Godzilla 1998: The "Worst" Godzilla Movie

In the late 90's America tried to make its own take on Godzilla. It did not end up well. But you know what they say. Time mends all wounds. Or at least nostalgia does.
Twitter: / hubpointless
00:00 Intro
00:58 Godzilla 1998
02:20 No God in this Zilla
07:06 Its Charming Okay
11:04 Zilla in the Big Apple
18:10 Characters
25:03 The Zilla Brand

[@AnythingMachine]

_Sir, a second hellfire missile has hit the Chrysler building_

[@russellthander3850]

Bruhhh

[@jtgd]

“Ahhh”-helicopter pilot

[@slendertv3616]

When you miss the automaton with your precision orbital strike stratage

[@KolonelCeanders]

@@jtgdyour honor I claim oopsi daisy

[@TheSolidSnakeOil]

@KurtusOldroyd That's some classic spam right there.

[@CharlatanWonder]

My favorite thing about Zilla was that Toho briefly made him canon so that Godzilla could pancake him in Final Wars.

[@AnythingMachine]

Zilla is actually one of the most powerful Kaju - she's lighter and faster, and rapid hermaphrodite breeding means she'd out populate and outnumber her opponents in the long run who are all mostly the last of their kind. What's Godzilla going to do against a thousand Zillas?

[@kingrat2122]

​@AnythingMachine actually use an atomic breath, lol

[@AnythingMachine]

@@kingrat2122 Zilla is still a hundred thousand ton Kaju who is able to move around with the durability that implies... I don't doubt an atomic breath blast would kill one but you'd need to hold it on her for a few seconds, and in that time 999 other Zillas have swarmed Godzilla. However Zilla works has to include the same basic adaptations as any Kaju. Zilla at 180 feet is 3x taller than any animal which ever walked on land. He has whatever adaptations other Kaju have minus nuclear metabolism, e.g. he has metallized or similar bones to withstand the sort of stresses skyscrapers have, and some unusually super efficient metabolism like all Kaju so even if he's weak, he's much stronger than a T rex naively scaled up to that size would be, albeit not to the incredible levels of Godzilla. Remember square cube. To add to that, Zilla is 15x taller than a T rex and therefore masses around 27k tons. Less than Godzilla, but still the mass of a navy destroyer running around on land at motorway speeds. He's not using a normal skeleton or metabolism so even though no atomic breath or similar he's still not using normal processes internally. Presumably even the baby Zillas have similar internals.

[@WTFisTingispingis]

It was really funny to see that.

[@kingrat2122]

​@@AnythingMachinethey kill The Zilla with conventional military arms

[@connerdo4325]

Fun fact. It’s canon that the Zilla species are the only form of Goji that don’t destroy buildings. This is because the military accidentally destroyed the buildings first.

[@connorgolden4]

But they do tho…’98 and jr both destroy buildings?

[@connerdo4325]

@@connorgolden4 They can't destroy SOMETHING THAT IS ALREADY DESTROYED BY THE MILITARY!!!

[@BonquequeBetter]

@@connorgolden4Was supposed to be a joke.

[@AMediumSizedKodiak]

@@BonquequeBetter in his defense, jokes are also supposed to be funny.

[@Comkill117]

Ok the Cloverfield comparison is actually super on point and I’m shocked I’ve never actually heard it before. Also interestingly both movies also had an infestation of smaller monsters too, but where the raptor like mini Zillas were just kinda goofy and all got blown up. The little monsters in Cloverfield were these horrible abominations that if they so much as scratched you, you suffered a slow agonizing death and right at the last minute just get blown up from the inside out by whatever biological attack they had that kills you.

[@rodrigobogado8756]

Those damm things were more scary than Cloverfield itself

[@Comradeatticus]

Those bastards could be the stars of there own monster film

[@jimmyseaver3647]

I know Roanoke Gaming had a really good explanation on it. Apparently it was some kind of natural secretion that had a nasty reaction once inside the human body, resulting in rapid pressure buildup and bursting. On the plus side, at least they weren't some kind of deep-sea Xenomorphs.

[@someoneghvjvj1808]

The fact that Roland Emmerich was able to make a career out of making the same film over and over again makes me feel better about my own prospects .

[@toainsully]

"Those guys at Toho may be smart, but I'm sure they couldn't see that far into the future. If they could, they never would have gave Roland Emmerich the rights to make a Godzilla movie." --- NES Godzilla Creepypasta

[@Sarafimm2]

The JJ Abrams of the 1990's.

[@ballerswagbro9k611]

@@Sarafimm2 *Sips Tea Aggressively*

[@mackenziecarver6807]

It makes you wonder how the guy still gets work today. All his movies have been under performing as of late.

[@MatanVil]

@@mackenziecarver6807 China I guess. Independence Day Resurgence and Moonfall have a lot of China jerking

[@tor-keeby4401]

big iguana

[@AnythingMachine]

Well known fact that nuclear radiation carries sufficient energy to increase your mass from a couple of kilos to 400,000 tons

[@ogfortify7674]

​@KurtusOldroydbot

[@JohnWickJovanovich]

why dad left you: Making fun of bots : kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3y7iKt5p5V3pc0

[@ratoh1710]

Biguana

[@ogfortify7674]

​@@JohnWickJovanovichbot

[@masterbeta6931]

I've always had this thought, 98 Godzilla was so weak because it was simply a mutant marine iguana. But it's offspring, Series Godzilla was stronger and more durable because it was born like that, it was never mutaed in its embryo state unlike its parent. Remember what Nick said, 'The dawn of a new species', 98 Godzilla was the foundation, Series Godzilla was the perfected form. Bigger, faster, possesses an actual atomic breath, able to tank conventional weapons even in its adolesant state. Overall, i believe that 98/Series Godzilla has potential in the long run.

[@AscendantStoic]

28:50 Funny thing Godzilla in Shin Godzilla (the latest Godzilla movie from Japan before Godzilla Minus One) involves Godzilla rapidly evolving into various forms (some of which are really bizarre) only to end up somewhat defeated in the end, then it's revealed in the final scene that it actually can now turn into a swarm of smaller humanoid Godzillas (an evolution happening specifically to counter humans), which is quite creepy and terrifying af ... hope you do review that movie and Godzilla Minus One alongside the Monsterverse movies.

[@spacenai4461]

Zillas swarm is actually a threat in Godzilla:Monsters Apocalypse, one of the two prequel novels to netflix's goji trilogy. The big one was killed and misidentified by French military, not before it managed to lay an egg. Just one egg cause an entire city of Rouen to be overrun by army of small and big Zillas for 2 months striaght.

[@darkwater124]

"You can't really root against him" That's funny because when I was forced to watch this movie at the theaters at age 8, I distinctly remember crying at the end that they killed Godzilla. He didn't do nothing wrong, leave him alone!

[@magneto228]

same.

[@Trefox87]

I completely blocked out Zilla dying for some reason and was thinking, oh yeah, he was chased back to the ocean

[@MrTigracho]

Her

[@kiryuthedragonwarrior2746]

I remember also crying because they killed him "No no hes not suppose to die that way no they cant kill Godzilla"

[@darnokx9277]

Same. I just felt so sad at the end.

[@rithrius5384]

There are two things I would like to say: 1. Dumb/bad movies are entertaining as hell, and that's the entire point of watching a movie. 2. That's alot of fish!

[@apathicmiko6546]

The most astonish fact about this movie is that somebody actually bothered to search which coutry tested more nuclear bombs to the date and that that resulted to be the french is incredible to me, like, they could easily said that Zilla was product of the russians or some asian country, like american movies tend to do, I always wondered why they chose France as the main culprit

[@briancolwill3071]

France tested enough nukes in (the paradise!!!) of the South Pacific I'm surprised the water isn't glowing Cherenkov blue

[@DuvalSt1]

Well Emmerich is German. Not surprised he wanted to poke at the French ego.

[@mrudulvelhal5338]

I think it's pretty funny that the tagline is "Size Does Matter" and the monster is pretty tiny by Godzilla standards.

[@Oswin2642]

By Kaiju standards as a whole, in fact

[@Cody-ps3wy]

That’s one thing that really confused me the scale of Zilla is pretty inconsistent, some sources say it’s the original 50 meters some say it’s 70 meters some say 60 and then there’s others that say 55 meters and below it’s all just confusing I need an accurate measurement can someone please help me before my brain explodes into mush

[@dimitrescu182]

​@@Cody-ps3wythen there's that one scene in the sewer where Zilla opened its eye and it looks gargantuan.

[@sbatou87]

@@Cody-ps3wy There is no accurate height, as most films fall under eras. In the Showa Era, Godzilla is about 50 meters tall. In the Hesei era, Godzilla starts around 70 meters, and due to time traveling aliens (I’m not kidding), he grows to 100 meters. 

 The Millennium era, its films self-contained, unless it’s a direct sequel. His height in those films changes between 55 to 100 meters.

 Due to his evolving nature in “Shin Godzilla”, Godzilla goes from 28 to 118.5 meters.

 In the Monsterverse era, Godzilla’s height changes due to general growth and power-ups. He starts out around 108 meters at the start. By Godzilla vs. Kong he’s at 120 meters tall. There is no official height for Godzilla in “New Empire,” but it’s estimated to be about 130 meters.

 Please note that this does NOT count animated films, such as Godzilla Earth and Singular Point.

[@abdellnunez1403]

​@@Cody-ps3wy the short answer is that Godzilla is as big as he needs to be to look huge in his surroundings. If the tallest building in a city is 50m, he's about 60m; if it's 190m, then he's about 200m or so.

[@flamereaper9613]

Actually Siskle and Ebert weren’t as offend as you may think. If anything they were disappointed that they’re counter parts weren’t eaten. They were like if you’re going to insult us and makes use look bad in a monster movie then have use get eaten.

[@Agonysis]

28:28 - You saying that "Zilla's like a Bizarro Godzilla" just reminded of a particular funfact. Godzilla 2000, the next Japanese Godzilla movie, introduced Orga, a reptilian kaiju with some of Godzilla's DNA. Its head and posture were modeled after '98 Zilla, with the designers cheekily saying something like "It was so Godzilla could defeat the American Godzilla." I've always liked the designs for Zilla and Orga, so the connection between the two was fascinating to me.

[@stephensmith7327]

The thing about Roger Ebert is that he does have a sense of humor, his number one complaint about the character based off him was "why didn't you kill me in a humiliating way? Have the monster step on me while I was on the toilet or something."

[@LyleVSXyle]

That’s one of my favourite quotes by him

[@williamkarbala5718]

Lol you know your a great critic when even your criticism of the jokes about you personally are on point

[@kylenielsen5083]

@@williamkarbala5718 I remember hearing somewhere that the reason he couldn't die is because Toho said Godzilla doesn't kill

[@sk8paradoxity]

yeah but then that would be too much of a rip from Jurassic Park. lol

[@MisterSandmanAU]

​​@@kylenielsen5083 thats BS because he goes out of his way to kill people in the 1954 film and godzilla vs king ghidorah

[@roguetheoutlander8800]

"RUN!! ITS GODZILLA!!!" "It might look like Godzilla, but due to Toho buying this design and renaming it into Zilla, its not" "STILL WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!!!" "No it isnt 😏" **scream**

[@adams0123]

That Austin Powers reference always gets me!

[@adamg4336]

*though it isn't

[@psychomammoth9640]

That about sums it up

[@QuintheQuesadilla]

I literally just watched Goldenmember yesterday 💀

[@kalroy1230]

@@adamg4336super important distinction ngl, good job

[@Jow64]

I personally love the idea of Zilla being a Godzilla opposite. He's small and weak but fast and can multiply. He's primitive in comparison, and acts defensively compared to Godzilla's aggressive behavior.

[@LeeEverett1]

I'm pretty sure every piece of media at the time (movies, video games, TV shows etc) portrayed New York as dark and always raining. I remember asking my parents as a kid "why is New York always raining?" just because of how common it seemed.

[@oscard.lisboa6105]

I remember asking the same thing about england

[@Cousin_Uli]

The best part about the whole Siskel and Ebert bit, is that Ebert seemed to be annoyed by it, but Siskel said something along the line of "they didn't even have godzilla step on us, what a waste, at least do something with the bit"

[@andrewmeyer3599]

Iirc, both of them dogged on how the cameo was lame and barely used

[@halfmettlealchemist8076]

Siskel was so real for that actually

[@toweypat]

Here's what Roger Ebert wrote in his review of "Godzilla": "they let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla. Now that I've inspired a character in a Godzilla movie, all I really still desire is for several Ingmar Bergman characters to sit in a circle and read my reviews to one another in hushed tones."

[@HellecticMojo]

More I learn about Ebert, more I just learn how much of a no fun grump he is.

[@VictorIV0310]

@@HellecticMojoThe same guy who claimed that video games will never be art and only changed his mind after getting tons of responses from people sharing their own positive experiences with video games and how it is, indeed, art.

[@theelementalstation947]

Ironically the Zilla swarm was part of the prequel novel for the anime trilogy with the Zilla species being one of the easiest Kaiju to kill but hardest to get properly rid off, a constant infestation of hungry giga iguanas.

[@r3dr4te963]

Yea, Zilla seems good for swarm attack, win by quantity over quality, like zerglings

[@Vashkey]

​@@r3dr4te963 certain large lizards use mob tactics irl too. It fits

[@coolgreenbug7551]

If they ever make a Godzilla game Zilla would be the perfect mob to fight in between bosses

[@brickphone8069]

@@coolgreenbug7551Do you mean like a Godzilla RPG cuz there’s like a hundred Godzilla games

[@Ulcerbloom]

Giguanas?

[@vice166]

a zilla cameo in the monsterverse would be fun

[@disposable_income_andy]

given how well Legendary and the monsterverse have handled Godzilla while simultaneously branching him off from being just "Amercan Godzilla," i think that possibility genuinely becomes more and more real by the day

[@WhiteScorpio2]

Jean Reno just being randomly in this movie will never not be hillarious.

[@TheRogueCommand]

"You caused more damage than that thing did!" I wonder if this is commentary on the U.S. military or just them being goofy and accidentally striking gold.

[@chrisbrasel8060]

Both? You can't really tell at times.

[@j.2512]

nuanced commentary about zionism

[@CoolSmoovie]

Taking a jab at the military was almost a requirement in these generation of movies. Pre 9/11. It was popular.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

@@CoolSmoovie Yeah pretty much, especially non Air Force. Desert Storm was fresh in everyone's mind giving the Air Force a bit of slack, but the US military had been seen as kinda a joke prior thanks to Korea and Vietnam, and thus bumbling military was a somewhat common trope until a near u-turn for 9/11.

[@clarkmichaels822]

Basically the opening scene of Team America: World Police. Except that was post-9/11 and this was pre-9/11.

[@lucasfraczek4320]

A slight correction about Zilla's "fire breath," it's actually called Power Breath, and it's achieved just from the methane gasses from him eating fish reacting to the exploding cars which give him that fire breathing look. I wish I was joking and I am fucking glad they fixed that in the Animated Series.

[@subretto77]

yup my brother explained like this to me when we watched godzilla almost a decade ago I'm 20 now lol

[@MusicoftheDamned]

Gods the animated series for this terrible movie is/was so much better than it had any right to be. All these years later it still feels weird for that to be the case somehow.

[@captainmarvelous7673]

I’d even go far as to say that the way how the Animated Series breath is charged is one of the best in the franchise. Like the animators genuinely made it stay consistent and it looked so cool.

[@CollinBuckman]

So he was essentially just burping, got it.

[@arturoaguilar6002]

Oh, so it just belched methane... brilliant!

[@tylerharry6319]

I remember seeing this movie in the theaters as a little kid. I cried so fucking hard when Godzilla died near the end that I had to be taken out of the theater. He was just a poor animal trapped in the city, and the human assholes did nothing but chase him around and fire missiles at him. I stand by my childhood opinion, zilla was the good guy in that movie.

[@zeporion6091]

Id love for a Cloverfield video. Drastically underrated film

[@gojiratar1132]

Fun fact about Zilla's career as his own thing: he is canon within the anime trilogy universe. In the first prequel book, Zilla basically reenacts the events of the 98 movie, except that the military fails to kill all the babies so the city just eventually crumbles to an invasion of Zillas of different sizes and strategies.

[@motherurck7542]

Wait, there is a prequel book? And the fact you said first one, meaning there is more than one?

[@gojiratar1132]

@@motherurck7542 the second one mostly goes over their Mechagodzilla's artillery and how Godzilla just destroyed it before it could ever get into battle

[@arnahunas4048]

And it took over Paris instead of NYC IIRC

[@gojiratar1132]

@@arnahunas4048 yeah I couldn't recall the City. Ig it makes sense as a reference to 98 being mutated from French bombs

[@AAZ-yu5ss]

I wouldn’t reccomend watching the Anime Trilogy. It has almost zero Kaiju fights (With the one fight against Godzilla and Ghidorah sucking bollocks) or any non-Godzilla monsters for that matter, has an obnoxious MC who is an Eren Yeager rip-off, and it has crappy & clunky cgi animation.

[@sonicdbzfan94]

"Zilla is just a big T-Rex that gets lost in New York." Missed a big chance to segueway to that scene in Home Alone 2 where Kevin encounters Marv and Harry outside of Duncan's, but their faces are covered by Zilla, Devlin and Emmerich respectively.

[@magma_fire_bagwan]

Wait what lmao

[@XdeadsoulXful]

Okay calling this a big chance is a stretch, this is remarkable specific and niche

[@ClussyPomni]

Fun fact:Zilla was the first femboy,im not kidding.They went with this design so viewers could feel attracted or mesmerized by it but since its a lizard its hard which is funny since today you can technically make everything look like a femboy.

[@lordwacko958]

the “ue” in segue is already pronounced “way” so you basically just said segwayway lmao

[@omegaluliguess3238]

​@@ClussyPomni What

[@Capum5]

The single memory burned into my brain brighter than any other regarding this movie, is Zilla going Kool-Aid Man through the Skyscraper purely to slap an Apache. There are some great dumb lines and cool scenes and all, but that one moment is the first thing I think of whenever I think of the movie. Also yes I would 100% love to watch World War Zilla. That sounds amazing.

[@disposable_income_andy]

Given how non-confrontational Zilla is in the 98 movie I'd be surprised if that was even remotely intentional, or if that pilot even died. I don't know if Zilla is responsible for a single death in the movie, I genuinely don't. Final Wars Zilla would match in a World War Zilla or Godzilla vs Zilla swarms scenario much better, that thing charged right in looking for a fight even if it got wiped in 12 seconds

[@praolmao5614]

I hope you realize that calling Zilla "Godzilla's Wario" implies an alternate reality where Zilla also gets two of his own spinoff series, both of which having almost no ties with the actual Godzilla franchise besides sharing Zilla as a character. And honestly, I think I want to see that now.

[@pkt1tripe]

“They let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla.” -Ebert

[@KairuHakubi]

I think the bridge too far was calling him Ebert. Even Animaniacs had the taste to make them "Hisskel and Eggbert"

[@killharry]

“Would the army too have gunned Clifford the big red dog down in the street?” No but the ATF would.

[@notgray88]

LMAO

[@tjbarke6086]

Any average SWAT officer would...

[@scarecrow559fresno]

TRUTHSAYER

[@kevinw6814]

Pfffftttthahahaha

[@Tony27654]

LMFAO F the ATF

[@coreytaylor5386]

the cut from the dog jumping away from the explosion and the person being instantly disintegrated was funnier than I could have ever expected beforehand

[@paleoph6168]

17:28

[@kcjc]

I remember despite being a big Godzilla fan, my parents deliberately went out of their way throughout my childhood to deter me from seeing this one because they thought it sucked lol

[@alexgomez6723]

Have they actually seen a Godzilla movie before?

[@kcjc]

@@alexgomez6723 my dad has been a fan since the Showa era, my mom is indifferent towards the franchise but just thought the movie wasn’t good.

[@alexgomez6723]

@@kcjc They should have known better, this movie isn’t that much worse or even better than the average Godzilla output.

[@benjaminarnold51]

The world invaded by a horde of Zillas... *quietly writes that idea down*

[@patchwilliamson]

The idea of the last vestiges of humanity desperately trying to hold back a horde of Zillas and/or baby Zillas is actually so good though. I could see a sort of Pacific Rim-eqsue type story, where humanity develops advanced tech to counter the hordes.

[@thelastholdout]

Oh man, like power armor or smaller mechas, Starship Troopers style? That would be killer.

[@pedroescalona3842]

There is an anime Godzilla movie trilogy that's literally that.

[@Quillian]

​@@pedroescalona3842 And that was dogshi 😂, the ending really didnt sit well in my mind

[@mkis007]

@@Quillian The ending just sets up the cartoon...it's not a dreary ending when you learn that.

[@dracodracarys2339]

and then, amidst the mayhem...the TRUE Godzilla awakens. damn, imagine if this happened in the Monsterverse and it's just Godzilla and Kong teaming up against a legion of Zillas invading the hollow earth. That would be dope.

[@jonathanrichwine1996]

When he mentioned 9/11, I'm surprised he didn't mention that one line that aged VERY poorly: "In what city officials are describing as the worst act of destruction since the World Trade Center bombing..."

[@QuickQuips]

To be fair that happened in 93 and was accurate. Biggie Smalls mentioned it too. Thankfully he's not around to see what Diddy did.

[@worldofdoom995]

Yeah i remember nostalgia critic poking at that one.

[@mkultra2456]

@@QuickQuips That was a test run for the real thing. Bush did 9/11. He had explosives placed at the bases of the towers. Then on 9/11 he pretended that like 4 planes were hijacked when really we just rerouted them from Pennsylvania then flew two military jets into the world trade center filled with more explosives and shot down all the witnesses in flight 93 with an F-15 after blowing up the Pentagon with a cruise missile.

[@vorpalweapon4814]

@@QuickQuips Out of every other reference to the trade center bombing made in the 90s why would you pick Biggie Smalls?

[@DamienDarkside]

@@vorpalweapon4814 Because we were alive during the time and Biggie was popular? That's the equivalent of someone saying "Yeah I even saw Eminem post on X, slipped it into his latest diss track."

[@dylantallman]

As a kid who was completely obsessed with dinosaurs (and the Jurassic Park movies especially), this was one of my favorite movies of all time. It was also my first introduction to the concept of Godzilla as a whole. I know it's an absolute mess, but I'll be damned if it doesn't hold a giant iguana footprint shaped spot in my heart to this day.

[@giovannidanesin4193]

I feel this is the perfect example of a movie BAD under an already existing IP while being GOOD as an indipendent work

[@Dzztzt]

That's the name of the game nowadays

[@hlibushok]

I kinda wonder if there are any other examples of this, 'cause I can't think of any.

[@adblue8955]

​@@hlibushokI'd put pacific rim 2 in that category. Maybe the newest Star wars movies too

[@quakethedoombringer]

Bayformers 1 and 3, Stallone's Dredd, literally any "bad" Pixar sequels

[@chriswilbur1356]

The new d&d movie ​@@hlibushok

[@jhonnymark7581]

"That's a lot of fish." - Matthew Broderick 1998

[@VikingTeddy]

Broderick was a weird choice, but I bet he was affordable. I'm low key offended how Jean Reno was snubbed. "This movie has mostly tv-stars". Even shows him in several shots while going through the b-listers, only to ignore the most succesful of the bunch. For a movie reviewer, that's a bit of an "oopsie" 😅

[@Lopez865]

@@VikingTeddyHe’s “just some insurance guy.”

[@VikingTeddy]

@@Lopez865 You're just some insurance guy! 🙎

[@Itcouldbebunnies]

​@@VikingTeddy A bit odd maybe, but not nearly as weird a choice as letting him play Phillipe 'The Mouse' Gaston in Ladyhawke.

[@VikingTeddy]

@@Itcouldbebunnies Now there's a blast from the past. I've been meaning to watch some golden oldies from my childhood that have gone unloved, thanks for the reminder.

[@baconbitz43]

Can’t wait to see your video on I Am Legend. Or I, Robot. honestly, just a will smith 90s-2000s video could be interesting (pursuit of happiness, shark tale, men in black, obviously Independence Day). Love your videos man, keep up the good work.

[@disposable_income_andy]

MiB and Independence Day (for that Emmerich fixation) would be perfect, but I think Wild Wild West would be a great thing for this channel to cover. it's such an utterly batshit insane movie where nothing really makes sense that I think it'd be right up there

[@skateboardist1686]

There is no doubt in my mind that the military would kill Clifford if he suddenly appeared in some city.

[@flattire4243]

Either kill or capture to make profit 😆🤣

[@oneillwinchester6658]

Master’s in Biology here. Some lizards do reproduce asexually by parthenogenesis (snakes, insects, fish and crustaceans too). Some species have an all females population since they reproduce strictly like that, like the New Mexico whiptail. Since they are basically cloning each other, the offspring is identical to the mother. Not all of parthenogenesis cases are exactly clones, in other species like Bees, they always lay males unless fertilization occurs because of the genetic process behind it. It’s an interesting subject and yeah, nature finds a way indeed haha.

[@theangrysuchomimus5163]

Yeah, but apparently Zilla is a male, so he can't do partenogenesis. But then again, we're talking about a giant radioactive bipedal iguana rampaging through New York so who knows.

[@oneillwinchester6658]

@@theangrysuchomimus5163 true, to be more biologically accurate it has to be female or at least female at some point maybe some sequential hermaphroditism or something. But like you said, giant radioactive iguana lol

[@YouBredRaptorsMusic]

This

[@rickmarrs4452]

Herpetology guy here. A close look at the post cloacal tail region shows that there are no hemipenile bulges. Therefore, Zilla appears to be female. Since Zilla is supposed to be a species of iguanid, the sexually dimorphic features would be well-defined.

[@spacegoat0133]

@@theangrysuchomimus5163I think it was female

[@TriforceofButts]

Zilla as a pack hunter would indeed make an EXCELLENT Godzilla villain. Fully embrace the Jurassic Park velociraptor angle, make them fast, make them smart, and have a lot of them. If Godzilla's a bear, make Zilla a wolf.

[@taptiotrevizo9415]

-smash cuts to finals wars where Godzilla dismantle ones in less than 30 seconds Yeah, that fight time like 5 can definitely hold a movie.

[@jacobwismer1512]

@@taptiotrevizo9415 did you actually *see* Final Wars? Godzilla curb stomps half the kaiju in that film, including heavy hitters like Hedorah

[@TriforceofButts]

@@taptiotrevizo9415 ONE, my dude. I'm thinking a dozen, minimum.

[@GreenGimmick]

Yeah Final Wars was pretty horrid. In may ways as terrible or more so then this one

[@kade-qt1zu]

​@@TriforceofButtsThat's like putting a T-Rex against a dozen velociraptors. Sure, it's a dozen velociraptors, but you're putting them up against the most powerful theropod.

[@lourensbadenhorst1659]

One thing you have to remember is that this was the first mainstream appearance of Godzilla in the west. You said it yourself: "it works as an independent kaiju movie". If you saw this in a movie theatre in 1998, that is exactly what it was: an independent kaiju movie. That's why many people look back on it so fondly.

[@ralphwarom2514]

LoL. I love this movie. I watched it over 20 times as a kid. And it always made me feel good. XD

[@neilwhisenant9758]

Exactly! And for me and a lot of other people this was the Gateway into the Godzilla franchise

[@ClockworkCrow7]

What'w funny, it would even work great as a remake of "the creature from 20,000 fathoms" film. They referenced it so hard it's closer to that than to Godzilla.

[@Replicaate]

@@ClockworkCrow7 that is exactly how I view it, as a remake of that movie, not Godzilla. On that point it’s much better.

[@braddarr5314]

nah...godzilla 1985 was totally released all across the US back in the day and at 8 years old even i knew it was trash. to this day its still the worse US godzilla movie ever.

[@ninjamalec]

I don't even care Zilla got slapped by Goji. Watching the Sydney Opera House get turned to dust is sublime.

[@keepthemetalflowing]

I remember seeing the trailer for this movie in '97 (I think it was before Titanic??)... anyway, and I was completely excited about seeing this movie. When it came out, I went with my best friend at the time as she knew I was a complete Godzilla nut lol. After the movie, she asked me what I thought (we would do that with movies we watched together, critique them haha). I remember telling her I loved it and thought it was great! However... during viewings, after the movie came out on VHS (omgosh, I feel so old), I started seeing more of the flaws. This was NOT a GODZILLA movie -it was merely an American kaiju movie that sorta resembled the Big G in appearances only. But, I love it for its nostalgic feel, the fact I saw it IN theaters in '98 and I remember all the cheesy stuff but still could appreciate it. Toho should rename Zilla though. How's about: Iguazilla or Gojiruana, LOL! Great video, man!!

[@PikaCheeks]

I recall Siskel said something along the lines of: "If you guys are going to put us in the movie to mock and get back at us, then why didn't you have your monster kill us at least?"

[@Thobeian]

Missed opportunity

[@MrStath1986]

He did. It's just such a weird wasted opportunity.

[@JimmyC1994]

Roland Emmerich: a man who can't even be petty correctly 🤣🤣

[@noico1337]

we got sam's dad from transformers, fin from sharknado and roland emmerick. it all comes full circle

[@rockettbennett]

It’s all connected.

[@101magj]

My personal headcanon is that Zilla is just a Gremlin that escaped being destroyed in Gremlins 2 that went from New York to the pacific, got nuked by the French and it became a hybrid that got confused and felt a really big need to go back to New York to spread its seed.

[@BubsMcDubs-cb8dc]

Dude how are all of your videos unbelievably high quality. You are crushing it!

[@zeoxdragon]

Zilla appears in the second issue of the comic "Godzilla - Rulers of Earth" where the military asks for radio what's the name of the monster, the other soldier tries to warn them that godzilla is approaching but due to interferences he only hears "Zilla" so they assume the monster is called like that, eventually Godzilla and Zilla have a pretty nice fight where Zilla obviously loses but survives the fight and rans away to the sea. Eventually at the end of the comic, Godzilla and other kaijus are fighting an alien invasion, Zilla joins them and helps Godzilla in the fight. It's a pretty nice comic that shows that Zilla, as his own kaiju, works great.

[@sethleoric2598]

Im gonna be honest, the French being the ones who made godzilla is one of the best godzilla lore changes ever.

[@occam7382]

Now all we need is a French Godzilla movie set in Tahiti. ...Yes, I'm serious about this. Make it happen.

[@fluidthought42]

I keep upvoting and downvoting your comment, that's how conflicted I am

[@raventripp6181]

That's why this Zilla is so good at parcore she was trained by the French special forces from egg.

[@soleenzo893]

There are so many good french animators, this could actually be a relaly cool serious animated series combining Kaiju, nuclear warfare and fallout themes, all set in beatiful french polynesia ahaha

[@gabrielsantosbastos5257]

Now it makes sense that The Spy wanted to kill it so badly

[@krisbies]

I remember this movie was technically my first exposure to Godzilla. I had never actually seen it (still haven't lol) nor any others but I had this action figure of this movie's iteration of "Godzilla" and it took a long night of scrolling through Netflix for me to realize that that was who it was. edit: 27:19 that one that one right there that was the one i had

[@dudefromtheearth]

Zilla reminds me of Jar Jar Binks. He's like a character that became appreciated as time went on and more beloved after the smoke cleared. What I do love most about 1998's Godzilla is the nostalgia from remembering the TV show and toys of the Kaiju when I was a kid even though I wasn't that interested in this movie and grew up watching the classic TOHO movies with the Godzilla we know today. What the future movies have in common starting with 2014 Godzilla is that Godzilla is more animalistic again. I really respect Takashi for having so much love and bringing unity to the Godzilla fan base seeing the good in all the movies. The man is a class act. I've seen some other great videos about 98 Zilla, but this is definitely at the top and I sure am glad that I had subscribed because man Pointless Hub's content is great!

[@nono9543]

13:45 You kinda hit the nail on the head there. Zilla's not a bad monster but his core characteristic is that he's a relatively normal animal that wants evade conflict rather than engage in it. Perfectly sensible but as a Godzilla movie you couldn't have picked a more opposite characterization. Godzilla is like the rocks of the eternal shore, he's gonna beat your ass no matter what. So making him this flaky raptor that reproduces asexually is not only peculiar, it shows a willingness to actively not respect the source material. And rip off Jurassic Park.

[@j.2512]

the movie is also incredibly cheesy but that was par on course for the 90s

[@toweypat]

Not exactly a great villain.

[@jvbon646]

It's basically "lets take Godzilla and turn it into King Kong"

[@Kaiju-bm4ts]

​@@jvbon646 kind of ironic you say that when toho did that with ebirah horror of the deep which was meant to be a kong film but they just added godzilla in there for the sake of it and at one part, godzilla was gazing at this island native woman in the same vain kong would and he attacks mothra despite the 2 being established as allies by that point. But at least it's not as bad as this film

[@ColonelGrande]

Its a more realistic take on Godzilla which I don't mind. Godzilla surfacing to trash an entire city for shits and giggles is fun but doesn't really make much sense. At least in this movie his actions are "somewhat" logical

[@AlastorsGuns]

Kevin Dunn, the actor for Sam Witwicky's dad is also in Godzilla 1998. Now my headcanon is that Sam's father experienced Godzilla, changed his name, and settled down with his wife and had Sam and now his son is cursed to suffer the same fate of trying to survive giant entities destroying shit. The Witwicky family curse.

[@merrittanimation7721]

The Witwickys aren't just cursed to deal with transformers, but all giant creatures

[@nickthebabba7767]

Godzilla VS Shia LaBeouf Who’s coming out on top?

[@gormold4163]

I was going to comment on how we have evidence in the transformer movies that the Witwicky family goes back for centuries, but then I remembered that every movie retcons the transformers origins, so it would only be fair to do that to the humans too.

[@kylenielsen5083]

The Witwickans will never leave them be.

[@geekymetalhead5112]

​@@nickthebabba7767 OPPPTIIIIMMUUUUUUSSSSS

[@BLARG313]

I'm amazed how with every video you make, you are able to express essentially the same opinions and feelings on these pieces of media that I do. I'm glad someone around my age is making high quality content about these properties while also staying chill and enjoyable to listen to. It's basically how I talk with my friends about this kind of stuff. Your work is incredible man, I really appreciate all the work you put into this.

[@TheIdealofGreed]

25:57 You have managed to make both a tv show & a movie better with one fade-in. I thank and salute you

[@thelastcrow5660]

I always felt sorry for Zilla as a kid. Sure, he wasn't exactly the Godzilla people wanted, but there was just something emotional and realistic about him being portrayed more like an animal.

[@chrisgomez1262]

Nope did it better kinda

[@dracodracarys2339]

Honestly he deserves his own name. Maybe rebrand GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) as some sort of proper acronym like Giant Irradiated Nautical Organism or something

[@flyingstonemon3564]

​@@dracodracarys2339 This or the fan beloathed name is good, I wouldn't mind Zilla to come back

[@pengwin_]

The way the Cartoon re-invented some of the godzilla monsters was really cool (like having MechaGodzilla be a Cyborg or turning Hedora into a collection of Nanomachines.)

[@chrisgomez1262]

@@pengwin_ the nano bots were not hedorah they are a anti hedorah as it eats pollution

[@evanthompson7494]

You know I've always felt that Godzilla 98 was, almost, an accidental critique of the war on terror. This is a movie about the US army responding to an attack on New York, bungling it horrible, and then thinking they've won despite experts telling them the threat has not yet passed.

[@moritamikamikara3879]

Sounds more like a Russian thing tbh. You know the one incident in the school...

[@toweypat]

But there was no "war on terror" at that time.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

​@@moritamikamikara3879 That doesn't narrow it down, sir.

[@evanthompson7494]

@toweypat That's why I said accidentally. It's impossible for their to be any intent, but coincidentally, the connections are there.

[@VikingTeddy]

I only just realised. The helicopter fires a missile, THAT GUIDES ITSELF IN TO A BUILDING! (At 14:24) Was the building on fire? Or did the pilot lock the building with radar? You can watch an Emmerich movie over and over, and find new stupid every time. It's impressive, you can't fuck up so much with just ignorance, it takes effort.

[@bellyOfaTiger]

Now that I think about it, Godzilla '98 is why I associate rain as a happy thing, not a sad thing. Me and my brother played in the rain a lot because of the ads and we basically binged the movie when we could rent it from the video store. It was a particularly rainy summer in my area that year. Damn, Zilla's OK with me.

[@HeronKij]

Hi, self-professed Godzilla fanatic desperately resisting the urge to commission a Shin Godzilla themed toy with irradiated silicone from Bad Dragon here (because you just want to FEEL the burn sometimes), your point about showing Godzilla 98's design to someone unfamiliar with it or its history and them not being able to recognize it as Godzilla is spot-on. My wife watched a lot of Godzilla movies with me and has become fond of them over the years. At her workplace breakroom, there was a movie playing on the television, and she sat down to watch some of it on her lunch. She came home and asked me if it sounded familiar because she had no idea what it was. She described a dinosaur with weird spikes on its back digging tunnels throughout New York and everyone in the movie was an idiot. Then she said "it kind of roared like Godzilla." And I said "Yes, it did. Thats about all the Godzilla there was in that movie."

[@albertoiii1205]

Just use sri racha sauce as lube and pretend it's radiation

[@mattfrank85]

In the comic Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, we made sure to have Zilla literally run circles around Godzilla, it made for a fun fight. I wish we had the opportunity to lean on the "Zilla Swarm" concept as well, what a cool idea!

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

You worked on it?

[@marrvynswillames4975]

@@alpacaofthemountain8760 Matt Frank is one of the main artists of the IDW Godzilla comics

[@Brazils-only-hope]

yoooooo, I grew up reading those comics

[@sk8paradoxity]

I have a few ideas they should rebrand "zilla" and give it a new name. Koyomasu, blending the Japanese words for Cayote (Koyote) and Barracuda (Kamasu). Kitsania, blending the words for Fox (Kitsune) and Pirahna (Pirania) Okasame, blending the words for Wolf (Okami) and Shark (same)

[@scaper8]

The prequel novels for the Polygon Godzilla anime trilogy do have a swarm of Zillas infesting and destroying Paris. They don't have any translations that I know of, but they've been summarized by many. I know WikiZilla's KZbin channel has a few video summaries, for example.

[@protagkun]

Dude the cartoon they made based on the movie actually rules so much, it’s crazy.

[@three_frogs_in_a_trench_coat]

Oml yes, that thing is amazing

[@echoesofpast678]

Nope, the show was amature, and filled with animations errors. Nothing good came out from this 1998 movie, that's the truth some people try to ignore in virtue of blind nostalgia.

[@three_frogs_in_a_trench_coat]

@@echoesofpast678 brother I wasn't born in that time and I think it's awesome

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

@@echoesofpast678man star trek TAS is a piece of shit, that piece of shit is so much fun

[@j.2512]

@@echoesofpast678 it didn't have a bunch of black lesbians, that alone makes it better than todays slop

[@AmbushIntheDark]

I cant wait to see Clifford show up in the next Godzilla movie. Clifford is a Kaiju. Justice for Clifford.

[@Jekyllstein_Gray]

I look forward to the revival of the "Is Clifford a kaiju?" debate.

[@grfrjiglstan]

The knowledge that Matthew Broderick's character eventually animorphs into Finn from Sharknado is a priceless gift, and I thank you for sharing it.

[@graham7784]

Man, 9/11 had a way bigger effect on cinema than I thought.

[@freeamericanthinker558]

You're now just realizing this?

[@j.a.g.8689]

What makes you say that

[@WaallyOne]

You'd be surprised on its effect with the whole world

[@Juice8767]

You must be young, that changed the culture of our country (assuming you’re American)

[@williamdaviddiazcuchimaque7511]

Deberías ver spiderman y Lilo y Stitch

[@DoctorDissonance]

Your comparison of this movie to Cloverfield is super apt, even down to the way the monsters are portrayed. The tones are wildly different, but in both the kaiju is imagined as just a scared animal doing what it has to to survive. There's even a weirdly overlapping theme of parenthood between them, Zilla being a mother kaiju and Clover being a child. Great observation.

[@disposable_income_andy]

The only thing I'd say is off is Clover being a child since there's not really much alluding to that in the first movie, at least not if you aren't paying much attention to that. The parental aspect is still definitely there though, albeit Clover and the spider parasites rather than whatever would be this things mother. These movies are both the pinnacle of "2 sides of the same coin," even down to them both just doing what's popular at the time (Independence Day and found footage)

[@Violaphobia]

1) While out of place, the soundtrack of this movie is GREAT 2) while out of place, the scene of Zilla slowly dying as his heart beats its last is very impactful

[@737215]

Siskel & Ebert roasted the movie for including parodies of them but not doing something cool like other movies by having them blown up or squished or SOMETHING Somehow they managed to waste potential at every level of this movie.

[@chrisbrasel8060]

It was right there and they didn't even do anything to them but mock them only. Pretty bad the people your mocking are saying you didn't mock them enough.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

"You put parodies of us in your monster movie and didn't have the monster eat us? Disappointing."

[@DIEGhostfish]

I seem to recall one expressed gratitude at not getting squished, rhen the other poijted out that it would have been way funnier if they HAD been squished and the 1st changed his mind to agree.

[@mikhaelgribkov4117]

Nah, parody route is actually more funny.

[@toonboy2041]

Thank you for pointing this out. Your comment should be pinned

[@Vverp265]

I mean, that many babies need a lot of food so... it kinda makes sense to lay eggs in a place full of easy prey.

[@EvilOverlord1662]

Yeah, a major city like New York! Or Tokyo!

[@CapnShades]

Or Los Angeles. Maybe even Seattle.

[@eduardo_carvajal]

Yeah, keep that copium rolling 😂

[@theshlauf]

Good theory. That would explain why it would lay it's eggs in the middle of a city. But it wouldn't explain why Zilla swam from the middle of the Pacific to the Eastern seaboard, ignoring the warmer waters and all the populated areas along the way.

[@wkadams88]

Come on man, the Knicks aren't THAT bad.

[@thelordandsaviorgigachadrr888]

Dr. Nick is proof we should all just give up. Bro has so much rizz, despite not being much different from other nerds. He is our superior, and while I don't understand it, I respect him for it. I truly believe we should all give up, because we're clearly doing something wrong.

[@strikerecho2592]

I love that you used the Toca 2 menu theme for the first few seconds. ❤️

[@purplehaze2358]

Tristar throwing away a decent Godzilla film made by people who loved Godzilla in favor of the one we actually got, which was made by people who actively held a negative opinion of Godzilla and just wanted to cash in on the success of Jurassic Park, just because the latter was headed by known faces and the former wasn't really is a microcosm of the demented state Hollywood's been in for the better part of a century now.

[@chrisbrasel8060]

The fact we didn't get that version of the movie dispite it having all the right people and stuff and the studio instead settled on the wrong people and stuff that ended up killing off the character's western push for a decade till Legendary got Zilla right in 2014.

[@frick_____you]

If it makes you feel better, Godzilla was an Atlantean Bioweapon in that script.

[@AtomicTitan1954]

What's funny was that Roland didn't wanna make it at first, and then TriStar rejected the other director's Godzilla movie because it would've costed too much to make, and then they brought Roland into it and then proceeded to make a more expensive movie that became the classic beloved film that we all know and love.

[@bigboi5545]

@frick_____you Hey, it worked for Gamera lol

[@totalNERD-eo7wx]

@@frick_____you Oh God No

[@eevv2229]

“Imagine Godzilla fighting an army of Zillas” I’d actually pay good money to see them do that in a future monsterverse movie or something.

[@starcannonsupernova293]

Godzilla x Kong: World War Zilla

[@AAZ-yu5ss]

The movie should just be titled “Hundreds of Zillas”

[@starcannonsupernova293]

@@AAZ-yu5ss "OOPS! All Zillas"

[@SpaceJawa]

Bring Zilla's Redemption Arc full circle.

[@paperclip6377]

Aw hell nah bruh don't ruin a fun concept by putting it in the monsterverse

[@lord_impaler232]

You can hate it and you can despise it all you want, but i vividly remember this movie as a highlight of my childhood, and to this day, i still love it. Granted, it may be through rose tinted goggles, but it’s still my first exposure to Godzilla, and damn it, I’m gonna enjoy it whenever i can.

[@jayjaysink1828]

4:14 For those who don't know, Kaiju literally translates to "Strange Beast" he literally wanted Godzilla not to be a Kaiju

[@Horrormaster13]

(0:54) The *'That's a lot of fish'* line perfectly sums up this entire movie.

[@nono9543]

Before I even got to that part I knew what the line was gonna be

[@tonythekillab8189]

Same. Doug Walker's legacy is eternal

[@yokothespacewhale]

The thing I remember most from this era is the cartoon episode where some guy is mad at the world so he sits in his apartment seething so hard it creates a kaiju that Godzilla can’t even defeat. They basically give the guy a therapy session to beat the monster. Edit: Ok it’s called what dreams may come from season 1 and i misremembered it a bit. He’s mad and his dreams create the monster.

[@totalNERD-eo7wx]

What

[@Cardinnall]

the fuck?

[@blkids2736]

Huh?

[@AnonymousSilence-nd3zb]

The man snorted so much copium over failing in life, it created a kaiju LITERALLY out of thin air.

[@pengwin_]

thats VERY japanese.

[@Bokenza]

Im a South African and our tv broadcasters were so obsessed with playing this movie, i cant say how many times ive watched this movie because there wasn't anything on tv, thank God for Netflix and internet tv we were screwed with no other choices 😭😭😭

[@priyamprasad624]

Zilla - "Godozira kunnn" Godzilla : "Zirara Chan" That's so cute tbh.

[@Artista_Frustrado]

the funny thing is that Toho did the "silly Americans confused the giant T-Rex with Godzilla" joke twice; they also had that conversation in Shin Godzilla of all movies also, yeah the Cartoon series is great

[@agustinvenegas5238]

Wait fr? I watched that movie like half a dozen times and don't recall that😂

[@Artista_Frustrado]

@@agustinvenegas5238 yeah, it was a super quick line during one of the Briefings one of the characters whispers to another that the Americans also reported Godzilla sightings & the other tells him they probably saw a giant lizard or something

[@teotlcipactli7530]

Wait, that happens in GMK, but not in Shin, im pretty sure the whole thing in shin is than "nothing that big can be on land" so there's no presedent of a kaiju attack until Shin Godzilla appears

[@TheIdealofGreed]

​@@Artista_Frustrado I think that's from one of the Kiryu Mechagodzilla movies, isn't it?

[@twoods265]

@@teotlcipactli7530yeah I’m pretty sure the line in Shin is when they were naming him Godzilla. They said in a meeting “Godzilla is an American term for it. We’re calling it Gojira.” Or something to that extent.

[@tonatiuhnino3711]

"I still don't know how you got pregnant, you're entire suit's a big rubber!" - King Kong 2024

[@toainsully]

"CGI is tedious. No wonder I'm just a guy in a suit" - Final Wars Godzilla

[@j.2512]

@@toainsully it really is, 2024 and there's still no way to make a city crumbling feel impactful with cgi. There's no suspension of disbelief

[@n3rdy11]

@@j.2512 Pacific Rim came pretty close with the CGI, it also manages to add scale/weight that rubber suits don't do well in their tiny model cities. I wonder if the ideal is a mixture between CGI and practical effects, to get the best out of both worlds?

[@owen1079]

"As a child of the early 2000s!?" But Cody, you have the voice of one of us children of the 80s/early 90s!

[@ZetsubouZolo]

yeah you said it. I was 8 when I saw this movie and at this time obsessed with dinosaurs as many boys my age. Jurassic Park was my all time favorite thing, I had dozens of Dino toys reeneacting jurassic park with Lego people over and over again and then along comes this Kaiju movie with a giant reptile trashing new york. And tbh my love for overdimensional Monster movies has never faded, it scratches a certain spot in my brain that just feels good and fun. Rampage, Pacific Rim, Godzilla, I just love it. this is why 98 Zilla worked so well

[@Alinias]

"Did they replace the army with Helldivers?" I feel personally attacked and I'll have you know I average a whopping 65% accuracy against the Terminids.

[@kirant]

Incidentally, now I want a faction of kaiju. How fun would it be to unload into 200 foot monsters?

[@AAZ-yu5ss]

@@kirant Honestly, it’d be really dope if they introduced a 4th, newer faction after they eventually re-add the Illuminate in Helldivers 2.

[@Patterrz]

Watching this as a kid has left core memories in my brain. The Godzilla design might not be authentic but it was super cool to a 6 year old

[@adamhastie8439]

Didn't expect to see you here

[@user-fl4el2mq2x]

@@adamhastie8439same

[@RAM94]

That’s crazy, you had an experience similar to mine when it comes to this movie. I remember seeing the marketing for this movie EVERYWHERE as a kid and nothing sticks out in my mind more than the eyeball poster that was all over the place back then. For whatever reason that poster always unnerved me too. But I never actually gave it a watch until I was an adult because even as a kid I got used to seeing the old Toho films on AMC. So after seeing it finally in my 20’s, it’s such a weird movie. It’s fun as a time capsule of the 90’s but it’s not my Godzilla. The soundtrack had a couple bangers on it by Jamiroquai and RATM atleast too

[@harleymitchell2940]

Yoooooo, that jab at that hack fraud Stuckman was great. Well done, sir!

[@kevinw6814]

I'm a 36-year-old husband and father, and I was a preteen when this movie came out. I was absolutely obsessed with it. And not in that modern internet exaggeration of "absolutely obsessed". I mean its much more literal, Oxford English Dictionary definition. I had toys of Zilla in all sizes--the larger ones lit up and made noise. I had coloring books. I had dog tags I wrote "Godzilla Force" on top of in the same green and black sharpie markers to match the box art AND I wore them around. I had the Gameboy Color game based on the animated series based on the movie. I cut out and tore out advertisements for this movie from magazines that featured both promotional and concept art for the movie. During the animated series, I used an electronic typewriter my mother gifted me for Christmas and wrote the first three or so pages of a script for the sequel to the movie. Hell, I even repurposed this old silver-colored license plate frame my dad had laying in his closet to tape a sheet of printer paper inside of after I had written "Godzilla Force" in the same green and black sharpie markers and hung that above my bed. In hindsight, it was rather embarrassing, but man did I enjoy the fuck out of this movie and every bit of merchandise and media it spawned.

[@V1nce_man]

Quickly, GET THIS MAN MORE MERCHANDISE!

[@kriskovichvaleria9108]

I watched this film when I was 5 or 6. Destroyed VHS with the amount of times I rewatched it.

[@iguana6513]

This is the level of fan Godzilla just installs in people, it rocks absolute shit!! I grew obsessed in middle school to the same degree you did!! It ended up I had diagnosed autism but man was it easy to find a huge group of people online who were also mega Godzilla fans. A lot of my friends who I grew up with and I'm still close to are huge Godzilla fans too. It honestly has such a power to foster such a community, and I love how the 98' had that same effect too. Do happy to hear you had such a good relationship with it!!! I hope you kept some of the merch to this day!!

[@disposable_income_andy]

Fun fact: if you owned that giant full body trendmasters 1998 Godzilla (i believe just called ultimate godzilla?), then you own the singlehandedly most accurate piece of 98 Godzilla merch, because that toy was the one that was digitally scanned to create Zilla's CGI model for Godzilla: Final Wars.

[@kevinw6814]

​@@V1nce_man pfffftttthahahaha

[@Hypercube2017]

You managed to provide two epic movie ideas in a single video: World War Zilla, and Gojira Vs. Zilla. Also, anyone else laugh at 22:00? Like, she ghosted him, came back to get a story, stole a VHS labeled "Top Secret" (which manages to get him fired), and then is like "You never said it was off the record." I mean, that's some top-shelf Audacity if I do say so myself.

[@TheHellmuffin]

No joke, the other day my friends and I were talking about a hypothetical “if you made a video essay, what would be your first subject?” My choice was how the 1998 Godzilla movie is actually okay. Then lo and behold, I look at my subcriptions and see this, with all the talking points I’d bring up and all the points I’d make done with far more clarity and hilarity than I could possibly muster. I say this with the utmost respect and joy~ Thank you for killing my hopes and dreams before they even began.

[@zakuraiyadesu]

Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!

[@germanscience7246]

Fun fact: in final wars Toho not only rebranded this design so that all future appearances would go under the name "zilla" but it's CGI model was created by scanning a toy of the '98 godzilla, it's fight scene is the shortest in film clocking in at a measley 12 seconds. But even funnier is the lyrics of the song that plays in the background during the fight. As godzilla incinerates zilla the lyrics of the song are as follows: SUPER SIZE OUR TRAGEDY (A disapppointment! A disappointment!) *BORN IN THE LAND OF THE FREE!!!!*

[@MrEnzio777]

Slight bubble burst as a Sum 41 fan but the line in parentheses is actually (You can't define me! Or justify greed!) But in a way that also fits Zilla.

[@algonuevo5232]

Yeah, SUM 41 was pretty big in Japan at that time so they probably heard the lyrics from this American band and thought it fit. And they were goddamned right, that scene is amazing.

[@disposable_income_andy]

If you ever owned the big 1998 Trendmasters Godzilla (I believe just called Ultimate Godzilla?), then you own the hands down most accurate merch of 98 Godzilla/Zilla there is, since that's the one that was scanned for Final Wars also i know it's technically before but you cannot get more 2000s than 98 and Final Wars having both Green Day and Sum 41 music on their sountracks

[@INSERTNAMExHERE]

Post 9/11: "You caused more damage than that goddamn thing did!" After 9/11? Nah son. No epic Chrysler building destruction for yooouuu

[@azurewraith2585]

Not to be that guy but *pre-9/11*

[@j.2512]

Larry Silverstein and Bush did Godzilla, it was an inside job!

[@____Carnage____]

Post and After mean the same thing

[@Cloperella]

I don't hate the design of Zilla. Never did, never will. Yeah, it's not really appropriate for "Godzilla", but I do think he's a neat looking monster on his own. Even if he is just a giant lizard, giant lizards are still kind of cool. I see him more as like a distant cousin to Godzilla, has some genetic relation, but just very far removed.

[@disposable_income_andy]

I like the big chin, honestly. Zilla looks like a Monster Hunter boss or something. If this was fan design rather than something official that got killed on screen twice in both of its film appearances, people would eat it up. Hell, Zilla appears in the IDW comics and is basically that, even teaming up with Godzilla by the end.

[@TheIdealofGreed]

14:57 That has to be one of the best lines I've ever heard, & I have to use that somewhere. I'm not sure where, but somewhere