it's just a weird little joke that doesn't detract from the movie at all - it's just there.
The direction by Emmerich is nicely handled, and the score by David Arnold, who also worked on INDEPENDENCE DAY as well as the recent eighteenth James Bond film, TOMORROW NEVER DIES (1997), is his usual expert work.
But, of course, the real star of the show is Godzilla himself. And boy, does he look fantastic. The new design of the beast isn't the way you remember Godzilla, but it still FEELS like Godzilla, and that's what counts. Plus it's huge, threatening, and quite cool. The effects on the monster? Flawless. All of the movie's effects are perfect, with nice little touches throughout, such as the damage Godzilla does by scraping his tail along the side of a building. It's the little things like that that really take your breath away. After all, we've seen large scaly beasts before. Of course, not THIS large...
And when the action sequences get going, they're the best part of the movie. Thrilling, and sometimes adding genuine tension to the mix, especially in the last 40 minutes of film, these alone are worth the price of admission. Some people have complained that they resemble elements of JURASSIC PARK too heavily. Well, I promise you, only ONE scene resembles anything from JURASSIC PARK, and that is a face-off in the latter half of the movie that's somewhat similar to the "raptors in the kitchen" scene from the first Spielberg dinosaur film. However, I'm happy to report that it more than holds its own with that great sequence, and in fact, in a number of ways it surpasses it. Absolutely nothing else in GODZILLA resembles anything from JURASSIC PARK or its sequel in any way, shape, or form.
It's interesting to note that most of the movie's action takes place at night, and pretty much all of the entire show occurs in the rain. It's a very nice atmospheric touch, almost making this a monster noir film. Interesting.
GODZILLA is another typical American summer film. It's dumb, but it's a lot of fun. Will something better come along this summer? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Some people will find that GODZILLA doesn't live up to the hype, but then again, what COULD live up to this much advance promotion? It's still a good time. Dumb writing and thin characters hurt it, but this movie isn't supposed to be art, it's only supposed to be fun. And on that level, it delivers just fine.
Rating: ***
"Wrong floor." - Dr. "Nick" Tatopoulos
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