The American Godzilla movie was released in May of 1998, marking the beginning of the Millennium Series, also known as Series 3 ("Rebirth of Mothra 3" was also released in '98, but is still considered to be a Series 2 entry). The major distinction that sets Series 3 apart from the others is that it's not one long narrative - each movie in Series 3 (with one exception) is a standalone story. Well, to be more accurate, most of these movies are a direct sequel to the original 1954 "Gojira" and pretends that all of the other movies don't exist. This allows for new potential audience members to jump right into these movies without having to worry about not knowing any back story (beyond the original, which they often recap anyway). It's an interesting approach. Me, I've always preferred ongoing storylines. I consider Series 3 to be the weakest of three. It began in 1998 and lasted through 2004.
Godzilla (1998)
Imagine if a movie studio remade "Star Wars" (the original, "Episode IV: A New Hope"). What if that studio decided to remove the concept of "The Force" and replace it by having characters tap into a magical computer energy field with personal tablet devices in order to achieve the same powers. Lightsabers would similarly be replaced by goggles which would shoot laser beams. The character of Luke Skywalker would no longer be a teenage farm boy with big dreams, he would be a successful middle-aged banker going through a messy divorce. Then the filmmakers decide to make Darth Vader a super intelligent toddler who rides around in a floating baby stroller, throwing hard candy at those who displease him. The setting? It no longer takes place in outer space - now it takes place during Woodstock. The plot? It's no longer about a noble rebel alliance and their struggles against a vast and oppressive evil empire, now it's a story about a dispute over the taxation of trade routes. In short, it's not "Star Wars".
That's how we felt about the 1998 American "Godzilla" - it's not Godzilla. When I say "we", I mean all those who've seen a true Godzilla movie. To the majority of American moviegoers, Godzilla was just a giant rampaging lizard who was woken up by an atomic bomb blast.
Wrong.
There have been dozens and dozens of movies made over the past century featuring enormous radioactive reptiles, and they are not Godzilla. So, what makes Godzilla who he/she/it is? Let me try to explain this another way - I will now recount the ways in which the 1998 Godzilla is not Godzilla:
1) Godzilla is a force of nature. He is not a giant iguana. He is not an animal at all, really - he's the personification of our arrogance and recklessness turned against us (or, in some cases, fighting for us). I like to think of him as 75% natural disaster and 25% Frankenstein's monster. There is a sympathetic side to him, but that sympathy occurs not because he's a dumb animal who destroys things because he doesn't know any better, but because he's a misguided child of the human race who knows exactly what he's doing, he just doesn't care. There is no place for him on this Earth, yet the Earth is the only place he can call home. Godzilla is a bit of a paradox, an unwanted child who never should have been, but exists, for better or worse. You root for him because, well, humans deserve a little comeuppance for what we've done to the planet and ourselves, but at the same time you fear him and want him to go away. He's an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a big frickin' lizard.
2) Godzilla has atomic breath. The 1998 Godzilla has nothing. The element of Fantasy is an important part of the Godzilla mythos. Much like what happens with "Tarzan" adaptations, the Americanized version wrongheadedly tried to take a realistic National Geographic approach to the character. Thus, no atomic breath. People who've seen 1998's "Godzilla" swear that he breathes fire in the movie, but it's not true. There are two scenes in the movie where the monster roars and its breath sends the flames from nearby explosions billowing forth, making it appear almost like fire breath, but it's merely meant to be an homage to the original character. Lame.
3) "Godzilla does not run from helicopters." That's an exact quote given by a Toho Studios executive immediately after seeing the American version for the first time, and it's very true. When Godzilla is attacked, he moves toward his attackers. I like the idea of a fast moving Godzilla, but it takes away from the "walking natural disaster" portion of his character if he's always retreating and avoiding danger. If he'd had his atomic breath, he could still have unleashed the requisite amount of mass destruction, but, alas. . .
4) Godzilla cannot be killed by four dinky missiles fired from fighter jets. Come on, people.
5) Godzilla movies do not end with terrible Puff Daddy songs. The Wallflowers song was okay, though.
6) Godzilla movies do not grind to a halt with a bland, overlong sequence involving raptors/baby Godzillas chasing our heroes through Madison Square Garden. If I wanted to watch "Jurassic Park", I would watch "Jurassic Park". Actually, this sequence would have been cut out of a "Jurassic Park" movie.
What does this movie get right? A couple of the action sequences are okay. It's got the right character spread - the main human characters in Godzilla movies usually consist of a combination of certain archetypes, namely a scientist, a reporter and a military person. The 1998 movie has those characters, except that here they are all incredibly grating and annoying and unwatchable. I like a few of the actors involved here (Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno), but they're all terribly played and screechingly unfunny when they're supposed to be endearingly amusing. In this case, cheesy voice dubbing would have improved the movie.
What about the plot? It's very simple. Atomic bomb testing in French Polynesia creates a giant mutant hybrid lizard. Said mutant hybrid lizard eats a lot of fish and heads for New York City in order to make a nest - see, it reproduces asexually and is currently pregnant. After blowing up Madison Square Garden and killing off the babies, a couple of fighter jets kill the big lizard. The End. The human characters have stories too, but they take up far too much screen time and make me sad. But, hey, at least the advertising campaign was cool!
Toho blindly trusted filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin to bring their beloved character to the shores of America. After the success of their previous film "Independence Day", Toho handed over the rights to a U.S. remake with the confidence that they had made the right decision. Instead they ended up with a movie that barely resembled its source material, was filled with wrongheaded emotional beats, and had absolutely no themes or subtext whatsoever. Everyone was disappointed and the movie underperformed at the box office. In Toho's official monster lineup, the American Godzilla is known as Zilla. Fans have taken to calling him GINO (Godzilla In Name Only). There would be no sequel.
Well, that's not entirely true. . .
Godzilla: The Series (1998-2000)
The 1998 movie ends with a baby Godzilla hatching from an egg which has miraculously survived the destruction of Madison Square Garden. That baby would grow up (quickly) and star in 40 episodes of a follow-up animated series that aired on FOX.
I disliked the source movie, so I never bothered to check out this series - until now. Color me surprised, because I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. Picking up exactly where the movie ends (even recreating the climactic action sequence in animated form), Matthew Broderick's character of Niko Tatopoulos (now voiced by Ian Ziering of "Sharknado") discovers the young Godzilla, who imprints on him and becomes much more human-friendly than it's predecessor. Soon after, more mutant critters begin to appear, so Tatopoulos and his newly-formed crew of specialists (and Godzilla, of course) must deal the monstrous threats and save the Earth.
It's a Saturday morning-style cartoon, so you know what to expect, but it's well done for what it is. The actors do a better job playing the animated characters than the live action actors did (a couple of the actors from the movie reprise their roles in the show), a lot of the jokes are actually funny, and the plots are reasonably enjoyable. In short - it's better than the movie. It's also better than the Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the late '70s-early '80s.
The animated Godzilla is even a step closer to being the real Godzilla: He has fire breath (not atomic, though), he's much tougher to kill, he's larger, he fights other monsters, and he even has a bit of an attitude. He's still not quite Godzilla, but the producers were heading in the right direction. None of the monster foes in the show ever became official Toho monsters (although a couple of them resemble famous Toho creations), but they were varied and interesting enough to drive the stories forward and entertain.
The series ended in 2000. Zilla would only make one more appearance, in " Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004).
Godzilla returned to Japan for the rest of the Millenium Series. But he made one more theatrical appearance in the States. . .
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