Godzilla (Blu-ray) (2014)

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General		Extras
Category	Sci-Fi Action	Featurette-Monarch: Declassified Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The Legendary Godzilla More…-DVD of the film More…-Ultraviolet code
Rating
Year Of Production	2014
Running Time	123:07
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gareth Edwards
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Aaron Taylor-Johnson Ken Watanabe Bryan Cranston Elizabeth Cranston David Strathairn Juliette Binoche
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Alexandre Desplat

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 Chinese Dolby Digital 5.1 Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1 Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 Polish Dolby Digital 5.1 Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 Thai Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic Indonesian Bulgarian Cantonese Croatian Czech Estonian Portuguese Greek Hebrew Hungarian Korean Lithuanian Latvian Polish Romanian Russian Serbian Slovenian Thai Turkish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The Philippines 1999; Dr Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) is called in when the fossil of a huge dinosaur type creature is discovered in a mine. There are also spoors of another parasitic creature attached to the fossil, and it seems that one of the creatures may have hatched and escaped. In Japan nuclear plant manager Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is puzzled by a pattern of regular seismic pulses that are occurring but before he can act the plant suffers an explosion which kills his wife; the plant is abandoned and a quarantine zone established.

     Fifteen years later, Joe’s son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a lieutenant in the navy with a wife Elle (Elizabeth Cranston) and young son of his own living in San Francisco. Ford receives a call from Tokyo that his father has been arrested for trespassing in the quarantine zone and he travels to Tokyo; Joe is convinced that the same regular pattern of seismic pulses that occurred prior to the plant explosion is repeating itself and that something is about to happen. They return to the quarantine zone and are captured and taken to the old plant, which has been reactivated under the control of Dr Serizawa. They are just in time to witness the hatching of a giant Mutu (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) which feeds on radiation and uses electrical pulses to black out all electrical equipment. The Mutu destroys the plant and flies out to sea. The military arrive and take Dr Serizawa, Joe and Ford out to a US aircraft carrier where Admiral Stenz (David Strathairn) is coordinating the search for the Mutu. It soon becomes apparent that the Mutu is heading for the US coast to meet, and mate with, an even larger Mutu that has come to life in Nevada. And tracking the Mutu towards the coast is Godzilla, the king of the monsters. The tracks of the creatures will intersect at San Francisco where the population, including Ford’s wife and son, will be very much in harm’s way.

     Godzilla first appeared in 1954’s Godzilla (aka Gojira) as the “original monster of mass destruction” that rose from the sea to devastate Japan in a thinly veiled reference to the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945. Since then there have been over thirty sequels made by Toho during which Godzilla changed from being a threat to humankind to a protector, defending Japan from a host of original and intriguing monsters. The best of the Toho Studio Godzilla films blended interesting human characters with loud and explosive monster action, although in truth the humans were always subordinate to the creature action. The first Hollywood version of Godzilla, directed by Roland Emmerich in 1998, again made Godzilla a threat to the human race but was more Jurassic Park than Godzilla.

     This current Hollywood version of Godzilla directed by Gareth Edwards, whose only previous feature was the interesting Monsters (2010), gives us an alternative origin story for Godzilla and again makes him the (unwitting) saviour of humanity. At the same time Edwards attempts to provide interesting human characters, making the creature battles an adjunct to the human story rather than the only reason for the film.

     Edwards also works on the theory that you do not need to show all your monster cards at once and it is 38 minutes into the film before we get the first good look at the Mutu and a full 59 minutes before Godzilla is revealed. And the obscuring does not stop there; all the creature action sequences, in Japan, Hawaii and the US and including the climactic battle between Godzilla and the Mutus, take place at night so the creatures are mostly ever seen partly lit or partly revealed. In a number of scenes the monsters are also seen partially through windows, including the excellent scene where Godzilla’s foot crashes into frame! Indeed, most of the action sequences are loud and exhilarating, with the Hawaii sequence an absolute stunner. It is true that this Godzilla in many sequences puts a child in danger, but this is typical of many Toho Godzilla films as well, so can be understood and forgiven. It is perhaps only in the final battle between Godzilla and the Mutus that the human element gets in the way as Ford, his wife and his son are all separately and individually in peril. Switching back and forth between them does tend, at least for me, to take the focus away from the creature battle and the consequential destruction of a swathe of San Francisco buildings.

     I have reviewed a couple of dozen Godzilla movies on this site and consider myself a fan of the King of the Monsters. So while I may question some minor aspects of this big budget Hollywood Godzilla in the main it attempts to follow the latter Toho formula and does so with verve and spectacle. A sequel, with the same director, has been announced for 2018.

Video

     Godzilla is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The first half of Godzilla is nicely detailed and contains bright and natural colours. When the creatures appear the film gets progressively darker until in the climax the battling monsters are frequently indistinct, partially lit by flares, lights or explosions and the colour palate is grey and black except for the vivid yellow explosions and fires. This is a deliberate choice; we see what the filmmakers intended. Blacks are always solid and inky, contrast and brightness consistent, skin tones natural.

     Other than some slight aliasing I did not notice any marks or artefacts.

     Subtitles are available in a wide range of languages, including English.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Film Artefacts
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Audio

     The main audio is DTS-HD MA 7.1 and there are Czech, Hindi, Hungarian, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs plus an English audio description track.

     My system is not 7.1 capable but even so this audio rocks! Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and the surrounds and rears were used constantly for music and effects such as engines, weather effects, creature effects, building destruction and general mayhem. There are also frequent pans, such as helicopters flying overhead. The sub-woofer is probably the most aggressive I have heard, but it is not overdone. From the start it added depth and boom to explosions, monster feet thudding onto the ground, destruction, music, and just general rumbles.

    Lip synchronisation was fine.

     The original score by Alexandre Desplat (who has been nominated six times for Oscars but is yet to win) is intense and epic and also makes good use of the Japanese Shakuhachi flute to add an oriental feel.

    The audio is reference quality.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
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Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The Blu-ray is packaged with a DVD of the film plus a code for an ultraviolet download.

     The extras are divided into two sections: Monarch: Declassified, which consists of three mock documentaries, and The Legendary Godzilla, four making of featurettes.

Monarch: Declassified

     Consists of mock declassified material from the Monarch organisation which has been tracking monsters and other creatures for 60 years. These featurettes use archive and newsreel type footage with scratches and jumps. The three sections are:

• Operation Lucky Dragon (2:44): the tracking and attempt to destroy Godzilla in 1954 in a nuclear “test” in the Pacific.
• Monarch: The M.U.T.O. File (4:29): a briefing for new Monarch employees on the discovery of the M.U.T.O.s in the Philippines. This was “produced” shortly before the events depicted in Godzilla.
• The Godzilla Revelation (7:25): an investigative news report after the events depicted in Godzilla about Monarch and the revealing of the monsters.

The Legendary Godzilla

     A four section making of utilising film footage, lots of previs, the composition of shots using live action, rotoscoping and green screen and comments from a wide range of people including the director Gareth Edwards, production designer Owen Paterson, DP Seamus McGarvey, visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel, the executive producer, producers, sound designer and six cast members. The sections are:

• Godzilla: Force of Nature (19:18): the Godzilla “brand”, the type of film Edwards wanted to make, designing Godzilla and creating the film.
• A Whole New Level of Destruction (8:24): creating and filming the destruction, including the aftermath.
• Into the Void: The H.A.L.O. Jump (5:00): creating the jump.
• Ancient Enemy: The M.U.T.O.s (6:49): designing and developing the enemies of Godzilla from scratch.

     The Region A US release of Godzilla is the same except for language and subtitle options.

     This second Hollywood attempt at the Godzilla franchise blends interesting human characters with loud and explosive monster action. Towards the end it tries to involve too many characters, including the obligatory child, in harm’s way which does detract from the creature action. However, overall Godzilla ticks most of the right boxes and delivers a loud, colourful and spectacular cinematic experience.

     The video is dark but fine, the audio superb; the extras are worthwhile and the same as in other regions resulting is a very good Blu-ray package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall