MonsterVerse on 4K

[Joseph Goodman]

We're only a short time away from either reading expert reviews on the 4K disc relative to the BR, or from getting screen grabs from both being compared in a consistent and unbiased way....OR worst possible scenario, we are only a little bit away from some(all? Many?) of us getting this disc for ourselves and truly checking it out with out own eyes.

So I don't know if we need to get too heated in discussion about just how good/not good the BR was and how much/little the 4K disc needs to improve upon it.

And this isn't even getting in to the fact that this was a digitally shot movie, filmed with a camera that doesn't even have a full 4k sensor (Arri Alexa XT), and finished at 2K. It's almost certainly going to be an upscale with an HDR grading pass. And shouldn't this discussion about the 2014 film be in its own thread, anyway?

[Chrispy_G]

We're only a short time away from either reading expert reviews on the 4K disc relative to the BR, or from getting screen grabs from both being compared in a consistent and unbiased way....OR worst possible scenario, we are only a little bit away from some(all? Many?) of us getting this disc for ourselves and truly checking it out with out own eyes.

So I don't know if we need to get too heated in discussion about just how good/not good the BR was and how much/little the 4K disc needs to improve upon it.

And this isn't even getting in to the fact that this was a digitally shot movie, filmed with a camera that doesn't even have a full 4k sensor (Arri Alexa XT), and finished at 2K. It's almost certainly going to be an upscale with an HDR grading pass. And shouldn't this discussion about the 2014 film be in its own thread, anyway?

True. I mean, yes, the film was finished at 2K...but so is nearly EVERY blockbuster of the last 10-15 years, only a select few were shot and finished on film, and even those shot at 4K and 6K were often still finished at 2K....but we have seen plenty of those movies look superb and definitely better than BR when released on 4K. A 4K upscale with an HDR pass is still almost always better than the 1080P presentation on a BR. I think Criterion's BR of Pan's Labyrinth is the one example where it seemed like multiple people thought that their presentation of the film on BR was overall better than WB's 4K presentation. I believe WB was upscaling an 'earlier' master and Criterion had done a more recent transfer/master and brought Del Toro in for the whole nine yards of supervising it.

So yeah. This thing isn't going to look like Dunkirk, but considering that it isn't an insane image we are all hoping for, and just some positive adjustments in the brightness/color/black levels...there is a lot of opportunity for this to be an improvement over the BR.

I do agree this level of in depth discussion belongs in a G14 thread....as this thread is about "4K Restorations" from Toho and that isn't what is going on here.

[UltramanGoji]

Since discussion in the other thread was getting a little off-topic from Toho's televised 4k remasters, here's a thread to discuss Godzilla (2014) or any of the MonsterVerse films on 4K UHD Blu-ray.

[Chrispy_G]

There was a point in time where "Box Sets" and "Collections" of franchises were guaranteed almost every few years, and while it might be a little less common and out of style for modern times(You still see them, though)....I certainly HOPE that the MonsterVerse....or at least these first 4 films, warrants some kind of cool special collection of all 4 films, maybe with a few extra bonus materials or other exclusive supplements thrown in for good measure.

Every film on 4K and Blu Ray....perhaps G14 is finally granted an audio commentary of some kind by SOMEONE involved(some directors don't do them and perhaps Edwards is one)...maybe a cool little booklet. Maybe a new bonus disc with previously unseen deleted scenes and etc. I won't dare to hope for any kind of extended/alternate cuts of any of the films, we are far removed from that sort of thing being "standard" any more.

[G-MAN]

There was a point in time where "Box Sets" and "Collections" of franchises were guaranteed almost every few years, and while it might be a little less common and out of style for modern times(You still see them, though)....I certainly HOPE that the MonsterVerse....or at least these first 4 films, warrants some kind of cool special collection of all 4 films, maybe with a few extra bonus materials or other exclusive supplements thrown in for good measure.

Every film on 4K and Blu Ray....perhaps G14 is finally granted an audio commentary of some kind by SOMEONE involved(some directors don't do them and perhaps Edwards is one)...maybe a cool little booklet. Maybe a new bonus disc with previously unseen deleted scenes and etc. I won't dare to hope for any kind of extended/alternate cuts of any of the films, we are far removed from that sort of thing being "standard" any more.

Won't happen I'm willing to bet. Especially if they waited so long to put 2014 onto 4k with absolutely nothing new. And who knows if the bluray will even utilize a better encode/new transfer anyways. As 2014 came out with such an anemic bitrate that wb use to do on alot of their releases for some reason. Would be nice to see something cool like that. But it's rare nowadays to see something outside of a collection that just has them all in one set. The only thing I can recall like that persay would be some of the mcu boxsets which throw in a few new deleted scenes or outtakes.

It's a shame that with 2014 there are so many deleted scenes talked about or alluded to over the years that we will seemingly never see or get a glimpse of.

[UltramanGoji]

The fact that the Akira Takarada cameo is still MIA is an absolute travesty.

[Chrispy_G]

The fact that the Akira Takarada cameo is still MIA is an absolute travesty.

I think the WORST thing is that THAT scene was cut for 'time concerns' when there is an easy 10 minutes of dead air time in the movie dedicated to long-a$$ tracking shots and slow pans before the shot gets to the actual point.

The "slow build up" absolutely works and has a place...but every time I re-watch the movie I notice how Edwards takes every. single. opportunity. to do the whole "Lets slowly reveal the cool/interesting/important thing'. Not just the monsters, with other shots. He seems in love with the preamble to the point where it halts the momentum of the movie on several occasions...not to mention making it just a few minutes too long. Watched in isolation the scenes are well structured on their own...but in the entirety of the film it doesn't work.

As a film's narrative progresses forward, so does the momentum, and the intensity of the editing and pacing of scenes and sequences needs to quicken as well.

You can tighten that movie significantly while removing very few, IF ANY, scenes/shots/sequences from the film...and you could EASILY make room for what I am sure is nothing more than a 30 second scene with Takarada. Although now that I think of it....I'm sure Edwards takes 2.5 minutes to slow reveal Takarada.

[heiseigodzilla425]

The main site posted a screenshot from the Godzilla (2014) UHD BD:



I took some screencaps from the BD and 3D BD for comparisson:

BD:



3D BD:

[Jetty_Jags]

snip I just had bad wifi I guess.

[Chrispy_G]

Thank the Lord. It is visibly, CLEARLY a brighter/more clear image to compare between the BR and 4K. That's all I wanted, a clear improvement over THAT transfer.

[canofhumdingers]

Question. Does the 4K disc include a standard BD copy as well? And, if so, does the regular non-4K disc have the new brighter transfer or is it the same old super dark encode slapped in a new package?

[UltramanGoji]

Question. Does the 4K disc include a standard BD copy as well? And, if so, does the regular non-4K disc have the new brighter transfer or is it the same old super dark encode slapped in a new package?

Yes it will have a standard BR with it. We don’t know if it’s the new transfer or not, it will most likely be the old disc repackaged.

[Chris55]

Question. Does the 4K disc include a standard BD copy as well? And, if so, does the regular non-4K disc have the new brighter transfer or is it the same old super dark encode slapped in a new package?

Just got it yesterday while I was at the screening and I was only a few minutes ago briefly able to check out both versions with no deep dive into them yet. I was told by WB that the blu-ray is the same transfer as the previous release. When I checked it out, the same pop up ads from the release from 7 years ago popped up (Godzilla Awakening etc). The 4K disk has a slightly touched up menu but still retains the same 12 chapter stops with the same blown out chapter stop thumbnails. I'll be able to do a deeper dive this weekend.

[Chrispy_G]

I'm just glad the 4K disc looks better...I know for plenty of people it still matters, but short of "4K discs are bare bones and the BR discs have all the bonus features"....I don't need the BR once the 4K version of a movie is out.

[Joseph Goodman]

Highdefdiscnews posted some caps:

https://mobile.twitter.com/highdefdiscn ... 6237170698

[king_ghidorah]

So it's every bit as dark at the original release, perhaps even darker. TK....very dissapointed, and I feel a little misled in trusting your "official photo"

[G1985]

Just got it yesterday while I was at the screening and I was only a few minutes ago briefly able to check out both versions with no deep dive into them yet. I was told by WB that the blu-ray is the same transfer as the previous release. When I checked it out, the same pop up ads from the release from 7 years ago popped up (Godzilla Awakening etc). The 4K disk has a slightly touched up menu but still retains the same 12 chapter stops with the same blown out chapter stop thumbnails. I'll be able to do a deeper dive this weekend.

This makes me sad, but is otherwise unsurprising.

So it's every bit as dark at the original release, perhaps even darker. TK....very dissapointed, and I feel a little misled in trusting your "official photo"

The TK-hosted "official photo" is called out as taken from the 4K version, not from the original Blu-ray release or from next week's re-release of the Blu-ray version. Why would you feel misled?

[king_ghidorah]

Because that official photo is brighter, and the article on the front page mentions a brighter visual presentation for the 4K release as well. But in reality, this release may even be darker than the original blu. That's why I feel misled

[UltramanGoji]

So we're taking the word of one reviewer for the quality of this release as opposed to...having it in our hands and looking ourselves? Kinda silly.

[king_ghidorah]

....it's a pro-level review source....so, someone with credibility. Not just "Joe the Reviewer"