Godzilla: Monster Edition DVD Review

Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!

Title: Godzilla: Monster Edition

Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi Monster Action

Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner, and Harry Shearer

Writers: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich

Based On A Story By: Ted Elliott, Cary Woods, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich

Based On Characters Owned And Created By: Toho Co. LTD

Director: Roland Emmerich

Feature length: 139 minutes

Extras: Special Effects Supervisor Commentary, Promotional Featurette, Still Galleries, Promotional Montage, Three Episodes From The Animated “Godzilla: The Series” TV Program

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French Language Dolby Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English and French Language Subtitles

Packaging: Amaray Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 28

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 1998/DVD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: TriStar Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

After reviewing Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong as well as tie-in DVD releases like the “Planet Of The Apes: The Legacy Collection,” I could not move on from this whole “King Kong” inspired interest without reviewing the remake of arguably the most famous movie monster in the world, “Godzilla.” Nearly eight years ago, filmmakers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, who were still hot from the success of “Independence Day”, released an American remake of the “Godzilla” feature as a proposed trilogy of films that never came to fruition. Changing the locale from Japan to the South Seas and Manhattan Island, Devlin and Emmerich’s follows the basic premise involving the biological consequences of nuclear testing that made the 1954 original a classic and quickly go into ultra popcorn movie mode with a film that basically portrays Godzilla as some sort of asexual reproducing mutant giant iguana like creature with a taste for fish and a need to nest. The film tries not to take itself too seriously and it shows with the casting of Matthew Broderick as the film’s male protagonist and Jean Reno basically playing off of his “professional mercenary” image made internationally famous in his big screen collaborations with Luc Besson. Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria, who are both known for their voice work on “The Simpsons” appear in the film, which has this subtext regarding whether or not it pays to be a nice and or honest person in a place like New York. This cliché goes nowhere in a film that favors special effects above storytelling and features a Godzilla more likely to run from a fight instead of face it head on like the classic Japanese counterpart is famous for.

The CGI still holds up pretty well though the offspring don’t quite fit in as smoothly with the live action as I remember it. This is to be expected and should not be held against the filmmakers at all. Actually “Godzilla” is definitely not the worst entry in the franchise I’ve seen, but as campy and over the top the Japanese films can be at time, they tend to be more entertaining as have a faster pace than the 1998 feature. At nearly two hours and twenty minutes, “Godzilla” gets dull in parts and feels simply too long. The film is in a strange way a time capsule of pre-911 New York with a reference to the first attack on the World Trade Center that occurred in the early 1990s as being something along the lines of the biggest act of destruction to occur in Manhattan before the arrival of Godzilla. Not to be sarcastic, but what a difference eight years make and all things withstanding, “Godzilla” also has a kind of naiveté to it that simply does not exist in post 911 America. Genre films have changed a lot since 1998 to a point that while I know “Godzilla” would be a very different remake if it were produced with contemporary sensibilities, I wonder if Peter Jackson’s remake of “King Kong” would be considered too serious or melancholy had it been released in 1998 instead of 2005? It will be interesting to see how both films stand up to the test of time in another ten years, but the 1998 version of “Godzilla” proved to be successful enough to inspire an animated TV series as well as a second appearance of the CGI version taking on the guy in the suit in the Japanese feature “Godzilla: Final Wars,” where he is now been officially named as "Jira" or “Zilla” as can be seen on the back of the American DVD release from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment of the Toho feature film. While the portrayal is definitely a jab at the 1998 creation, at least it is an acknowledgment, which further integrates this creation as a part of the greater Godzilla mythos. I also have to admit that the Brooklyn Bridge sequence from the 1998 film still holds up rather nicely and the ultimate fate of the great green mutant lizard does break one’s heart a bit too. Many of the set pieces for Godzilla’s rampages through Manhattan seem to have been inspired by Larry Cohen’s “Q: The Winged Serpent.” This is not to imply any sort of direct thievery. In film school I remember a professor comparing the underwater photography from “The Creature From The Black Lagoon” to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” and there definitely some underwater photography between the two films that appear to have been framed in a remarkably similar fashion. So I guess one can call it an unofficial homage…

The original DVD release of “Godzilla” was one of those early titles that I remember seeing it played over and over again at DVD retailers and for it’s time it was a good DVD release and the closest thing consumers had to “Jurassic Park” like CGI since Universal had not yet released any of the Spielberg hits at that time. DVD was in fact still in its infancy in 1998. Now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has revisited the film in Region One America with the “Monster Edition,” which is more or less a variation on the original DVD release with some features removed and some new features added. With the exception of the opening main menu, all of the animated transitions and motion scene selections have been replaced by silent interactive still frame versions. Though the amount of scene selections remains the same, they have been given new headings. The picture quality for the new release is superior to the original because the technology of producing films on DVD has improved greatly in the eight years since the first DVD version. A well-mixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack as well as a French Dubbed Dolby Surround Soundtrack is encoded onto the DVD along with English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and English and French Language Subtitles too. The audio commentary with Patrick Tatopoulos, Karen Goulekas, and Volker Engel has been carried over as well along with the EPK hosted by Harry Shearer (7:00), the “Heroes” music video by the Wall Flowers (4:00), a before and after still gallery of Godzilla’s excursions through the Fulton Fish Market, Wall Street, Grand Central Station, Met Life Building, and the Flat Iron Building, and a publicity still photo gallery. The two theatrical teasers and the trailer for “Godzilla” as well as “Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah” and “Godzilla And Mothra: The Battle For Earth” are also excluded from this DVD release. Instead we get a misleading ten minute montage under the heading “All Time Best Of Godzilla’s Fight Scenes,” which is nothing more than an extended commercial for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s DVD releases of “Godzilla: Monster Edition”, “Son Of Godzilla”, “Godzilla Vs. Hedorah”, “Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S.”, “Godzilla Vs. Gigan”, “Godzilla Vs. Space Godzilla”, “Godzilla Vs. Destroyah”, “Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster”, “Rebirth Of Mothra 1 & 2”, “Giant Monsters All Out Attack”, “Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus”, “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla”, “Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla”, “Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah”, and “Godzilla: Final Wars.” Sadly, “Destroy All Monsters” is not available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in the United States at this time so there is no promo for that cult monster mash classic.

A nice touch is the inclusion of three 21 minute animated episodes from “Godzilla: The Series” entitled “What Dreams May Come”, “Monster Wars, Part 1”, and “Where Is Thy Sting.” The production art gallery is extensive and also quite interesting.

I don’t think the new Monster Edition is worth the upgrade because there are not enough new materials to justify it in my opinion. I think a two-disc set with more extensive materials and not sacrificing anything from the original DVD release would have been better. However if you never purchased the original 1998 DVD release, “Godzilla: Monster Edition” is worth looking into now that it is available on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Return To The Previous Page

Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!