Stale Popcorn

[BLU RAY Review] TERMINATOR 2: SKY NET EDITION

There are some films that are rightly regarded as “classics” – these movies that, no matter what genre they are, near enough everyone knows and love. And these movies, surprisingly enough, are quite hard to review! They are so well known and loved what more is there to say?

So, basically, I’m not going to bother. you know as well as I do that ~Terminator 2 is an amazing movie. The action set pieces are stunning. The SFX are wonderful, and while possibly dated in places they really did push the standards to the limits at the time. Arnie is perfect as the “good” killing machine, Edward Furlong is a revelation as the teenage John Connor, Linda Hamilton transforms totally from the victim in the first movie to the hard as nails survivor in this one. And Robert Patrick is brilliant as the Porsche model t-1000 to Arnies tank of T-800.

And of course its all controlled completely by James Cameron, who is at his absolute best as a director here.

But how does it fair on Blu-Ray? Well, the video transfer is wonderful. Colours are natural, the blacks are full and the detail is high. I swear there were more details in the picture that I’d never noticed before! While it might not be of the same quality as a new movie, its still more than enough to show off your High def set to your mates!

Likewise, the audio is of a good quality. The dialogue is clear and the gun shots and explosions are pounding. Just what you want from a HD audio track.

Special Features

When released on DVD T2 was a revelation. There was so much packed in that is pushed the quality of DVD extras to a new level. While the Blu-Ray unfortunately isn’t as ground breaking there is still much more here to applaud.

First off, there are the menus. All of the loading screens emulate an interface with Sky net. and the main menu is this swirling “thing” (thinking about it, it’s probably meant to be the timetravel interface from the future) that’s very pretty to look at.

On top of this are 3 versions of the movie, the original theatrical cut, the 1993 special version with 16 extra minutes and the extended special edition that adds another 2 minutes (accessed by inputting a code – shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what it is!).

You also get the 1993 commentary featuring 26 members of the cast and crew, the 2007 commentary by James Cameron and William Wisher, all of the trailers and 2 deleted scenes.

And there’s the Picture in Picture content. And this is what might make you upgrade your DVD. There’s the “Visual Implants” mode, which gives you video on the making of T2, a “Trivia Date Overlay” which is basically a text commentary with trivia about the movie, “production Data Overlap” which goes into detail on specific stunt methods, “Linked Data Modules” which branches out of the movie to behind the scenes footage, “source Code” which shows the screenplay on screen during the movie, “Schematics” which shoes you storyboards, Query Mode” which gives you a trivia quiz during the movie and “Processor Tests” which branches out of the movie for mini games. All of these modes can be selected from the on-screen menu during the movie and an icon will show when different modes are available. honestly, this is one of the best uses of Pip I’ve seen so far!

While the Blu-Ray might not push the envelope as far as the DVD did, there is still much more here to commend and its such an amazing movie that the picture quality alone makes making the jump worth while. Add in the extra content, especially the PiP content, and it adds up to an almost but not quite essential purchase.

Popcorn Ratings Explained

Posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 9:38 am under Blu-Ray Reviews by Gareth.

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