All of you out there who would want to order this movie are just like me- A super Godzilla- Japanese Movie SYFY Fan. My first viewing of Godzilla was on Million Dollar Movie in the early 60s on WOR TV Channel 9 in New York City but I can go back further. My sisters and I dragged my father to see Rodan in the theaters- very limited showings at the cheap movie house which played only Science Fiction and Horror movies every Saturday for 25 cents. In those days, there wasn't the fear of dropping your children off at the movie house, giving them money for the movie, a bagged lunch and an additional dime, if you were good all week and did your chores, to buy a 5 cent coke and 5 cent hershey bar or any candy bar which were all 5 cents. We got three movies, cartoons, news, and upcoming attractions which is where we saw the trailer for Rodan. That movie was a bit more expensive and required a parent so all week we worked more and also worked on my father to be that responsible parent. That Saturday morning arrived and off we went and saw Rodan. We kids loved it but my father was very uncomfortable with the early mine scenes with the bug monsters. That, I know, scared him but he too loved it. Right from there, any Japanese monster movie was for us which was in short supply. Then Million Dollar Movie with a weeks worth of Godzilla every night from 730 to 900. As I got older we saw more and more on TV, not cable- That was not invented yet.. Then when the VCR came out and VHS tapes became available and by then with me having a famility of my own, Godzilla became a part of my children's lives and loves. Now on to this movie-I have the old VHS tape - well actually I still have all the ones I bought and the DVDS I bought to replace them. Word of warning- buy the good DVD copies, not bad ones like Alpha- This movie is crisp and clear and has a story that you can follow which was a little short in the VHS copy. Godzilla is hilarious as he stomps around and boxes. He and Jet Jaguar tag team Megalon and Gigan is hilarious entertainment for most ot the end of the movie. So FUN!!!!! This ranks right up there with my favorite- Godzilla vs Hedorah (Smog Monster). This is the light Godzilla who was our protector. It is so entertaining and I highly recommend buying it. Once you get it, put in the the DVD player, gather the kids or grandkids like me and sit back and enjoy it. Word of warning- Loving all things Godzilla is highly contagious- my daughters and especially my son all love that monster- I brought them up right. Thank you.
For the first time ever Godzilla vs. Megalon has an official DVD release. Yes, DVD, not Blu Ray. If youre going to wait for the Blu Ray, that is your choice, but for someone like me, a lifelong die hard Godzilla fan who flew to Burbank to meet Godzilla ( Harou Nakajima) this was a no-brainer pick up for me.The plot is very simple. Most of you reading have seen this in some form be it VHS, TV, MST3K etc..The underwater world of Seatopia decides now is the time to strike back against Japan for all of its nuclear testing. They steal an inventors Robot named Jet Jaguar to guide the great beast, Megalon to destroy the Earth. The inventor is able to get control of Jet Jaguar just in time to get Godzilla. What we get in the payoff is Megalon and Gigan vs. Godzilla and Jet Jaguar in a tag team WWE/UFC fight.As most of you know, the film is considered one of the, if not, the worst due to the juvenile feel this movie has, clearly made for kids. And to save a few yen, the film also boasts about 95% stock footage of city destruction scenes.While the film itself is thought of as bad, its actually a lot of fun in a Kaiju Cult kind of a way.As for the DVD. I was very much impressed with this widescreen transfer. Media Blasters did a tremendous job with the transfer. The movie has NEVER looked better on DVD stateside. Day scenes look great, night scenes arent too dark or black, colors are sparkling. And it is uncut, with the opening credits (in Japanese) as well as several scenes such as the boy getting kidnapped, the agent getting crushed by a rock, etc. And the ending with the song has English subs !! :)I watched the English dubbed version and its the familiar dub and it was loud and sharp. No adjusting the remote to higher levels to listen to it - it was English 2.0 , while the Japanese language has both 2.0 and 5.1This is a barebones release with the probable release of a Blu Ray down the road. There are reasons for Media Blasters being unable to release the Blu Ray version with all the extras. These reasons can be found on Facebook, their own website, SciFi Japan, etc.For me, this suits me just fine because it is an official release. I am a huge Godzilla fan and I want everything on DVD or Blu Ray. And while I wait for an HD version, this will proudly sit in with my other Godzilla movies, most of which are on DVD by the way. I dont like to double dip very often but with Godzilla, I will make the exception.
Having had this on pre-order for literally over a year as the release date kept getting pushed back, pushed back again and then dropped only to be announced once more later on with an even more distant estimated availability, I am euphoric that finally, at long last, I was able to sit down and see this famous (or infamous depending on your view) Godzilla kaiju flick in HD. Godzilla vs. Megalon picture quality was quite good. For a fairly low budget, nearly B-film from the 70s it has held up rather well. The picture was clean, relatively free of grain at most times. On some scene changes there was a slight flicker on the bottom of the screen - I am not sure if this is the result of the encoding or of the quality of the master copy used to make the disc. A few scenes looked kind of washed out, particularly night scenes, and tended to look as if there was a weird filter used in production. Other than these small issues, the picture was very good. The audio was also very good - including the original Japanese and the original American dub that I remember hearing as a kid in the early 80s. Again, overall it's a very nice version. As to the movie itself, I won't give away too many spoilers in case someone out there who has not seen it plans on doing so. Among Godzilla fans this is rightly considered by many to be the campiest of all Godzilla movies to date. The posturing of Godzilla, Jet Jaguar (the big guy's Power Rangeresque robot sidekick), and their opponents Megalon (a giant cockroach) and Gigan (a space alien) is truly an attempt to invoke the martial arts genre that was so popular in Asia at the time. My favorite scenes are the ones where the four of them circle each other like fighters in a Kung Fu movie. I still laugh when Jet Jaguar holds Megalon and Godzilla drop/fly kicks the giant insect, literally jumping up and flying at him horizontally in what may be the longest drop kick in martial-arts history. All the camp is funny though seemingly out of place in a Godzilla movie, at least in my opinion. For extra laughs, be sure to listen to the Jet Jaguar and Godzilla fight song at the end of the movie. It will bring a silly smile to your face for sure. Overall, this movie did not disappoint. I ended up paying around $12.99 for it on Amazon. The price was fair for a walk down memory lane. The picture and sound were mostly excellent. Anyone interested in seeing a movie that no doubt inspired and was inspired by many of the campy martial arts/kaiju movies and series of the 70s will no doubt see the influence here. If you are an old Godzilla fan, this movie may be the silliest one of them all but it sure is a fun addition to your collection.
This movie is a lot like playing in the sand box with a set of Shogun Warriors toys from the 70s. I remember that little activity being quite a lot of fun, too.This DVD print is the best I've seen. No features or commentary, but I don't give a hoot. It's great to have a Japanese language track, which, in the case of Rokuro's dialogue, is much easier to take from a purely sonic standpoint. And it's nice to watch this movie uncut; I never knew that one of the film's bad guys was dispatched by means of a boulder. That little scene filled in a long-standing gap quite nicely! The "Jet Jaguar" theme song has never sounded better.There are an awful lot of positive reviews on Amazon for a movie most publications disparage mercilessly, all of which are written by fans who actually buy, watch and enjoy these movies. Professional critics and authors be danged! This is the stuff!
SEPT 2014: So it's finally here... good news a nice clean print, not perfect but perfectly acceptable and likely the best we'll ever get. Bad news: no features. I will never understand Toho... first they're messing with the livelihood of a small business and second they're endlessly leading on the fans over what? A couple minor features for a children's film which is widely considered to be the least of the G-franchise films? Really? Funny thing is I've heard the commentary (bought one of the few feature DVDs that slipped out) and it does not rip on the movie at all... the commentary acknowledges the movie's reputation and then states that rather than rip on it they will tell the interesting story of how it got made... which is exactly what they proceed to do. The commentators actually give it much more respect and serious treatment than anyone could rightly wish for. I would truly think Toho would be thrilled by the features so I am more mystified than ever at the studio's stubborn - if not outright hostile - position. Anyway, from the pattern that Media Blasters have set previously it looks as if they're going with limited no-features Blu-ray releases on GvM and DAM... and if we're lucky Toho might finally approve feature versions down the road a bit. Poor Media Blasters... I pity them being played with like this after making a valiant effort to put out quality product.THIS INFO IS ACTUALLY FROM MARCH 22ND BUT IT GOT BY ME - HAD A BUSY SUMMER!Media Blasters licensed both GODZILLA VS MEGALON and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS in 2011, with MEGALON initially planned for both DVD and Blu-ray last November. But after Toho complained about some of the extra features Media Blasters included on their DESTROY ALL MONSTERS discs, MEGALON was put on hold while Toho went over the bonus content prepared for that film.Toho has a mountain of material -- including trailers, stills, publicity art, a feature length audio commentary by film historians Steve Ryfle (Japan's Favorite Mon-Star, BRINGING GODZILLA DOWN TO SIZE, ICONS OF SCI-FI: TOHO COLLECTION) and Stuart Galbraith IV (The Toho Studios Story, INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER DVD, TORA-SAN COLLECTOR'S SET), and an interview with English dub voice actor Ted Thomas -- to review, and the approval process has moved very slowly. With no end date in sight, Toho has authorized Media Blasters to release a barebones version of GODZILLA VS MEGALON at this time. A special edition is intended for both DVD and Blu-ray once Toho has given final approvals for the extra features, however long that may take.ALRIGHT, SO IT'S PROBABLY NOT THAT NEW TO MANY FANS, BUT WORTH ADDING TO THE FRONT OF THIS REVIEW FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW ALREADY. I'M KEEPING MY PRE-ORDER IN FOR THE BLURAY, AND FOR THE MEANTIME BOUGHT THE DVD ANYWAY. IT'S NICE TO HAVE A CLEAN COPY AND I WANT TO SUPPORT MEDIA BLASTERS HOWEVER POSSIBLE. KEEP THE FAITH!This review is to try once more to stifle the negative rumours about this release. The previous review By Mr. Bearbomb "DVD release RUMORS FALSE!!!" written just recently on December 14th, 2011 is false itself. The DVD and Bluray ARE coming out, though obviously with a bit of a delay, as they were originally scheduled for before Christmas. The original rumour was reported early this year on August Ragone's blog - information being supplied to him by a source he thought was reliable. It then turned out to be false... the denial from Media Blasters came at this point in time, which pointed out that they had been denied rights to the movie (but that was several years prior, keep in mind). August reported and apologized for this. Apparently in this small and barely significant community of Kaiju (Japanese monster) fans / collectors, there is a faction who do not like Mr Ragone, for whatever reason, and it seems as if someone might have set him up for an embarrassing mistake. This kind of behavior is petty and shameful. Chances are "Mr Bearbomb" is one of the pack. Whatever, who cares. Ironically, however, upon hearing all this stupid furor over the false rumor, Media Blasters submitted a new request for rights to release Godzilla vs Megalon along with Destroy All Monsters, and were surprised that this time Toho agreed to the request. This is when the current release was scheduled. Destroy All Monsters came out after a couple delays and Megalon is set to follow very soon.Anyone who still doubts can go visit Scifijapan.com and read interviews with respected Toho Kaiju film historians Steve Ryfle and Stuart Galbraith IV, discussing their involvement in the project (from Nov 15th, currently on page 3 of articles). Ed Godziszewski was also involved in at least preliminary stages of producing Megalon special features. They have authored books on the subject and been involved in previous DVD releases by Sony and Classic Media. The interviews with Steve and Stuart give interesting insight into the preparation of the commentary and more. Sorry, "Mr Bearbomb," but you have no idea what yo...