HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: T2 Judgment Day - Skynet Edition

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: T2 Judgment Day - Skynet Edition

If you're on the fence, then I recommend renting. Worst case scenario, it costs you five bucks or so to find out whether the quality is worth the sale price.

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: T2 Judgment Day - Skynet Edition

Sam, you caught me there. But the more I think about it, the more correct it feels. Now, if there hadn't been a first Terminator movie, that number would go higher. But it's inescapable that this film simply repeats the plot of the first one - albeit with much nicer effects and a real budget. The first film suffers from having a great plot and story saddled with a horrifyingly inadequate budget. And I don't buy the argument for a minute that the first film was a romance by any means. It was first and foremost an action/scare film, with Schwarzenegger embodying a soulless killing machine that "absolutely will not stop EVER until you are dead!" And it worked great as that. This film works well because it expands the story and gives it some real toys to play with. (But don't ask Harlan Ellison about the story...)

Cameron, this Blu-ray has the video description track as an option.

As for versions of this on home video, let's see:

VHS Pan & Scan (available early 90s)
Laserdisc Pan & Scan (early 90s)
Laserdisc Widescreen (early 90s)

VHS Special Edition Widescreen ('94)
Laserdisc Special Edition Widescreen ('94)

DVD - ('97) (Theatrical Cut only - minimal features)
DVD Ultimate Edition (2000) (2-sided disc, branching for all versions, lots of goodies)
DVD Extreme Edition (2003) (2-disc set, Cameron/Wisher commentary, HD WMV copy of Theatrical Cut)

D-VHS (2004?) (Theatrical Cut only?)

Blu-ray (2006) (Theatrical Cut only)
Blu-ray Skynet Edition (All cuts via seamless branching, PIP, etc)

(And that's not counting if there was an HD-DVD version or any other fullscreen versions I don't know about.) (And you know there will be more...)


DaveH, I have to stand by my statements about the picture quality between the two domestic Blu-ray releases. I watched complete sequences back to back on both of them and noted more detail in the Skynet version. I don't know about screenshots, particularly as the trick here is to see these shots in motion - and almost every shot in the movie is in motion. On a 40" XBR2, the Skynet edition looks better and has more detail. If I were watching on a 65" monitor, I realize I'd likely be singing a different tune. But for those of us with 40" or less to work with, this isn't a bad option.

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: T2 Judgment Day - Skynet Edition

Johnny, I'm pulling the fork out of my gizzard, but I do hear what you're saying...

T2 essentially puts Sarah Connor in the position of Kyle Reese from the first film, as the "Cassandra" character that nobody believes but who is cursed with fatal knowledge that affects everyone. Her best moment in the film is the bit where she tries to kill Dyson, and becomes a human Terminator for a brief time. The "Terminator and the Kid" idea drove me crazy when I saw it in the theater at the time and still irks me to this day. I remember people at the time being annoyed with Edward Furlong and openly wishing the Terminator would just end him... And turning Arnold to the good guy was both an interesting plot idea and a necessary one to get Schwarzenegger back to the movie, since he'd been playing solid heroes during the 7 years between the films.

Keep in mind that The Terminator was NOT a hit when it got to theaters in 1984. I was at a CREATION convention in summer 1984 where James Cameron was practically laughed out of the room when he showed slides from the movie of Schwarzenegger's makeup. (He kept saying, "Oh, this one doesn't show it as good as it really looks, trust me." And of course, when I did see it on video, it looked about the same, given the low budget Cameron had.) After The Terminator was put out on home video and cable TV, it really took off. I remember kids in school in spring of 1985 all quoting the lines from the movie, and a friend of mine walked me through the videotape, showing how cleanly it starts, with Reese picking up exactly the items he needs, etc. The strength of the reaction to The Terminator was enough for Cameron's outline for ALIEN 2 to be accepted, at which point he and his wife headed to England to make that sequel. In the spring of 1985, I read Cameron's outline, which had a lot of stuff in it that people had speculated about for years, along with the new idea of the Queen. ("What's badder than the ALIEN? Its Momma") Based on the box office peformance of both ALIENS and even The Abyss, Tri-Star and Orion were willing to pony up enough money for the principals of The Terminator to return for a sequel. I think Cameron was delighted to have the proper resources to make the sequel, given the conditions under which he made the first one. He definitely made some changes, as you have noted, and he inverted the ending from the first one, but the guts of the film are essentially the same.

If I was thinking in terms of a sequel where they really just replayed the original without adding anything interesting, I might have said something along the lines of cough, cough, (Escape From LA), cough, but I figure that's a whole different can to be opening...