- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English PCM 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1,
- Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: R
- Discs: 1
- Studio: MGM
- Blu-ray Release Date: May 10, 2011
- List Price: $34.98
[amazon-product align=”right”]B004SEUJKU[/amazon-product]
Purchase The Terminator Limited Edition Blu-ray Book at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
–
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Suspenseful, thrilling, and visionary, James Cameron’s (Avatar) 1984 sci-fi classic The Terminator spawned a host of sequels and even a short-lived television series a few years ago. While the revolutionary special effects may not seem as stunning as they once did in today’s CGI world, the film’s influence is still being felt in every science fiction action flick that has come after it. While its early-eighties sense of dread at the new world of connected networks and quickly improving electronic technology can only be looked at with a slight sense of bemusement in our socially networked society, Terminator will forever stand as one of the influences of such latter day classics as Ghost in the Shell and The Matrix.
The story finds a young and very muscular Arnold Schwarzenneger playing a cybernetic assassin from the 21st century. He’s been sent back to 1984 to terminate the seemingly harmless young waitress Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose yet-to-be-born son will play a pivotal role in the future war between man and machine. The only one standing in his way is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) a soldier sent back through time to act as her protector.
With its heart-stopping action, never ending suspense, and overwhelming sense of dread underpinned by a pulsating techno soundtrack, The Terminator is one thrill ride you won’t want to miss.
Video Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Terminator gets shiny new packaging in this limited edition, but sorry videophiles, if you were hoping for a brand-new transfer to go along with the fancy packaging, you’ll have to keep on waiting. This is the same old underwhelming transfer from the early days of the format that we’ve been complaining about for years. This low bitrate MPEG-2 1080p transfer is rife with source damage and compression noise, shows less-than-natural flesh tones, and is soft all around.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
This release gets the same PCM 5.1 soundtrack as the early version if its release. Although it’s certainly not authentic to the 1984 theatre experience, this uncompressed 5.1 mix remains a home theatre showcase, even with an occasional penchant towards overzealous use of the LFE. The surround channels are active from the beginning with all manner of sounds from ambience and music, to discrete sound effects like gunshots or screeching tires. The stereo spread across the front is good and wide as well with nice motion following the action. There is only some occasional crackle evident in dialogue.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
Apart from the beautiful new packaging in the illustrated Blu-ray Book, which includes production stills, essays, Terminator trivia, and information on the cast and crew, there are no new supplements in this set.
The supplements provided with this release are:
- Creating the Terminator: Visual Effects & Music (1.33:1; 480i/60; 0:12.58)
- Terminator: A Retrospective (1.33:1; 480i/60; 0:20.31)
- Terminated Scenes (1.33:1; 480i/60):
- Wholesome Sarah
- Wrong Sarah
- Lt. Traxler’s Arc
- Sarah Fights Back
- Making Bombs
- Tickling Reese
- The Factory
- Blu-ray Book Packaging.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3/5]
The Terminator is a great sci-fi film, one of the best of all time, so it is not difficult to understand why a studio in MGM’s difficult financial situation would want to keep reissuing it on Blu-ray. Unless you don’t already own it on Blu-ray or can’t find any of the previous Blu-ray releases for less, then I can’t recommend this purchase considering it’s the same old underwhelming MPEG-2 transfer even if the PCM soundtrack is fun to listen to and the new packaging is a fancy step up.
Additional Screen Captures
–
[amazon-product align=”right”]B004SEUJKU[/amazon-product]
Purchase The Terminator Limited Edition Blu-ray Book at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
