Geek - Issue 8 2019 - 8

GEEKY
SPOTLIGHTING
THE COOLEST
COLLECTIBLES AND
GEEK GEAR IN THE
UNIVERSE
From the editors of Geek Magazine

GODZILLA: THE SHOWA-ERA
FILMS, 1954-1975
(THE C RI TERI ON COLLEC TI ON)

If you're a Godzilla fan, no matter how
you may have felt about this year's
Monsters, you're likely
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
verklempt about Criterion's announcement
of all 15 of Toho's Godzilla movies from the
Showa era, the first two decades of the
giant monster's pop culture rampage
through Japan and the rest of the
world. Sony and other vendors have
released Godzilla films on Blu-ray off
and on, but never in any organized
or comprehensive form. To see the
best versions of the films, fans have
had to shell out $70-$80 a pop for
Toho's region-free Blu-rays, which
look spectacular and boast tons of
special features - but which do

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ISSUE 08

not feature English subtitles or other content
in English.
The Criterion set solves that problem for all
15 movies, delivering the stellar Toho transfers
with English subtitles and providing fans with
the first-ever U.S. Blu-ray releases of the first
Godzilla sequel, the black-and-white Godzilla
Raids Again, the debut of three-headed space
dragon Ghidorah in 1964's Ghidorah, The ThreeHeaded Monster, and director Ishiro Honda's
surprisingly good swan song for the series, The
Terror of MechaGodzilla from 1975.
The original 1954 Gojira got a superb
restoration via Criterion in 2012 that showed off
the original Japanese version's classic status: It's
a dark, film noir monster movie that shows the
psychic wounds of the Japanese populace as
they deal with the devastation wrought by the
lumbering, thoughtless Godzilla. The later films
increasingly became Saturday matinee romps
Geek - Issue 8 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Geek - Issue 8 2019
