Godzilla appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though not quite a showcase, this became an appealing image.
Sharpness largely worked fine. A few slightly soft shots emerged – usually related to the visual effects – but the majority of the flick seemed accurate and well-defined.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects emerged, and I saw no edge haloes. With plenty of grain, I didn’t suspect any problematic use of noise reduction, and print flaws remained absent.
Due to the film’s rainy setting, Godzilla didn’t exactly present a Technicolor extravaganza. Within those parameters, the hues seemed fine, though.
Actually, given Hollywood’s palette choices of the last two decades, it felt refreshing to see a movie that didn’t go orange and teal. When the flick provided brighter hues, they looked dynamic, and the disc’s HDR added power to the tones.
Blacks appeared deep and dense, while shadows looked smooth and clear. HDR contributed nice range to contrast and whites. This turned into a pretty pleasing presentation.
I felt totally satisfied with the killer Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Godzilla. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the soundfield made extremely vivid use of all the channels virtually constantly throughout the movie. Music remained mostly oriented toward the front, where the score offered crisp and well-delineated stereo imaging.
The effects popped up from all around the spectrum and created one of the most vivid and involving soundfields I’ve ever heard. I could try to select a standout sequence, but that would be tough.
So much of the film made great use of the surrounds and side channels that no single segment seemed stronger than the rest. However, the various artillery and helicopter attacks appeared excellent, and the swarm of Godzilla offspring also provided another amazing piece of work.
Audio quality came across as consistently top-notch as well. Despite the high necessity for dubbing, speech seemed natural and warm, and I noticed no issues related to edginess or intelligibility.
Music sounded bright and dynamic, as the score was clear and rich at all times. Effects seemed distinctive and lively. They showed solid accuracy, with no signs of distortion or shrillness.
Bass response appeared loud and rich throughout the flick. Honestly, this remained one of the all-time great soundtracks.
How did the 4K UHD compare to the 2009 Blu-ray? The film always came with a demo-worthy mix, and that continued to be true here.
The disc’s visuals offered a clear upgrade over the Blu-ray, as the 4K seemed better defined, cleaner and more natural. This turned into a nice step up in quality.
On the 4K UHD itself, we only find three trailers. Everything else appears on the included Blu-ray copy, one that literally reproduces the 2009 disc.
When we head to these extras, we start with an audio commentary from visual effects supervisor Volker Engel and associate visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas. After about 55 minutes, Godzilla designer Patrick Tatopoulos joins them as well.
Some greeted the fact that director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin failed to deliver a commentary as a disappointment. Those people never heard their tracks for Independence Day and/or The Patriot.
In any case, this commentary has become regarded as a pretty dull one too, and I won’t try to counter that consensus. All of the participants seemed like nice people, but the piece generally broke down into technical minutiae that often failed to maintain my attention.
Granted, some of the material was reasonably informative, and the pace became a bit more compelling as the program progressed; it started quite shakily, and it took the main pair of Engel and Goulekas a while to find a groove. Effects freaks or big Godzilla fans may enjoy this commentary, but most folks probably will not get much from it.
The Ultimate Godzilla Multi-Player Game asks trivia questions about the Godzilla franchise. Most of the items relate to the 1998 movie, but we do find some about other entries.
You can play alone or against others, and you can select if you want 10, 15 or 20 questions. It’s moderately interesting.
To promote Roland Emmerich’s 2009 epic, we find a 2012 Sneak Peek. In this case, “Sneak Peek” means two minutes and 32 seconds from the movie. This is just an ad for the flick, so don’t expect any behind the scenes elements or anything interesting.
After this we move to a six-minute, 58-second featurette called Behind the Scenes of Godzilla with Charles Caiman. Presented as a fake new report from “Caiman” – the egotistical anchor played in the film by Harry Shearer - this piece involves comments from writer/producer/director Roland Emmerich, producer/writer Dean Devlin, creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos, and actors Jean Reno, Hank Azaria, Matthew Broderick, and Maria Pitillo.
Very promotional in nature, the featurette tosses in a few decent facts, but it mostly exists to tout the movie, so it offers little in the way of useful information. Shearer does get a few funny bits, but I could live without hearing the cast and crew pretend that Godzilla’s a real actor on the set.
A montage of All-Time Best of Godzilla Fight Scenes lasts 10 minutes, 14 seconds. We get clips from the 1998 Godzilla along with snippets from Son of Godzilla, Godzilla Vs. Hedorah, Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, Godzilla Vs. Gigan, Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla, Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla Vs. the Sea Monster, Rebirth of Mothra I & II, Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah, and Godzilla Final Wars.
The title of this feature is deceptive. It implies we’ll se a few specific battles, while we really just see lots of very brief snippets compiled into one long promo piece. It exists to interest us in the other Godzilla flicks and it’s a waste of time.
We also get the music video for the Wallflowers’ cover of Bowie’s “’Heroes’”. Mostly comprised of lip-synch performance footage, the clip does integrate Godzilla in a fairly clever manner, which makes it a bit better than the average music video from a movie.
A few ads appear in the Previews domain. We get promos for The Da Vinci Code, Year One, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Sky Crawlers, Monster House, and Blu-ray Disc.
Despite all of the criticisms leveled toward it, I continue to enjoy Godzilla. Yeah, it presents some weak characters/performances and occasionally approaches a level of incoherence, but the many wild action scenes compensate for these flaws. The 4K UHD brought appealing visuals, stunning audio and a mediocre set of supplements. I still like the movie and the 4K UHD brings it home well.
To rate this film, visit the original review of GODZILLA (1998)
