During the 1990s, big budget films got the better part of my money because, as a young kid going to college for television and film production, my mind took the fantasy road of being able one day to produce big special effects-laden films with an endless budget and the world’s most popular movie stars. I will admit that films like Independence Day, Deep Impact, Armageddon, and Men in Black were movies I flocked to see on opening day. Who does not want a little bit of mindless action and eye candy? I know I did. As time has moved on, I now know the difference between what is good and bad in a visual effects-heavy films.
Godzilla is loosely based on the dozens of Asian-inspired giant lizard films that are a huge hit all over the world, mainly in Asian countries. In the Asian-based films, Godzilla is sometimes a hero and sometimes a villain, attacking cites in some, and defending it in others. I was never a big fan of these films, but I decided to check out the Americanized version on opening day on May 20th 1998.
The film begins with a nuclear explosion by France in French Polynesia where a large iguana is exposed to the radiation. A few year later, a Japanese fishing boat is attacked by an unseen creature. Only one man survives. The man later is questioned by a mysterious French man (Jean Reno) about what he has seen. Meanwhile, Dr. Niko Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), an NRC scientist is removed from his job researching the effects of nuclear reactions on wildlife and taken by the U.S. Government to investigate evidence that a giant dinosaur-like creature may be running around the world. There is, indeed, a giant lizard running around, and he has his eyes set on New York City, where the creature known as Godzilla will run wild destroying everything in site.
Godzilla was one of the films at which I wanted just to sit back, let my mind go and enjoy for what it was worth. However, the script is not the very good. The story drags along and there is an overkill of story development before the creature actually shows up to do any real damage to New York City. I am not even going to get into to the acting in the film. Let us just say that the acting reminded me of a low-budget B-movie from the 1950’s. One thing that the film does have going for it is its visual effects, which are done well. Many fans of the original Godzilla films did not care for the lizard’s new look, but it didn’t bother me the least and I found it to be incredible that the filmmakers were able to make the lizard look so good.
The Blu-ray disc has a few special features, including visual effects commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurettes of the film’s production with Charles Caiman (the annoying news reporter from the movie), the all-time greatest Godzilla fight scenes, and the music video for the song, “Heroes,” performed by the Wallflowers. The disc also comes with a digital copy of the film and The Ultimate Godzilla multi-player trivia game. The Blu-ray disc also Blu-Ray live features, where you can get free movie cash to see Roland Emmerich’s new film, 2012.
While I’m not a big fan of the story, I will admit that this Blu-ray disc with its 1080p HD picture does look very good. The sound is also great in 5.1 Dolby Digital. Godzilla is a long, dragged out film, but it does become a lot of fun toward the end. If you liked the film, you probably will want to pick it up on Blu-ray, but if you were not a fan, but still want to enjoy a mindless over-the-top visual experience, you may want to pick up the Blu-ray. Other than that, the overall features are worth the buy, and the quality of the disc is great. However, I understand those of you who might want to take a pass at this one.
– Horror Bob
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