Godzilla (1998)
** out of *****
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Hank Azaria, Jean Reno, Kevin Dunn, Harry Shearer, Michael Lerner, Maria Petillo,Vicki Lewis, Doug Savant Written by: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich Directed by: Roland Emmerich Running Time: 139 minutes
In contrast to almost every other film critic, I'm a big fan of the summer movie season. I like the kinds of movies it produces: big, dumb, action movies with lots of special effects. Also in contrast to other critics, I am a big fan of Independence Day, the previous effort from Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. So, how could Godzilla be bad? A big dumb summer effects fest from Devlin and Emmerich? How could that go wrong? Sadly it does, in many, many ways.
I wish you could have seen my face during the course of the film. If you could time-lapse such a thing, you'd see my expression change from gleeful anticipation to virtual shock and outrage. Could my jaw have dropped any lower based on the idiocy being presented on screen? No.
You can make almost any premise seem plausible by film's end, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. Back to the Future for example, is 100% absurd but is executed flawlessly. I feel the same way about ID4. Silly, but the execution pulls it off. Godzilla however, is presented with about as little credibility as possible.
As far as Godzilla's new look goes: is it as good as the original Godzilla? No, not even close. But it's probably more accurate, looking and moving more like a giant lizard than a guy walking upright in a rubber suit. Was it worth waiting a year to see? No, not really. But overall the special effects are nothing short of outstanding, and they (along with the film's soundtrack) are the film's only redeeming qualities.
Godzilla's main problem (aside from the fact that it directly rips off Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and The Lost World countless times) is it's tone. The old Godzilla films were pure camp, so the new film needed to do either one of two things: also be pure camp, or treat this matter seriously. Amazingly, it does neither. It sits right on the border between the two, unable to make up it's mind. It's too silly to be taken seriously, but too serious to be taken lightheartedly. I mean, a giant monster makes it's way to New York City and begins destroying everything. Who's in charge of the military operation to stop it? A colonel (Kevin Dunn). No five star generals anywhere in sight, just a colonel in charge of the most inept group of fighting men our country has ever assembled. In charge of the operation out in the field? A stammering, sweaty, nervous idiot soldier (Doug Savant) who has no business being in charge of a military washroom, let alone a mission to destroy Godzilla.
Then there's Matthew Broderick. Now I like Broderick, and was really looking forward to that tried and true "Broderick schtick". You know what that is, it's when Broderick's is placed in an odd situation and he constantly doesn't understand what's going on. There is some of that here, but Broderick plays his character way too broadly, with wild eyes and cartoonishly bad facial expressions and dialogue. And going along with the idiot logic, the U.S. military specifically seeks out Broderick for his expertice, yet fails to follow any of the advice he gives them.
The most annoying part of the film though is two needless characters who serve no purpose except to take shots at two well known film critics, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Michael Lerner plays "Mayor Ebert", the mayor of New York and yes, he looks exactly like Roger Ebert. He's running for re-election, and his campaign slogan is "Thumbs Up for Mayor Ebert". To make matters worse, he has an associate named "Gene" who looks just like Gene Siskel. For some reason though, "Gene" is made out to be Mayor Ebert's little kiss-ass of sorts, telling him at times to just calm down and enjoy some candy. It's embarrassingly bad writing like this that helps destroy "Godzilla". Lots of screen time wasted.
Godzilla is sure to be a bit hit (probably THE big hit of the summer), thanks to a great year-long marketing campaign which never revealed the appearance of the new Godzilla creature. I sure wish I could pursuade you not to go though. But millions of you will, and then you'll see for yourself. [PG-13]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL: http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email: chuckd21@leading.net
© 1995-1998 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission.
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