Synopsis
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the most fierce and relentless killing machine ever to threaten the survival of mankind! An indestructible cyborg — a Terminator — is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the woman whose unborn son will become humanity’s only hope in a future war against machines. This legendary sci-fi thriller by Oscar®-Winning director, James Cameron, fires an arsenal of action and heart-stopping suspense that never lets up.
The Terminator is to James Cameron, as JAWS is to Steven Spielberg; movies that were ruthless and violent that simply scared the piss out of the viewers. The Terminator was an amazing achievement in 1984 that helped to propel James Cameron’s career into stardom (Aliens helped as well), as well as solidify Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career as a serious action star. The movie did a lot for both individuals and it helped to put the sci-fi genre in a more serious light, which Star Wars had started some years back. With all this said, let’s get down to what made this film work well.
The story that Cameron and his writers put together was a bit goofy — at the beginning. Having two naked men appear out of nowhere via time traveling had to be a tough way to start a studio pitch. Even as the story gets going and you realize that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s is a killer cyborg hell-bent on killing Sarah Connor you still see chances for this story to tank. What pulls it all together is a serious of flashbacks and stories from Michael Biehn’s Kyle Reese that turns this goofy story into a serious issue. Also, thanks to the wonderful talents of Stan Winston you get to see the gradual deterioration of the 101 the horrors of the antagonist start getting clearer and clearer. What pushes that along even more is how there is seemingly no way to stop the 101. By the end of the film you feel about as comfortable as Sarah Connor in the film, which just magnifies the entire piece. Even after viewing the film last night I still felt on the edge before the machine finally died. Talk about lasting effect.
Anyway, what’s also brilliant about what Cameron and cast/crew did is how the film was left at the end; it was left unfinished. I remember wanting to see the war, as it was truly inevitable when you see Connor drive into a stormy scene at the end. Regretfully, the war didn’t come until the third film and the third film didn’t really… well, it really didn’t do that well (don’t even mention that garbage that was the fourth film). The Terminator, while showing some age in the special effects department, is still a solid film and the best example of how great Cameron can be when he’s not trying to sink a ship or save FernGully.
As for the Blu-ray limited edition of The Terminator it was pretty good as a package. The video quality of the feature was good to great, as it fluctuated between scenes in the film. The good parts featured some grain in them, such as the daytime moments where you got to see some clear skies (see Sarah Connor riding to work for details). The great parts were nice and nearly grain free. For example, when Reese is being chased by the 101 via a car chase and you see some really gorgeous blacks. Another example of great is towards the end of the film when Reese blows up the semi. The red and black in the scene looks superb in 1080p; again, little to no grain. There’s an even divide with the quality of video in this release and it certainly is worthy of a limited release. The audio should make Dolby Digital freaks happy as it comes in 5.1 Dolby Digital (though sadly no HD mastering).
On the feature side of things you get some things you’ve seen before, such as an old retrospective of the film with Schwarzenegger and Cameron talking about certain moments off and on the camera. You also get some solid deleted scenes and an older featurette on the special effects. On top of these, you get the film in a nice book form (much like what Warner Home Video releases nowadays) that features a great booklet that provides a bit more information on the film. While I would have loved to see some new features, that’s not typical for re-releases like this; they’re more of an all-in-one from older releases.