Customer Reviews

Destroy All Monsters [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Unlike many of the currently posted reviews, I'm going to be reviewing the actual release, rather than speculating or complaining about the cover EDIT-Amazon now lists the proper cover shot as to what was used on the release).

I received my Blu Ray of Destroy All Monsters today and promptly dropped it into the Blu Ray player.

I commend Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock for releasing this one.

From a story perspective, all the giant monsters are collected on a single island (Monster Island) for research purposes. Contact is lost with the control facility and what is discovered is that a race of aliens has taken control of the giant monsters. The giant monsters are sent to many different cities across the world and the human race must then wrestle control of the giant monsters back from the aliens. Fun stuff!

Video:

I'm torn here. I really, really wanted to love this release. What is there is 1080p HD in name, but the detail quality seems kind of low. I don't know what happened, but the colors seem washed out and faded while there are some instances of dust and dirt to be seen. Interestingly enough, you can still see the control cables and wires used for various special effects, so perhaps this was the best that could be done with it? I've read (and a commenter stated the possibility) that the source was a 35mm print.

In my mind, the Blu Ray doesn't look to be much better than an upscaled DVD. I don't have the Media Blasters DVD to compare directly, so I don't know if it really is an upscale or not, but every indication points to this being a true HD source.

Disappointing from an HD perspective certainly. If this is the same quality that was released in Japan (can't verify myself, sorry), then that tells me it is a source issue, but I don't know because I can't compare.

Forums I've been to indicate this is the same master used on the Japanese release, but take that for what it is worth without validation.

Audio:

5.1 Japanese, along with 2.0 Japanese and English 2.0 (2 audio streams for English). I watched in Japanese 5.1 and the music and effects seem to be well separated in the front speakers, while the rear channels barely got much use. Since this was original recorded in 2.0 stereo anyway, I flipped over and I have to say the stereo separation is just about as good in my mind as the 5.1 in Japanese.

I spot checked the English audio tracks and they seem to be on par in terms of audio quality as the Japanese. In terms of the quality of the English dub, I leave that to others to decide. Seems OK to me, but I expect hokey English on my giant monster movies anyway!

Based on a comment on my review, I went back to check the English dub. I can confirm, without question, that BOTH the AIP AND the "International" Toho dub are, in fact, on this disc. Both English tracks are, however, in 2.0 Stereo ONLY. There is no 5.1 English dub. Not that most people who wanted the AIP dub would care that much, considering the film was in 2.0 stereo originally anyway.

Packaging:

For those of you in love with the image Amazon has up, be prepared to be disappointed. Or not, if you hated it. From the time it was displayed here to time of release, the cover has been changed. If you check out the Destroy All Monsters wikipedia entry, this release uses the poster artwork displayed there. It looks good to me.

Otherwise the packaging is pretty bare bones. No inserts in the case or anything. Serviceable, but at $30 MSRP I'd have hoped for something a little better.

Extras:

Commentary is pretty good. Very nice to have it included.

All of the trailers are in standard definition, which is OK I suppose.

All of the Extras content is 480i and NOT 1080p.

You get original trailers (English, Japanese, French (poor audio quality), RADIO spots for the AIP dub (English only with still images from the film) ), a storyboard image gallery, an 8mm reel from AIP (quality is poor, but it's still really cool to see this!) and image gallery.

In my original Amazon review I ended up passing over a lot of the extras, so for that, I am terribly sorry.

The extras on this disc are pretty fantastic in my mind. Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock put a lot of love into pulling together all of this material.

Final Verdict:

Destroy All Monsters is one of the best Godzilla movies around. It deserves to be owned, certainly. The Blu Ray release is probably the prettiest release the movie has seen, though that's not saying much with some of the previous releases.

I've given it 4 stars because of the sloppy video (possibly not Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock's fault, I don't know). What is outstanding is the audio. Video drops the review by a star.

If you don't already own it and enjoy the film, this is definitely worth picking up. If you are OK with the video quality on prior release and don't care about the AIP dub, keep your money.

If you want the AIP English dub, this is THE release to get.

Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock did an outstanding job on this release. Pulling together the trailers, the radio spots and even the commentary shows me that they actually appreciate the release as much as many fans. The video quality is the only mar on an outstanding release and it is something I can look past, as I've since learned that the video is from Toho's own remastered (in 2008) video.

If you are a Godzilla fan, this is definitely worth the purchase price without question.

So, according to an update on www.scifijapan.com Media Blasters is giving us the AIP dub, the International dub, the original Japanese language track along with some to-be-named-later extras and people are simply gonna complain about the DVD cover that is presently featured??? (I actually like it - original artwork for a change) Man.

Anyways, if all goes as planned this DVD release should be something else. Especially for those of us who long for an official version of the superior AIP dub track which we all remember while growing up watching on TV as monster kids.

Now if we can only get the AIP dub of "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster".....

I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s watching all the original kaiju movies (well, as original as an American International release could be) and "Destroy All Monsters" was second only to "Voyage Into Space" on my list of favorites. It wasn't just one monster (say, Godzilla) versus a couple of space monsters; it was a whole bunch of Earth monsters all together fighting a space monster *and* destroying Tokyo. Plus DAM had the best main title music.

I have owned the ADV Films release for several years and only recently started watching it again, as my four-year-old son has discovered the magic of men in rubber suits stomping on miniature cities. DAM has rapidly become his favorite (and the main title is his favorite as well) and he can name more of the monsters than I ever could. The DVD went missing so I ordered the new Tokyo Shock re-release. In the meantime we found the first DVD and I was considering sending the new one back, but when I put it on my HDTV, I came to my senses.

The Tokyo Shock release is far superior. Just seeing the title credits in the original Japanese was worth the price of the disc. Now not only can I watch the movie my preferred way (in the original language with English subs), but the picture is anamorphic so the image isn't squeezed down beyond correction like the ADV version. The print isn't pristine but it's in great condition for its age. (The only downside is that now I can see all the wires that I never saw on a tiny tube TV.)

I've been impressed with most of ADV's releases in the past (their seemingly apathetic DVD release of "Gunhed" is a notable exception), but Tokyo Shock has left them in the dust on this one. If you're a kaiju fan, ditch the ADV release and step up to serious quality.

A true classic has come out of the shadows and into our DVD players. After years of watching bare-bones copies of this movie with poor quality reels and the wrong dub, finally, someone got it right. A new generation can now see this all time favorite the way it was ment to be seen. Now, if they can correct the mistake that was made with Godzilla vs The Smog Monster, we'll be golden.

This movie is arguably the second highest point in the original Godzilla Series. (The first being the first Gojira) It is definitely a fan favorite. So I was happy to shell out the money to see this on Blu-Ray even though I already own a standard DVD of the film. I was not disappointed! Godzilla really looks great in this HD DVD!

The only problems I found is that, in HD, the models are a little more obviously models when the monsters interact with them, and there are a few places where wires are visible early in the movie. A true fan can easily look past these minor issues.

If you love Godzilla, own an HD TV and a Blu-Ray Player, this is a must own! Bypass the standard DVD and buy this one NOW! You won't be disapointed either!

Well if you're a fan of Japanese kaiju movies, then you won't go wrong with this film. In my opinion one of the best and easily up there with the original Gojira. The transition to HD has only heightened the experience... Pick it up!!!

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS is probably my second favorite Godzilla movie after the original (though it's certainly neck-and-neck with 1964's MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, a.k.a. GODZILLA VS. THE THING). It's the last entry in the Showa era Godzilla films made in the inimitable style of Ishiro Honda's most classic daikaiju outings, and is, in fact, Honda's penultimate directorial job of the Godzilla series. The film is literally a gathering of most of Toho's monsters, and they are given plenty of quality screen time. Similarly, the human cast includes many familiar, noteworthy faces, with Akira Kubo, Yoshio Tsuchiya, and Jun Tazaki playing prominent, memorable roles. Akira Ifukube's musical score remains one of his all-time best, reprising several well-known themes, from his traditional Godzilla theme to motifs used for Rodan and King Ghidorah, as well as a distinctive military march, all beautifully arranged and orchestrated.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS utilizes the now timeworn premise of space aliens--specifically, the Kilaaks, who come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter--saying politely to Earth's leaders, "Please hand over your planet, or these monsters will bust your ass." The storyline is similar to MONSTER ZERO, made a couple of years previously, but in most respects, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS goes about it on a grander scale, with daikaiju showing up all over the world to wreak havoc. However, in MONSTER ZERO, the Xians have some motivation for conquering the earth: the acquisition of natural resources (water, in this case), which is scarce on their world. (In fact, it's rather ironic that the villains in that movie in some ways reflect Japan's expansionist philosophy prior to World War II.) In DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, there's no insinuation of motive; only that, for the Kilaaks, a little conquest makes for an enjoyable day's work.

The Kilaaks themselves are interesting enough; in their terrestrial form, they appear as beautiful, silver-clad women--or at least holographic projections of beautiful, silver-clad women. In their natural state, they are living minerals, which resemble snails made of glittery stone, and they can only survive in an environment of extreme heat--which begs the question, how do enslaved humans share their living space without being burned to death? Perhaps the bodies of the human slaves we view are actually Kilaaks who have merely taken their forms, but this little point is never addressed in the script. Of course, in a movie such as this, one doesn't expect scientific plausibility, although it's certainly nice when events adhere to at least a modicum of internal logic.

Ah well, in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, it's the monsters themselves we paid to see, and in this regard, the movie doesn't disappoint. This is the movie that introduces us to Monster Island, a.k.a. Monsterland on Ogasawara Island, where most of Toho's daikaiju have been collected and confined, for security purposes as well as for scientific investigation. (We'll have to take it on faith that, in actuality, the monsters have been there for a while because, though the movie is set in 1999, films that were made after DESTROY ALL MONSTERS but ostensibly occur at an earlier date, such as GODZILLA VS. GIGAN and GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, also feature Monster Island.) Unlike the Xians in MONSTER ZERO, who showed some restraint and didn't unleash the monsters until we ungrateful Earthlings refused their kind offer of enslavement, the Kilaaks start off on the right foot and send the monsters to the four corners of the earth to do some whooping on miniature cities. Godzilla invades New York! Manda slithers through London! Rodan swats down Moscow! Baragon burrows under Paris!

But wait...that's not actually Baragon. Why...it's Gorosaurus, from KING KONG ESCAPES. This little gaffe is in the original Japanese version as well as the English, and this is because, originally, Baragon was scheduled to destroy Paris, and the dialogue stating this had already been recorded. However, when the scene was filmed, Toho found the Baragon suit beyond repair--largely from multiple uses (in disguise, of course) in the ULTRAMAN TV series. So Gorosaurus was hastily substituted, but that's even Baragon's roar you hear when the Arc de Triomphe crumbles. In general, the monster suits are very good, although King Ghidorah appears a bit more scraggly than he did in MONSTER ZERO. The Godzilla suit is well-proportioned and has a ferocious demeanor--a monstrous improvement over his distinctly frog-like appearance in his previous film, SON OF GODZILLA.

In late 2011, Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock finally gave this landmark film the respectable release it deserves. For years, the bare-bones ADV edition, featuring only the disastrous Hong Kong English dub, was all that was available domestically. The Tokyo Shock DVD offers the choice of the original Japanese language version, the International (Hong Kong) dub, and the AIP-Titan Studios dub, which is the one most fans on this side of the Pacific will remember from its original U.S. release. Sadly, the AIP soundtrack is not well mastered, with lots of background noise, erratic volume shifts, and other problems that tend to be grating. There are bootlegs of the ADV DVD that feature a high-quality version of the Titan dub, and you'd think Tokyo Shock could have at least done as well. The commentary by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski, at least, is entertaining and spot-on. Unfortunately, at least the initial release of the DVD suffers from a bad layer change at about 34 minutes into the film; my original disc completely locked up here and would not allow me to watch further. I exchanged the disc, and while there's a momentary pause at the same spot, at least the disc plays on. I hope this problem is rectified, as from all the reviews here note, it's clearly not a trivial issue.

I was really looking forward to this Godzilla classic. It arrived today, and I settled down to watch it. 34 minutes in, the disc paused for a couple of seconds, accompanied by a strange sound. Then again about 8 minutes later. From there, the disc continued to pause, freezing the action intermittently until the end. Two pauses I could cope with, but not this many.

I looked at the reviews on Amazon and noticed another customer with exactly the same problem.

Reluctantly, I am returning my disc for a refund. It's an huge shame, because the print is lovely and the sound is nice and full. I sincerely hope Tokyo Shock will rectify this fault, as I would buy it again.

So, I would recommend this, but only a corrected pressing!

The quality of this DVD is fantastic, as with most other Tokyo Shock titles (as there are a few exceptions), the Japanese video and audio appear to be taken from a direct transfer of Toho's own Region 2 release. However, there is actually only 1 video track on this DVD (there isn't a separate U.S. or International version), so all of the audio options (including the Int'l. and AIP dubs) sync up with the Japanese version of the film.

As for the extra features, there is a generous amount found here, which includes an English audio commentary track, a number of trailers (although the French trailer is in very poor condition) and some clips from the original Super 8 film as well (in very poor condition). There are also a few additional bonus featurettes, plus a hidden "easter egg"...so go find it!

I do need to mention though that my copy is defective - it starts to freeze up for a second or two starting at the 34:08 mark, and then again around the 42:00 mark and continues to freeze again and again until the end of the film actually. I have confirmed that it is not my DVD player, because a friend of mine also experienced the exact same problem with his disc! I had to return my copy to amazon and have asked them to send a replacement. I don't know why I haven't read any other reviews so far which mention this defect, but again, there was a problem with my disc and with another disc too. Media Blasters, if you are reading this, please look into this problem and correct it.

***I have an update...I have watched the replacement copy and it too is defective. It freezes in exactly the same spots as my other copy did, so I will have to return this DVD as well. Clearly, this initial batch of DAM DVDs is defective.

This DVD constitutes a vast improvement over the previous DVD release. I knocked off one star because of a serious problem with the AIP english dub. Having grown up watching this on tv back in the 70s, I really missed hearing the english dub done by American International Pictures for it's original U.S. release. It is far superior to Toho's international dub. I was excited to find out that this DVD would offer the option of listening to it. Sadly, it suffers from serious distortion for the first few minutes. It almost sounds like you're watching it on a 16mm film projector that's misfeeding. It settles down after a bit, and behaves itself thereafter, but it's a disappointment. That having been said, the DVD is otherwise fine and well worth the money. I recommend it for anyone who is a fan.