Wolff rating: NOT BAD/GOOD
Plot summary: Big green nuclear monster eats New York. (Did you really not know that?)
Biased, pithy comments: My rating is split and that's because it really depends on how you felt about ``Independence Day,'' which is Emmerlich's other try at sweeping, city-busting epic SF (as opposed to ``Stargate,'' which is a try at sweeping, planet-busting epic SF). If you liked ID4, you'll like Godzilla---it's really more of the same, which means hit-or-miss action sequences stapled together to form a slightly-less-than-coherent whole with sorely underdeveloped characters. I liked ID4, and I liked this film; it was fun, energetic, and took itself only sort of seriously, and was filled with excellent actors playing parts they could do in their sleep. (The only exception to this was Pitillo; I can't tell if she's terrible, her writing was awful, or the part was totally thankless. Probably some combination of the three.) There were at least two twists I didn't expect (although, in retrospect, perhaps I could have predicted them), and the crowd I saw it with at the cineplex laughed, cheered, and oohed and aahed. Some of the SFX scenes really worked, some of them looked fake, and you could tell Emmerlich has a real jealousy of Spielberg. I almost dismissed Emmerlich as someone who could never attain Spielberg's level of work, but then I remembered ``The Lost World,'' which sucked much harder than this film. So, if you liked ID4, see this, but if you felt marked distaste at ID4, skip; you'll hate it.
Other Notes: Note names of the French agents in the credits. Couldn't the helicopter just fly up?
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Hank Azaria, Maria Pitillo, Michael Lerner, Harry Shearer, Arabella Field, Philippe Bergeron.
Directed by: Roland Emmerlich