Back in the 80's, America had at last gained the rights and permission to do a film on Japan's most famous monster Godzilla. For years however said film went through production hell until the mid-90's when Sony finally decided to start filming it. Then in 1998, Godzilla was finally released.
The results were...not great. Even the Japanese ended up disowning it once they watched it. However, where the Godzilla franchise wasn't well known it did go down very well. It depended on where you lived and how familiar you were with the Godzilla franchise and what you wanted from your Godzilla films.
As for me, I admit that I was one of the few that did like the film even though it was a clear knock-off another film that I enjoyed that was hugely popular at the time; 'Jurassic Park'. Even the music sounded like it was trying to copy the iconic John Williams 'Jurassic Park' score during some of the scenes.
The film starts off during a nuclear test site back during World War 2. As the bomb goes off, it destroys everything in its path...except for a couple of iguana eggs that are lying in the sand exposed to all the radiation. Fifty years later a Japanese fishing boat gets destroyed by something that's underwater leaving behind only one survivor.
Meanwhile in Chernobyl, scientist Niko "Nick" Tatopoulous (Matthew Broderick) is studying the effects of radiation on worms when he is called in by the US army to study the remains of the wrecked Japanese fishing boat.
The film then moves over to New York where Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo) is trying to get promoted from Assistant to Reporter. It isn't long before Nick eventually arrives in the city and Audrey immediately recognises her ex-boyfriend on TV. That of course is when Godzilla himself makes a dramatic appearance on the dockside of New York in a scene that is a direct homage to the famous cup scene on 'Jurassic Park' just before the T-Rex shows up.
When the film was originally released it was met with mixed reviews. Some liked it whilst some thought that it was a horrible take on Godzilla. The Japanese as I said before disowned the film. So much so that they weren't the least bit afraid of making jokes about it. One said joke was when the actual Godzilla fought Zilla (as the American version is called) during 2004's 'Godzilla: Final Wars' in which the real Godzilla gave Zilla a good thrashing. Another joke was when during 2001's 'Godzilla: Giant Monsters All Out Attack' in which the military men discuss a monster that had attacked New York a few years ago...during which the Japanese officials said that it was a different monster. Ouch and burn!
It did spin-off a much more popular animated series- like so many other films did at the time- which felt more like Godzilla than the film itself. Sadly the animated series also suffered a set-back; due to the infamous Pokemon/Digimon war at the time the series was cancelled halfway through its second season because they didn't want to compete with them.
Despite everything that went on with the film and how it turned out I actually enjoyed it for what it was. At least Sony were trying to be creative at the time but at least the American studios also learned from their mistakes back in 1998 and came up with the slightly better received 2014 Godzilla film by Warner Bros as a result.
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