Experiencing an unfathomable three years of delays and periods of silence since its original release date, its hard to imagine another Toho Blu-ray with this tortured backstory. Godzilla vs. Megalon on Blu-ray was the fallout for the incident related to Tokyo Shock's release of Destroy All Monsters on the format. As many know, the original Tokyo Shock release of the 1968 Godzilla film hit retail without Toho's approval, in particular for some of the extras included. This meant the addition of trailers of questionable quality and origin among other things. As a result, that disc was pulled and Godzilla vs. Megalon entered a gray area where it wasn't clear what would happen to it. As the years went on, hope died for many that this release would see the light of day. That all changed with Godzilla (2014) and a wave of Godzilla movies on Blu-ray, quadrupling the titles available on the format in the US. With this wave, Godzilla vs. Megalon finally got its time to shine. Unfortunately, while this disc might have gotten a mixed pass some three years ago, it seems lacking in almost every regard by today's standards, mustering at best okay video and audio quality while the total lack of extras translate into an overall lacking release.
| Video: |
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While a step up from DVD releases, the video quality here is in many ways similar... except presented with a larger resolution. This offers the bare minimum the format is capable of, while the added disc space helps with less compression versus its DVD counterparts. All the same, the film is lacking in rich detail and for a Blu-ray this is definitely on the softer side. The colors are also very muted, and totally lacking in any sort of vibrance. Like many of the older region 2 Toho DVDs, the color spectrum also has a yellow tint to everything. Noise level is also incredibly low, altough part of this is likely thanks to the low contrast in the colors that would make it harder to stand out.
The print used is the original Japanese version, which is in many cases in great shape without scratches. The downfall of the print, though, are the scene transitions, which way too often have a discrepancy that can be seen at the bottom of the frame such as in this still.
Godzilla vs. Megalon is presented in its
original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
| Audio: |
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The disc contains three audio tracks in total. The first, and default, audio track is a mono, International English dub. The quality on this track leaves something to be desired, with dialogue sounding rough and the track sporting a consistent level of inconsistences in the quality. The source for this was clearly damaged, and in need of some repair or tracking down a more pristine copy.
The second audio track is the original Japanese mono, and is the definitive option on the disc. The quality is good with nice clarity in both the dialogue and effects, with no inconsistencies to speak of.
The third audio track is a 5.1 surround Japanese track, and is a miss. The dialogue sounds relatively okay, but the sound effects have all sorts of echo-like alterations done to try and achieve that "surround sound" like experience.
The concept of taking a mono track and turning it into a 5.1 mix is ballsy in itself, so will give credit for that, although the end result leaves much to be desired.
The disc contains two, removable English subtitle options.
The first subtitles all Japanese dialogue and title cards, with the exception of the opening credits. The second subtitles only some of the Japanese seen on screen and also translates the Jet Jaguar song at the end of the film.
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After the huge debacle that Tokyo Shock got itself into for the way it released Destroy All Monsters on Blu-ray with unapproved extras, it's not too shocking to see a barebones release of this 1973 film. Regardless for the reasoning behind it, though, it would have been nice to at least see a trailer for the film, as that seems like a least effort way to add some more value to the release.
As a side note, the disc menu is movie footage played against an overall menu. The music that plays is the intro to the Jet Jaguar song. Sadly, taking a still from the menu was next to impossible without appearing just like a regular still from the movie.
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This disc gets the job done, but narrowly. It's an okay way to watch the film with its Japanese audio track in mono and an okay video presentation. That said, it's one of the lesser efforts for the Godzilla films so far on the format, and fans are better set investing in the Kraken Releasing titles, like Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster! Godzilla vs Hedorah, before giving this release a spin.
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