Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster

Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 04/15/2008 Run time: 84 minutes
Customer Review: Great product but the packaging could have been better
This is one of my favorite Godzilla films. This release is unique compared to most of the other dvds, because it has both the english and japanese versions of the film. The only bad thing in my opinion, is that it is widescreen with an aspect ratio of 16:9. In other words, it has big bars, but you could probably solve that problem with your dvd player manual. The lighting is pretty good throughout the movie, except for a few night scenes. Overall, I'd say the performance is pretty good. As I mentioned in my title, the packaging has one flaw. It's not like a normal dvd case as you can probably see. It opens kind of like a book which makes it less secure than the average dvd case. However, the disc stays in pretty well. Bottom line, this is an excellent choice.
Customer Review: It's a monster movie, but not as we know it....
Ummm. How to review this one... it's not billed as a Godzilla movie, but of course it is, though it's 45 minutes before he appears (if you watch the Japanese subtitled original). The ponderous and convoluted plot about the princess who re-appears thinking she's come from Venus dominates the movie along with the gang of goons trying to shoot her (let's hope the Japanese did not manufacture those guns they couldn't hit an elephant in the high street) and of course, it all makes no sense. Its glorious nonsense. We have a fallen meteorite that spends half the movie being magnetic, glowing and growing. Then we get an explosion of monster action half way through which turns the more or less serious series of Godzilla movies into a cartoon for the first time. The fight sequences between Godzilla and Rodan are hilarious, after a few aimless loops Rodan appears to be as flightless as a turkey and with the help of poor editing, he even makes a Godzilla noise. He fights more like a turkey than a bird of prey, too, but he's got a decent header on him. In the SFX department they've run out of blue flame and Godzilla shoots a sort of hairspray at Rodan which barely troubles him as he's got no hair. When King Ghidorah finally appears the public relations department drives through the streets with a tannoy to announce his name. The scattering crowds say thank you! Well, you do like to know who is trampling your cities, don't you. The trampled Japs come out with some terrific expressions of shock: Juda! Yuh! Gua! Only in Japanese.... Mothra is in larvae form (there were two of her in the previous movie when she beat Godzilla) and holds an extended and quite sophisticated conversation with Rodan and Godzilla which they politely sit down for. When Ghidorah finally pitches into battle he's quickly taking on all three of them and his little yellow rays give Godzilla a thorough body search hitting him places any self-respecting monster would ordinarily regard as private. Godzilla can't be bothered to use his hairspray breath so he takes to kicking and throwing an awful lot of boulders. Mothra gums up Ghidorah's heads and he flies off, and the movie ends with the monsters just standing around. This movie may well have marked the turning point when Godzilla movies (there are 28 so far) from semi-serious efforts into more comedic cartoonish films for big and little kids, but even compared to that prolongued phase in the franchise, this one doesn't score high marks for me. The initial plot is too slow moving and the monster action isn't as well conceived or executed. You have to take this in the spirit of fun it is made with and it is a hoot, but not as much of a hoot as some of the others. Entertainment more for serious (and sad) admirers (like me!) not the passing curious, I'd suggest! A true B movie.