GODZILLA: Tristar Godzilla Film (1998)

[KManX89]

Yeah this is cheesy and put quite a few misconceptions in idiots minds, some of which haunt many of us today.

By far the most annoying of those being the common misconception that Godzilla is a giant lizard. I know I've ranted about this in the past, but it has to be said: no, he's fucking not. Godzilla (the real Godzilla) is, and always has been, a giant dinosaur, not the same thing. I swear, it wasn't until this POS came out that people started labeling him a giant lizard.

[Omegamorph]

the "real" Godzilla has been things that include but are not limited to a dinosaur

the original Godzilla -- and we are to assume the second showa one -- was a mutated "transitional aquatic reptile" which doesn't really automatically translate to "dinosaur", Godzilla was not a mutated dinosaur before they introduced that idea in Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah

people have been calling Godzilla a giant lizard for long before 1998 & there's nothing really wrong in calling him that really (lizard is a common folk's name for any reptile & the word dinosaur means "terrible lizard" anyway)

[Terasawa]

the original Godzilla -- and we are to assume the second showa one -- was a mutated "transitional aquatic reptile" which doesn't really automatically translate to "dinosaur", Godzilla was not a mutated dinosaur before they introduced that idea in Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah

It might not fit with what we know about paleontology now, or maybe even then, but I think it's clear that the filmmakers intended for Godzilla to be a mutated dinosaur.

[Coobzilla03]

I'm surprised that such an awful movie has so many posts about it. I guess its because it has so much controversy.

[Rodan]

Actually, that's a good way to sum up this movie. As badly as it wanted to be a 'realistic' Godzilla, they took the concept itself too far while leaving everything else behind.

It's hard to be a "realistic" movie when everything about the world you design is 100% cartoonish. It's totally done in the style of checkbox-driven late '90s Hollywood spectacle films, though, which Roland and Emmerich themselves helped birth.

Anyway, yeah. It's a bad movie. It's a bad monster movie. How it handles Godzilla doesn't even need to factor in, though it's so transparently cynical about it, it's hard to ignore how obviously little everyone involved actually wanted to be connected to the IP. I do watch it from time to time, but it's basically for the novelty of seeing Godzilla filtered through that late '90s Hollywood lens. Compared to the shit that would follow in later decades, it seems kind of quaint and harmless now. It's like an anthropological artifact, and one from a time when this was as low-brow as Hollywood would go.

Hey, remember when critics like Ebert and Siskel were popular enough to be mocked and people actually gave a shit about movies?

[Omegamorph]

It might not fit with what we know about paleontology now, or maybe even then, but I think it's clear that the filmmakers intended for Godzilla to be a mutated dinosaur.

The anatomy is certainly based on the old conception of tripod-posture dinosaurs like those found in the Knight illustrations. That's a given

Had they wanted to use the term 'dinosaur' they would have, though

[edgaguirus]

The film makers did use the latest information on dinosaur anatomy in 54, which is largely antiqueted now.

As for the design of Gino, it's not bad. I could have liked it better if it had only acted like Godzilla instead of a mutant lizard.

[Leviarex]

In slamming this movie, I'd just be beating a dead horse's skeleton. What I will say about it is what the Nostalgia Critic said in his 'The Last Airbender' review: Shitty remakes and reboots help us fans to love and appreciate the original source material all the more. So to that end, it's oddly fitting that this led to not only the Millennium series, but also the 'Best Of Godzilla' soundtracks, the Dark Horse graphic novels, and the stateside release of the rest of the Heisei series.

[Godzillian]

Say what you will about the film but the soundtrack released with it was pretty great. Some great 90s music on it

[Gojira1963]

I love it to this day, there's so much of it that resonates with me, watch it again regularly

Me too. I really enjoy this movie!

[Lain Of The Wired]

Say what you will about the film but the soundtrack released with it was pretty great. Some great 90s music on it

As if, even that was trash

[LegendaryMonster]

I just watched this again yesterday, and I actually do enjoy this movie at certain points. Is it a good Godzilla movie? No. Is it even a good movie? No. I almost wish it'd not been a Godzilla movie it probably would have done better.

[Kaijunator]

Say what you will about the film but the soundtrack released with it was pretty great. Some great 90s music on it

As if, even that was trash

They didn't even include tracks from the film.

[UltramanGoji]

Say what you will about the film but the soundtrack released with it was pretty great. Some great 90s music on it

As if, even that was trash

They didn't even include tracks from the film.

Wrong. "Opening Titles" and "Looking for Clues" are the last two tracks on the disc.

[Kaijunator]

As if, even that was trash

They didn't even include tracks from the film.

Wrong. "Opening Titles" and "Looking for Clues" are the last two tracks on the disc.

It's only two though. It should've included all the tracks from the film. I hate when that happens.

[Omegamorph]

It's an album with songs "inspired by" the film... not the soundtrack (besides the fact that most of them are overheard in the film). Soundtrack was unfortunately released almost a decade after the film. I own the 3-disc set and it's gorgeous

[Godzilla165]

I gotta give this film credit, Godzilla's first arrival in New York was really well done, and is still cool to this day imo. Not showing him in full, and from low angles helped with that.

[godzilla98rules]

I'm working on a personal review of this movie and I wanted to get my facts straight before I finished. What was Toho's honest opinion toward this film when it was released? I'm sure they were disappointed, but I want to be sure.

[Mechagigan]

I'm working on a personal review of this movie and I wanted to get my facts straight before I finished. What was Toho's honest opinion toward this film when it was released? I'm sure they were disappointed, but I want to be sure.

I have no absolute sources, but despite approving Zilla's design and presumably the various scripts, I think they fairly openly disliked it. I imagine that's more due to the low reception and numbers it garnered, rather than the film's quality in and of itself.

Since then, though, they've pretty commonly ignored Zilla as a character (limited Japanese merchandise, acknowledgement), besides either minor or 'joke' appearances. All things considered, it's safe to say they've concluded on disliking the movie as a whole.

[Omegamorph]

Why does there always need to be a "TOHO's this" as if TOHO were a cluttering hive-mind of insectoids. There is bound to be a difference of opinion between its members, I'm sure (and a historical difference, too -- it isn't always helmed by the same people). On the money side, the project did not meet the intended expectations but TOHO got their good slice (both incoming from the rights and the box office itself, not to mention it served as a launching platform for new film releases of theirs). They never shied away from it and it was also included in the 60th anniversary Godzilla film blu-ray line-up.