Rodan - haven’t watched this in a few years. Thanks to Criterion and the free Starz trial on amazon, I got to watch it in HD! And it looked great. Or, at least miles better than any version I’ve gotten to watch previously. Awesome movie, awesome monster, awesome effects. I really can’t think of anything to say about it that’s not entirely positive.
War of the Gargantuas - also in HD thanks to Starz. It’s the international dub, which I’ve never seen, and is basically just the Japanese cut dubbed in English. Personally, I prefer the U.S. cut but there was one improvement here: the voice actor who dubbed Russ Tamblyn gave a much more enthusiastic performance!!
The film also looked fantastic compared to any previous versions. I did see the U.S. cut via an original 35mm print a few years ago, but it was pretty badly pink-shifted. While that print may have been a little sharper, I’d say this criterion/Starz version (a port of the Japanese BD master that’s been corrected for North American TVs? Sure looks that way) is still the best overall copy I’ve seen.
As for the film, it’s never been one of my favorites. It’s got a good story and GREAT effects with some really creative ideas. But Russ Tamblyn’s phoned-in performance hurts it badly. And then, I’ve just never cared for the monster designs. They’re just so humanoid. I vastly prefer my giant monsters to be inspired by the animal kingdom. Especially prehistoric and/or reptilian creatures; but animals, bugs, and the like in general are almost always preferable to humanoid. Kong is about as humanoid as I like to get. It’s one of the main reasons that, despite really trying to give him an honest chance, I just don’t care much for Ultraman. Ah well, it’s still an awesome movie.