Gojira (DVD, 2012, 2-Disc Set, Criterion Collection)

Ordinarily, the Criterion Collection offers essentially the final word on the films they release. Not so here. The earlier Classic Media 'Gojira' DVD from 2006 is better, primarily because both releases' only real extras of note are commentary tracks for both the Japanese and American versions of the movie. And Criterion's choice of David Kalat leaves much to be desired. Kalat is a bit too gushing and over-hyped and tends to basically just heap empty praise on the film. Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewsky did essentially the same thing on the '06 DVD, but alongside that, they offered up a wealth of detailed production information and presented it in a very professional manner.

Aside from explaining why Godzilla's visual quality sucks so much even after a total cleanup (due to the type of film stock Toho used), Kalat just repeats a lot of the same stuff Ryfle and Godziszewsky did. Also he doesn't give as much information as them. It's amazing that for as fast and energetically as Kalat talks, he takes a while to get to any kind of point and overall his commentary is mostly just gushing fanboy fluff. Which is fine in and of itself. I just expected more from Criterion.

My other problem with Kalat is that he seems openly spiteful of stop-motion animation artists such as Ray Harryhausen, and gets on Ray's case for complaining about Godzilla's obvious (if superficial) similarities to The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which came out a year prior and has been said to have inspired Godzilla's creators. He repeatedly compares the two films and usually ends up handwaving the earlier film as inconsequential or otherwise inferior. He seems to have a real bone to pick with people who did the same thing to Japanese "man-in-a-suit" monster movies - dismissing them as shoddy and inferior. But he's doing the same thing, just from the other camp, and is a massive hypocrite.

So ultimately I'm disappointed Criterion's Godzilla, the supposedly only-edition-I'll-ever-need version, has such an inferior commentary track to Classic Media's from six years ago. All due respect to David Kalat who obviously loves Godzilla, but he just came across as too much of a gushing fanboy and not an actual film historian, and I feel he consequently did not take an objective look at Godzilla.