Movies - TV
Why 1998’s Godzilla Flopped, According To The Man Who Wrote It
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
TriStar made a major summer blockbuster in 1998’s “Godzilla,” costing $150 million and hiring "Independence Day" director Roland Emmerich. Unfortunately, it was a box office bomb.
The film was a 139-minute FX bonanza that reimagined Godzilla as a sleek, square-jawed iguana terrorizing New York City. However, the script was more comedic than awe-inspiring.
"Godzilla" was booed and hailed as one of the worst films of the year. The Golden Raspberries nominated it in five categories and it was mocked on an episode of "SouthPark."
Emmerich and co-writer Dean Devlin should have sorted out whether their film was a comedy or not, and then, on that basis, get to the human characters' drama quicker.
Fans were used to Godzilla having a personality, and motivation for fighting. In making the monster just a big lizard, audiences only had the semi-comedic characters to latch onto.
Devlin and Emmerich thought it was cool at the time to make Godzilla neither a hero nor a villain, but they realize now that you can't be ambivalent about the title character.