Released 1998
Stars Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn
Directed by Roland Emmerich

It rains all through the "Godzilla," and it's usually night. Well, of course it is: That makes the special effects easier to obscure. If you never get a clear look at the monster, you can't see how shoddy it is. Steven Spielberg opened "Jurassic Park" by giving us a good, long look at the dinosaurs in full sunlight, and our imaginations leapt up. "Godzilla" hops out of sight like a camera-shy kangaroo.

The makers of the film, director Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin, follow the timeless outlines of many other movies about Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, Gamera and their radioactive kin. There are ominous attacks on ships at sea, alarming blips on radar screens, and a scientist who speculates that nuclear tests may have spawned a mutant creature. A cast of stereotyped stock characters is introduced and made to say lines like, "I don't understand--how could something so big just disappear?" Or, "Many people have had their lives changed forever!" And then there are the big special effects sequences, as Godzilla terrorizes New York.

There is nothing wrong with making a Godzilla movie, and nothing wrong with special effects. But don't the filmmakers have some obligation to provide pop entertainment that at least lifts the spirits? There is real feeling  in King Kong fighting off the planes that attack him, or the pathos of the monster in "Bride of Frankenstein," who was so misunderstood. There is a true sense of wonder in "Jurassic Park." "Godzilla," by contrast, offers nothing but soulless technique: A big lizard is created by special effects, wreaks havoc and is destroyed. What a cold-hearted, mechanistic vision, so starved for emotion or wit. The primary audience for "Godzilla" is children and teenagers, and the filmmakers have given them a sterile exercise when they hunger for dreams.

Summary by Roger Ebert