Godzilla (1998) - "Americanisation" and "blockbustering" of a Japanese legend - 4/10 (05/04/10)

I am a huge fan of Godzilla since my early childhood. If read many books, played many games, collected many cards or little figures or whatever and watched many Japanese movies about this legacy...

And then, I watched this American remake. They should have never touched this Japanese legend...

The charm of the Japanese movies with people wearing the costumes, artificial miniature cities created brick by brick in long hours to get destroyed during one scene by a giant guy in a latex costume, the appearance of so many funny monsters, aliens or armies, the political, social, environmental or simply anti-war context of several movies... all of those things are not present in this movie. The few characters are kind of superficial, the most important scenes are entirely created on the computer and Godzilla doesn't look like the original one, but rather like a silly rip-off from the "Alien" movies. Everything that made the Japanese movies special and interesting is missing in this movie. That's why, even though most of the actors had signed for two sequels, there has not been a second American movie about Godzilla - thanks! The only thing this movie was good for was the fact that it brought the legendary Japanese monster to a larger public. And it was good to see an entertaining action movie (if we forget about the Japanese context) with some ice effects in the cinema - but nothing more.