Godzilla KOTM- is it worth a watch? Hear me out...

Iguanas are cool I think

Monster_Zero 2112 

Godzilla's origins change with each series.

Showa = A mutated intermediate aquatic dinosaur

Heisei = A mutated Godzillasaurus (possibly a type of tyrannosauroid if not a tyrannosaurid)

Tristar = A mutated Marine Iguana

Millennium = A mutated dinosaur in most, a ghost of dead WWII sailors/victims in GMK

Monsterverse = A naturally evolved radioactive dinosauromorph

Reiwa = A mutated unknown aquatic lifeform (Shin Godzilla) and a naturally evolved plantanimal god (Anime Godzilla)

okay,then.

Xenotaris,

No,it goes like this:

Showa:Doofy giant Aquatic Creature

Heisei:Popular Godzillasaurus which has a son (Godzilla Jr.)

Tristar:A Mutated and hated Iguana

Monsterverse:Copy of Heisei Godzlla (If you don't get it then i'll tell you why)

Reiwa:Kamata-Kun (Shin Godzilla),mutated Piranha Plant (Anime)

Actually Monsterverse Godzilla shares more traits with the Showa Godzilla than Heisei with its design closely resembling early millennium godzilla.

I meant he copied Burning Godzilla.

Okay

Honestly, I agree with you Xenotaris. It was ALMOST worthy of the Godzilla name. Zilla Junior was more worthy of it, because it was an anti-hero, a smart, but animalistic creature, and incredibly durable, taking super weapons to kill him. It's why Godzilla was so horrible in the original, he couldn't be killed by conventional weaponry, bringing up everything with the oxygen destroyer (the fear of what came next). Honestly, I LOVE Zilla's design, but her movie... no. Not a Godzilla. This is coming from someone who would treat Shin Form 2 as an actual Godzilla if it was the only form for the whole movie. Zilla's movie, however, was awful if you treat her as Godzilla, in my opinion. It doesn't really follow the original theme, because A. It really downplayed the radiation deal. Maybe if they show the effects of her radiation on New York, it would be a good movie, enough to consider her a Godzilla. It would really give some added horror to Zilla, and make her a GODzilla. However, there is no side affect to her radiation, so a lot of the added horror is already gone. Can't be killed unless by a super weapon that may possibly bring about an even worse era of warfare? Nope. I mean, it wasn't necessary to have something like the oxygen destroyer. They can just have her get away and go into hibernation, or wreak havoc in the world, or do a poison or chemical thing like in Shin Godzilla. However, missiles? Missiles? 2 friggin missiles killed her... Not only did she not release radiation... not only did she not cause any irreversible damage to New York... she wasn't even all that hard to kill? Seriously? Though, to give some credit, the asexual reproduction thing was probably the "big danger," but all that did was provide excuses to create scenes "inspired by" (copies of) scenes from Jurassic Park. And even with that replacement of it, it still didn't really cause any real harm to New York, nothing that could have made you really fear for New York. Just to reiterate what would have happened if they made it so Zilla was constantly releasing radiation like in 1954, the damage to AT LEAST the areas she went through would be IRREVERSIBLE. Imagine what happened to Tokyo into 1954, but in New York, and worse because the creature was fast and could cover more ground, and it can burrow and make the radiation seep into the very earth beneath the city. New York would be effectively destroyed, many would slowly die from radiation poisoning, the survivors would be bankrupt and have to leave New York forever, one of the most populated and well known cities in America would be destroyed. If they went that route, they could have had Zilla destroy the Statue Of Liberty to foreshadow what will happen to New York and how America will react. They could have gone a step further and shown how this has affected the rest of America, and the rest of the world. I mean, it could have gotten to the point of, and maybe even worse than all the emotions we felt as a nation after 9/11 (not to disrespect what happened there at all). This time, there was no possible way we could defeat the creature, and we had no idea where it is. We would just have to live with the ever-looming threat of Godzilla for years and years, waiting for her to arise yet again... Perfect sequel material! Next time maybe put her in San Francisco, or Houston, or just anywhere in the world! Maybe have her have some offspring (maybe not 40,000, probably more like 2-10) in between and have them cause more havoc. Maybe we attack with experimental weapons and kill them, BUT THEN WE CREATE MORE KAIJU!!!! It would be like we dug our own grave more! And then the original Godzilla comes and kills them, basically being an anti-hero. I mean, it could have been the American version of Godzilla, but they messed it up horribly with one main fault. They downplayed the whole threat of radiation and nuclear warfare. The radiation itself was the scary thing, not the creature. It kept the origin similar, but it got wrong what made Godzilla great. The fact that even without the creature, a similar result can be reached by our own hands. It was a cautionary tale not of creating a giant monster, but of becoming the monsters ourselves and causing irreparable damage to others with nuclear power. But here the main threat was just impossibly big iguana, not the all to real ramifications of nuclear power. Seriously, that little bit would have saved them money on CGI, and made the movie MUCH better. Just make the creature release radiation. That's it. It'll be a horror of astronomical proportions with that little bit. Especially since that actually CAN happen in real life. It's what made the original Godzilla so great. The scary part wasn't what was imaginary. It was what was real.

Sorry if that sounded like a ramble, but that's basically why I don't consider Zilla a Godzilla. It's not her appearance, not her odd abilities or lack there of. It's the fact that A. the movie itself was pretty bad and B. it lacked the fundamental aspect of Godzilla. Hell, it didn't even say or do anything meaningful to anywhere the extent that most Godzilla movies do, like GMK or Shin Godzilla. I mean, the radiation was very much downplayed in GMK, and in Shin Godzilla it was an incredible threat until they realized in the end it had a very short half-life (Yay! people can go back in a couple years instead of thousands! Happy(er) ending!), but at least they had stuff of SOME importance to say and made it clear what they wanted to say. I mean, at least in the Monsterverse, despite possibly being pro-nuclear and mainly being action flicks, had environmental messages, and showed the devastation the radiation had on San Francisco and Vegas and the such. Especially in 2014 with the MUTOs. 1998... it failed that, and had they done it right, it would have saved them money on CGI, and it would have made it the definitive first American Godzilla movie. Hell, it would be one of my favorites if they had simply just shown the devastation radiation had on New York, and hopefully the effects of the whole disaster on the rest of America. 

Perhaps if Godzilla 1998 didn't have Roland Emmerick as its director and maybe lets say Steven Spielberg it would have touched on those classic Godzilla themes

That was one hecc of a comment.

I do agree there, but I liked the movie the way it was, it was fine. I don't know if the disaster would effect ALL of America, though. Maybe just near NY. 

I don't really know what I'm saying here oof 

Well, I mean, disasters have always had a way of affecting the whole country, like Pearl Harbor or 9/11. I mean, no disrespect to either disaster, they were tragedies of immense proportions, but imagine what a disaster, like, the destruction of one of the most populated and well known cities of America and it being uninhabitable for thousands of years, as well as most of the population dying from an illness brought from the disaster. Especially when the military was POWERLESS to stop it. Remember the panic that gripped the country after 9/11? Imagine that, except multiplied by at least 5. I mean, what would you feel if a giant creature destroyed New York, killed almost all of its residents, left it uninhabitable, the military couldn't stop it, and no one knows where it is?

Not gonna lie, but I think Godzilla 1998's design was R A D. But I don't view him as Godzilla, rather, I call him GINO. Zilla Junior was definetely worthy of the name Godzilla, but I prefer calling him Toon-zilla.

Okay at least people love Zilla's design, but yeah the 98 movie should of had the classic godzilla themes and characterization 

Zilla looks pretty damn awesome. It's a shame, really. Could have been a really cool Godzilla. The only Zilla worthy of the Godzilla name, in my opinion, is Zilla Junior. He stays true to the actual character of Godzilla, even though the radiation is kinda downplayed (it is a cartoon, after all. It can't be held to the same standard of radiation based horror that the OG movie was, similar to the Hanna Barbara Godzilla. Still a Godzilla despite downplaying radiation. Arguably this show still does show the horrors of it, just in easier way to conceptualize for a child and not quite as horrifying, the mutations. Almost all of them are born from pollution and oil and the such, so this strongly lends in favor of Zilla Junior being a Godzilla). I mean, it's like how in GMK the radiation aspect was downplayed, but it still had a lot to say and was meaningful (while still also showing radiation as horrible/a power that can be used for bad) in a different way. Zilla Junior, despite being descended from a creature undeserving (in my opinion) of the name Godzilla, has earned the name of Godzilla. I'll probably always treat him as such, but still refer to him as Zilla Junior. I do accidentally call him Godzilla sometimes though lol. Once again, a lot of this is just my opinion lol.

 I ignore the movie and just call her Zilla, Godzilla98, or the Atlantic Godzilla (on my spacebattles Kaiju Files)

dk,
Getting back to your original question, my opinion probably leans closest with The Hooded Figure--I definitely agree with him that it's one of the lesser films in the franchise. It does a fine job with the monsters and visuals, but drops the ball with literally everything else. It's an aggressively stupid movie, but even dumb movies have charm and this doesn't quite nail it. However, the fan service obviously won over plenty of people, so that's worth taking in to account.

Ultimately, it's not a must-watch film by any stretch of the imagination, but, like most movies, I'd say it's worth at least one watch. Personally, I'm just happy to have Criterion's Showa Era set to fill my Godzilla void.

It depends on what you are looking for. If you want a popcorn film over a film with quality, this is the film for you. But if you are looking for vice-versa, then this film might be a bit of a gripe for you.

But it really depends on what you are looking for.

This just comes to show how this part of the G-Community can be so respectful and open-minded, instead of being toxic.

This will probably change when Godzilla vs Kong comes out, but for now, let us enjoy the peace

Correct. Let's just all enjoy the calm before the storm while we can.

I will definitely agree with many others that this movie has its flaws, and its lacking in certain areas. But I will also say that I loved it! It was fun and entertaining and I got what I wanted for the most part from it. You should definitely see it. I would like to have seen certain characters fleshed out more and gotten more time knowing them. Yes, most of the characters I actually liked, unlike the 2014 movie. The humor was forced for the most part, but it didn’t take away from my liking this. I would like to have seen a daytime battle or two, a la Skull Island, and more of Rodan and Mothra, who were mostly superfluous, although Mothra does end up having a fairly significant role when all is said and done. I enjoyed the hell out of it. McCreary’s score rocks, and the closing scene left me absolutely giddy.

BTW, I'm still waiting for the 2012 Comic-Con teaser to be made into a movie, but I don't think that will ever happen on either side of the Pacific. That's the movie I want to see.

G. H. (Gman) "The only way to heal our wounds is to make peace with the demons who created them. I didn’t make it up, it was on a fortune cookie!" Writing like that is excellent imo.

I just watched KOTM. I can understand and agree with your points but.........I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Basically, it seemed to have three parts: Monster heavy with little or no character development, more character development and monsters took a back seat, and then a combo of both.

It was an interesting balance. I initially gave no craps about characters at first except for Dr Serizawa and COL Foster, but later on characters developed more and the two major deaths really carried some weight.

The monsters were given full props and shown in all their majesty as deserved, although I thought Mothra should have been more prominent somehow. Maybe it's because I always had a soft spot fr Mothra.

My gripes are typical- it felt very "Hollywood" and sappy at some points. The Military attacks were laughable (as always)- they only were successful in 1998, and the relationship baggage stuff seemed like just a reason to have human characters at all. 

All said, it was a fun ride and I thank the forum for the recommendation to give it a shot!

I only watch it for the monsters