Due to nuclear testing in the South Pacific a lizard mutated. It changed into the biggest thing the Earth has seen, Godzilla. After sinking some ships and stomping some houses, Godzilla decides to head to New York.
Due to nuclear testing in the South Pacific a lizard mutated. It changed into the biggest thing the Earth has seen, Godzilla. After sinking some ships and stomping some houses, Godzilla decides to head to New York.
Colonel Hicks (Kevin Dunn) is heading the team trying to discover what is going on. He brings in Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), a Biologist and nuclear mutation expert, to help in the investigation. Nick had been studing worms in Chernobyl, specifically their increased size due to radiation exposure. He hypothesizes that this is what may have occured to create Godzilla. Nick also meets a strange French Insurance Investigator Philippe Roche (Jean Reno).
The team soon learns Godzilla's path and head to New York to try and stop him. It just so happens that Nick's girlfriend from college, Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pirillo), works in New York as a fact gatherer for news reporter Charles Caiman (Harry Shear).
Upon arriving in New York, Godzilla does his best to destroy the city. Audrey and her cameraman friend Animal (Hank Azaria) try to get the biggest story in history by using Nick. Meanwhile Nick discovers that Godzilla is pregnant and is about to lay eggs. Now not only do they have to stop the unstoppable Godzilla, but also find his nest. All the while Philippe is hanging around poking around where no normal Insurance Investigator would.
Godzilla is an awful movie. There are a few entertaining and fun moments but not near enough to keep interests up. The times when the movie tries to be funny it fails, leaving you to laugh at the supposedly serious stuff. Another source of comedy was the alleged acting that occured. The performances given were so poor it makes you wish they had just dubbed another Japanese film into English, at least then there would be an excuse. About the only thing done well were the special effects.
It was disappointing to see Godzilla modernized. I liked the old body style better. Even worse were his progeny, who looked exactly like a certain small dinosaur from Jurassic Park. In fact the last part of the movie was a knock-off of Jurassic Park, although a lot less credible and entertaining. And what was with the not-so-subtle product placement. I realize it takes money to make a movie but there were enough strategically placed advertisements to fund a dozen films.
Godzilla is a bad movie that will probably draw well at the box office, due to good name recognition and a years worth of hype. It's poorly writen and acted, not to mention unfaithful to the origional movies. Godzilla is a complete waste of time in every respect.
Image from Tristar Pictures