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| Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Joe Morton,
Robert Patrick |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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The Terminator: I need your
clothes, boots and your motorcycle.
Biker: You forgot to say please...
Two robots are sent back from the
future, one to kill and one to protect a 10-year-old future Messiah.
 T2
is a juggernaut. At the time, it was the most expensive movie ever
produced (Cameron must have a thing for that) and its legendary
CGI effects sparked an entire industry revolution. The whole thing
has an expensive slickness to it that can't help but entertain and
- to a certain extent - impress. And yet I find it a much lesser
film than the original The Terminator. What's worse, T2
uproots the brilliant logic of the original movie's premise by breaking
the paradoxical loop of time-travel and leaving the future suddenly
uncertain. The entire logic of the movies, their narratives' right
to exist is dictated by the fact that the future is set,
and there is no changing it. There will always be a nuclear apocalypse,
there will always be a machine that was sent back to kill Sarah
Conner, the machine will always fail, etc.
What is more annoying though about the sequel is that it has adopted
a self-righteously moralistic tone that would try and teach us something
about how wrong it is to kill people, or to watch movies about robots
who kill a lot of people. Almost as though Cameron is trying to
apologize for his earlier effort. The morals are delivered through
very pretentious voice-overs by Linda Hamilton in an annoyingly
one-note performance, and Arnold goes all sentimental as he learns
to understand why humans cry. The great strength of the film lies
in the first few action setpieces, which are guaranteed to take
your breath away and would have been an impressive climax to any
high-end action picture, and the liquid terminator details. Items
like the T-1000 walking through steel bars and being stopped by
his solid gun which won't fit, or his double-take as he spots a
window dummy with a metal head are clever directorial flourishes. |
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A movie-only version of the movie was
previously available for both Region 1 and Region 2. The 'Ultimate
DVD Edition' release from Artisan released for Region 1 in summer
2000 has two sides of a double-sided DVD (or two single-sided DVDs,
depends on where you buy it) loaded with extras and comes in a handsome-looking
but rather unpractical aluminum sleeve (replaced by a cardboard
sleeve following a re-release price drop) and an amateurishly designed
'collector's booklet'.
A Region 2 version has now finally been released following an endless
series of delays [see separate
review] . The only major difference with the R1 version is the
absence of seamless branching on Disc/Side 1 to allow access to
three different cuts of the movie. The R2 edition therefore only
carries the longer Special Edition version of the film, without
the added coda in the R1 'Easter Egg' version. (The added scenes
are available separately on Disc 2). There are no significant differences
between the various R2 editions beyond the packaging.
The movie was shot in Super 35mm,
so the theatrical release was presented at 2.35:1. The fullscreen
VHS release lost a little image along the sides but presented additional
material at the bottom of the screen. This release restores the
original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 in a new, crisp anamorphic transfer.
Colors are strong and well-defined, and though edge-enhancement
is occasionally visible, the picture is overall astoundingly sharp
and clear, perfectly capturing the high contrast levels of the movie's
cinematography.
The soundtrack is presented both in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 mixes,
both of which are excellent and create a fully immersive surround
experience with magnificent directional effects.
The THX 'Optimode' program is included on the disc, helping you
make sure your picture and sound set-ups are optimized for best
performance.
Quite modestly calling itself the
'Ultimate DVD Edition', this package gives itself something to live
up to. But browsing through the two sides/discs soon makes it clear
that the producers of this disc are not kidding: you'd be hard put
to find any DVD set with more content on it than this one. It even
surpasses Criterion's 3-disc Brazil set and Fox's Abyss
Special Edition, at least as far as sheer volume is concerned.
 The
first side/disc presents two versions of the movie: the original
theatrical edition, and a special edition featuring several scenes
that were later restored for TV and home video. A third version,
which adds yet another two scenes to the special edition is hidden
as an Easter Egg that is impossible to find without specific instructions.
The second side/disc reveals everything there really is to know
about T2. The material is presented in a similar way as the
extra material on The Abyss: all of the material apart from
the three longer featurettes are incorporated into the 'Data Core',
a veritable 50-chapter book that takes you step by step through
the entire conception, production, release and aftermath of the
movie. The material is very well organized and extremely well-written,
and it provides a fascinating and intimate if time-consuming look
into every part of the movie and its production history.
The audiovisual clips used in the Data Hub can also be accessed
separately, as can items like the screenplay and the storyboard.
This provides a way for those reluctant to invest a huge amount
of time in exploring the disc but would still like to see and hear
some sound bites and conceptual art without having to delve too
deeply.
'The Making of T2' is an entertaining half-hour documentary produced
at the time the movie appeared, that serves as a nice introduction
to the making of the movie. 'More than meets the eye' is a 20-minute
featurette that shows the scenes that were deleted and later restored
for the Special Edition. I found it more interesting to watch them
here than to watch the incredibly long Special Edition version of
the movie, that is too drawn-out for my taste. I found the theatrical
release somewhat over-extended to begin with... 'The Making of T2-3D'
is a promotional featurette that doesn't have all that much to do
with the movie itself, but that's sort of fun to see.
The only let-down on this release is the audio commentary: it isn't
the scene-specific live commentary we had all hoped for, but rather
consists of innumerable quotes from cast and crew in interviews
available on the other disc/side, edited together so the commentary
does relate to what is on-screen at the moment. It's not badly done
at all, and if you don't intend to go through the featurettes and
other extra material too much then it'll do fine. But for all those
people who love delving through a DVD until they've seen or heard
every last iota of information, it's a little disappointing to come
across the exact same material twice.
My advice for going through this jungle of extra features is to
tackle it in the following order to get the greatest enjoyment out
of this superb release:
- Watch the featurette 'The Making of T2' (on disc/side 2) to
get you warmed up
- Watch the theatrical release (on disc/side 1) and let the
picture and sound quality blow you completely away
- Watch 'More Than Meets the Eye' (on disc/side 2) to see the
deleted scenes with commentary and explanations why they were
deleted
- Go to the Data Core (on disc/side 2) and run 'Full Implementation'.
This starts the full story behind the movie divided into 50
chapters. Most people should be able to handle four or five
chapters at a time. Some chapters are longer than others but
all are interesting.
- Over the course of a week or two, keep going back to the Data
Core and access the Data Hub to find the chapter where you'd
left off.
- Once you've worked your way through the entire Data Core,
browse through the rest of disc/side 2 for the trailers, 'The
Making of T2:3D' and whatever other hidden items are left to
be discovered.
- Go back to the movie and watch whatever version you prefer.
You can turn on the audio commentary track, but you've already
heard everything that is said there in the Data Core.
 3D
animated menus have taken a great leap forward since Ghostbusters
and Alien. The animated introduction to the menu screens
on Side 1 bring you from the Cyberdyne logo straight into the Terminator
assembly hall. I still think the design will appeal to you most
if you're a 13-year-old boy, but the technical accomplishment here
is very impressive and suits the mood and visuals of the movie.
The second side/disc has an even more elaborate setup, as the camera
seems to fly past the Future War sequence into Cyberdyne headquarters,
where an elevator gives us access to background elements on the
movie. The animations run very smoothly and the user interaction
design is flawless, with clear navigation and excellent consistency.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Terminator
2: Judgment Day.
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to return to the front page.
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