I am a student at Huddersfield University, studying computing but wishing I had chosen something eas...
I am a student at Huddersfield University, studying computing but wishing I had chosen something easy instead....
I am a bit of a DVD fanatic as my collection shows
http://www.dvdprofiler.com/m ycollection.asp?alias=wijit
Member since:25.01.2001
Reviews:10
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High Expectations
To say that this disc has a lot to live up to is the understatement of the year. Since its announcement the Internet has been full of discussions about the content as well as the case! It also has to live up to the last release from the Cameron back-catalogue, The Abyss, which is probably the best overall DVD in my collection.
Does it live up to the hype? Well the answer is yes, sort of. Although it isn't up to the standards of The Abyss in terms of extras it more than makes up for it with the quality of the sound and video transfer.
The Film
After the success of the low budget The Terminator in 1984, it was only a matter of time before a follow-up was made. Unfortunately, legal wranglings over the rights meant that the film wasn't possible until 1991, and also meant that there was an extremely short timescale for a production of this size as the release date had been set for the July 4th weekend.
The delay in making the follow-up had allowed Cameron to make Aliens and, more importantly, The Abyss, which had introduced the director to the concept of computer generated images in films with their use to create the "water slug" effect. This allowed Cameron to create a new Terminator which could change shape and imitate living creatures. Taking things further on from The Abyss the effects would have to be able to imitate human movement. To give the effects artists at ILM time to create the new technology all scenes that were to include CGI shots had to be filmed at the start of the shooting schedule.
The story of the original Terminator was one of the most original sci-fi stories of recent times, in which a cyborg is sent back in time to kill the leader of the human resistance before he is even born. The first film was a fairly small budget effort, but the casting was inspired: Arnie's acting style perfectly suited the role, even his (at that time) poor grasp of English seemed to fit the character. The end result was a film that looked far more expensive than it was. By the time of the sequel both director and main star were huge meaning the budget and story could be expanded.
The second film again sees a terminator being sent back to kill John Connor but this time when he is a teenager - and it's an advanced prototype terminator made of liquid metal. Again the resistance are able to send back a protector for John, this time sending back a reprogrammed terminator, and they both set out to track him down. At the same time Sarah Connor is locked up in a mental hospital as nobody believes her story about time-travelling cyborgs, while her son is stuck with foster parents and has no idea he's in danger. Can the old terminator get to him in time and protect him from the new terminator? From that plot outline you would guess that the film
is an all-action chase film, and certainly in the theatrical version of the film that is the level it is most effective on. However, as with the original, there are good characters and relationships in between the action. In The Terminator it was Sarah Connor who developed from innocent girl into cynical woman and in Terminator 2: Judgment Day it is John himself who has to develop into the leader who he is destined to become. There is also the development of the terminator into the father figure John has never had.
All the actors give solid performances. Linda Hamilton as an on-edge Sarah shows real emotion in the role. Arnold Schwarzenegger shows what ten years more acting experience can do as an evolving terminator (even if some of his better scenes were cut until the special edition). Edward Furlong does amazingly well considering that it was his first ever acting job and that most of his dialogue had to be redubbed after filming finished as his voice was breaking during shooting. But as with most Cameron films the actors are overshadowed by the set-piece stunts, the bike-truck chase, the Cyberdyne building and the extended battle in the steel mill are all wonderfully executed and use a mixture of different special effects techniques which stand up to scrutiny next to today's action films.
The whole film is slightly dated both by the time setting of judgment day to have been 29th August 1997 and the nuclear war threat, however the nuclear explosions are probably the most powerful of the film and show that you can make a serious point even in a sci-fi action film.
The other main weakness of the film is of course the massive plot holes, such as the original terminator not allowed to bring metal through the time-travelling process (even though the T1000 is entirely metal) and the even bigger plot holes created by the extended ending of the film. But as they say in Austin Powers, don't worry about the storyline and that includes the audience.
I'll Be Back
The original theatrical cut of Terminator 2 is 2hrs 20mins which is already fairly lengthy for an action film but, as with The Abyss and Aliens (and, I assume, Titanic), this is a cut down version of the film, and a special edition of the film was later released with additional footage including a couple of major scenes. One sees Kyle (Michael Biehn) returns in a dream to Sarah telling her that their son is in danger, and there's also a scene in which the terminator has his CPU accessed to allow him to start to learn from the environment around him, a scene that also shows John starting to take control and become a leader. There are also various other short scenes added which add more depth to the characters, especially the terminator. However, it is easy to see why the scenes were cut as they are virtually all in the middle section, which makes the whole film drag.
The extended special edition which is included on the disc as a hidden feature (access by entering Judgment Day 82997 in the main menu) contains two new scenes which are also included in the documentaries. The first of these shows the T1000 searching John's room for clues as to where he may be, while the second and more interesting scene is an extended ending which shows Sarah as an old woman sitting in the park that we saw being destroyed at the beginning of the film - Judgment Day hasn't happened and John is a senator campaigning for nuclear disarmament. Apart from creating a massive new plot hole (if the was no Judgment Day Kyle would never have been sent back, so John Connor wouldn't exist), it just doesn't fit with the rest of the film, so it was a wise decision to cut it.
Trying to spot new scenes is made all the more difficult by the fact that the UK cinema and video release and the TV versions were all cut to get a 15 certificate. For a full list of the different versions of the film I suggest the Internet Movie Database.
The multiple versions of the film are put on the disc by using seamless branching, which seem to cause problems on certain makes of DVD players, so it might be worth checking before purchase.
Sound/Video
This is one of the first major DVDs I know of that has both a DD 5.1 and a DTS soundtrack on the same disc, allowing for an easy comparison between the two - and I must say how surprised I was at the difference. I had heard DD soundtracks such as Saving Private Ryan and been mightily impressed, but the DTS soundtrack is even better. It's hard to explain why - I've heard people say that it is clearer for dialogue: I would describe the sound as "cleaner". Even without the DTS the sound is still superb, with the beginning scene where the terminator turns towards the camera before opening fire being the standout moment. Both the DD and DTS soundtracks could be included on the disc thanks to a new compression technique which means that the DTS sound doesn't take up as much space as on Saving Private Ryan (where the documentary had to be removed to fit the DTS soundtrack). Hopefully this will now mean that more films will be released with a DTS soundtrack with both Gladiator and Chicken Run to have DTS for R2 release this year. The soundtrack to the film is wonderfully effective with the theme tune one of the most famous around, the music tracks by Brad Fiedel all the way through help to set the scene and is especially effective in the action sequences.
I have read other reviews of the film which have been critical of the video quality of the film and whilst the quality isn't quite as perfect as the best transfers of new films (e.g. Blade, Out of Sight) it is as good as the transfer of most of the new films out there and is exceptional for a film that is now 10 years old. Both the sound and the video have been remastered for the DVD release and it shows what can be done even with old film stock, the deleted scenes don't look out of place at all. Overall a wonderful transfer.
Extras
When I first saw what was planned for the disc in terms of extras they looked superb. However, having watched them, I would have to say that they are not quite as spectacular as they first appeared. The commentary track is interesting, with comments from all the main people involved but it suffers from two problems. Firstly, it's obviously patched together from interviews, and most of these interviews are then repeated in the documentaries that also appear on the discs, and secondly, it suffers from the same problem as the early James Bond DVD commentaries in that there are so many people on the track that you don't get any sort of continuity, though least there is text on the screen to say who is talking.
The documentaries are your standard film company stuff, and I'm sure most people have already seen the making-of documentary. The making of the special edition documentary is more interesting, and explains why scenes were left out. However, the most interesting documentary is the one on the making of the theme park ride T2 3D (which I can confirm is nearly as good as Back to the Future) - it shows the amount of time and money that must have been spent to create a ten minute ride. However none of them are as well done as the documentary on The Abyss or the ones for the James Bond films which seem to be a bit more open in admitting there were problems with filming.
The 'Inside the Film-Making Process' feature is a large collection of interview clips and demonstrations of screen sizes and sound effects. The clips could have done with being stuck together into one long piece as some of them are rather short. Many of them are very interesting, especially the ones that demonstrate the amount of film that is missed with panning and scanning into 4:3 TV picture shapes. The other standout clips are those which show how layers of sound are added to a scene, but unfortunately these are quite difficult to operate as you have to manually change the soundtrack - they would have been better looping with the different soundtracks.
A very helpful feature is the THX set up facility which is designed to help you set up both the picture of sound systems that you may have. It is the first time I have seen this on a disc and it is very useful, especially for people who don't understand the technical details of their systems.
Of course there are the usual trailers, which are fairly interesting as they show the original terminator as the bad guy. There is also a huge number of storyboards which show the level of detail required on a film like this but I doubt that anybody will look through them all more than once. This could also be said for the screenplay, which is presented as text on a picture background and is pretty dull.
And last but not least are the amazing animated menus which actually look as if they belong in the film and are certainly the best I have seen on any DVD yet. There is a huge amount of material on the discs and there are enough gems in there for it to get 5 out of 5. Even the case looks kind of cool sat on the shelf.
Summary
This is probably the best overall DVD out there at the moment. There may be better films available, and there maybe better DVD presentations out there, but there is nothing that I have seen that can beat this on both counts. The release makes full use of the features available to DVD with top notch sound and video transfer as well as a large collection of extra features. It joins the list of DVDs that should come as standard with all new DVD players!
There are actually two different version of the DVD on release, a limited edition DVD-18 release which is just one disc and there is also the standard 2 disc set, both contain identical material.
This review refers to the R1 release of the film, the R2 release is out shortly and expected to contain all the extras listed above, although it may lose the DTS soundtrack..
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
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Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as the cyborg from the future in the most successful sequel ... more
of all time. Almost ten years have passed since Sarah Connor's ordeal began, and her son John, the future leader of the resistance, is now a healthy young boy. Ho...
Arguably the finest movie of its kind,Terminator 2: Judgment Daycaptured Arnold ... more
Schwarzenegger at the very apex of his Hollywood celebrity and James Cameron at the peak of his perfectionist directorial powers. Nothing the star did subsequently measured...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
![Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Two Disc Ultimate Edition) [DVD] [1991]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78521208.jpg "Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Two Disc Ultimate Edition) [DVD] [1991]")
Jan 29th, 2001
(Jan 31st, 2001)
exceptional by (7%):
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