Godzilla (1998)

[phantom000]

What is so bad about this film? Everyone i seem to talk to who are Godzilla fans hates this film and i can't seem to see what the problem is.

No it is not the high mark of the franchise or the crowning jewel of 90's cinema, but how is this a 'bad' film? An average film, a descent if not spectacular pop corn flick, a poor imitation of the original black and white film, sure i would give you that. But how is this such a bad film?

I actually want to know, what makes this such a bad movie?

[Madner Kami]

Like with Transformers, it's the sections with the humans that ruin it for the most part. A lot of people also have trouble with the more dinosaury nature of this Godzilla, compared to the more semi-sapient thing it is in pretty much every other media. The movie itself feels often like a Jurassic Park offshot.

[Admiral X]

I'd say it went too far on the schlocky side. I will say that the stock characters from the 1998 movie were a lot more interesting than the majority of the characters from the more recent movie, though, especially that idealized Air Force officer that was supposed to be the main character.

[SuccubusYuri]

I'd say its definitely the humans. Also a very inconsistent theme of the story, and being unable to decide if its action or camp. Like, the siskel and ebert gags, the fact all the frenchmen are named "jean" (except for Jean Reno's character), they feel silly, but not in a reverent way towards the franchise, much more in line with the 1985 version of silly. And then there's stuff that's mixed? Like they try to draw a connection between mispronouncing Godzilla and Tatapoulus because...they're so alike and misunderstood? Is that the message? Or is it that nature bites back because we fucked with it at bikini atoll? These two themes aren't very compatible in the way Emmerich writes 'philosophy-lite'.

Like there's no scientist-discussions which mark a normal Godzilla movie where we lay out the two sides, all of its depth is subtext and when you have conflicting ideas (that we get what we deserve because that's A to B logic, but also nature is just misunderstood because there is no A to B logic), or the conflict with the nature of Godzilla as a result of our hubris, beaten in the end because we completely understand and can overpower nature, and you don't at least address it on the screen, it just tastes wrong to the audience, especially for the kind of movie it is.

Also there's a lot of uncomfortable themes in the U.S. military having to clean up a French mess...but that's probably a generational thing xD

Now personally I have affection for it because the animated series was AMAZING and I was in the age group. It wasn't Gargoyles-level of story, but it was a very for-the-90s sophisticated series about animal behavior for children. It wasn't as heavy-handed as Captain Planet (I mean how could you be?), it treated its audience with respect, while still teaching children that animals aren't toys, and to respect that power, even if it seems cool and a lot of the stories warned about anthropomorphizing the monster too much. And while the more feely-characters would often be proven somewhat-right, the series was very ambiguous about whether or not they were. If nothing else, the series justifies the movie in my mind xD

[Dînadan]

Now personally I have affection for it because the animated series was AMAZING and I was in the age group. It wasn't Gargoyles-level of story, but it was a very for-the-90s sophisticated series about animal behavior for children. It wasn't as heavy-handed as Captain Planet (I mean how could you be?), it treated its audience with respect, while still teaching children that animals aren't toys, and to respect that power, even if it seems cool and a lot of the stories warned about anthropomorphizing the monster too much. And while the more feely-characters would often be proven somewhat-right, the series was very ambiguous about whether or not they were. If nothing else, the series justifies the movie in my mind xD

Think I vaguely remember that series; was the plot something like one of the babyzilla’s from the end of the film imprinted on the films main (human) character like a baby bird and thought he was its mother? And I vaguely recall them making a cyborg-zilla from the corpse of the movie’s Godzilla.

[SuccubusYuri]

Now personally I have affection for it because the animated series was AMAZING and I was in the age group. It wasn't Gargoyles-level of story, but it was a very for-the-90s sophisticated series about animal behavior for children. It wasn't as heavy-handed as Captain Planet (I mean how could you be?), it treated its audience with respect, while still teaching children that animals aren't toys, and to respect that power, even if it seems cool and a lot of the stories warned about anthropomorphizing the monster too much. And while the more feely-characters would often be proven somewhat-right, the series was very ambiguous about whether or not they were. If nothing else, the series justifies the movie in my mind xD

Think I vaguely remember that series; was the plot something like one of the babyzilla’s from the end of the film imprinted on the films main (human) character like a baby bird and thought he was its mother? And I vaguely recall them making a cyborg-zilla from the corpse of the movie’s Godzilla.

Yeah it fully embraces the camp xD Like how Batman embraces its camp past, there was robo-zilla resurrected by aliens who were able to mind-control all the mutant monsters from the entire series with a special signal xD It was an a-may-zing three-parter in all the glorious right ways. But yes your recollection is pretty on point.