Extras |
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Captures |
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Review |
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Anthony
Romero |
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Simitar's efforts in the late 1990's have
not stood the test of time against the many DVDs
that were to be released in the years to come.
Not surprisngly, Terror of Mechagodzilla,
generally regarded as the worst of these early
discs from the firm, suffers the most. Simply
put, its video presentation is horribly lacking,
while a medicore audio presentation and a lackluster
collection of extras do little to elevate the
general worth of this particular DVD compared
with more modern releases to the format. |
Video: |
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Simitar turned a lot of heads back when they
first released their discs in 1998 due to the
inclusion of widescreen presentations for their
Godzilla titles, marking the first time such
a feature was made available, legally, to fans
in the West. Unfortunately, their release of Terror
of Mechagodzilla was
not given the same treatment. Instead, people
were reintroduced, once more, to the pan and
scan 1.33:1 aspect ratio that many fans had grown
up with. To add insult to injury, the movie was
also the heavily edited version of the film that
had been widely available on VHS in the United
States, which completely removes the climax with
Katsura among other sequences.
In regards to the quality of the transfer itself,
it's, sadly, just as lacking. It sports noticeable
print damage while there is also discoloration.
Some sequences, such as the one of the flashback
of King Ghidorah and others attacking, looking
very washed out as well. Like the others in this
line, this disc is also plagued by a lot of overt
compression in the form of pixilation and other
signs of artifacting as it's clear Simitar was
not yet adapt at placing content onto the fledgling
format at this point in its life.
To fully demonstrate the disparity in quality present
on this DVD, all one has to do is compare the
video track here to the 2008 release that Classic
Media produced. For example, here is a comparison
between the Simitar
release and the Classic
Media one.
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Audio: |
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This DVD features two audio tracks in total,
both of which are dubbed in English. One of
them is a stereo presentation, to which does
a fair job although warrants no particular praise.
Given that it's not the original format of the
feature, which is mono, it does more than a suitable
stab at it though. Anyway, the second track is
a 5.1 surround option. In regards to the surround
presentation, it's a decent effort, but has its
share of problems. In fact, it's a fairly archaic
attempt to create an artificial surround presentation,
as sound effects often overpower the rest of
the audio in the movie in an attempt to give
the audio some sense of directionality.
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Extras: |
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If someone already has a
Godzilla title from Simitar on DVD then they
should be familiar with the extras on this release
as it's the same stock selection. In total, there
is a two minute "Artist
Gallery" video that shows the creation
of the art on the covers, while there is also
a trivia game related to the movie that includes
short movie clips for each "wrong" or "right"
answer selected.
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Overview: |
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Bottom
line, this title was hardly acceptable back
in the day it was released. Today, with a plethora
of Toho films on the DVD format around the world,
the disc has, expectedly, aged very badly.
Suffice to say, there is no reason to search
this release out with Classic Media's second
effort of placing the film on DVD now out, which
features an uncut presentation in widescreen.
This disc is also featured in the DVD box set:
Godzilla. |
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