 |
| Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Joe Morton, Robert Patrick |
|
 |
Anamorphic
widescreen |
|
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
|
DTS |
|
|
Trailer(s) |
|
Featurette(s) |
 |
Documentary |
|
Audio commentary
|
|
Deleted scenes
|
|
Concept art
/ storyboards |
|
Multi-angle
feature |
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
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 [see
separate review] 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. 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.
Rather
immodestly calling itself the 'Ultimate DVD Edition', this package gives
itself something to live up to. But browsing through the two 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 The AbyssSpecial
Edition, at least as far as sheer volume is concerned.
 The
second 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 on disc 1:
it isn't the scene-specific live commentary we had all hoped for, but
rather consists of innumerable quotes from cast and crew from interviews
available on disc 2, 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 very disappointing to come across the exact same material twice.
T2 Ultimate Edition - Survivor's Guide:
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 2) to get you warmed
up
- Watch the movie (on disc 1), with the DTS audio mix if you have
the right equipment, and let the picture and sound quality blow you
completely away
- Watch 'More Than Meets the Eye' (on disc 2) to see the deleted scenes
with commentary and explanations why they were deleted
- Go to the Data Core (on disc 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. TIP: Don't
stop in the middle of a chapter, as it can be very time-consuming
getting back to a specific mid-chapter point if you try to return!
- 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 watchit again and again. You can turn on
the audio commentary track, but you've already heard everything that
is said there in the Data Core.
 Although
they were produced over a year ago for the R1 release, the animated menus
haven't dated a bit sice then, and remain very impressive. The animated
introduction to the menu screens on Disc 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 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.
Click here
to return to the front page.
|
|
| |
