DVD Title
Godzilla's Revenge
International Title
DVD Length
Original Length
69 Minutes
70 Minutes
Company
Year of Manufacture
Simitar
1998
Language
Subtitles
English
-
Region
Number of Discs
1
1 (Double Sided)
Aspect Ratio
Sound
2.35:1 & 1.33:1
2.0 Mono, 5.1 Surround
Extras
.
Menus (English)
.
Chapters (8)
.
Trailers: Godzilla King of the Monsters (Simitar), Godzilla Versus Mothra (Simitar), Godzilla Versus Monster Zero (Simitar), Godzilla's Revenge (Simitar), Terror of Mechagodzilla (Simitar)
.
Artist Gallery
.
Trivia Game
Captures
Review
Arguably, the best Godzilla DVD Simitar released in 1998. Sadly, the disc is often overlooked as All Monsters Attack tends to be one of the more disliked films of the Godzilla series. The merits of the movie aside, Simitar has a rather decent release on their hands, given the year of manufacture, although it pales when compared to more recent Toho DVDs. As with all of Simitar's releases, the video presentation here is marred pretty heavily by numerous digital inconsistencies, while the audio presentation tends to be fair; in regards to the extras, it's the same stock collection of trailers and trivia found on all five of Simitar's releases.

 Video:
Star Rating

Godzilla's Revenge is presented here in a double sided format, with the film's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 appearing on one side, which also has the extras, while a 1.33:1, or full screen, version of the film is on the other. Both sides of the disc vastly differ in terms of the quality of the video presentation, so it would be best address each side separately.

The 2.35:1, or Toho Scope, side has the notably stronger presentation of the two. This side, overall, has Simitar's strongest video presentation, although that isn't saying much anymore. The colors on this release tend to be vibrant, although there is a slight yellow tint to the film. Unfortunately, the colors tend to be drowned out by the brightness and contrast on this release, which are turned way up. This causes some details, like open windows, to appear almost entirely white, as seen here. In regards to digital inconsistencies, they are easily the weakest part of this transfer. The entire film appears rather blurred and pixilated, thanks to the large amount of artifacting, while shimmering, a rainbow band of colors on finer details, appears often. As for the print used, it's the UPA version of the film, which means that it sports a different title sequence than the Japanese version along with different music to accompany it. As for the shape of the print, it's actually in fairly good condition. Scratches do appear on occasion, granted, but more or less it looks good.

The 1.33:1 aspect ratio side, on the other hand, is generally not worth the time. Beyond the obvious fact that it horribly crops the Toho Scope film, the colors here are anything but vibrant. In fact, the entire film is discolored, appearing far more yellow than it should, while some of the stock footage sequences appear to have a brown tint to them. Sadly, the brightness and contrast aren't handled very well here either. Both appear to be set too high, although the brightness level tends to drown out the contrast. In regards to digital inconsistencies, well it wouldn't be a Simitar release without them. The movie appears rather blurry and very pixilated, on account of the artifacting, while shimmering appears on finer details during the film. As for the print used, it's the same on both sides: the UPA release of the film. However, the quality of the print on this side is noticeably off as the number of scratches found during the course of the film is painfully obvious and are rather distracting at several points during the film.


 Audio:

There are two audio tracks on this disc, a mono presentation of Godzilla's Revenge and a 5.1 surround presentation. Both are the English dubbed version of the film, so sadly no original Japanese audio track to be found. Overall, the mono track tends to sound better, but one can't discredit the 5.1 audio track. The surround track here does present some nice speaker distinction, although it sounds a little forced at points. It's much better than what would later be found on Classic Media's release of the film, however. Thankfully, there aren't any pops or any other audio distortions to be heard during the course of the film on either audio track.

It should be noted that the surround presentation is only available on the widescreen side of the DVD.


 Extras:
Star Rating
The extras on this disc are really the standard fare one has come to expect from Simitar's Godzilla discs, meaning that if one already owns one of their titles there isn't much worth mentioning here. For those unfamiliar to Simitar's releases, the extras to be found here include Simitar's trailers for the other Toho films, a "artist gallery" (a video showing mostly sketches of the DVD covers with photos from Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and footage from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla), and a trivia game.

 Overview:
Star Rating

Bottom line, this disc falls short compared to Tristar's recent releases, but the great looking widescreen print of the dubbed version of the film does make this a desirable item to Godzilla fans, although it doesn't really merit spending more than $20 for it.

This disc is also featured in the DVD box set: Godzilla.

-Anthony Romeros