GODZILLA 2014 BD+DVD 09/16/14

[MouthForWar]

All I know is how the disc looked on all three televisions I've watched it on... and based on that, the TK review is wildly inaccurate. And the fact that he's encouraging a petition to "fix" a fine looking Blu Ray is appallingly silly.

[XvGojira]

[Legion]

[Showa Mothra]

I bought the Blu Ray yesterday and watched certain scenes and surprisingly enough, I didn't find it to be that dark and there was enough visibility that you could make out the details. Like MouthForWar, I have a Panasonic television (mine's 720p, I think). The only issues I've ever had with my television is the levels of darkness on my X-Files DVDs because holy "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", the first two seasons were ALMOST impossible for me to watch in certain scenes. I think I may adjust my televisions settings the way MoW did as well.

[jellydonut25]

[Shokara]

[jellydonut25]

Yeah. I KINDA like Universal's little standard menu. Don't ask me why, but even though it's not unique to each movie, it feels like a professional product and has a sort of classy BRAND quality to it.


^This is WAY preferable to me than the below:


At least with the Universal menu, it's not something I could have made with ConvertXtoDVD years ago.

[John Schuermann]

OK, I picked up the 3D version of GODZILLA yesterday and just spent about an hour comparing the 2D disc that came with the 3D version with the standalone 2D disc.

The transfers are identical.

The 2D transfer is a dark transfer. That's all there is to it. On a properly calibrated TV all the image detail is there, it's just that the overall image is dim. As pointed out by many, if you are losing detail in the dark areas of the picture, it's your display that's at fault, not the Blu-ray.

That said, those who are disappointed that the image is dim and not comparable to the brightness of the theatrical release have a legitimate gripe. The movie definitely looked brighter overall in the theater than it does on the Blu-ray. What is also true is that this transfer most likely represents the intent of the filmmakers in terms of how they want the movie to appear on home video. There could be all kinds of reasons for this, reasons we are not privy to (at least, not yet). So to say that WB just doesn't care, or that this represents sloppy workmanship on their part, is almost certainly not accurate. For whatever reason, this is how they wanted the film to look.

Now, if there is a movement afoot to get WB to release a brighter overall transfer, I don't have an issue with that. My only caveat is that this is a matter or preference - in that you prefer a brighter transfer - more than it's a matter of some kind of screw-up or carelessness on WB's part. Accusing WB of that in an effort to get a brighter looking transfer isn't going to win you any cooperation.

There also seems to be DELIBERATE misinformation being spread on the part of the person circulating the YouTube video that supposedly compares the brightness of the 2D disc distributed with the 3D version to the standalone 2D version. My guess is either that they pulled the video from the 3D version (which will definitely be brighter in order to overcome the brightness reduction that comes from wearing 3D glasses) or that they deliberately boosted contrast and brightness with some kind of video processing software. My best guess, though, is that they just ripped a single eye view from the 3D version and then tried to pass it off as the 2D disc.

While I find that deliberate distortion of the truth reprehensible, at the same time the video pulled from the 3D version does more accurately represent how the film looked in the theaters. I saw the theatrical release twice, both times in 2D. I think my memory of overall brightness is pretty accurate, because part of what I do for a living is analyze displays and images critically.

[Russzilla]

I picked up the blu ray last week. Haven't watched it yet though. One question I do have to ask is if Akira Takaradas scene is on the blu ray? (In the movie or in extras in deleted scenes)

[Dai]

The blu-ray flew over the atlantic faster than estimated, so I had the pleasant surprise of being able to watch the movie tonight. My impression throughout was that it felt like a pretty faithful reproduction of how I remembered it from the three times I saw it at the cinema. Bear in mind that I sometimes thought at the cinema that it was too dark, but on the blu-ray there was never a moment when I felt like the intent of a shot was lost in the black.

That said, when I watched the documentaries afterwards, there is a distinct difference between the clips shown there and the movie transfer. I did a couple of direct shot comparisons, and viewed in that context the night scenes look much darker in the movie. I'll admit I was a bit disappointed at that point. However, I feel that it's the clips that have been altered, and the movie transfer is a more authentic presentation. It's like seeing a row of TVs in a shop window; naturally the most vivid will catch your eye, but it's only based on that immediate comparison. While watching the actual movie, I honestly wondered if Warner had done a stealth re-issue, because I couldn't see anything wrong with the transfer.

I certainly wouldn't mind a brighter presentation of the movie, but based on my experience with the blu-ray I don't feel it should be a deal-breaker for anyone. For the record, I watched it on a Panasonic TX-L37G20, which was one of their higher spec 1080p LCD TVs from 2009.

[Hybrid Gojira]

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=15072

Godzilla was the number 1 Blu ray with 58% of sales. I'm not sure how that stacks up against other big releases or how long the strong sales will last...let's hope awhile.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

^It pushed Captain America to third in terms of sales and outbeat the other major release last week The Fault of Our Stars. Variety had an article on it recently. I see Godzilla being number one this week since nothing came out really important but next week it'll probably drop due to Transformers 4 coming out.

[jellydonut25]

[DannyBeane]

Yeah I don't know what is up with that picture. There are a couple scenes that are a little dark but nothing is even close to being as dark as that screen shot.

[Gohi]

So someone's gonna upload the deleted scenes on youtube right? RIGHT?!

[jellydonut25]

[Gohi]

The 10 minutes that are on the Korean release, supposedly.

[MouthForWar]

The Korean version isn't even out yet

[Gohi]

[jellydonut25]

In all this "darkness" discussion, what we've lost sight of is that this disc is INCREDIBLY lazy.

The menu is a joke, and the lack of special features for a movie released in 2014 is STUNNING, absolutely STUNNING. But, as I've said elsewhere, this is what we get in this horrible world of cinema where movies are rushed in and out of theaters faster than you can blink and everything hits home video faster than ever before. There's not enough time to put together anything fun or unique or interesting, so they slap a picture from the movie on a cookie-cutter garbage menu that could have been made by any schmo with a DVD burner back in 1999, cobble together a few interviews and some CGI rendering shots into a few behind-the-scenes features that are almost as cookie cutter as the menu and voila! You've got yourself a lazy piece of crap Blu-ray release just BEGGING for a double-dip once sales on the first disc prove to be remotely strong.

Four months is nowhere NEAR enough time to put together a halfway decent home video release and this nonsense just proves that theory. No commentary, no deleted scenes, hell I didn't even see any freaking TRAILERS unless I missed something...but again, everyone was bemoaning how "long" the wait would be from theatrical release to home video, and this is what we get as a result. I would GLADLY have waited until December to get something I could have cut my teeth on a little bit more via some interesting features. I know I say all the time that I don't pay much attention to features and the movie itself is what I'm there for....but I also think it's bullcrap that my entire Blu-ray collection is slowly morphing into just dozens of versions of like 3 different cookie-cutter releases, and for a movie that I actually care about, I do want as many features as possible...

[MouthForWar]

Jelly, its the same generic ass menu that WB has been using for awhile now. I just got the Conjuring and it has the exact same thing. As far as trailers go, I never see them on new releases anymore, especially for big movies.

Unfortunately, American home video releases are going to continue to get more and more lackluster since DVD and Blu-Ray sales are in the toilet. That's why foreign releases usually get better cover art, more features, and all around more effort put into them. Given how little studios care about home video sales, this is probably the only release we're gonna get for a movie like this. Its not like this thing made X-Men or Captain America money. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on this being the best we get, at least until the next Godzilla reboot comes along.

In the meantime, if people really want deleted scenes and more features, they can always get the Korean version when it comes out.

[at543]

I’d be interested in whatever version includes Akira Takarada’s cameo.

[John Schuermann]

[John Schuermann]

[william newell]

Just out of curiosity, could any of you that are claiming that there is nothing wrong with the video on this Blu post some screenshots of what the extra features look like using the same settings you use to watch the movie? I know on mine, if I leave the settings the same that I use to make the movie visible, the brightness is virtually unbearable. One scene in particular is during an interview(can't remember offhand who it was with)where the subject is seated in an office in front of some large windows with full daylight outside. Almost looks like a nuke just went off, it's so bright. As to menu's and special features/deleted scenes, while nice when available, the movie itself is the presentation I'm most concerned with.