Godzilla (1998 film) however, was not without its supporters. Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times", wrote that the film was an "expertly designed theme park ride of a movie that packs nonstop thrills." In a slightly positive fashion, Gary Kamiya of Salon commented that "The plot is about as ridiculous as you'd expect, but for the most part its absurdities are tolerable." Joe Leydon of "Variety" contributed mildly to the positive sentiment by saying "Throughout "Godzilla", New York endures the most sustained rainfall in all of movie history. Most of the action takes place at night, but even the daytime scenes unfold
Shin Godzilla achieved a successful resurgence for both the Big G and himself." In July 2017, co-director Shinji Higuchi attended G-Fest XXIV and answered questions regarding sequels, stating, "A lot of people have questions. ‘When is the next Japanese Godzilla movie coming out?’ They cannot make it until after 2020". Higuchi noted that this was due to Toho's contract with Legendary Entertainment, which restricts Toho from releasing a live-action "Godzilla" film in the same year as Legendary's "Godzilla" film (two of Legendary's "Godzilla" sequels will be released in 2019 and 2020). Higuchi also noted Legendary's contract expires in 2020. Despite not producing