Godzilla
Vs. The Sea Monster
(1966/aka Mothra Vs.
Ebirah aka Ebirah
- Horror Of The Deep) +
Godzilla Vs. The Smog
Monster [Hedora]
(1971) + Godzilla
On Monster Island
(1972/aka Godzilla
Vs. Gigan/Section
23/Sentai/Kraken Blu-ray)/Klondike
(2013/TV Mini-Series/Cinedigm Blu-ray)/War
Of The Planets
(1965/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture:
B-/B-/C+ Sound: B-/B-/C+ Extras: C-/C/D Main Programs:
B-/C/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The War
Of The Planets
DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
is a set of new action releases, mostly classic genre films, but
worth knowing about...
There
are 15 Godzilla films in the original series that started with the
1954 classic. Now, three more of them are finally making Blu-ray.
We have Jun Fukuda's Godzilla
Vs. The Sea Monster
(1966/aka Mothra
Vs. Ebirah
aka Ebirah
- Horror Of The Deep)
which includes the second of three classic Godzilla/Mothra meetings.
A motley group goes searching for a lost man, but land up crashing on
the island that is the home of Mothra and (after many politically
incorrect native dance sequences), Godzilla battles the sea monster
Ebirah with Mothra literally waiting in the wings. This is not bad,
fun and a classic of the series including its James Bond-like opening
credits (Toho was co-producing You
Only Live Twice
(1967, reviewed elsewhere on this site and on a solid Blu-ray) with
United Artists and the Bond producers by this time) in the 7th
film in the series.
Yoshimi
Tsu Banno's Godzilla
Vs. The Smog Monster
(1971, known as Hedora) is a more-child-friendly adventure that is
the 11th
film in the original series and is as conscious of the counterculture
of the time as its counterpart. However, it is far more
child-friendly as it goes proto-PBS in its pro-people, pro-science,
pro-environment messages as the script goes into overdrive making
Godzilla a hero. It is a bit much at times, but works within its own
logic and has a classic adversary (Hedora comes from industrial plant
waste) in one of the more unique entries in the series. The action
still works and it is a fun entry overall.
Then
we get (finally for now) Jun
Fukuda returning for the very next film, the 12th
entry in the classic series,
Godzilla
On Monster Island
(1972/aka
Godzilla
Vs. Gigan)
with aliens secretly disguising themselves as humans running a theme
park including a Godzilla mock-up that is not as innocent as it
seems. 3-headed Ghidorah and Anguirus return as giant robot cyborg
Gigan rises to destroy everything in its path, especially Godzilla.
Getting back to the action basics and some wit that helps this series
hold up, this is another fine entry, even when Godzilla seems near
dead and is down for the count, he eventually springs up like James
Brown and takes care of business.
All
three films are worth visiting and revisiting, so their Blu-ray
arrival is something to treasure, as overdue as it is. Hope Kraken
reissues older entries that were on DVD before, but this is a fine
start. Trailers are the only extras despite previous DVD releases
have audio commentary tracks.
Klondike
(2013) is a 3-part TV Mini-Series co-produced by Ridley Scott that
has the tale of two best friends (Augustus Prew, Richard Madden)
going literally for the gold in what was the last big Gold Rush in
the late 1890s, but the teleplay is so formulaic and predictable for
most of the time that it plays like faded Spielberg until the last
part. That still does not save it from going on and on and on and on
despite a supporting cast that also includes Tim Blake Nelson, Ian
Hart, Marton Csokas, Abbie Cornish, Sam Shepard and Tim Roth. Nice
try when it finally gets going, but not much more than a manned-up
soap opera unfortunately despite my hopes it would work.
Extras
include Cast Interviews (they come across well), Klondike:
Behind The Scenes
featurette and a separate Discovering
Klondike
featurette.
Finally
we have Anthony (Dawson) Margheriti's War
Of The Planets
(1965), a colorful, wacky, mixed Italian-produced sci-fi actioner of
sorts about a Mars space station attacked by nearly invisible
Martians made of light and sometimes smoke. The film can look good
as it looks cheap, but in the Dolly Parton taking-money-to-look-cheap
way, colorful phony sets and set ups can be found all over the place
with the flat acting (calling MST3K)
and a script that is not even as good as these Italian Bs usually
are. Original Django Franco Nero shows up too, but that is not
enough to save the film, yet despite its flatness and many flaws, it
is worth a look just to see them keep trying to make this work and
failing over and over in the process. Fans will find its at least a
little interesting. With more effort, this could have even been
better.
There
are no extras, but I bet the trailer is hilarious.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on all three
Godzilla
films are a mix of some surprisingly great-looking footage, soft
footage, aged materials and some dated visual effects (i.e., sloppy
matte work that was accepted as par for the course then) all shot on
Eastman Kodak Color stocks, but there is a difference in the real
anamorphic lenses used to shoot each film in 35mm. The first two are
in TohoScope and the newest is in Panavision, a point the makers show
off by over-shooting the sets and reveling the the general upgrade in
fidelity. Still, the series returned to TohoScope a few films later
and eventually moved to Fuji films (the 1998 film (reviewed elsewhere
on this site for comparison) was even issued in
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints and the 2014 film is a
3D all-digital shoot).
Unlike
most HD shoots now, these films were shot to be on a big screen and
the gang at Toho knew what they were doing. Watch these on the
largest screen you can!
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Klondike
is a too often color-limited presentation that holds back how good
this could have really looked, so the three Godzillas
can more than compete with it despite their age and some print
damage. So despite being of a lower definition, the anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Planets was also shot on EastmanColor 35mm
stocks like the three Godzillas, son only a lack of definition is why
it cannot compete with the rest of the entries here.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Japanese Mono lossless mixes on the
three Godzilla
films are about even (the English is inferior in all three versions)
and is about as good as it is going to get unless Toho takes the
music soundmasters, sound effects and dialogue stems (if they
survive) and upgrade them with some serious money involved. All are
originally optical mono theatrical releases (none got Perspective
Sound treatment like a few films in Toho's giant monster series) and
sound as good as they are going to get otherwise. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Klondike
can sound better and is a new recording that is cleaner than those
films, yet the mix is too conservative and never takes advantage of
the multi-channel possibilities, so they rate about the same
narrowly. That leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Planets
showing its age a bit, but not sounding as compressed as expected.
You
can order the War
Of The Planets
DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
