The Film:
Let's be honest. Anyone with even the faintest of interest in movies has heard of Godzilla. First seen in 1954 in the film Gojira, Godzilla has long been the fictional monster of choice in Japanese cinema, with the now infamous Toho Studios behind the many films. It wasn't long before the bigger financial side of cinema in America messed about with the original film, releasing it under the name Godzilla, King Of The Monsters in 1956. Since then, Western studios haven't really dipped into Godzilla films as much as you might have expected with the popularity of the character, but in 1998, Columbia Tristar Pictures decided to take a risk and bought in a well known cast and a big budget to try and milk the cash cow. What we ended up with was two hours of monster mayhem, directed by Roland Emmerich which always gets an undeserved bashing.
The film starts off by introducing us to Dr. Niko Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), a government scientist who is researching the growth of earthworms after the Chernobyl disaster. Taken from his three years of research to Panama by the army he now has to investigate a series of huge footprints of a creature that has come about thanks to the French testing nuclear weapons. The monster makes it to New York soon enough and the city becomes under attack. Evacuating three million Manhattan citizens, Tatopoulos finds out that Godzilla is pregnant, but after his old flame Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo) steals top secret videotape to boost her journalist career, he is taken off the case with the army dismissing his claims of baby Godzillas. Eventually he teams up with Audrey, her cameraman Animal (Hank Azaria) and French secret serviceman Philippe (Jean Reno) to find the nest before it is too late.
Sure, this film is definately not the best and it has a wafer thin plot to bring together some extremely over the top action scenes and special effects, but if you're anything like me, then sometimes you just need to turn off your brain and enjoy a film for what it sets out to be. The cast put in fair performances apart from Reno who disappoints in his role, the action and special effects look amazing and leave you breathless and the plot makes you laugh. For me, this is a fun solid blockbuster that gets too much bad press.
The DVD:
Video:
Released under Columbia Tristars superbit range, Godzilla has been given an anamorphic transfer set at 2.40:1 and what a beautiful transfer it is. With so much action on the screen, you really begin to appreciate the attention to detail and the general feel of the film, with large set pieces being in the dark, but with a nice clarity that you can see everything you are supposed to. If it wasn't for a little edge enhancement here and there, this would be a DVD that I would use as reference material.
Audio:
As with most UK superbit releases, we have been given a choice of two soundtracks, English DTS 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 5.1. Being a complete audiophile I went for the DTS track which was blistering and a real joy. Not often do I feel as much of a part of a film throughout than I did here. Flicking to the DD track every once in a while, I can also say there wasn't that much of a difference other than the DTS track making more fuller use of the LFE. Reference quality material.
Extras:
None.
