The Terminator (Special Edition)
In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can fulfill her destiny and save mankind.
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Last updated: October 20, 2009, 8:45 pm
The Terminator (Special Edition) Cusomter reviews:
Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 523
(A Thorough Reviewer, 2009-10-18) THE MOVIE: 5/5 Terminator (or The Terminator, if you prefer) is and always will be an excellent movie. It expertly combines the two genres of science fiction and action. This movie was in my opinion James Cameron's break-through movie. After this, he made classic movies such as Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, and of course, Titanic. Terminator truly is a modern classic. It's one of those relatively low budget movies that made it big. You don't need to take my word of it: other reviewers have given it 5 out of 5 stars. THE DVD RELEASE VS THE BLU-RAY RELEASE The first DVD release of Terminator was released in the late 1990s. Even though it was widescreen, unfortunately it was non-anamorphic, which can look terrible on a modern widescreen TV (as it only fills the center of the screen and leaves 4 black bars). The audio was the original mono soundtrack, with all its nostalgic 1980s sounding music and dialogue that sounds... somewhat low quality (which was commonplace for a sci-fi B-movie) It's definitely a nostalgic experience in sound. Recently, I acquired the Blu-Ray of the Terminator. The picture quality was amazing compared to the first DVD. It was anamorphic widescreen and looks nice on a widescreen TV; however, it still isn't quite up to normal HD standards since it was shot on low-quality film. Still, it was a great video improvement. When I first watched it, the audio bugged me, and I didn't quite know why. It turned out that the Blu-Ray had used the 5.1 remix of the sound. It added new sound effects and made the dialogue sound normal. The audio sounded modern, completely different from the nostalgic B-movie sound. Now, call me funny, but I didn't like it. I missed the old, mono quality audio with the cheesy 1980s sound effects that had been replaced with regular, sounding audio and improved sound effects. In my opinion, it took away the warm B-movie feeling that the first DVD had. To top it all off, I found that the Blu-Ray didn't include the original mono soundtrack. The average viewer might like the Blu-Ray as it looks modern and sounds technically better. Others, like me, might love that warm, 1980s nostalgic experience of the DVD. The choice is yours.
(W. C. Frazier, 2009-09-28) This is a great movie, however blu ray shows a lower then expected resolution and it feels - especially in the opening scene like the studio did not try and remaster the negatives so you see all these old artifacts showing up on the film. Until its remastered for blu ray and cleaned up so its presentable in this format just stick with the DVD version.
(F. Jury, 2009-09-16) Terminator is one of the greatest movies ever made and is among the top favorites for almost anyone I know. This is the film that really made James Cameron and Arnold, stars in their field. An excellent story, with perfect theme music, made this an instant classic, one you can watch over and over again. A thrilling, sci-fi, action horror classic, with a bit of a love story mixed in. The only negative critique I've ever had about the film is the scene where Arnold removes the eye, and his face clearly looks like a mask. The deleted scenes on the disk are fun to watch but they are not re-edited into the film as they did in Aliens. I wish they had done that or given you the option too, because I really enjoyed it that way. Most of the scenes were taken out for timing or pacing and otherwise could have been left in. I particularly thought the Cyberdyne ending could have been left in. I find it really enjoyable to watch deleted scenes on older favorites like this.
(Dr. Feelgood, 2009-09-15) This film was new and somewhat different when it first came out in the 80's. Watching it now, on DVD, it still holds up, as a good piece of science fiction, with some good action sequences as well. Over all a good film, although, I thought that the sequel, T2, with the bigger budget, was a better film.
(Richard C. Drew, 2009-09-05) The movie, well, it's still great. This commentary is strictly on the BluRay version. Extras: Minimal Video Quality: Terrible. It looks like an old, damaged, partially burned film was used as the master. There are scratches, black marks - even jitters. More like a drive-in movie that was played 100 times too many. All that was redone was some of the text. The classic scene when Arnold stands up - in the left portion of the screen is this dancing black burn/scrape the size of a large rat moving up and down the screen. When Kyle lands in the alley, it looks like there are coffee grounds on the lens. It's that bad - seriously. The only part (and I do mean part) that anyone took time on was Arnold's front nude scene when he walked towards the punks, seeking clothing. You clearly see said "part" dangling and bobbing. Nuf' said. The opening menu reminded me of some cheesy fan website. The button audio was 10x louder than the background audio. Each time I arrowed up or down, I thought I'd blow a speaker. Even the rendering was poor - too few frames, so it's jittery. I picture someone at the studio yelling "Hey, I need an intern to learn BluRay mastering - here's some software, a video camera, some film and the keys to the screening room. Do me proud." DVD quality: Well, the menu froze several times for around two seconds. The opening titles froze for a second. The movie froze several times for a second or two. I have a new, version 2 BluRay player and around 20 BluRay movies. This is the ONLY one this has happened on. This is a minimal quality, no frills (not even a one page insert), low-budget production. To be honest, I think my DVD version is better (except for the audio.) Audio: Phenomenal. True 5.1 - the rumbles shake the rafters, gunfire and plasma rifle lovers can rejoice. Arnold's stoic accent thunders. Skip it.