8 Lazy Movies That Were Just Copying Better Films

4. It Really Wants To Be Jurassic Park - Godzilla (1998)

Some people may not have been too happy with 2014's Godzilla, finding there just wasn't enough screen time given to the nuclear behemoth, but at least Gareth Edwards did deliver us a movie that felt like it was indeed a proper Gojira picture. The same can't be said of Roland Emmerich's outing for the Toho monster, which took to odd approach of shunning the franchise it was a part of, instead acting as an unofficial spiritual sequel to Jurassic Park.

There's certainly a lot of Emmerich's usual city destruction that he'd done brilliantly in Independence Day, but that's overshadowed by how much he tries to be Spielberg's dino-adventure. Most obviously the baby Godzillas are identical to raptors in all but name (with effects that haven't dated anywhere near as well) which gifted the film with a very Park third act, but in general the narrative beats feel similar, with the monster(s) appearing and disappearing in a failed attempt to build tension.

Remember that Jurassic Park was only five years old at this point and still one of the biggest films ever made, making it a massive cultural touchstone and therefore this would have been readily obvious to an audience. The film had a lot of other problems, but trying so hard to be derivative really didn't help.