The 1998 Godzilla remake is actually a smart disaster movie
Everyone trashes the Matthew Broderick Godzilla for not being enough like the Japanese original, but I watched it again last month on cable and it holds up. The real problem people have is they wanted a monster brawl, when the movie is clearly trying to be a 90s blockbuster about government failure and urban panic, like Jurassic Park meets a hurricane movie. The scenes with the military chasing the creature through New York City streets have this grounded chaos, and the egg sac sequence in Madison Square Garden is genuinely tense if you stop waiting for big lizard fights. I grew up in Queens, so maybe I'm biased, but the way it treats the city as a character with crowded subways and news vans feels more real than most modern CGI destruction. Has anyone else gone back to this one with fresh eyes and found something they liked, or am I the only one here? Maybe give it one more shot and tell me what you think about the French secret service subplot, which I think is underrated.
The French secret service subplot is not really underrated, it is just kinda bad. Those guys show up, act shady for a few scenes, then blow up the eggs and that is it. They give you zero payoff on who they are or why they care. You say the movie treats the city like a character, and I mostly buy that, but the spy stuff pulls you right out of New York every time. So if you want me to give it one more shot, tell me how that subplot actually ties into the government failure theme, because right now it feels like a leftover from a different script.