review: Unlike many of the currently posted reviews, I'm going to be reviewing the actual release, rather than speculating or complaining about the cover EDIT-Amazon now lists the proper cover shot as to what was used on the release).I received my Blu Ray of Destroy All Monsters today and promptly dropped it into the Blu Ray player.I commend Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock for releasing this one.From a story perspective, all the giant monsters are collected on a single island (Monster Island) for research purposes. Contact is lost with the control facility and what is discovered is that a race of aliens has taken control of the giant monsters. The giant monsters are sent to many different cities across the world and the human race must then wrestle control of the giant monsters back from the aliens. Fun stuff!Video:I'm torn here. I really, really wanted to love this release. What is there is 1080p HD in name, but the detail quality seems kind of low. I don't know what happened, but the colors seem washed out and faded while there are some instances of dust and dirt to be seen. Interestingly enough, you can still see the control cables and wires used for various special effects, so perhaps this was the best that could be done with it? I've read (and a commenter stated the possibility) that the source was a 35mm print.In my mind, the Blu Ray doesn't look to be much better than an upscaled DVD. I don't have the Media Blasters DVD to compare directly, so I don't know if it really is an upscale or not, but every indication points to this being a true HD source.Disappointing from an HD perspective certainly. If this is the same quality that was released in Japan (can't verify myself, sorry), then that tells me it is a source issue, but I don't know because I can't compare.Forums I've been to indicate this is the same master used on the Japanese release, but take that for what it is worth without validation.Audio:5.1 Japanese, along with 2.0 Japanese and English 2.0 (2 audio streams for English). I watched in Japanese 5.1 and the music and effects seem to be well separated in the front speakers, while the rear channels barely got much use. Since this was original recorded in 2.0 stereo anyway, I flipped over and I have to say the stereo separation is just about as good in my mind as the 5.1 in Japanese.I spot checked the English audio tracks and they seem to be on par in terms of audio quality as the Japanese. In terms of the quality of the English dub, I leave that to others to decide. Seems OK to me, but I expect hokey English on my giant monster movies anyway!Based on a comment on my review, I went back to check the English dub. I can confirm, without question, that BOTH the AIP AND the "International" Toho dub are, in fact, on this disc. Both English tracks are, however, in 2.0 Stereo ONLY. There is no 5.1 English dub. Not that most people who wanted the AIP dub would care that much, considering the film was in 2.0 stereo originally anyway.Packaging:For those of you in love with the image Amazon has up, be prepared to be disappointed. Or not, if you hated it. From the time it was displayed here to time of release, the cover has been changed. If you check out the Destroy All Monsters wikipedia entry, this release uses the poster artwork displayed there. It looks good to me.Otherwise the packaging is pretty bare bones. No inserts in the case or anything. Serviceable, but at $30 MSRP I'd have hoped for something a little better.Extras:Commentary is pretty good. Very nice to have it included.All of the trailers are in standard definition, which is OK I suppose.All of the Extras content is 480i and NOT 1080p.You get original trailers (English, Japanese, French (poor audio quality), RADIO spots for the AIP dub (English only with still images from the film) ), a storyboard image gallery, an 8mm reel from AIP (quality is poor, but it's still really cool to see this!) and image gallery.In my original Amazon review I ended up passing over a lot of the extras, so for that, I am terribly sorry.The extras on this disc are pretty fantastic in my mind. Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock put a lot of love into pulling together all of this material.Final Verdict:Destroy All Monsters is one of the best Godzilla movies around. It deserves to be owned, certainly. The Blu Ray release is probably the prettiest release the movie has seen, though that's not saying much with some of the previous releases.I've given it 4 stars because of the sloppy video (possibly not Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock's fault, I don't know). What is outstanding is the audio. Video drops the review by a star.If you don't already own it and enjoy the film, this is definitely worth picking up. If you are OK with the video quality on prior release and don't care about the AIP dub, keep your money.If you want the AIP English dub, this is THE release to get.Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock did an outstanding job on this release. Pulling together the trailers, the radio spots and even the commentary shows me that they actually appreciate the release as much as many fans. The video quality is the only mar on an outstanding release and it is something I can look past, as I've since learned that the video is from Toho's own remastered (in 2008) video.If you are a Godzilla fan, this is definitely worth the purchase price without question.
question: Is the video good?
sloppy video the detail quality seems kind of low