Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos, conclude that the oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan as the US military races to destroy the monster before it reproduces and it's spawn takes over the world.
The 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla is a broadly derided blockbuster that squanders its kaiju premise. The plot is thin and riddled with clichés — a bumbling scientist hero, a love interest subplot, and a military-vs-monster formula that goes nowhere interesting. Acting is weak across the board, with Matthew Broderick miscast and supporting characters functioning as broad caricatures. Cinematography is competent blockbuster fare with some decent rain-soaked Manhattan shots and a few memorable aerial sequences, but nothing transcendent. Novelty is low — despite the famous IP, Emmerich's take is essentially a rote giant-monster-destroys-city formula with baby Godzilla sequences lifted from Jurassic Park; it adds little that's distinctive to the kaiju genre. The ending is messy and unsatisfying, dispatching Godzilla anti-climactically on the Brooklyn Bridge with little emotional payoff, and setting up a sequel that never materialized. Overall a forgettable studio spectacle that disappointed fans of the source material.