Godzilla (1998) 25th Anniversary 4K Ultra HD SteelBook Review

Plot: Following French atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific, an unknown creature is spotted passing through the Panama Canal. Scientist Niko Tatopoulos is called in to investigate the matter, and he quickly arrives at the conclusion that a giant, irradiated lizard has been created by the explosions. Godzilla then makes its way north, landing in Manhattan to begin wreaking havoc in the big city.

Review: Roland Emmerich gets a hard time from people and I understand why as so many of his movies are essentially disaster porn but it begs the question, what the Hell is wrong with that? I love watching things explode and he was the go to man for that in the 90’s and 2000’s.

I recently picked up the 4K of his 1998 Godzilla film and decided to give it a rewatch after many years of forgetting it existed. I don’t really consider it a Godzilla movie and more of just a giant monster flick as he doesn’t look anything like Godzilla and lacks any kind of personality. It’s not as bad as I remember and frankly I had a fun time with it as it doesn’t try to do anything other than entertain. Yes, the characters aren’t especially interesting with Matthew Broderick and Maria Pitillo’s romance hardly setting the screen alight but they are at least appealing with Hank Azaria providing a few laughs too.

Jean Reno never phones it in and seems to be enjoying himself as French Secret Service Agent Philippe Roaché who spends a lot of the runtime complaining about American coffee.

I don’t know how I never noticed before but Al Leong is in the opening scene; it’s literally just a few minutes but any movie with him in the cast is immediately improved.

One thing Roland Emmerich has always been good at is build up and like Independence Day it’s the first 40 minutes of the film which are the best as the anticipation builds for the reveal of Godzilla. The teaser trailers were classic and hyped it up perfectly, but were arguably better than the film itself; they are included on this 4K release.

The middle section of the film really does drag though with Godzilla disappearing for too long especially when the baby Zillas come along which no one is really interested in; we just want to see the big guy in action.

Speaking of action, this isn’t a movie where we get fight scenes obviously but we do still get plenty of explosions and buildings being destroyed with the highlights being the helicopters battling the creature.

The visual effects for Godzilla are mostly still impressive however, the baby Zillas do show their age at some points looking a bit animated, but considering this was 25 years ago it’s amazing they look as good as they do.

I wish it wasn’t raining for the entire film as it just makes everything look a little dull but the 4K transfer spruces it up nicely and the sound nearly blew my speakers out. As a lot of the second half of the movie takes place at night the dark scenes are nice and clear so you can see everything that is going on without any trouble.

David Arnold’s score is suitably ferocious sounding, perfectly capturing the feeling of a giant monster stomping around a city even if it doesn’t have the iconic Godzilla theme tune.

The 4K isn’t exactly packed with features as you’ll see below but there are enough to be worth checking out if you don’t already own the Blu-ray:

DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY

• DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
• DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK + 5.1 audio
• Theatrical Trailers

DISC TWO – BLU-RAY

• Feature presented in High Definition
• 5.1 audio
• Visual Effects Commentary
• Behind the Scenes of Godzilla® with Charles Caiman
• All Time Best of Godzilla® Fight Scenes
• “Heroes” Music Video by The Wallflowers

Overall, Godzilla in 4K is the ultimate way to watch the film as it looks and sounds the best it ever has; the film itself is flawed and I think the 2014 film was vastly superior, but this is still an entertaining piece of nostalgia with plenty of destruction and explosions to keep things interesting.