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Tristar's release of Jun
Fukuda's last, and arguably best, Godzilla film:
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Like with Tristar's
other 2004 October releases, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
is another quality disc from the company that ranks
up there as one of the best region 1 Godzilla DVDs on
the market. Overall, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
has a great video and audio presentation, with a rather
poor selection of extras.
Video:
The video presentation on this disc is easily the DVD's
strongest aspect, as Tristar has done another superb
job here. The best part of the video presentation here
is the very vibrant colors, a feat which wouldn't have
been possible using the VHS format, as explosions and
even the occasional geyser of blood look excellent on
this release. It's unfortunate that the brightness level
is a little lower than it should be, but, unlike Tristar's
Godzilla
vs. Hedorah and Godzilla
vs. Gigan releases there aren't a whole lot
of scenes that suffer from this, as most of the film
takes place during the day so details are still easy
to make out. In terms of digital inconstancies, like
artifacting and shimmering, the disc is nearly devoid
of them and looks incredibly sharp. The print used in
the transfer is the International version of the film,
although the Toho logo was replaced by the new English
one done for the Millennium series (odd that this wasn't
done for Godzilla
vs. Hedorah and Godzilla
vs. Gigan, but I'm not complaining). In terms
of the shape of the print used, the quality tends to
be very good, with a nearly unnoticeable amount of scratches
along with some grain on the print. The film's original
aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is maintained on this DVD.
Audio:
There are two audio tracks to be found on this disc.
The first is Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla's original
Japanese audio track, while the second is the International
English dubbed track for the movie. Both tracks are
presented in mono, the film's original audio format.
In terms of the quality of the two audio tracks, no
complaints really. There are no pops or crackles to
be heard in either, and, given the limitations of mono
audio tracks, both sound nothing short of flawless.
There are two sets of, removable, subtitles to go with
the film, one in English and the other in French, to
go with the movie's Japanese audio track. As to be expected
from the other two 2004 October releases, the subtitles
here aren't perfect. In general, though, they are pretty
faithful to the source, although there is one glaring
error that occurs when the doctor is talking about his
special pipe, in which a word is subtitled as "a???"
which would seem to imply that the subtitler didn't
know what the word was and had intended to go back later
and add it in. The fact that this wasn't caught before
the disc was released is a little troubling though.
Extras:
The extras found on this disc are the same unimpressive
assortment of trailers that are found on Tristar's Godzilla
vs. Hedorah and Godzilla
vs. Gigan DVDs, and like all of Tristar's recent
Toho DVDs some of the trailers play automatically when
the disc is first played, which means one will have
to skip past them to get to the main menu. At least
the menus here, like Godzilla
vs. Gigan, are nice to look at though.
Overview:
Bottom line is that this is probably the best done of
the three October 2004 Godzilla releases, although all
three are great DVDs in their own right though, minus
the poor showing in terms of extras on all three. So
if one likes the film there really is no reason not
to pick this one up, unless one already indulged on
the region 2 release.
This disc is also featured in the DVD box set(s): Godzilla
DVD Collection (3 pack), Godzilla
DVD Collection (5 pack)
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