As someone who has been a Godzilla fan and has enjoyed giant monster movies as a whole ever since I was around four, I have mixed feelings on the 1998 american Godzilla film.
Is it a horrible Godzilla film? Yes, the adaptation of the source is pathetic and awful. To put it simply, they took the "god" out of Godzilla.
Is it a bad giant monster movie? Not really. You could do much MUCH worse like the Yonggary remake or some of the original "kenny" filled Gamera films.
The 98 Godzilla would have done much better had it not been a Godzilla film. That's more or less the stance Toho, the Japanese studio who created Godzilla has taken. The monster is a seperate one from regular Godzilla and is referred to as just Zilla. Honestly they should have called it a remake of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms given how similar it is to that film.