In Defense of Godzilla 1998 (part 1)

by Jerry Peterson

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Tri-Star's Godzilla, and I couldn't let the occasion pass without saying something about one of my favorite versions of Godzilla. This is going to be a multi-part series of articles, as I set about tackling all of the consistent complaints that have plagued this kaiju over the last quarter of a century. I'll be focusing only on Godzilla (G98) himself, because if you ask most people, they'll say the movie overall is okay- it's just the monster they have a problem with. So let's get into it, starting with:

1. It's just Jurassic Park

    Yes, Tri-Star's Godzilla came out in the wake of the first two Jurassic Park movies. And yes, there are a couple of moments that pay homage to Jurassic Park. But generally, when people make this statement, they're criticizing the way G98 carries himself. He doesn't walk upright and drag his tail on the ground like Toho Studio's original Godzilla did over the course of 22 movies, beginning in 1954.

    Instead, his posture is that of a proper theropod. He walks with a horizontal stance and his tail acts as a counterweight, that hovers off the ground. Jurassic Park is credited with destroying the mainstream myth of the T-Rex that walks upright, which had dominated movies since 1918. That was the year that the film, "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain" was released, and audiences were treated to the first ever Tyrannosaurus Rex on the silver screen. For the next 75 years the image of the upright-walking T-Rex would dominate people's imaginations. Even in the same year that Jurassic Park was released, we were still getting depictions of the tail-dragging T-Rex in movies like Carnosaur.

Every Theropod before 1993.

Every Theropod after 1993.

    So when people say that G98 is just Jurassic Park, what they're saying is that he walks like the T-Rexes seen in that movie, and that he's just a regular T-Rex with spines. What they're forgetting though, are those 75 preceding years, where Toho's Godzilla walked exactly like every movie depiction of the T-Rex up to that point. I always felt that Toho's Godzilla would have carried himself horizontally as well, if people in 1954 were aware of how theropods actually balanced and carried themselves. 

    In fact, Toho did attempt to depict their Godzilla's stance more realistically a couple times with varying degrees of success. Monster designer, Shinji Nishikawa’s concept art for the Godzilla-saurus in 1991's "Godzilla vs King Ghidorah" reveals that Toho was open to the idea, though it apparently got nixed by the time cameras rolled. They tried again in 2001's "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." The Godzilla suit that appears on-screen was to have a horizontal posture, but the suit proved unwilling to cooperate. I imagine if Toho had been able to pull off the horizontal posture for their Godzilla in those movies, that this wouldn't be a sticking point for so many fans.

Nishikawa, S. “Toho's Godzilla-saurus”

[concept art] 1991

   In short, Godzilla has always been a T-Rex with spines. He walked like a theropod, when he was created in 1954 and he still walked like a theropod, when he was reimagined in 1998.The only thing that changed was our understanding of how those dinosaurs actually stood and walked.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Next up: Atomic Breath or Power Breath?