Godzilla 1998 Critica

[Temika]

RolandEmmerich and Dean Devlin's Godzilla debuted in theaters fifteen years ago today. You may remember the film as both being terrible and being a box office disaster. But is the latter 'fact' true? Over Memorial Day 1996, Mission: Impossible had set a record by grossing $75 million in its first six days. Now, just two summers later, Godzilla debuted with $74 million over six days and was declared... a gigantic flop? Yes, despite earning a near-record $74 million over the Memorial Day holiday, the critically-trashed Godzilla was declared a summer loser mostly because it didn't actually break any records during its much-anticipated opening weekend. 15 years later, its a strange blockbuster case study. With the numbers it had in 1998, especially when adjusted for inflation, Godzilla would be a hit by today's standards.

Yes, those of us old enough to remember the summer of 1998 surely recall a year of teases leading up to what was supposed to be the top film of summer 1998. Emmerich and Devlin were fresh off Independence Day and they were allegedly going to deliver the Godzilla movie to top them all. There were two teasers released in theaters alongside Men In Black in July 1997 and Starship Troopers in November 1997. The full trailer dropped on April 3rd, 1997, attached to prints of Mercury Rising. What these three trailers had in common was simple: They all lacked a remotely decent look at the title monster. Sure if you read Ain't It Cool News, Dark Horizons, or Coming Attractions back in the day you might have seen leaked sketches or storyboards but, up until the film's opening night, Sony successfully kept the masses in the dark about what their GCI-created version of Gojira would look like.

Like Star Trek Into Darkness, the 'mystery box' approach somewhat backfired when there wasn't much in the box worth hiding. The film landed with a thud over that long weekend, disappointing audiences with its terrible characterizations and general lack of true monster movie mayhem. I was there at an advance Tuesday night screening. I remember the disappointment well. It caused me to coin what I called 'The Godzilla Rule', which merely states that you shouldn't open a film on a Wednesday if it's bad, because word-of-mouth will sink in by Friday and harm the overall opening weekend. Still, the film pulled a solid $44 million Fri-Sun total, a $55 million Fri-Mon holiday gross, and a $74 million six-day gross.

The picture fizzled after opening weekend, dropping 59% in weekend two and ending up with $138 million domestic off of a $130 million budget. Heck, it ended up grossing less in the states than the alleged summer kick-off film, Deep Impact ($140 million), which was supposed to be a curtain raiser for the main event. StarWars.com even put out a satirical poster mocking the film's "Size Does Matter" tag line as an unsubtle advertisement for the next summer's Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace. The film was but a punchline by summer's end, eclipsed by the likes of Armageddon and There's Something About Mary, Saving Private Ryan, and The Mask of Zorro.

But looking at the cold numbers, it would seem that Godzilla was far from a flop. It was a film like King Kong ($550 million on a $210 million budget) or Waterworld (which eventually broke even thanks to robust overseas grosses), a would-be blockbuster that made quite a bit of money but was deemed a failure due to perhaps unreasonable expectations. Again, comparisons to Star Trek Into Darkness are not unreasonable.

Heck, if you play the inflation game, Godzilla's 1998 number equal around $230 million domestic and $403 million overseas, for a spectacular $633 million worldwide total on a film that cost $130 million back in 1998 and would arguably cost $219 million today (that's not even factoring in 15 years of overseas box office expansion and probable 3D upcharges). If these numbers look like plausible optimistic final grosses for Pacific Rim or even the upcoming Godzilla reboot coming on May 16, 2014, you'd be right. In 1998, the $130 million Godzilla grossed nearly three times its budget purely on worldwide theatrical grosses alone. That's the very definition of a solid box office hit. We can still argue that the film was a failure in terms of its quality and entertainment value. But we must also remember that the film was crowded a disaster on its opening weekend, a Memorial Day weekend that was actually near the top of the record books at that time, purely because it was inexplicably expected to surpass the record $90 million Fri-Mon Memorial Day weekend gross of The Lost World: Jurassic Park from the year before. Today it is a pop culture triviality of sorts.

It's neither an underrated gem in need of a critical second wind nor is it so bad that it survives as an ironic viewing experience. It fails because it's neither cheesy enough for 'the fans' nor committed to being truly scary and violent in a way that would resonate with modern audiences. But in terms of its box office, it serves as a lesson about lowering expectations and a sober exhibit of declining attendance and inflation. There is a reason why studios pitch lowered expectations for their films while rival studios often try to raise those goal posts. Sony spent a year boasting that they had the unquestionable summer box office champion and thus they were smacked down when the film merely did 'very good' at the worldwide box office. Today the studios desperately try to spin opening weekend projections as low as possible so they can bask in 'surprise' when the film 'over performs'. In the summer of 1998, Godzilla was considered an artistic failure and a box office loser. By today's standards, they'd still be half-right.

Il film un remake del giapponese Godzilla del 1954, diretto da Ishirō Honda. Si tratta del ventitreesimo lungometraggio avente per oggetto Godzilla, il primo prodotto interamente da uno studio cinematografico americano. Venne prodotto da Centropolis Entertainment e TriStar Pictures, con la TriStar responsabile anche della distribuzione e la Sony Pictures Entertainment responsabile della distribuzione su home media.

La pellicola venne distribuita dal 20 maggio 1998, ricevendo numerose reazioni negative, sia dalla critica che dai fan della serie,[1][2] nonostante questo ottenne buonissimi incassi, guadagnando $136 milioni negli Stati Uniti e $379 milioni internazionalmente,[3] risultando il nono film pi redditizio in America del 1998[4] ed il terzo nei cinema stranieri.[5] Malgrado il buon profitto, il film venne considerato una delusione.[6][7] Vinse due premi nei Golden Raspberry Awards del 1999 per peggior remake/sequel e per la peggior attrice non protagonista, oltre ad essere nominato per il peggior film, il peggior regista e la peggior sceneggiatura. I sequel progettati furono scartati in favore di una serie di cartoni animati intitolata Godzilla: The Series.

Nel 2004, la Toho[8] inizi a denominare l'incarnazione TriStar di Godzilla con il nome "Zilla".[2][9] Per distinguerlo chiaramente dall'originale, le ulteriori apparizioni di questo personaggio avvennero proprio con questo nome.[10][11][12]

Nella Polinesia Francese vengono effettuati dei test atomici presso dei piccoli atolli disabitati. Colpite dalle conseguenti radiazioni, un piccolo gruppo di iguane anni dopo muta in una nuova specie di mostri giganteschi. Di questi uno soltanto sopravvive. La presenza di questo mostro viene registrata per la prima volta una notte da un peschereccio giapponese in avaria. Nemmeno il tempo di capire di cosa si tratti che il natante viene attaccato e affondato.

L'agente dei servizi segreti francesi Philippe Roach, si reca all'ospedale dove l'unico dei superstiti alla strage marittima riesce a pronunciare solamente la parola "Gojira".[13] Roach individua nel biologo Niko Tatopoulos uno dei pochi in grado di comprendere l'origine di questa misteriosa creatura. Tatopoulos si occupa infatti da anni di studiare i vermi esposti alle radiazioni di Černobyl' ed ingaggiato dai servizi segreti statunitensi che precedono Roach.

Tatopoulos si mette sulle tracce del mostro ed impressionato, tra le altre cose, dalle sue gigantesche impronte. La creatura, seguendo i banchi di pesce, arrivata fino a New York dove emerge scatenando il panico in tutta la citt. Il video-reporter Victor Palotti "Animal" riesce a filmare il mostro, diventando una sorta di celebrit assieme alla moglie Lucy. Niko, apparso in televisione con un'quipe di scienziati, attira l'attenzione dell'ex-fidanzata, Audrey Timmonds, ambiziosa reporter in cerca di un servizio sensazionale.

Il mostro, attirato dall'odore di pesce secondo le indicazioni di Niko, esce allo scoperto ed attaccato con elicotteri da guerra, soldati e altri mezzi, riuscendo a fuggire . Nel sottosuolo vengono poi scoperte tonnellate di pesce nascoste. Si presume quindi che il mostro, in grado di riprodursi da solo, si stia preparando per la nascita dei suoi cuccioli.

Audrey, avvicinato Niko, ne tradisce la fiducia svelando poi ai media le scoperte riservate riguardanti il mostro, che sarebbe un'iguana geneticamente mutata. La giovane reporter poi scavalcata dal suo superiore che si attribuisce i meriti dello scoop e, per primo, d nome al mostro "Godzilla".

Tatopoulos incolpato della fuga di notizie e viene licenziato. Prima di lasciare New York il biologo suggerisce di controllare se il gigantesco mostro abbia deposto delle uova, ma il governo decide di non seguirlo. Tatopoulos poi sequestrato da Roach che lo porta al sicuro in un capannone del porto dove i servizi segreti francesi hanno installato una piccola base operativa. Durante un ulteriore scontro con l'esercito, Godzilla crolla sotto i colpi dei siluri dei sottomarini e viene dato per morto. Roach e Niko intanto decidono di collaborare addentrandosi nel sottosuolo di New York alla ricerca delle uova del mostro. Ma i due non sono gli unici a scendere sotto la superficie di New York: anche Audrey e Animal, contro il parere della moglie Lucy, li seguono per filmare un altro sensazionale scoop, dopo che il cameraman aveva seguito Nik in precedenza.

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