Godzilla: 25th Anniversary Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Godzilla: 25th Anniversary Edition



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
As a long time Godzilla fan it’s always painful to admit that I actually kind of like Roland Emmerich’s 1998 “disaster” version of the god like super beast. While there have been several different takes ranging from the 1950s Gojira, to the silly Toho flicks with the guy in the rubber suit, up to the new 2014 trilogy of films that wrapped up a couple of years ago. But none has ever been so controversial as the 1998 movie. Mostly because Roland Emmerich took everything that WAS Godzilla, stripped it all away,and crafted a story about a mutant lizard that uses Godzilla’s name and made it into his typical disaster style movie. However, fans over the years have sort of come to grips with the butchering of their favorite monster by calling the beast “Zilla” as they took the “God” out of Godzilla and just made him a Muto. Myself I can fully understand that the movie is a giant flaming ball of poo-doo, but it’s still FUN poo-doo nonetheless.

The film follows scientist Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick) who is recalled from Chernobyl where he was studying the effects of the radiation leaked there on the worm population (fascinating stuff). It seems he was called back by the military because a mysterious beast was seen capsizing fishing boats and a single survivor claimed it was the legendary Gorjia (Godzilla by mistranslation according to the film). The Military has no eye witnesses except a crazy old man, but evidence of the beast heading towards Manhattan Island has them worried and hope to use Nick to figure out a way to stop it.

Sooner rather than later, Godzilla (who is just a giant over grown radiation lizard) heaves up from the ocean and starts rampaging across the island. The guns do absolutely nothing to the beast, and he escapes into the sewer systems before the military can get some bigger guns. HOWEVER, Nick is able to get a blood sample from the beast during the fracas and ascertains that the monster is “pregnant” (as much as an asexual lizard can be pregnant), which means that not only do they have a multi story giant lizard running around, but he could lay eggs and unless dozens, if not HUNDREDS of mini Godzillas on the nation before they can say bob’s your uncle.

There’s the typical human story subplots where Nick’s old college girlfriend Audrey (Maria Pitillo) is trying to get a promotion as news anchor, only to latch onto Nick in hopes of getting the scoop. A French black ops commander named Philippe (Jean Reno) who wants to recruit him to blow up the nest, and a gargantuan amount of sheer disaster pron for us to revel in. Basically we get a little bit of Godzilla lore told through a cracked mirror, and a whole ton of Independence Day style explosions for a full 2 hours and 18 minutes of runtime. Things go boom, Godzilla tears up an entire city while the military sends Blackhawks in to shoot him down. And of course there’s buildings literally exploding outwards like they’ve been hit by the Alien energy beams in Independence Day. Silly, yes. Stupid, absolutely. But I actually sort of like the movie and feel that this is one of those TRUE guilty pleasure films simply because I enjoy the non stop destruction.

Personally, I understand why the movie is hated so much by the general Godzilla fanbase. Not only is the movie pure dumb Roland Emmerich style destruction (the only guy who can rival Michael Bay for unnecessary explosions), but it strips the essence of Godzilla away from the monster and turns him into a generic lizard beast. There’s no radiation blast. No god like control over other beasts, and no sense of saving humanity from other monsters. It really is a gigantic over grown lizard monster who got gigantic because of Nuclear testing, and decides to come up and raise cain in New York. But really, who doesn’t want to watch Roland Emmerich go full balls to the walls crazy blowing everything up and trying to shoot a gigantic lizard. The film goes on about 20 minutes too long, and could have been trimmed down a bit, but this is Roland Emmerich literally putting some tiger balm on this jungle’s nuts and going for broke (kudos to you if you got that reference).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi monster action/violence





4K Video: Video:

As is the case with pretty much all of Sony’s 4K re-releases, the disc is pretty much the same except for the addition of Dolby Vision instead of just HDR for the color grading. I don’t have access to the 4K UHD disc from 2019 to compare it against, but the picture quality for the disc absolutely stomps the every living Godzilla out of the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray was always a decent disc back in 2009, but newer 4K masters and getting rid of that waxy look makes the 4K UHD DRASTICALLY superior. The colors are less warm and overly yellowed, with a nice dimmer looks that suits the rainy night time of New York City that the film is set in. The 2.39:1 transfer looks absolutely fantastic, with stunning clarity that is light years better than the Blu-ray. Nuances inside the sports dome are incredibly revealing, with much more textural detailing on the eggs, as well as the overly obvious CGI mini zillas (the one weak part of the film in 4K, the poor CGI is much more obvious). The Dolby Vision application is amazing, creating deep and inky black levels that leave nothing to the imagination, and the cool blues and muted primary colors (yellow a cab, red shirt) pop way more than the Blu-ray. It’s not a perfect image as I saw some overly chunky grain here and there, otherwise this is a very filmic looking transfer that is ALMOST the highlight of the disc.








Audio:

I’m estimating that the Dolby Atmos track is the same Atmos track found on the 2019 4K UHD disc, but either way, it’s a monster of a track that is pure demo worthy gold. Godzilla 98 has always been demo disc on the Blu-ray format, and was one of the go to discs whenever I wanted to wow people with it’s beast of a mix. Sony has included that old 5.1 DTS-HD MA track on the disc, but also included a newer Dolby Atmos track that is every bit the crowd pleaser the 5.1 mix was, and then some. I’ve heard the original Atmos track from the previous disc was cooked a bit hot in the overheads, and I’m really guessing that this is the same track then, because I noticed those overheads got a LOOOOOOT of work thrown their way. Blackhawks thudding overhead, Zilla slamming his feet down upon a bridge, and the copious use of the surround sides and rears makes for one of the most enveloping mixes I’ve heard in ages.

Dialog is never a problem at all, with vocals locked up in the center and the mains taking an absolute beating with all of the scrabbling and roaring of the beasts. The LFE track is simply punishing, with deep brutal waves that basically don’t let up for nearly the entire run time. That last car chase with the Taxi near the end is one non stop bass channel extravaganza, and combined with the insane use of surrounds makes for the single best extended action sequence of the entire film.












Extras:

4K UHD Disc
• Theatrical Trailers (3)

Blu-ray Disc
• Visual Effects Commentary
• Behind the Scenes of Godzilla® with Charles Caiman
• All Time Best of Godzilla Fight Scenes
• "Heroes" Music Video by The Wallflowers
• Previews

Final Score: ​

Being that I didn’t get the 2019 4K disc, then this new steelbook edition (with some snazzy artwork if I don’t say so myself) is DEFINITELY worth getting if you’re a fan of the movie. It full on Godzilla stomps the old Blu-ray in terms of Video/Audio specs, but does port across the same legacy extras from the 2009 disc (and are only ON that 2009 disc, which is the same pressing as it was 14 years ago). Fans who already picked up the 2019 disc will have a harder choice. About the only thing different between the two editions is the steelbook packaging (which will pretty much appeal only to the collectors) and the addition of Dolby Vision. Which if any of the other Sony 4K re-releases are to go by, are only minimal tweaked upgrades over the HDR only versions. Simply put, if you don’t have the 4K already, this is the one to get. If you do, I probably would hesitate unless I had to have that steelbook packaging. Guilty pleasure? Sure, but I still had a blast with this bit of popcorn movie fluff.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Written by:Ira Dean Devlin, Ted Elliott, Roland Emmerich
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, French (Parisian), German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), DTS-HD MA 5.1, Czech, French (Canadian), Hindi, Hungarian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Spanish (Latin) DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 139 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 24th, 2023

Recommendation: Cheesy Fun.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I am also a big fan of Godzilla, from the very old black and white to the latest..
All unique in their own way!

Godzilla (1954)
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
All Monsters Attack (1969)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
The Return of Godzilla/Godzilla (1984)
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
Godzilla (1998)
Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
Godzilla (2014)
Shin Godzilla (2016)
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)
Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)