Godzilla (1998 film)

Godzilla
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roland Emmerich
Written by	Roland Emmerich Dean Devlin Ted Elliott Terry Rossio
Produced by	Dean Devlin
Starring	Matthew Broderick Jean Reno Maria Pitillo Hank Azaria Kevin Dunn
Cinematography	Ueli Steiger
Edited by	Peter Amundson David Siegel
Music by	David Arnold Michael Lloyd
Production companies	Centropolis Entertainment TriStar Pictures
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment
Release date	May 20, 1998
Running time	140 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$130,000,000
Box office	$379,014,294

Godzilla is a 1998 science fiction monster film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich. It is a loose remake of the 1954 giant monster classic Godzilla. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The film relates a tale of a nuclear incident in the South Pacific which causes an abnormal mutation to occur in a reptile. The beast migrates to North America and wreaks havoc on a densley populated city. Incorporated in the plot is the character of Dr. Niko Tatopoulos, played by actor Matthew Broderick. Tatopoulos is an American scientist who aids the military in attempting to subdue and contain the creature dubbed as "Godzilla" due to his research on the effects of nuclear radiation on mammals. An ensemble cast featuring Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, along with French actor Jean Reno, star in principal supporting roles.

The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Centropolis Entertainment and TriStar Pictures. It was commercially distributed by TriStar Pictures theatrically, and by Sony Pictures Entertainment for home media. Godzilla explores nuclear mutation, crisis management and military warfare. Following its wide release in theaters, the film won and was nominated for multiple mainstream awards, including Saturn Award nominations for Best Special Effects, Best Fantasy Film, and Best Director. The film also won the European Film Award award in the category of Best Director for Emmerich. On May 19, 1998, the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released by the Epic Records label. It features songs written by several recording artists including The Wallflowers, Rage Against the Machine, Silverchair, and the Foo Fighters. The film score was composed by musicians David Arnold and Nicholas Dodd.

Godzilla premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on May 20, 1998 grossing $136,314,294 in domestic ticket receipts. It earned an additional $242,700,000 in business through international release to top out at a combined $379,014,294 in gross revenue. The film was a strong financial success due to its $130 million budget costs. However, preceding its initial screening in cinemas, the film was generally met with negative critical reviews. The widescreen DVD edition of the film featuring a production Photo Gallery among other highlights was released in the United States on November 3, 1998. The film spawned an animated television sequel, titled Godzilla: The Series, which premiered on September 12, 1998 on the Fox Kids network.

Plot

The opening credits play over a montage of French nuclear tests in French Polynesia. An iguana nest is then irradiated by the resulting fallout.

Decades later, a Japanese fishing vessel is suddenly attacked by an unseen, giant creature in the South Pacific Ocean; only one survived. Traumatized, he is questioned by a mysterious Frenchman in a hospital in Panama about what he saw, to which he replied "Gojira".

Dr. Niko "Nick" Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), an NRC scientist, is on the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the Ukraine researching the effects of radiation on wildlife, but is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of an agent of the U.S. State Department. He is sent to Tahiti and Jamaica, escorted by the military, to observe the wreckage of the recovered Japanese fishing ship with massive scratch marks on it. The Frenchman is also there, observing the scene, and introduces himself as Philippe Roache (Jean Reno), an insurance agent. Aboard a military aircraft, Nick identifies skin samples he discovered in the shipwreck as belonging to an unknown animal. He dismisses the military's theory that the creature is a dinosaur, theorizing that it is a mutant created by nuclear testing.

"Godzilla" (as later mispronounced by the media) travels to Manhattan and creates havoc in the city, and then disappears. The city is evacuated as the military attempt to destroy it. With Nick's help, they set up a fish trap to lure Godzilla out into the open. It takes the bait, but is scared off by small arms fire and runs off. A wild goose chase between the creature and the military ensued, with Godzilla eventually escaping with minor injuries and the city heavily damaged. Nick later collects a blood sample and learns that it reproduces asexually and is collecting food for its offspring.

Aspiring journalist Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo), Nick's college ex-girlfriend, discovers a classified tape in Nick's tent that concerns the origins of Godzilla. She considers this her lucky break, but her boss, Charles Caiman (Harry Shearer), reports on the tape as if it were his discovery. The tape plays on television and the military is outraged. Nick is thrown off the team but is kidnapped by Philippe, who reveals himself to be an agent of the French Secret Service. He and his team have been keeping close watch on the events and are planning to cover up their role in the nuclear accident that spawned the creature. Suspecting a nest somewhere in the city, they cooperate with Nick to find and destroy it.

The military lures Godzilla out again, trying to trap it in the open ground of Central Park, but once again fails to kill it. It then dives into the Hudson where it is attacked by Navy submarines. It was finally hit head-on by torpedoes after attempting to escape from the river. Thinking it is finally dead, the city celebrates.

Nick and Philippe's special ops team, surreptitiously followed by Audrey and her cameraman Victor "Animal" Palotti (Hank Azaria), make their way through the subway tunnels to Madison Square Garden, where they find numerous eggs, having finally found the nest. As they attempt to destroy them by planting explosives, the eggs suddenly hatch and the babies began eating the fish left for them. Smelling the human intruders as food, they began attacking them. Nick, Audrey, Animal and Philippe take refuge in the stadium's TV broadcast booth and sent a live news report to alert the military of what will happen if ever the hatchlings escape. A prompt response indicated an immediate airstrike; the four escape seconds before the Garden is bombed to pieces with all the babies inside.

Godzilla, however, survived the torpedo attack and emerges from the Garden's ruins. Discovering all of its offspring dead, it roars in anger and chased the four around Manhattan. They manage to alert the military, who advise them to lure it out into the open. As they pass through Brooklyn Bridge, the creature becomes helplessly trapped in its steel suspension cables, making it an easy target. After being hit by fighter plane missiles, it falls to the ground and slowly dies.

As the crowd cheered, Philippe quietly leaves, taking the videotape Animal had recorded, promising that he will return it after he removes certain footage from it. Meanwhile, amidst the Garden's ruins, a lone egg has survived.

Cast

• Matthew Broderick as Dr. Niko Tatopoulos
• Jean Reno as Philippe Roche
• Maria Pitillo as Audrey Timmonds
• Hank Azaria as Victor "Animal" Palotti
• Harry Shearer as Charles Caiman
• Kevin Dunn as Colonel Anthony Hicks
• Michael Lerner as Mayor Ebert
• Arabella Field as Lucy Palotti
• Vicki Lewis as Dr. Elsie Chapman
• Doug Savant as Sergeant O'Neal
• James Holts as US army Lt. Andre Ramirez
• Malcolm Danare as Dr. Mendel Craven
• Frank Welker as Voice of Godzilla and offspring.

Production

Design

Patrick Tatopoulos was contacted early on by Emmerich and asked to design the new Godzilla (later dubbed "Zilla"). According to Tatopoulos, the only specific instructions Emmerich gave him was that it should be able to run incredibly fast. Godzilla's traditional look was changed from an erect bipedal dinosaur to a hunched bent-over marine iguana. Godzilla's color scheme was designed to reflect and blend in with the urban environment. At one point, it was planned to use motion capture from a human to create the movements of the computer-generated Godzilla, but it ended up looking too much like a man in a suit.

Soundtrack

Main article: Godzilla: The Album

The original score was composed by David Arnold. The film's score was not released on CD until 9 years later when it was on sale as a complete score in 2007 by La La Land Records. A soundtrack containing alternative rock was released on May 19, 1998 by Epic Records. It was a success, peaking at 2 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum on June 22, 1998.

Release

Theatrical run

Godzilla was initially projected to break the four-day Memorial Day long weekend opening record of $90 million (set by The Lost World: Jurassic Park a year earlier). Instead Godzilla's four-day opening weekend gross was $55,000,000 ($44,000,000 for the three day weekend), and it ultimately took in $136,314,294 at the North American box office, in addition to international sales of $242,700,000.

Home media

The film was released on May 20, 1994 to November 3, 1998, on VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc including holographic and normal packaging. The DVD's special features included: the "Theatrical Trailers", "Special FX Supervisor Commentary", "Director/Producer Biographies", "Photo Gallery", "Music Video (Heroes by The Wallflowers)", and "Godzilla Takes New York (before and after shots)". Along with the VHS release was an exclusive promotion with Duracell which sold special edition Godzilla flashlights in this offer.

Subsequent release continued including Region 2 versions after initial release. The movie was re-released as a Special Edition entitled "Monster Edition" on DVD on March 28, 2006. This release included three new special features that are tacked on to the original release's features which include: "All Time Best Godzilla fight scenes", "3 Episodes from the Godzilla animated series", and a "Production Art Gallery".

A Blu-ray version of the "Monster Edition" was originally planned for release March 28, 2008, but had been delayed until November 3, 2009, to release in preparation with Emmerich's new film 2012. The Blu-ray includes a Godzilla trivia game.

Reception

Critical response

The critics at Rotten Tomatoes scored the movie at 26%.

In the film, New York City's mayor is named Ebert, and his top adviser is named Gene, a reference to the famous film critiquing duo from TV's Siskel & Ebert. Both bear a strong physical resemblance to the real-life critics. This was an attempt at expressing displeasure at the negative reviews Siskel and Ebert had given the producers' previous films. Although Roger Ebert was somewhat amused by the parody, he gave Godzilla an overwhelmingly negative review, stating "they let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla. Now that I've inspired a character in a Godzilla movie, all I really still desire is for several Ingmar Bergman characters to sit in a circle and read my reviews to one another in hushed tones." Gene Siskel also questioned why, having made the effort to lampoon him and Ebert, the movie did not humiliate them further or even kill their characters.

In interviews promoting The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich admitted regretting Godzilla, particularly due to the rushed shooting schedule that was required for a Memorial Day weekend release and the studio's insistence on not test-screening the film. However, he defended the film as better than critics gave it credit for, as it was financially successful and, of the films he has directed, it is the one that parents tell him their children enjoy the most.

At its release, the film was much criticized by Godzilla fans the world over. Kenpachiro Satsuma, the actor who portrayed Godzilla in the second series of films (1984–1995) walked out of a Tokyo screening and told reporters that, "It's not Godzilla, it does not have the spirit".

Accolades

At the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards, the film was nominated for five Razzies, including Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay. It took home two overall for Maria Pitillo as Worst Supporting Actress and for the film as Worst Remake or Sequel.

The film was screened out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

Sequels

Animated series

Main article: Godzilla: The Series

An animated series called Godzilla: The Series was made which continued the storyline of the film. In the series, Nick accidentally discovers the egg that survived at the end of the film before it hatches, in a minor change from the ending of the film. The creature hatches after Nick stumbles onto it and imprints on Nick as its parent. Subsequently, Nick and his associates form a research team, investigating strange occurrences and defending mankind from dangerous mutations, the new Godzilla working as the team 'bodyguard' to protect them from the creatures. While the film was negatively received by Godzilla fans, the series managed to gain a lot of praise.

See also

• 1998 in film
• Godzilla (franchise)

External links

• Official website
• Godzilla at IMDb
• Godzilla at AllMovie
• Godzilla at Rotten Tomatoes
• Godzilla at Metacritic
• Godzilla at Box Office Mojo