GODZILLA (2014) (4K UltraHD Review)

GODZILLA (2014)

Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Region Code: Region-Free/A

Duration: 123 Minutes

Rating: Rated PG-13

Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby TrueHD, English DTS-HD MA 7.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 2160p UHD, 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) 

Director: Gareth Edwards

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston

I remember watching director Gareth Edward's sci-fi alien creature-feature Monsters (2010) and thinking to myself, "now this is the sort of guy that should be making Godzilla movies", and sure enough I was not alone in that thinking, and his next film turned out to be the relaunch of Godzilla (2014)!

The movie opens with Dr. Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe, Batman Begins), a scientist for the secretive government agency Project Monarch, who discovers the giant fossilized skeleton of a kaiju creature that resebles Godzilla in the collapsed cavern of a uranium mine, alongside two enormous egg sacs, one hatched, one still dormant. A short time later Joe (Bryan Cranston, Malcolm in the Middle), the lead engineer at the Janjira nuclear plant in Japan is investigating strange seismic activity, his wife Sandra Brody (Juliette Binoche, The English Patient) is a nuclear safety  consultant at the same facility. Mrs. Brody finds herself deep in the bowels of the plant investigating the structural integrity of the reactor during the tremors, and as the seismic activity increases the nuclear reactor containment wall is breached,  resulting in Joe having to close the reactor containment doors before his wife can escape, saving untold numbers but dooming her. 

Fifteen years later Joe is still living in Janjira where he lives the live of a conspiracy hermit, now estranged from his  adult son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kick-Ass), who is a a member of the US Navy as a  Lieutenant of Explosive Ordnance Disposal. He is now living in San Francisco,  married to Elle (Elizabeth Olsen, WandaVision), with whom he has a five year old son. When he gets a call from the authorities in Japan that his father has been arrested for trespassing into the Janjira's quarantine zone around the former reactor he reluctantly flies to Japan to bail his father out.

Reunited with his dad Ford grows tired of his father's conspiracies, convinced that the meltdown at the reactor fifteen year earlier was cover-up, that the government is hiding something, and hiding something big, and of course he is right! Joe convinces his son to accompany him into the forbidden zone, to revisit their former home to recover some files he needs for his research, where they discover that zone is uncontaminated, and end up at a MONARCH headquarter, where the truth is revealed.  

I like the set-up of the film, how they slowly introduce 

Godzilla with vintage 8mm footage of him being nuked at Bikini Atoll, it's a cool teaser. His kaiju foe in this first entry is dubbed a M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), a winged Lovecraftian-looking red-eyed, winged creature, that to be honest the first time I saw it in theaters I did not care for. Now I like quite a bit, but I found the unnatural angular design a bit off-putting. I thought the non-revolutionary update of Godzilla perfect, a bit of the new, a lot of the old Toho design, and thankfully not over-redesigned as Godzilla (1998). For the record I do not loathe that '98 film as some do, it's a cool popcorn muncher, but it did not look and/or feel like a Godzilla flick, and that's okay, it's still silly, overstuffed, big-monster flick escapism.  

The kaiju battles we see on screen here are awesome, the action set pieces are epic and breathtaking, with the stomp-Toyko type action in San Francisco pleasing me quite a bit. The movie looks great, and the ratio of big monster action to on-the-ground human drama is well balanced, though I was a bit disappointed that both Cranston and Binoche exit stage left rather early. 

Audio/Video: Godzilla (2014) arrives on 4K UHD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in 2160p UHD framed in 2.39:1 widescreen. Shot on digital and sourced from a 2K D.I. the image is upsampled in 4K  with HDR10 color-grading, the result are terrific. The previous Blu-ray was overly dark in spots that obscured the big-screen kaiju action, and while this is still a dark movie the HDR10 greatly improves contrast and the richness and subtlety of the black levels. There's also a slight uptick in detail over the Blu-ray, the textures of the MUTOS and Godzilla looks superior, as do clothing textures. The colors, while inherently muted by design does get a proper primary-pop due to the HDR10 color-grading. 

Audio comes way of English Dolby Atmos or Dolby True HD with optional English subtitles. Not surprisingly the Atmos upgrade is a real shack-shaker, the soundstage is absolutely immersive with some terrific use of the surrounds and height channels to create a bombastic, muscular and bass-filled experience befitting of kaiju creature-feature. The clicking noise of the Mutos, Godzilla's deafening roar, and the ringing of artillery and gunfire are ear-piercing, and the score from composer Alexandre Desplat (Moonrise Kingdom) sounds terrific. 

Onto the extras we get nothing new, which is not unexpected, but still a bit disappointing. All the extras are exclusive to the Blu-ray, which is actually the excat same disc as the 2014 Blu-ray release from WBHE. These include an hours worth of in-character extras that look as if they are classified videos produced by MONARCH itself, which I do love quite a bit. We also get some cool behind-the-scenes featurettes, animatics, conceptual designs, and some solid interviews with the cast and crew that gets into the herculean task of relaunching the franchise and the massive amount of work that went into it. There is also a digital code for a Movies Anywhere/VUDU 4K copy of the film, that includes the extras.

The 2-disc Blu-ray/UHD combo arrives in a black Viva Elite eco-keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork that look to be a new illustration. To my eyes it looks to be taking a cue from the original Godzilla mixed with elements of Katsushika Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa painting. It has a cool retro vibe, the same artwork is mirrored on the metallic finish slipcover. The Blu-ray disc inside is the same 2014 Blu-ray with lettering on a black background, the UHD disc has a cool silver and grey image that's sort of translucent, nothing too special. 

Special Features:
- MONARCH: Declassified - Discover explosive new evidence not contained in the film that unravels the massive cover-up to keep Godzilla’s existence a secret. (7 min) HD 
- Operation: Lucky Dragon (3 min) HD 
- MONARCH: The M.U.T.O. File (4 min) 
- The Godzilla Revelation (7 min) 
- Godzilla: Force of Nature (19 min) HD 
- A Whole New Level Of Destruction (8 min) HD 
- Into The Void: The H.A.L.O. Jump (5 min) 
- Ancient Enemy: The M.U.T.O.s (7 min) HD 

Godzilla (2014) on UHD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is a solid upgrade over the previous Blu-ray, there are no new extras and I wish the accompanying Blu-ray was a new scan and color-grade, but the UHD looks and sounds terrific, and if you're looking to revisit it before the release of Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) there is no better way to watch it at home. 

Screenshots from the 2014 Blu-ray (WBHE):

Extras:

BLU-RAY REVIEW: MONSTERS (2010)

MONSTERS (2010)

Special Edition + Digital Copy [Blu-ray]

LABEL: Magnolia Pictures
REGION CODE: Region 1
RATING: R
DURATION: 94 Min.
DIRECTOR: Gareth Edwards
CAST: Kaulder Scoot McNairy, Sam Whitney Able
TAGLINE: After Six Years. They're No Longer Aliens. They're Residents.

PLOT: Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE.Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border

FILM: It seems NASA and their exploration of space have completely fucked over the people of Earth by carelessly collecting samples of a alien life from Jupiter's moon Europa which promptly burns up in the atmosphere upon re-entry and spreads an alien organism over the northern Mexican territories and six days later Lovecraftian neon-octopi sprout forth. It's been six years and the creatures have taken over pretty much all of northern Mexico and both borders are heavily fortified and guarded by the Mexican and United States Armed Forces.  Down Mexico way Andrew (Scoot McNairy) is a freelance photojournalist out to make a name for himself by documenting the infected zone but he's been reluctantly assigned to guide the boss's injured daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) out of the increasingly dangerous area. His assignment is to get Samantha to a ship leaving for the United States in two days time. Hopping a train they arrive at the coastal city there and buy a ticket for the ferry.  All is going according to plan and the two make a night on the town but their drunken shenanigan cause her to miss the boat the next morning, which just happened to be the last transport before the navy quarantined the area. With few options left they resort to hiring a band of  gun-toting smugglers who will guide them through the infected zone to the US border. The adventure is frought with danger and takes them up a river and through other exotic Mexican jungle locations. Adding to the sense of realism to the film Edwards has populated the landscape with some rather nifty scenes of war-torn destruction that adds an element of urgency to the film.

I think anyone going into MONSTERS (2010) hoping for a GODZILLA type giant creatures on the attack film might be sorely disappointed though this is actually a bit like a mumblecore version CLOVERFIELD (2008). The film is focused on our two young human characters as their relationship goes from tenuous partnership through the infected zone to something more meaningful - that's right, at it's heart Monsters is indeed a love story. This may turn off  some viewers as it's a pretty subtle evolution and not overly dynamic either. For a film titled Monsters this is a quiet and very human-centric film. I knew going in this would be more a road film than a creature feature but I couldn't help want for more action, more intensity mostly due to the fact that I found the creatures to be so intriguing. The creatures are there but more in the background and not explored enough in my opinion. Monsters is less a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller than it is a meandering travelogue through Mexico peppered with well-acted subtle human drama, some striking visuals and the occasional creature encounter.

DVD: MONSTERS comes to Blu-ray in a great looking 16:9 enhanced 2:35:1aspect ratio. The film is gorgeous in eye-popping 1080p with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround. Though the film is not overly bombastic the surrounds are well utilized and give a real sense of depth to the proceedings particularly in the jungles settings as you find yourself surrounded by the sounds of nature and the eerie alien trilling sound. Not only is there a wealth of bonus content but a digital copy of the film as well.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Audio Commentary with Gareth Edwards, Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able

- Deleted and Extended Scenes (20:07)
- Behind the Scenes of Monsters (1:09:15)

- Monsters: The Edit (21:31)
- Visual Effects (34:56)

- Interview with Gareth Edwards (44:16)

- Interview with Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able (28:04)

- New York Comic Con Discussion with Gareth Edwards (5:02)
- HDNet: A Look at Monsters (4:40) .

- Trailers: Ong Bak 3, All Good Things, Night Catches Us, Vanishing on 7th Street, Rubber

VERDICT: Like DISTRICT 9 I found MONSTERS is an interesting take on the alien invasion genre, it's almost entirely character driven and despite it's moniker delivers precious few creatures encounters but when they do show on screen up it's thrilling stuff. I give this a recommend with the caveat that you should be aware that this is not a thrills-a-minute alien apocalypse tale this is something more subtle and rooted in the human struggle following an alien infestation. Up next for director Gareth Edwards is a new GODZILLA film, natch.  ***1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)