Terminator Salvation: Director's Cut Digital Copy Special Edition Blu-ray Disc Set Review

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Title: Terminator Salvation: Director’s Cut: Digital Copy Special Edition

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc Region: A

Genre: Sci-Fi Action Thriller

Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, and Helena Bonham Carter

Writers: John Brancato and Michael Ferris

Director: McG

Extras: Maximum Movie Mode With Director McG, including picture-in-picture focus point featurettes, Storyboard Comparisons and Terminator Mythology Timeline, The Moto-Terminator and Re-Forging The Future Featurettes, Digital Copy for iTunes and Windows Media Player Devices (Expires December 1, 2010)

Languages: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and French (Dubbed In Quebec) and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound For Theatrical Version Only.

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Three-Disc Elite Blue BD Case Within A Glossy Slipcase

Chapter Stops: 27

Sound: DTS-HD MA 5.1 theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2009/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2009

Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: R For Director’s Cut & PG-13 For Theatrical Cut

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

In the year 2018, the War Against the Machines rages on and John Connor, the prophesized leader of the resistance, has his followers and then those in command who still doubt his role in the war other than seeing him as an asset. On the eve of what resistance command believes to be a miracle that will end the war once and for all, Connor is troubled because events his mother warned him about have been altered. In destroying Cyberdine Systems more than twenty years before, all they managed to do was delay Judgment Day, not stop it. His mother’s tapes no longer answer lingering questions about an altered future that has brought about the advent of the T-800 faster than was predicted, left a cyborg that believes he is human as a prisoner, and put a young Kyle Reese in danger. If Connor can’t rescue him before the Resistance attack, the future will be reset again, but in order to do so he must put his trust in the captured Cyborg, who is his only chance to get into Skynet Central and discover the truth about what is happening.

By this point in the Terminator franchise, the logic factor regarding a malevolent artificial intelligence repeatedly failing to kill off the one person destined to defeat it has to be chucked out the door because I can’t imagine how humanity could survive a global nuclear holocaust and then run around in what I imagine would be terribly radioactive remains of former American cities and not die from radiation poisoning. In the original and even the second film, we were only given enough information about the future to suspend our disbelief, but now we have to believe a teenage boy and a mute little girl can rig traps strong enough to crush a robot in a burned out Los Angeles. I’m sorry, I don’t believe they would survive just being in a post nuclear LA let alone being strong enough to rig traps carrying debris heavy enough to crush a Terminator, a robot that with conventional weapons used against it by trained military personnel is hard to take down. So my first advice is don’t think about the logic of the situation because in the end this is a popcorn movie and while it is somewhat tainted by Christian Bale’s recorded audio meltdown that was brilliantly parodied on Family Guy months before the film was released, I think Terminator Salvation is definitely one of the better summer sci-fi action pictures of the year and far more entertaining than Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines. In fact if there was a bit more character development and a bit of screenplay tweaking you could have gone straight from Terminator 2: Judgment Day to Terminator Salvation and I think the franchise as a whole would be better off for it.

Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, and Anton Yelchin are the standouts in the film with everyone else just kind of playing second fiddle. There is a fantastic cameo in the film that elevates it immediately higher than if it were not present, and McG is already used to working with action and effects pictures from his two entertaining Charlie’s Angels films and thus he keeps the pace going and throws in enough cool terminators and some genuine drama to keep one glued to their seat. In short, Terminator Salvation is a step in the right direction for the franchise, which got splintered a bit by the alternate timeline created in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series, which launched itself after the events of the second film and ignored the third film completely. Now that that TV series is over, I think we can pretty much accept the four feature films as cannon and hope that the next two films to follow in what is planned as a second trilogy will give us a satisfactory resolution to the series as a whole, which the second film delivered already on it’s own had they not made another sequel.

Warner Home Video’s Blu-ray Disc edition of Terminator Salvation is nothing short of excellent. It contains two beautiful transfers on separate Blu-ray Discs. I believe the Director’s Cut is only available on Blu-ray and is approximately three minutes longer. Both versions are presented in widescreen 1080p/24fps VC-1 encoded (2.4:1) aspect ratio. The Director’s Cut for some reason appeared darker to me in terms of overall picture quality so much that I had to shut every light out in order to appreciate the detail, which is something I usually never have to do when it comes to screening a Blu-ray Disc, DVD, or watching television in general. The theatrical cut wasn’t too dark at all and I found I could have the lights on all around me and not have feel as though I was missing any detail. Both versions feature an excellent English DTS Digital 5.1 High Definition Lossless Master Audio Soundtrack that is one of the best I have ever heard. It’s loud, it’s gritty, and it brings one right into the world of the film the way sound can capture the imagination even in the days when there were no televisions and radio was the primary form of home entertainment. The theatrical cut also features French (Dubbed In Quebec) and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks and both include English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as French and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options.

The Director’s Cut Blu-ray Disc is BD-Live enabled and the first 100,000 registrants using the BD-Live enabled disc will hear the first ever audio-enabled Live Community Screening and ask and hear McG answer live questions during the screening, which will occur on December 5, 2009. Other BD-Live features include a compilation of ten viral videos from the “Resist or Be Terminated” alternate reality game revealing SKYNET’s secret plans, the first episode of the Terminator Salvation Machinima Series and the first issue of the official movie prequel digital comic.

The Blu-ray Disc containing the Theatrical Cut has Maximum Movie mode where Director McG literally appears on screen and discusses the film, even freeze framing it at specific points to reveal interesting technical and anecdotal elements. The revelation of the unfilmed alternate ending for the film would have been interesting, but I think it would have destroyed the series in a way that would leave the fans more shell shocked than the ending of Alien 3. Storyboard Comparisons and a Terminator Mythology Timeline are also enabled with specific picture-in-picture focus points available to be viewed separately in full 1080p HD (1.78:1) aspect ratios. These featurettes are listed as follows:

Digital Destruction (2:30)

Enlisting The Air Force (2:48)

Molten Metal And The Science Of Simulation (2:09)

Building The Gas Station (2:52)

Creating The VLA Attack (2:46)

Exploding Serena’s Lab In Miniature (2:38)

Hydrobots (2:19)

An Icon Returns (3:01)

Terminator Factory (2:17)

Stan Winston Shop (3:03)

Napalm Blast (2:46)

Additional featurettes covering the making of the film, specifically re-imagining the look of the future war (19:00) and a featurette covering the Moto-Terminators (8:33) wrap up the extra value features on the Theatrical Cut Disc and when watching the film in Maximum Movie Mode, the running time length increases to nearly two hours and two minutes.

The third disc is a DVD containing a Digital Copy for iTunes and Windows Media Player Devices (Expires December 1, 2010). Terminator Salvation: Director’s Cut: Digital Copy Special Edition will debut on Blu-ray Disc on Tuesday December 1, 2009 courtesy of Warner Home Video and despite any logic flaws within the film itself, I still found it to be very enjoyable and I highly recommend it.

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