While the standard 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray releases are far superior in terms of picture quality, they lack the unique open matte framing. For the true aficionado, owning both is the ultimate goal: one for a pristine theatrical viewing experience, and the other for a fascinating, scholarly examination of how a blockbuster is built.
Scenes of the monster stepping over cars or ducking between buildings gain a breathtaking amount of vertical headspace. Godzilla 1998 Open Matte
This is the most fascinating technical aspect. Godzilla (1998) used CGI for the monster. In the theatrical 2.39 version, the visual effects artists rendered Godzilla to fit the wide frame perfectly. In the Open Matte, you sometimes see the "edge" of the CGI work—where the digital monster ends and the blank background begins, or strange scaling issues where the monster looks slightly too small for the frame because he was rendered for a crop. While the standard 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray