why is zilla 1998 so bad?

^

godzillas not in it the thing has no fire or automic breath its a coward and gets killed by the army its dumb looking not to be rude its small and week and i hate it not to be rude but im sick of it being talked about it does not exist to me

Posted similarly on other forums about this movie.

GMAN2887 is completely right--his is a shorter version of what I'm going to say.

First off, I don't think anything personally for what movies they like, so if anyone gets defensive here, lighten up please.  I don't hate you nor am I attacking you...  but maybe making fun of you...

But the movie? Oh dear.  If I were a devout Hare Krishna, I'd still be hatin' with all my heart.  Some of you say it had a good story...I struggle to know how. One of only three films I've ever seen that inspired such a feeling (that would be hatred) in me before the time it was over (this, Demi Moore's utterly hate-inspiring Scarlet Letter, and the inexplicably awful Absolute Power).  I remember during the final scene, muttering audibly in the theater, "and they ripped off King Kong...the 1976 King Kong!!" Yeah, THAT BAD.

This movie is one of those rarities that checks so many blocks on the crappiness list, that I've truly lost count (Non-Ed Wood Category, of course) but here are just some: waste of good actors: √; complete aimlessness: √; egregiously disloyal to its lineage: √√; shamelessly glomming onto some other popular movie of that time: √√√√!!; stereotypically portraying the best military in the world as hopelessly incompetent: √; and perhaps worst of all--annoyingly implausible within a genre that is itself built upon implausibility: √√√√√√√!! (You have to really, really try to check that one--you are a genius Roland!!)  I mean, do you think the reason the Japanese renamed this thing AND gave us Daisake Matsuzaka was only because of the box office haul?  No...They were also secretly invoking the real Godzilla to make a homicidal beeline for Tri-Star studios in early 1999, believe me.  

If one thinks for a minute, the most memorable thing about this film was its curiously and oppositely-brilliant pre-release marketing.  Who could forget the giant foot crushing the T-Rex fossil or the provocative "Size Matters" poster? Awesome! And clever! Oh my God, they're gonna make a freaking awesome, CGI, kickass Godzilla movie!  What could be better?

Nine months later, the greatest contribution of this film was that it came out before Armageddon and made it not look as bad.  Where to start? We had Roland Emmerich, trying to make dark comedy jabs at Roger Ebert, endless CGI in darkness/rain (not a good sign), Harry Shearer mailing it in so much he probably wished he could be credited as Derek Smalls playing the part of Charles Caiman, and thankfully inspiration for one of the most sublimely funny Robot Chicken shorts ever.  I’m sure to this day, when anyone brings up the year 1998 to Shearer, he immediately blurts, “So, wasn’t Truman Show pretty cool?”  Never happened…

In fairness, the first 20 minutes or so—before we had to see the fish-eating, afraid of everything, taxi-skating, egg-laying, bullet-dodging, asexual “monster” weren’t bad.  Had the movie not then transitioned to blah, then bad, then silly, then absurd, then annoying, then anger-inspiring (yes, in exactly that order), I’d have still given it a tepid “thumbs up.”  Nope, gotta hand it to Emmerich—he didn’t just boil the frog on us with this one; he got you actively, willfully invoking thoughts about never paying full price to see a sci-fi remake ever again.  Yes…

When I left the theater at the end of Emmerich’s Folly with my ex-wife, I remember bitterly exclaiming "Great! That ruins the next 20 freaking years--Now no one will want to touch it.”  Thank you Gareth Edwards for getting us there four years early. You weren't perfect, but you pretty well erased Mayor Ebert, Raptors—er, I mean Baby ‘Zillas, and the Madison Square Garden Easter Egg Hunt from our movie muscle-memory. (My Ex-wife BTW, was an unabashed lover of Sci-Fi and probably about as non-critical as our lovely member, Something Real. She had already seen it (I’d been stationed in the Balkans), and when I asked her how it was, she paused and said, “Um, I dunno, not so great.”  That’s synonymous with “1.5 out of 10” from her.  Unfortunately, I didn’t listen).

I would never hate you Dude, and I salute your individuality, honesty, and well, bravery.  But in my mind, yes, it absolutely, positively WAS THAT BAD.... If you’d asked me one year ago, what were the five movies I hated most ever, this one was #2…and still is (You’re still my #1, Demi <3) and if we ever have a big ole Godzilla party, I’m cracking jokes about you all night long…

I loved the 1998 movie even though it did not get Godzilla right, I was entertained by it and it was fun, I have the dvd and pop it in every once in a while. People have made fun of the humor in it, please people have you watched Godzilla movies?  They are loaded with humor and bad acting.  Only the 1954 Gorjia and the 56 American Godzilla King of the monsters were the only serious takes on the story.  Yes it did not have the Gozilla look but Toho did aprove of the design! It did have the classic roar. But what can you do, thy tried.  But I have to say Edwards has done justice to Godzilla and I hope he makes more, bravo!  God zill 2014 is great!!  I have to say that if Godzilla 1998 was called "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" instead people would have loved it more.  After all if you watch the original "Beast" and Godzilla 98 the basic story line is the same, Monster is born out of Atomic blast, travels thousands of miles to New York, takes a walk thru the city while the army trys to stop it, Final battle in the end and monster dies.  By the way, remember that that movie made $379,000,000 dollars  world wide in 1998, in 2014 money thats $551,000,000 which would have made it the biggest hit in the world by todays stardards and that doed not count what it has made in DVD sales and TV and cable showings. So no matter all the bad things the fans have said, money wise that movie was a big hit.

People dont like him because his movie was named "Godzilla". Many people, including myself, thought that was horrible because he obviously isn't Godzilla...he is a completely different kaiju. Americans were trying to catch the feel of a Godzilla movie but failed miserably. But Zilla is a really cool kaiju. Btw Toho did us a huge favor by letting us see the real Godzilla kick his ass in Final Wars. 

Let's see... it spat in the face of a beloved franchise. By not respecting the source material like having what's suppose to be "Godzilla"  doing things that Godzilla would never do such as running from the military, laying eggs, eating fish, climbing on buildings, and getting killed by the miltary. The design of the creature is also very unappealing in my opinion, I mean it like a T-Rex with a longated head, face, and arms and of course the addtional spines, not to mentional the creature is small. All of the characters were not interesting and 1 dimensonal. The story was generic and the plot was awful, the worst one was during the Zilla babies sequence where the creators really got lazy and decided to cheat by ripping off Jurassic Park. How ever I will give the credit with the visuals and CGI, which looked very believable , which i quite impressive and even more so considering that this was when CGI was still an infant, but that's pretty much it. For me this movie would have still been crappy even if it wasn't a Godzilla movie. So yeah that was my thoughts on this movie.

Oh dear, I am very sorry about my misspelling and grammar. I just have a really bad habit of typing way to fast. Lol

I can see how this might be a good movie if you have never seen any other Godzilla movie but if you are Godzilla this movie was awful!

Zilla is a Godzilla ripoff.  He has no atomic breath and dies like a bitch.  The characters are just bland, depressing stereotypes.  The military destroys more of NYC than the monster does.  That's not even the end of it.  It's a ripoff of Jurassic Park.  So my least favorite movie ends up being a copycat of my favorite.  BULLSHIT!

Just gonna leave this here...

The original script for the movie was good.  But instead, we got this piece of shit that is NOT Jurassic Park.

 Haven't watched it in years. I remember loving it as a kid. I love the design. That's my  two cents.

All criticisms about plot, characters and dialog aside, it just wasn't Godzilla. That's my main complaint. The film makers took everything that was cool about the character and flushed it. Had it not been called Godzilla, it wouldn't have been any better a movie, but I think people (and certainly Godzilla fans), would have been a bit easier on it. I'm with a lot of other folks in that the design of GINO is a pretty cool design, but it's not Godzilla, even 18 years later. Had it not been called Godzilla, it just would have been another 90s popcorn flick that some loved and others ignored, and we wouldn't be discussing as much as we do.

The more recent American version managed to get more "right", but the sad fact is that between the two American versions, the studios have managed to spend almost $300 million (not including marketing), and neither one hit it out of the park. Although it's regarded more highly, the 2014 version is equally divisive amongst fans, but for different reasons. I don't love either one.

Bane of my existence, I gave a really long article on why I hated it....

GG, it made you leave Godzilla for 18 years.  You said that in your review.  

@JPC: The movie is just a reboot of Jurassic Park with Godzilla as Rexy and the babies as Raptors.  The characters are stereotypes, and "Godzilla" dies to missles.  The military also destroys more than him, and they reference 9/11.  Wait...the film came out in 1998.  9/11 happened in 2001.  2001-1998=3.  How many sides are on a triangle?  3!  Illuminati confirmed!

Godzilla: The Series made up for this pussy.  They used the design, but gave it all of the original Godzilla's characteristics: strength, endurance, and atomic breath.  And Zilla Jr. gets revenge for the 1998 film by killing his cyborg father (the one from the 1998 film).

Yall do know i made this in 2013 when i was 13 and had no concept of what made a movie good besides cgi.....right? i see know how bad the acting and overall plot was i mean wow i was stupid back then.

You wrote this article before I joined the forum...

@GorillaGodzilla yup

Most of you have your heads so far up your asses it isn't even funny. Even the Japanese Godzilla films passed the 1998 American one had shitty special effects, bitten parts from other movies and were cheesy af. So what if the 1998 version wasn't your original Godzilla, atleast it was watchable. I think that Godzilla is dope af compared to some ghetto unproportioned costume

 The troll(lololol) is strong with this one.

What do you mean, GMan? The "Godzilla 1998 is good because all the Japanese Godzilla movies are garbage" argument has always been a very logical and completely legitimate defense of the film. If the only defense of the film is belittling those that came before and after it, isn't that the mark of a truly "dope" film?

I can go on FOREVER to why I despise it

I personally think it is garbage from top to bottom. I saw it opening night in 1998 and almost walked out. Last year I tried to give it a re-watch and I didn't last an hour.

I waited for the VHS way back and enjoyed it for what it was. I had no expectations- I just wanted a newer monster movie flick and it worked just fine. Would I watch it again? No, because I have a huge backlog of scifi movies to watch.

I just think its a bad "Godzilla" movie. I enjoyed it when I was a kid, I can enjoy it for what it is now. But the character just isn't Godzilla and should not be a Godzilla film. Ill give you a hypothetical question to give the reason why G-fans hate this movie.

Lets just take someone like Batman and do what the Zilla 1998 movie did to Godzilla and apply to a similar plot and character developmental change to a Batman movie. Lets have Batman's background changed, Batman is still bruce wayne but not rich at all(like how Zilla is named Godzilla but just a really bug iguana). In fact he is close to the poor house, his parents still die but maybe from a heroine overdose and his grandparents take care of him instead. He wants to fight crime, and works part time as a criminal to get the funds needed to buy guns and knives and a car and a batman suit to kill all the people committing the crimes, then Batman gets caught by police and sentenced to death by the system. Now call it Batman. Is it still a batman movie just because its called Batman? Its a terrible thing what they did to Godzilla in 1998 by changing everything that made Gojira a powerful and unstoppable monster and making him look like a weak overgrown lizard that eats lots of fish and I feel like if they did that to any other character in a franchise those fans would feel the exact same way.

I watched it a couple weeks ago. I still think it is a good popcorn flick but should have been called something else. Gman confirmed it was canon in a different thread although he hates it- fair enough. My biggest issue was the cheesy American vibe drama it had and that it seemed like it was trying to jump on the Jurassic Park wagon at the time. I give it some props for being a more agile creature instead of a slow lumbering one- it was fun to watch. A big downer was it dying from aircraft missiles. The OG swatted those away like pesky flies or just was unhurt by them.

I'll say this much for it: I like the first third. I think everything that happens before we even see the monster or the setting shifts to New York is quite interesting. It has a suspenseful build-up toward something horrific. The problem is "something horrific" or terrifying never gets delivered. Godzilla isn't depicted as a slow, lumbering god that doesn't need speed to escape fire fights. He's depicted as a scared animal. If anything Godzilla had more to fear in this movie.

But that's only the part that makes it a poor Godzilla movie. What torpedoes this movie is how cliche it is in terms of 1990s blockbusters. Literally every bad trope you can find in Independence Day, The Rock, Under Siege, Face/Off, etc is thrown in a blender and used to show how utterly poor most of the 1990s action film making was. It's an insult to Godzilla, made by filmmakers who had no love for the source material and couldn't evolve past the absolute worst material from grunge-era blockbusters.

Just seeing this article makes me wonder what would've happened if the 2014 movie was Hollywood's first attempt at making an American Godzilla movie instead of this movie. In other words, what would've and should've been.

^I still think 2014 movie would have stayed the same. The Zilla film had zero influence on this film and Im glad it didn't. The 2014 movie was a step in the right direction, imo the legendary film is in no way the best Godzilla film but with hopeful 2nd and 3rd films being installed in the near future I believe we will soon see a great American made Godzilla film. With Dougherty on the slate for the sequel, I believe we will see the best US Godzilla film ever made(that is still not saying much compared to 2014 and 1998), then with GvK we will see an ending to this trilogy that will make Godzilla a home in the US film industry.