Godzilla (1998) / YMMV

Ass Pull: Nick pulls the idea that the baby Zillas are pregnant from birth from absolutely nowhere.
Americans Hate Tingle: This movie is loathed in Japan due to it having a poor grasp of the original Japanese movies, notably for the titular character himself. Ironically, Godzilla: The Series was well-received by Toho. Even the official YouTube channel throws a shade at the movie while advertising the cartoon series with the line "The 'Godzilla: The Complete Animated Series' DVD is ready to redeem 1998 as a concept with 40 episodes of heat rays and kaiju battles! Get it!"
Awesome Music:
- Though the film's overall quality is still debatable, the one thing that is universally agreed upon is that the original score composed by David Arnold is stellar. The opening theme for example is a slow, foreboding piece that gets much more bombastic and heavier as it goes on set to footage of nuclear bomb testings. It’s a perfect way to set the mood. Some of the cues are borrowed from his score to Independence Day.
- There's also the tie-in songs like "No Shelter" by Rage Against the Machine, "Deeper Underground" by Jamiroquai, "Come With Me" by Sean Combs, "A320" by Foo Fighters, and a cover of "Heroes" by The Wallflowers.
Base-Breaking Character: Though the rest of the main characters have fallen into either Ensemble Dark Horse or Scrappy territory by many fans listed below, Dr. Niko Tatopoulos tends to be more divisive. Some see him as just another generic stereotype of the socially awkward, geeky scientist who fails to leave any sort of impact on viewers, whereas others found him to be charismatic and quite funny throughout, citing it as one of Matthew Broderick’s more memorable roles.
Critical Backlash: In contrast to all the hate this film has gotten over the years by critics and especially fans, there has been a wave of people, some of which are legitimate fans of the movie, who have come to the film's defense and have given it merit for being an all around entertaining popcorn flick that does a lot of things right for a Hollywood blockbuster movie, from its music and effects to characters and comedy. In their view, most of the hate is uncalled for, just because it's a misrepresentation of an arguably niche franchise. Even some fans of the Japanese Godzilla movies have come out and admitted that it was a decent monster movie in its own right, and even claimed that it's actually better than some of the weaker Godzilla movies even if it isn't a true Godzilla movie.
Critical Dissonance: Despite being ridiculed by most, in theaters it made nearly three times what it cost to make, being the third highest grossing film in the world in 1998. The director has commented that out of all the films he directed, it was the one which parents told him their children enjoyed the most.
Critic-Proof: The film received scathing reviews from critics, general audiences, and longtime Godzilla films alike, but was nonetheless profitable and one of the top grossing films of 1998. That said, the film performed below studio expectations, making them more hesitant about going ahead with planned sequels, resulting in a Stillborn Franchise.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Animal and Phillippe are considered by quite a few as one of the few redeeming aspects of the film.
- Godzilla himself developed into this after he was retconned into a different kaiju (redubbed "Zilla") from Godzilla by Toho.
- The final Godzilla hatchling. Despite looking no different from his posthumous siblings, this particular hatchling not only survives at the end of the film, but that he's the Godzilla from Godzilla: The Series. And considering the animated Godzilla is a much more Truer to the Text than his father, that's very impressive despite the changes to his father.
Fan Nickname:
- The Godzilla of this movie is commonly called G.I.N.O. (Godzilla In Name Only) and Zilla (which it was later officially renamed) to distinguish it from the "real" Godzilla.
- Exactly how Godzilla '98 or Zilla is named is based entirely on which piece of media he appears in. If it's this film or the Animated Adaptation, he's called Godzilla. If his appearances in GMK, Final Wars and later films are being referenced, it's Zilla.
- Among Japanese fans, "エメゴジ" (Eme-Goji) is used, referencing Emmerich's name.
Fanon: As time has gone on, and this version of Godzilla has gone on to appear occasionally in Toho-related media under the name "Zilla", both films and comics, fans go back to this film and essentially treat it not as a movie about Godzilla, but a separate Kaiju within the same universe as the other Toho monsters, which is considered significantly more acceptable by longtime fans. Since the Japanese fisherman in the movie believes in a mythical monster named Gojira, which he identifies the brand new nuclear-mutant iguana with, this is taken as an opening for the classic Godzilla to co-exist with it.
Fanon Discontinuity: Many Godzilla fans prefer to either ignore the existence of this film or to disregard it as an unrelated kaiju movie due to the drastic and very unpopular changes made to the title character. This is made easier by Toho themselves expressing similar opinions, frequently not listing the film in compilations that do include the Monsterverse films, and putting Take That! references to the film in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! and Godzilla: Final Wars, the latter of which rechristened the 1998 Godzilla incarnation as merely "Zilla".
Faux Symbolism: Similar to the Japanese films, Godzilla is born of nuclear destruction, but while these films go further by making Godzilla a blatant metaphor for atomic warfare and the consequences it brings, in this film it's just an excuse for how he exists and has no bearing on the rest of the plot.
Fridge Horror: The animated sequel shows what would happen if another Godzilla offspring survived, other than the protagonist monster. Growing up, they would be a lot more durable and could breath atomic fire, and they would have a rapid growth spurt that could go from infant to adult within weeks. The only upside is that the protagonist monster is not as destructive as the Toho original monster, thanks to his human upbringing.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In countries that have never localized the original movies, it's not uncommon for movie fans to regard this rendition of the Godzilla character as a classic Hollywood blockbuster, whereas the Man in a Rubber Suit approach (or even the basic design of the monster) is often treated as a joke, and the Japanese films are likewise mocked. Granted, mainstream media in the USA such as Saturday Night Live also made fun of the Japanese originals. Despite being a pop culture icon, the camp of the "Showa Era" movies is very alienating for mainstream audiences. As expected, the 2014 film got accusations of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! from people only familiar with this version, and the newer reboot's polarizing reception had even gained the '98 movie a popularity-boost in these places, its fans reaffirmed in their view that nothing good can come from taking the franchise back to its roots — even if the '14 movie's reception on a global scale tilted more towards positive.
Gateway Series: To mainstream audiences and some fans, they watched this film before they found out about the original Japanese films.
Ham and Cheese: Jean Reno refuses to take this cheeseburger seriously. He hams it up shamelessly, sneering down his Gallic schnoz at everything American (despite being one of the good guys), and the film is much better for it.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- At one point, Caiman describes Godzilla's actions as "the worst act of destruction [in New York] since the [1993] World Trade Center bombing!".
- Hundreds of planes and helicopters can also be seen flying straight through the gap between WTC 1 and 2.
- Even leaving aside that one reference, much of the New York destruction is almost surreal in this film, as it's quite gruesome but also handled with a kind of light-heartedness that simply wouldn't fly in a post-9/11 world. During Caiman's helicopter coverage of the destruction, the idea that he'd take time to address store owners being annoyed at the loss of business and looters robbing Disney stores is simply laughable, to say nothing about the Chrysler Building being utterly demolished by wayward missiles being treated with mild outrage by the Mayor and utterly ignored by everyone else. It makes you wonder how this adaptation would have been handled Post-9/11, knowing that Godzilla has been used as a symbol for Japanese tragedies and crises. From the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the 1954 Original to the 2011 Japanese Earthquakes in Shin Godzilla.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In a roundabout way, the original Godzilla film was originally set as a generic Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever Nuclear Mutant monster film (that can be defeated), but it was modified as a post-war Japanese atomic tragedy. 44 years later, this film sets that original premise.
- Despite the scathing hatred the title monster has when defeated by mere missiles, three years later, the zombie of the original Godzilla would be defeated using a drill missile to defeat him (it doesn't kill him outright, but it gives him a gaping wound that causes his atomic breath to make him explode through it, surviving with only his heart). And yet, no one complained when GMK Godzilla was defeated by a mere missile.
- Hank Azaria's titular character in Brockmire would have an ex-wife named Lucy.
- Sixteen years later, another Godzilla would attack a suspension bridge and be shot at by missiles, but instead of dying, is merely slightly annoyed.
- Audrey's expressed concern about rats in the sewers is treated as Skewed Priorities by Animal as they follow Nick and Phillipe's team in search of Godzilla's nest. In the animated series, the episode "Cat and Mouse" shows that New York's sewer system is filled with giant mutated rats, making Audrey's complaints seem more like an unintentional case of being Properly Paranoid.
- Throughout the film, Godzilla frequently seeks out fish. Much later in 2024, the (actual) Godzilla would later show up in a crossover DLC for Dave the Diver, which involves lots of fish to hunt and serve.
- In the film, Godzilla's creation was the result in the French government's nuclear testing. In the MonsterVerse film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Godzilla is feed off of nuclear powerplants in France to get stronger, with the annoyance of the French government.
Memetic Loser: This film's incarnation of Godzilla is often mocked in the fanbase as the weakest of them all, something that was seen as canonized by Final Wars, and is typically given an embarrassing portrayal in fanwork.
Memetic Mutation:
- The (in)famous nickname GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) has achieved this status on the internet, even after Toho adopted the movie's version of Godzilla and renamed it to simply "Zilla."
- Due to 'Zilla being referred to as a male despite changing sex and laying eggs, it's been said that "Godzilla 1998 is transgender representation".
- "That's a lot of fish"
- Referencing the quote above, The Controller of Planet X in Godzilla Final Wars calls Zilla at one point a "tuna eating monster" (tuna head in the English dub). Because of this, Japanese fans have nicknamed the creature "Maguro-san" (Mr. Tuna).
- Godzilla 1998 spoiled the ending to The Super Mario Bros. Movie. ^Explanation
More Popular Spin-Off: Godzilla: The Series, especially since the Godzilla in the series acts more like Godzilla than its mother in the movie.
Narm
- The Running Gag of no one being able to correctly pronounce Nick's last name is pretty awkward since "Tatopoulos" should't be that hard for English speakers to pronounce and several of the "mispronunciations" are even more complicated than his actual name ("Topopolosis").
- During the first fish bait scene, the radar shows the pile of fish as a big generic fish symbol just to point it out.
- Audrey's reaction to seeing Nick on television looks like less of a moment where she's showing interest, but looks more like she's having a confused deer caught in the headlights moment.
- The huge barrage of helicopters chasing down Godzilla during the second fish bait scene. They're all dangerously close to each other and are flying between the buildings as they're doing this. Definitely Rule of Cool being exploited to its fullest extent here.
- The exaggeratedly sad music that plays as Godzilla nudges its dead offspring and the bystanding humans making side comments takes away from the solemn tragedy of the scene (compare and contrast with the 2014 film's scene of the Female MUTO, whose cries of anguish are only set to silence, and are more effective because of it).
- Some of 'Zilla's roars are unmistakably elephant sounds.
- Audrey's cover story on the stolen tape is pretty cringeworthy, seeing how she's paraphrasing Humpty Dumpty of all things as her closing statement.
  Audrey: All the king's horses and all the king's men may not be able to put the Big Apple together again.
  CinemaSins: Jeez, that's the copy you wrote? No wonder no one's given you a chance to be a reporter!
- During the baby Godzillas sequence, the characters treat smelling of fish as some shocking realization, as if the man-sized dinosaur-like predators need an excuse to attack them.
- There are several moments where the Godzillas (adult and baby) stand idly by Nick and friends without attacking them, with the humans somehow not seeming all that concerned.
Older Than They Think:
- This is not the first time Godzilla attacks New York on film; this happened as early as 1968's Destroy All Monsters.
- People in countries that got this film before getting the previous Toho films are sometimes unaware that Godzilla existed before 1998. So when the 2014 film came out, they were unaware that it was a Truer to the Text.
One-Scene Wonder: Stand Up comedian George Carlin can be seen in Animal and Lucy’s house after the latter invited all those who couldn’t return to their homes.
Pandering to the Base: Godzilla wasn't supposed to have his signature Breath Weapon in this movie because the filmmakers thought it was "unrealistic", but a huge outcry from Godzilla fans led them to make a compromise. In late production, they added a few SFX shots where his roar causes a few cars to explode, causing a fireball as a nod to Godzilla's "atomic breath".
Presumed Flop: Given how bad the film's reputation is, it gets at times labeled as a Box Office Bomb, when as mentioned above, it was one of the biggest hits of 1998, grossing $379 million worldwide, only not getting a sequel because the middling reception made the studio less enthusiastic.
Protection from Editors: Roland Emmerich was not a fan of the Godzilla films and only agreed to direct the remake if Sony allowed him and Dean Devlin full creative control over the direction of the story, which was radically different from prior entries. However, the final product basically confirmed to fans the obvious end result of what happens when someone who doesn't even like the franchise is given total creative control over it, as the movie was savaged by critics and audiences alike, underperformed at the box office, and sank plans for sequels, with the chief criticism above all else being the unfaithfulness to the source material.
Questionable Casting: For some odd reason, nearly half of The Simpsons voice cast is in this.^note Their use in the film is also all over the place; from Hank Azaria using Moe's voice a couple times seemingly just for the hell of it, to Nancy Cartwright's one-line cameo as Caiman's secretary.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In a very weird way, a Take That, Scrappy! managed to do this, as Toho canonizing the movie and making Zilla a separate kaiju has caused a good number of fans to take the movie as a stand alone film rather than a remake, and increased enjoyment of it.
The Scrappy: Audrey. Given that her relationship with Nick already ended because she chose her career over marrying him, the fact that she proceeds to do so again by betraying the top secret information to the press, effectively ruining his career to further her own, means that the audience has no idea why Nick wants her back at the end of the film. It also doesn't help that she's poorly acted by Maria Pitillo. So much so that Maria won the Golden Raspberry Award for worst supporting actress.
Signature Scene: The scene where Godzilla scales the side of a skyscraper and shrieks while illuminated by lightning is one of the most iconic moments in the movie, being homaged not only by fanart of the movie (for a given value of "fan") as well as the opening of Godzilla: The Series.
So Okay, It's Average: As a film on its own merits, it's this. The only reason it's hated so much is because of its In Name Only aspect.
Special Effect Failure:
- For starters, the lighting on Godzilla always looks off (which is why Godzilla is always obscured by nighttime and rain), and very little water splashes when he seemingly falls to his death in the Hudson River. This is mostly a problem with the film print, which was fixed in digital releases to become Visual Effects of Awesome.
- The scale is completely off, with Godzilla seemingly changing size compared to the surrounding buildings throughout the film. The worst being when he can only fit his arm into a tunnel during the cab chase, when his entire body earlier fit into what looked like a smaller one.
- There's a compositing error when Godzilla is feasting on the piles of fish — when we see it from behind, there's a squad of army men running to its right who pop into view between frames. The CGI guys neglected to rotoscope them into the shot, so the monster, who's supposed to be in the background, overlaps them.
- The helicopter chase, while on a whole a fairly cool scene, still features a cityscape that really looks very little like that of the real New York.
- In one shot when Godzilla first emerges in New York we see him apparently crush a fleeing civilian to death; said civilian is clearly seen continuing to run offscreen if you look hard enough, ruining the intended effect.
- When Animal catches up to Godzilla, there's a frame when Godzilla moves his right foot, his toe clips through a building, and said building isn't damaged.
- The Chrysler Building's destruction, while highly memorable, still sees the spire float very slowly and unconvincingly off its base, and then flattening like a pancake when it hits the streets.
Spiritual Adaptation:
- A number of people think that the movie works better as a remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms than of Godzilla, as both movies revolve around a giant monster ravaging New York after a nuclear test goes awry, using famous landmarks^note as an excuse to Trash the Set, and the titular monster not being all that hard to kill (the tension is killing it safely). The plots line up surprisingly well down to elements such as the first attack being on a fishing boat, a seaside location being destroyed, the monster first coming ashore on the same Manhattan dock and plowing through a building, having a showdown with the military down main street at night, a blood test for a secondary plot concern, and then dying after getting caught inside a New York landmark. Ironically, Beast served as a bit of the inspiration for the original Godzilla. Many Godzilla fans think that it'd have been much better received if it had been an outright remake of Beast. The fact none of these elements of similarity were present in the Godzilla (1994) script, along with Dean Devlin And Roland Emmerich referencing Beast by name behind the scenes more often than they did the original Godzilla has been taken as proof the two really did want to adapt Beast and reworked the Godzilla production to become it.
- The movie arguably works as a Spiritual Successor to Emmerich and Devlin's own Independence Day. Both plots involve a scientist finding himself recruited into the government's effort to fight back against a type of Apocalypse How, through which he gets back together with an Old Flame and with much of the action focused on New York City. Both movies were also among the last big budget Hollywood productions to make so much use of miniatures and practical effects at at time when the industry was already transitioning to CGI.
Squick: According to the audio commentary, the special effects team gave Godzilla female genitals (though this incarnation, like all others, is still referred to as a male in the film and by the fandom). Freeze frames show it in detail, mercifully not for long.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This film's version of Godzilla has widely been derided for being In Name Only, changing him from an almost indestructible Mighty Glacier to a skinny Fragile Speedster that has no atomic breath or resistance to human weapons. This lead to the Fan Nickname GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) and eventually the species would be retconned by Toho as a separate species of kaiju known as "Zilla" (although due to character licensing the version in this movie and any direct tie-ins will always be known as Godzilla).
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: The stadium sequence and the design of the Godzilla hatchlings in the final act where the heroes got to dispose of the baby Godzilla nest gets a lot of this type of criticism thrown its way for being way too similar to the raptor scenes/design from the first Jurassic Park film. Which is especially baffling considering the film's advertising took several potshots at Jurassic Park. More generally, the film is criticized for being more of an attempt to to Follow the Leader towards Jurassic Park given its decision to depict Godzilla as a frightened, instinctual animal rather than the more complex character he usually is.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Mayor Ebert and his beleaguered assistant Gene, who were intended to be a potshot towards Siskel and Ebert for bashing Emmerich's last two movies, but outside of Mayor Ebert being a bumbling candy-addict and his assistant being a boot-licker, nothing bad really happens to them. Something the two critics found even more upsetting than being caricatured, because why have people you hate be in a monster movie and not have the monster kill them? (On top of that, when Ebert put Emmerich's Stargate on his most hated movie list years later; he wasn't any kinder to Godzilla 1998 than he was to Emmerich's other films.)
- The monster himself is this; despite overwhelmingly positive reactions to the cartoon series featuring Godzilla's son, the monster himself wouldn't return to the franchise for six years, only to be killed rather ingloriously almost immediately. He's since appeared in the American IDW comics series and in the prequel novel for Planet of Monsters but the monster was ultimately scrapped from Godzilla: Unleashed at least in part due to feared fan backlash. Zilla has a fairly large fanbase (or at least, fans who don't irrationally hate the monster) by now who recognize him not as Godzilla, but a different respectable kaiju on his own, but chances of him appearing in another film seem slim, due largely to the film which spawned him.
Trans Audience Interpretation: The fact that Godzilla has female genitalia and asexually lays over 200 eggs, yet is consistently referred to with male pronouns — e.g. Nick Tatopoulos calling Godzilla "a very unusual he" — has led to some fans (and even some of the people who worked on the film) referring to the film's incarnation of Godzilla — and by extension its subsequent iterations, Zilla — as the first trans kaiju.
Unintentional Period Piece: Godzilla is born from French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, an issue that had raised controversy with environmental groups in the mid '90s and which is largely forgotten today. That's without mentioning the abundant Product Placement from very '90s businesses like Blockbuster Video, Kodak, and Josta energy drink, the mayor and his aide being mean-spirited Siskel & Ebert references (Siskel died only eight months later, and Ebert in 2013), the presence of Puff Daddy on the soundtrack, mentioning of Warner Bros and Disney stores (the last Warner Bros store closed in 2001), several plot threads that could've been shortened with cellphones, and the overall presentation of an attack on New York prior to the attacks at its World Trade Center in 2001 ('Zilla's rampage is said to be the worst tragedy to afflict New York since the World Trade Center bombing... the one in 1993, that is).
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Audrey left Nick 8 years ago without so much as a call, a word, or a letter, literally just ghosted on it. When he shows he's still rather annoyed at being treated this way, she in turn implies its him the problem for not letting that past him. Also she's entirely trying to renew her relationship with him because of his connections to the case. Once in his tent she steals a top secret tape from it, and ghosts him again to go broadcast the tape. The military finds out, and in an act of mercy decide to only fire Nick. In the process of boosting her career she basically ruins his. When she meets him again as he's packing his stuff to leave, he points out that she should've expected this very outcome and the blowback he suffered. She basically shrugs off the issue and is mostly just annoyed that someone else got the credit for the tape she stole, and the movie drops this subplot entirely, hoping the viewer will root for these two to rekindle their relationship despite Audrey basically treating Nick like dirt at every opportunity.
Values Dissonance:
- The casual use of the word "retard" by Lucy towards Animal, now recognized as a rather derogatory term with deeply unforgiving implications.
- Caiman, who is already married, makes it clear to Audrey that she will not get the position she wants unless she sleeps with him. Audrey, while upset, simply brushes it off as part of typical office politics. Nowadays, Caiman would have been likely been fired by the day's end had he attempted that.
- The film's rather light-hearted and dismissive attitude towards the massive destruction of New York and resulting casualties seem almost offensive post-9/11, with jokes being made about the evacuation of Manhattan, the scale of death totally glossed over, and the blowing up of NYC landmarks treated as a spectacle.
Vindicated by History:
- It's hardly gone from hated to The Godfather level acclaim, but after nearly 20 years some fans have admitted, begrudgingly, that the film is better than some of the worse Japanese installments.
- With the premiere of the new Godzilla movie, some critics admitted that this one does surpass it in certain ways, such as the main (non-Godzilla) character. Matthew Broderick "had charisma and geeky charm"; Aaron Taylor-Johnson "only had a six pack". Additionally, the Godzilla-to-screen-time ratio is much better in this film.
- Despite the unfaithfulness to the source material, it has become a Cult Classic to several fans who liked the story and action present in the film, citing that the only reason it received hatred was because the creature was tagged as Godzilla.
- Takashi Yamazaki, the director of the extremely popular and well received Godzilla Minus One has noted in interviews that while some of the criticism of the movie is well deserved, he finds it to be a very fun movie and surprisingly effective as a sort of Kaiju horror movie.
Visual Effects of Awesome: While the CG is so-and-so, the animatronic effects for Godzilla and the children look amazing when used for close-ups and doesn't look too computerized.
Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Nick and Audrey ending up back as a couple at the end despite the fact she ghosted him for years, offers him a non-apology when she sees him again, stabbed him in the back for selfish reasons at the very first opportunity, and the only real reason she regrets it is because someone stole her credit.

YMMV / Godzilla (1998)

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