Shin Godzilla - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Shin Godzilla: Steel Book Edition



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



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Movie
It feels fitting that just after I get done reviewing Shout! Studios re-releases of Hideaki Anno’s reworking of Evangelion, we get his take on Godzilla as well. After the absolute box office smash that was 2014’s Godzilla reboot here in the states, Toho decided that it was time to revisit their old stomping grounds and re-imagine Godzilla back home in Japan as well. As is normally the case, the Toho variant had a massively smaller budget than it’s American counterpart (around $15 million I believe) and focused more on classic animatronic and practical set piece effects rather than CGI (though there is SOME CGI in the film I believe), but giving the film an entirely different texture and tone than the sci-fi special effects extravaganza that was Gareth Edwards take on the classic monster.

The film opens with the Japanese coast guard searching for a missing scientist, only to discover an unidentified monster in the ocean. At first all that can be seen is a gigantic tail thrashing in the water, but soon the beast turns its attention on the mainland. As the Japanese government frantically tries to pool all of their resources in an attempt to figure out what’s going on, the monster crawls out of the water and immediately starts to evolve on the fly. Gills and fins turn into lungs and spines, and soon the monstrosity is crawling its way across Tokyo with destruction following in its wake.

The humans in the film do what humans do best, and start attacking with military force as soon as they can, blasting it with 30mm rounds from a helo, and rocking it with a mini gun. Amping up the weaponry from guns to tanks, to missiles, and finally bombs, there is but one conclusion. The monster is too powerful for conventional weapons. To make matters worse, said beasty (now dubbed “Godzilla” by the U.S. Government) is still evolving, adapting to the weapons firing upon it and creating organic, nuclear based, weapons of its own.

Shin Godzilla is a fascinating watch, and not your typical Godzilla flick either. Godzilla Minus One was a straight forward monster movie, with deep themes and a pretty awesome battle sequence set. But Shin Godzilla takes a different approach, appearing cheesy and very dated on the surface. But watching it a second time (my original viewing was WAY back in the day when Funimation had the Blu-ray released nearly a decade ago) I have to say that this is more of a hilarious political parody than anything, just with Godzilla attached.

The entire film revolves around and seems to be focused on a “what would the Japanese Government do today if a Godzilla attack happened?” and as such, it’s downright hysterical. The humans spend every turn panicking and trampling around trying to figure this out, and most of the film highlights the plethora of politicians and sub ministers in the government doing their best to out scheme and out think the others. Simultaneously, Anno falls back on classic Godzilla themes as well, such as humanity doing what it takes to come together and fight off a world breaking monster. And of course the age old mantra of “is Godzilla really the villain? Or are we?”. One thing of note is that the nationalism and patriotism shown here is much less cloying and jingoistic than I expected. Said patriotism is seen through the lens of heroism and love of country, rather than mindless devotion to government. Instead, it feels as if Anno is lampooning that old fashioned Asian history of worshiping government over the people, doing everything he can to make those little digs against the members of the establishment who think that way.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some creature violence/action.





4K Video: Video:

I’ve not seen the Funimation disc for a good 7 or 8 years, but from what I remember it was a fairly stellar transfer that Funi was given, and the results were quite pleasing. The new 4K “restoration” (which I would classify more of a remaster than an actual restoration, as restoration is not really a thing for an 9 year old film) looks great, with stunning detail levels (sometimes a bit TOO stunning, especially when it comes to the set pieces standing out, as well as Godzilla himself), and great colors. Right off the bat I must warn viewers that this isn’t your typical “bright and shiny” or “dark and moody” film. Shin Godzilla is more a beige and pastel colored landscape, with creamy skin tones, soft greens, punctuated by sharp primary neon shades in relation to Godzilla’s weaponry. Black levels are superb, though, with inky shadows and plenty of depth to the murky shots. Honestly, while I would have loved to have seen some Dolby Vision grading, the HDR10 base layer is quite nice, especially since this isn’t a scorchingly bright HDR type of film.









Audio:

Replicating the theatrical 3.1 audio mix, we get a brand new re-encode of both the Japanese and English dubs in 3.1 DTS-HD MA, with the Japanese track FAR outclassing the English Dub (the English Dub is hilariously bad). Strangely enough, both my 4K players and receivers recognized the output from the player as 5.1 DTS-HD MA, but the surround channels were dead silent, almost as if the wrapper was picking up phantom surround channels that weren’t there. But that aside, the mix sounds quite nice. The dialog is centered in the front of the room as it should be, with Shiro Sagisu’s score spreading out between the mains. There’s plenty of chaos and insanity to add to the mix, with Godzilla’s rampage across Tokyo adding some serious low end rumble, and the sound of crashing buildings and atomic breath blasts tearing up the mains quite a bit. One thing of note is that this is the Japanese version of the film, vs. the English version of the film that Funimation got, which means we got the original burnt in Subtitle placards for every location and person in the film, which was sadly missing from the Funi version.









Extras:

• Promotional Video Collection
• Making Of SHIN GODZILLA
• Deleted Scenes
• Outtakes
• News Reels
• Previs Reel Collection
• Previs and Special Effects Outtakes
• Visual Effects Breakdown
• Trailer 1
• Trailer 2
• Teaser 1
• Teaser 2

Final Score:

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Shin Godzilla is not a perfect movie, but it’s a fun movie that borders on hilarious if you’re into political satire wrapped up in a monster movie. Western audiences may be put off by the heavy use of animatronics and miniature set pieces for the effects, but fans of old Toho Godzilla movies will have a blast with it. The acting is a bit over the top, and the film runs about 15 minutes too long, but overall it’s a hilariously fun reboot by Toho, even though it doesn’t hold a candle to Godzilla Minus One. The 4K UHD steelbook release from Gkids (Shout! Studios is simply publishing Gkids discs for them) is great, with a wonderful remaster on 4K, a new remaster of the film in Blu-ray AND a special features disc. There’s also a super mega edition that houses a 4th disc with a black and white version of the film as well, but that’s not included in this “regular” edition. Solid watch, and a blast for fans of classic Godzilla.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Ren Osugi
Directed by: Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi
Written by: Hideaki Anno, Ishiro Honda, Takeo Murato
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 3.1, Japanese DTS-HD MA 3.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish, French
Studio: Toho
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 119 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 28th, 2025

Recommendation: Fun Watch

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