Godzilla

I don't know if the film has matured, or if I have, either way, whatever qualms I had with Emmerich's Godzilla are gone. It's an excellent disaster comedy with consistently impressive visual effects that can be compared to Independence Day without exaggeration, thanks in part to Arnold's excellent score. (23/10/2009)

Roland Emmerich's penchant for monstrous effects in films without any stable meaningful plot was already evident here with Godzilla. This movie is actually a lot of scenes that were done to suit the director regardless of whether or not they make sense. Virtually all of Godzilla is about decent visual and sound effects with enjoyable music. That's all I can see! The script and the actors ... let's be honest, this is not how solid movies should be. Perhaps the only excuse is that it was a blockbuster that eventually flopped so badly that no further sequels could be made. Too bad, the ending was really a gateway to the next installment. In short, a technically proficient film, but artistically rather bland. I still watch it once a year, though. (29/08/2010)

Godzilla is a B-movie brainchild to such an extent that the measure of its success is no longer the age-old sympathy directed towards the fascination with something monstrously powerful and seemingly invincible, but only Emmerich's traditional faith in a wide audience with a tolerance for a film that's silly and also disrespectful to its predecessors that looks so cool regardless that we'll go see it anyway, and the German demolition man knows how to do that like few others. His vision of a clash between a heroic (but surprisingly stupid) American army and a gloriously overgrown lizard, however endearingly illogical and ridiculously megalomaniacal, really does seem like a dream come true for most little boys, who at the word Godzilla imagine just as much destruction and trampled-down goons in uniform as Mr. Emmerich "sacrificed" for the film. Moreover, it's all terribly suited to the targeted humour and Jean Reno in particular, whose character eventually becomes a very iconic figure. Anyone who didn’t have fun with the superbly edited and choreographed car-Godzilla chase is not normal. In the past, enthusiasm, today, and taking into account Edwards’s epic remake, just a little harmless joy... 3 and 1/2* (27/05/2014)

Godzilla is a bland cocktail of popcorn entertainment mixed up from dozens of older films about all kinds of lizards. Matthew Broderick is uninteresting in the lead role, Maria Pitillo is hysterical and the irradiated lizard, as tall as a mid-sized skyscraper, passes through the narrow tunnels of the New York subway without a single tremor or sound. So why am I giving Godzilla three stars? Because that’s the average between one and five. The duo of Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin gets one star and the visual-effects masters get five. As does the laid-back Jean Reno, who justifies his participation in this fiasco with his sense of responsibility for the nuclear test explosions carried out by his native country in French Polynesia. (11/04/2002)

I like the hated "Zilla" by Emmerich here. As a little boy, I literally devoured this film, which is not entirely true anymore, but even after 20 years, it is still a fun kaiju flick that I like to watch from time to time. Despite the longer running time, the film flows smoothly, the plot is sufficiently engaging, the effects are decent, and the characters are likable. Such an ideal relaxing movie for a Sunday afternoon. No need to turn on your brain. (21/04/2018)