The Terminator 4K - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Terminator



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
At this point I really don’t have to introduce The Terminator. Pretty much anyone who has any knowledge of sci-fi or pop history knows the general premise of the series, and can pretty much sound out the “dun dun, du dun dun” theme song without even realizing they’re doing it. Much like Star Wars before Disney’s over saturation, it has become a pop culture icon that EVERYONE knows about, leaving very few people who haven’t at least seen ONE of the movies of the years.
But back in 1984 it wasn’t such a done deal. James Cameron had pitched a low budget sci-fi film to the studio heads and was forced to get by with a whopping 6.4 million dollar budget (which even back that was not a whole bunch). Needless to say, the film drastically outpaced it’s budget, garnering over $78 million dollars at the box office, and cementing the great NEED to create a sequel, and much like Alien and Aliens, fans are hotly divided over whether this one, or Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the better film. Myself personally I’m a fan of the bigger, more explosive and action filled Terminator 2, but over the years I have gained a larger appreciation for the more low key horror elements of the first film.

We all know the plot, but here goes. Decades into the future mankind is on the verge of extinction. Computers have gained sentience (sort of prolific being that we’re not using AI in the remastering process of this disc) and taken over the planet, eventually hunting down and almost eradicating all of mankind. However, a single human being by the name of John Conner is able to unite the remaining scraps of humanity and turn the tides against the machines. Now the machines are on the defensive as the renegade humans push back against their oppressors, only to find out that the machines have sent a hunter killer android (machine with living synthetic skin over a metallic skeleton) back in time to find John Connor’s mother, Sarah (Linda Hamilton), and destroy her so that John will never be born. Realizing what they have done, the resistance sends back Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) back into 1984 on the heels of the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in hopes of taking him out before he can kill Sarah and wipe out humanity’s one and only unborn hope.

If you’re a fan of the Terminator series, the first film doesn’t have a ton of the lore filled out. There’s no multiple T-1000s, no liquid organic machines, and Sarah Connor isn’t the super tough warrior that most people remember her as. Linda Hamilton is a baby faced Sarah Connor, playing her more like a terrified scream queen rather than the old tough chick routine. The film plays out more like a sci-fi romance, with Kyle Reese inevitably creating a paradox within reality, being both the cause and the effect for what is to come in the future.

Simultaneously, The Terminator leans very heavily into horror motifs, showcasing Arnie as an unstoppable killing machine who shows no fear, no mercy, no remorse, just simple unbending focus on his mission. The last 20 minutes or so of the film really plays into that vibe, showing just how terrifying the Terminators actually are, vs. how over the top they become in later films. There’s no one liners (where there is, but it’s not the catchy, cheesy one liners that we’re used to in later films) and the action is pared down a lot. Humor is completely out the window and when you compared against all the sequels, it sort of feels out of place compared to them. That being said, The Terminator is also probably the most concise and logical out of all the films too. Reese explains early on that the machines are basically destroyed and ready to be annihilated before they send someone through time. Which also plays into the idea that this is a self contained story, with the very last of the machine’s terminators engaged in a one on one battle between the only human soldier to travel back in time with him. It’s simple, easy, and fairly self contained. Something the sequels sort of bypass as they retroactively re-write the whole battle between fate and human will.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Wow, has it really been 11 years since the last time we got a decent remaster for The Terminator? Well that seems par for the course of the Terminator franchise, as we all know how fans tend to get kicked in the ….ummmm, sensitive areas...when it comes to video quality for the series. Needless to say, even though I was excited to hear that The Terminator was getting a brand new remaster supervised by James Cameron, I was also really hesitant because, well, James Cameron was overseeing the project. If you don’t know by now, Cameron is sort of controversial and in true George Lucas style, likes to consistently tweak and modify his films decades after they’re done. But what makes me MOST nervous is that we were all excited for Avatar, Terminator 2, Aliens and The Abyss (which actually wasn’t too bad) and True Lies only for the AI DNR nightmare train to run overall all of them like an out of control monster. Was he just going to use the fantastic 2013 remastered aesthetic and spruce it up with HDR and call it a day? Or was he going to go full AI on us and give us wax faces, lost details and a fan base sobbing about the end of their childhood (I kid, I kid...kinda).

So how does it look in motion Michael? Well, not as good as I would have liked, but not as bad as I was fearing either. In fact, it actually looks pretty good most of the time. The film has been tweaked a bit to give it a more teal look that Cameron is obsessed with, but it’s not overly so. It sort of gives metallic lines a bit more creep factor, and the close up bits of weaponry and blue 40 watt plasma bolts a sort of chilling pop. Colors all over the disc have been amped up a bit, giving us richer blues, more clean reds, and some really nice black levels to enjoy. In fact, those scenes with Kyle Reese in the alley look fantastic, when in general they were sort of murky and grainy.

Now for the bad part. Grain has been kept MOSTLY intact, and by MOSTLY I mean that you can still see it. However AI tweaking has definitely been utilized as it seems smoother than ever before, with a sort of waxy look on faces that isn’t very natural. Everything has been sharpened a bit too much, with eyeballs looking unnaturally white, and even a few AI based quirks that are kinda laughable (there is a scene with Linda Hamilton with her sunglasses that has been darkened so much on the sunglasses that you can’t even tell that they’re glasses, and it looks like her head has two cavernous holes in them. Luckily in motion it doesn’t appear that bad, but when you freeze frame on it, you can definitely see what I’m talking about). Luckily there is no grain clumping or artifacting like we saw on the 2013 Blu-ray, but overall this disc is a little bit of give and take. It looks more defined, with better compression and some solid detail levels, but the AI tinkering steel makes it feel a bit fake and off. It’s in NO WAY True Lies level bad (I will forever curse that disc, as it is one of my favorite films and looks almost RUINED on 4K), and I’d probably put it a half or full star below The Abyss.








Audio:

I really have to hand it to Warner here. While we get the obligatory Atmos upgrade taken from the controversial 5.1 mix (and rightfully so, that mix has been an irritant to the Terminator purists for decades), but they also resurrect the original Mono track in DTS-HD MA lossless for the first time in my life time (that I can remember, I don’t remember the laser disc so I could be wrong) and it sounds fantastic. It’s gritty, raw and has a great sound for a mono mixed indie film. That being said, the Atmos track sounds really good on a technical front. It has plenty of punch and power, with plasma blasts resounding in the surrounds and from the front of the room, with the iconic “dun dun..duh dun dun” theme rippling through the sound stage. But all in all, I have to give the 2.0 track the edge here. Some remixes sound really good and I have no problem being a non purist, but the 2.0 track outclasses the Atmos’s controversial issues hands down, giving it a more authentic feel. While I may not have been excited about the video encode, having the 2.0 split mono track available in lossless is a HUGE deal, and the one I'm giving the 4.5/5 score to.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Resurrected!: Optional Commentary with James Cameron
• Creating the Terminator: Visual Effects and Music
• Resurrected!: The Terminator: Closer to the Real
• Resurrected!: Unstoppable Forece: The Legacy of Terminator

Final Score: ​

The Terminator is probably one of the most iconic franchise leaders of all time, catapulting Arnie to superstardom, and creating a long last franchise that has spawned multiple sequels (with various results), a TV show, pop culture Comicon super fandom, and the amazing feat of being basically a George Lucas style indie “horror/sci-fi” film that became so much more. The 4K UHD disc is a bit of give and take, with some definite wins (more defined picture, the original theatrical audio mix) and just as many steps back (the problematic use of AI tinkering for the remaster). But overall this is a pretty solid upgrade for fans, though one that definitely leaves room for improvement (is that a shock with Terminator films though?). Still recommended as a solid watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Lance Henricksen, Earl Boen, Bill Paxton, Brian Thompson
Directed by: James Cameron
Written by: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French, German, Italian, Spanish, DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Czech DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 107 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: Novebmer 19th, 2024

Recommendation: Very Solid Release

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. To me this one and the 2nd one were the best in the franchise.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Awesome to see this land in 4K!!!

I wish they'd just give us the video, raw, as on the original film. But, oh well.

I heard Arnold interviewed by Jocko Willink. He said that when he first tried to break into Hollywood, he was told his accent was going to keep him on the outside looking in. But, his accent was the very thing that Cameron fell for... made him a legend!

 

[Michael Scott]

Awesome to see this land in 4K!!!

I wish they'd just give us the video, raw, as on the original film. But, oh well.

I heard Arnold interviewed by Jocko Willink. He said that when he first tried to break into Hollywood, he was told his accent was going to keep him on the outside looking in. But, his accent was the very thing that Cameron fell for... made him a legend!

lol, yeah Cameron likes to tinker almost as much as Lucas

 

[Todd Anderson]

lol, yeah Cameron linkes to tinker almost as much as Lucas

Both have kicked the hornets nest a few times. Tho, I don’t know enough about the processes and the reasons for them to understand if they’re making good decisions or bad.