I got my copy of this and yes, it looks terrific. But this has the impact of making the F/X scenes look more fake than ever, especially the two money scenes of the destruction of Tower Bridge and Big Ben. And I also noticed for the first time the use of repetitive F/X scenes as things go along.AndyDursin wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2023 11:14 am GORGO (1960)
8/10
Vinegar Syndrome's new 4K UHD restoration is nothing short of STUNNING, showing Technicolor hues probably unseen since its theatrical run, which means this is the first time I've experienced this 1960 monster favorite like this. The image adds immeasurably to the entertainment value, with rich color and high detail. Highly recommended.
Narrative wise, the film is a mess and inferior to the best Japanese kaiju movies. The movie has two dull leads who are never well-defined and this film also unfortunately spawns the kind of character that the Gamera films would later give us with a vengeance, the annoying kid who is the only one who "understands" the monster and who of course will get himself put in a precarious situation of danger because of his fascination with the monster (except in "Gorgo" it doesn't happen in a way that makes narrative sense. We see the kid first getting into the back of an army truck surrounded by soldiers, the next time we see him he's sitting on the steps gazing up in adoring fascination at the giant mama Gorgo which is fast approaching until Bill Travers drags him away) I found the narrative and pacing dull and excruciating for the most part and consider me one of the few people not impressed by the "monster as victim" narrative when so many are lying dead.
The commentary track is a giant snoozefest most of the time with a lot of dry reading of credits in typical IMDB recitation style. We get the obligatory comments about the blacklist era (not as bad as what I've had to endure on other commentaries but I always wonder if I'll ever escape having to listen to some pretentious discourse on this subject) and a lot of tangents on things that I wasn't particularly interested in either.