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Audrey (Pitillo) is a would-be reporter and Tatopoulos’ old girlfriend, who initially meets up with him to try and further her career; her co-worker Victor (Azaria) is a daring cameraman trying to get video footage of the monster; and Jean Reno rocks as French secret agent Philippe Roaché, trying to get rid of the “mess” his country made. Although the film could have done without Roaché, his inclusion makes for an unexpected digression when it’s discovered that Godzilla has laid hundreds of eggs.

Essentially generic stock characters, there is some effort to make them a little more interesting. For example, Tatopoulos is surprisingly cleverer than the military, due to his thinking up how to attract the monster to them, and also throwing out the taxi ID in the final chase. Even minor characters prove to be memorable, such as Victor’s witty wife Lucy (Field), and Colonel Hicks (Dunn) and Sergeant O’Neal (Savant), both of whom actually trust Tatopoulos’ input and take his advice.

For a B-movie idea that just so happened to get a $130 million production budget, the special effects were pretty spectacular for the time and still hold up very well today. The night time trap sequences look stunning, where you can make out bullet-fire, and at one point scores of helicopters just come out of nowhere to chase the monster. A pregnant Godzilla laying eggs in Madison Square Garden is a rather unexpected sub-plot. When the babies hatch they look very similar to the raptors from Jurassic Park, which means that despite declaring its intentions to trump that franchise, you start to get that "seen-it-all-before" feeling. However, the escape from Madison Square Garden, and a thrilling surprise taxi chase climax (which extends the running time by an extra 15 minutes) are the only moments where any genuine fear emerges for the lead characters.

There is fair amount to nitpick. It’s been noted that size of Godzilla changes throughout the film and there are moments where he could breathe fire to his advantage, but for some reason he doesn’t. Lack of consistency is shown during his arrival in the city, as cars react by jumping to each of his stomps (which is a nice introduction), but this only happens the one time. Also New York City is evacuated in one day, though we don’t see any evacuation take place. We do see two guys looting a store, then strangely, minutes later there’s a convenience store open for Tatopoulos to buy a pregnancy test. In the end, why whine about a film that’s about a giant lizard?

Box office expectations were unnaturally high, yet after its reasonably good $55 opening weekend, the word “flop” began to be branded rather quickly. “MEMO TO: Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin,” ran Variety. "You’re the first filmmakers ever to experience a $74 million opening week and still be called losers,” It was like winning the game, but being criticised for not hitting a home run. The film actually made a very respectable $379 million worldwide, making it the third highest grossing film of 1998. Audiences had an appetite for destruction and Emmerich seemed to have a knack for making disaster look more spectacular than it has any right to be. So audiences flocked to destroyed cities again and again in The Day After Tomorrow and more recently in 2012.

The original film came about because people were scared of their cities being destroyed by the threat of the atomic bomb. Our fears manifest as an unknown monster made more of in impact in a post 9/11 world, when Godzilla was superseded by Cloverfield. Employing the same marketing tactic of not showing the monster, the trailers and advertising revealed very little. Even after viewing the film, explanations just weren’t there. Compared to Godzilla, what it lacked in action it made up for with increased tension and scares.

Godzilla was nominated for five Razzies, winning two, Worst Supporting Actress for Maria Pitillo and Worst Remake/Sequel. I really don’t think it’s as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It’s not a masterpiece by any means, but it brings out the inner child, and for a film about a destructive giant lizard, Godzilla makes for an extravagant visual spectacle.

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