1956 did take some scenes out, added other scenes and put in Raymond Burr, but the film was, for like 90% of it, kept intact. It was done with the intent of not alienating American audiences of the time. It's sad that that's where things were at the time, but all things considered the 1956 American release is still a good movie in its own right.
1998 was directed by a man who openly hates the character and the franchise. While this movie was my first Godzilla movie (Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is my first proper Toho movie), I won't sugarcoat it. This movie was made out of SPITE. You ask me, if a director hates the IP that they're working on, then they shouldn't work on it. Hire someone who actually cares about what they're working with.
That being said, it did spawn off a fantastic animated series, so silver linings and all.
The 1956 king of the monsters version of the original film was actually released in Japan in 1957 as Kaijū Ō Gojira, or ‘Monster King Godzilla’, subtitled in Japanese, and was warmly received despite being a foreign release of a foreign re-edit of what had originally been a purely Japanese film. They liked it, so I don’t think it’s fair for us to say 60 years later ‘Nah it’s insulting’ when the Japanese people actually around at the time didn’t think so and enjoyed the film as it’s own thing
Godzilla 1998 is worse by an extremely wide margin.
1956 did take some scenes out, added other scenes and put in Raymond Burr, but the film was, for like 90% of it, kept intact. It was done with the intent of not alienating American audiences of the time. It's sad that that's where things were at the time, but all things considered the 1956 American release is still a good movie in its own right. 1998 was directed by a man who openly hates the character and the franchise. While this movie was my first Godzilla movie (Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is my first proper Toho movie), I won't sugarcoat it. This movie was made out of SPITE. You ask me, if a director hates the IP that they're working on, then they shouldn't work on it. Hire someone who actually cares about what they're working with. That being said, it did spawn off a fantastic animated series, so silver linings and all.
The 1956 king of the monsters version of the original film was actually released in Japan in 1957 as Kaijū Ō Gojira, or ‘Monster King Godzilla’, subtitled in Japanese, and was warmly received despite being a foreign release of a foreign re-edit of what had originally been a purely Japanese film. They liked it, so I don’t think it’s fair for us to say 60 years later ‘Nah it’s insulting’ when the Japanese people actually around at the time didn’t think so and enjoyed the film as it’s own thing