Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne


It's NOT Godzilla! Shame on you, Emmerich & Devlin!   January 15, 2006
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is without of doubt one of the worst films of the 1990's. As a big fan of Godzilla, I was so angry when this film turned out to be an insult to the Japanese films. True, the Japanese Godzilla is a man-in-a-monster suit, but it contains a soul in which this travesty is missing.

Despite being touted as an incredible remake of the first, ever Godzilla movie, Roland Emmerich's & Dean Devlin's $125 million disappointment is just a poor man's version of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953), with scenes ripped-off from JAWS (1975), ALIENS (1986) and JURASSIC PARK (1993) and an ending stolen from KING KONG (1933) - giant creature gets trapped atop of a famous building and killed by airplanes.

The remake also fails to recapture memories of the Japanese films. The Godzilla in this film isn't the monster we all know and love. It's an overgrown iguana that runs away from the military, digs underground, eats fish, breathes hurricane-force winds and gets killed by just six missiles. The REAL Godzilla was a brave and powerful monster!

The film also contains gaping plot holes, dreadful dialogue, one-dimesnsional human characters that you don't care for, and the acting (apart from Jean Reno as the stern French spy) is downright bad. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin didn't care for Godzilla at all. I will never forgive them. Two sequels were planned, but where thankfully never made (HURRAH!).

British G-Fans, I have good news. The first, ever Godzilla movie will be released on DVD from BFI. And it's the uncut and unaltered Japanese version, which remains one of the lost movie masterpieces of the 20th Century. Avoid this 1998 remake at all costs and watch the original Godzilla.


GINO   March 14, 2005
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Godzilla In Name Only. These are the best words I can use to describe this movie. Yes, the CGI did look great at the time, yes, the movie was realistic but the Japanese Godzilla is much better. Many people think that, Gojira is unrealistic. What is more unrealistic? An iguana mutated into a 50meter tall monster? or a living dinosaur, which is already 30 meters tall, and is mutated another 20 meters. Both are absurd, I agree but deliver the goods this does not. Way too much time is spent on Godzilla's children instead of Godzilla himself. The story is not bad, the acting is terrible. If you are thinking of getting this movie, I reccomend you buy Gojira 1954 and THEN Godzilla 1998 and you can decide for yourself which movie is best.