Released in 1984 (December 20th 1984 in Australia), James Cameron's the Terminator would not only become an iconic sci-fi film in its own right but would also launch the careers of not only Cameron but its star Arnold Schwarzenegger where to this day it would become one of his defining screen roles.
In the year of darkness 2029, the Machines rule the Earth with what's left of Mankind engaged in a bloody war with their mechanical masters for survival but the powerful computer Skynet isn't about to take this lying down and sends a "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, mother of his hated enemy John before he's even born but the resistance aren't about to let Skynet win by cheating the game, not if they have anything to say about it.
Though it has a small budget, Cameron throws his all into his direction of the film, showing his early flair for effects, character, heart and excitement that would later come to fruition with his 1986 sci-fi sequel Aliens, Arnold is an inspired choice for the role as his muscular build and physical presence sell the idea of the unstoppable Terminator who "can't be bargained with, can't be reasoned with, doesn't feel pity or pain or remorse and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."
The Image:
One Word: WOW
I could end it there but really, this is an image that has to be seen to be believed as it looks absolutely spectacular, hard to believe it was shot on such a low budget as it almost looks like a new film.
The transfer also has a very natural feel to it as well, it doesn't feel to artificial nor does it feel like how a film today might look due to extensive digital color grading, nope the film has a natural look to it with the night time scenes looking great with the night lights on the streets and the day time scenes looking nearly spotless with many details of the streets, signage and clothing becoming apparent as you watch the film.
The transfer also has a nice grainy feel to it as well, adding to your feeling that your watching a new transfer that feels like a proper film print rather than a HDTV broadcast print might look, its clear Cameron had a hand in creating this transfer for the film and he delivered the goods once more as this is a marvelous restoration that makes the DVD release of the film look murky in comparison.
The Sound:
Presented in DTS-HD 5.1 sound, the Terminator also sounds great with dialogue, music and sound all sounding crystal clear.
The mix seems to be based off the 2000 5.1 mix created for the film which changed several sounds and re did all of the gun shot sounds, most likely due to the fact that the original gunshot sounds were either lost and weren't in a high enough quality to be added to the 5.1 mix, nevertheless the new gun sounds aren't too distracting and the mix also allows Brad Fiedel's great score for the film really shine as well, more than it ever did on the film's DVD release.
The Extras:
Sadly here is where the disc falls completely flat on its face for as great as the visuals and sound mix are, there are only a few extras on this disc so here we go:
Creating the Visual Effects and Music: Taken from the feature length making of "Other Voices" created in 2001, this looks at the creation of the film's visual effects and music score, within the "Other Voices" doco they were great but on their own they're not as good and makes you miss the full doco from the DVD release.
Creating the Terminator - A Retrospective: The only doco material to be ported over from the DVD release, this is a retrospective featurette from 1991 with Cameron and Arnold, the two have a natural and easy going chemistry between them that makes this featurette fun to watch, the feature also has a trailer for the film before it starts which makes it feel like it was taken from a VHS release of this featurette as the DVD version went straight into the featurette.
7 Terminated Scenes: 7 Deleted Scenes round out this very slim and very weak selection of extras, the scenes are okay with the final one helping to plant the seeds for Terminator 2 but all of them are best left out as the pace and structure of the film would be ruined if they were there, much like the longer version of Terminator 2 did when it had several scenes restored that were best left out as the film functioned just fine without them.
And that's it for extras and what a smegging shame that is as the DVD release had still galleries, early screenplay drafts, the full "Other Voices" doco, a commentary from Cameron on the deleted scenes and trailers and TV spots which included a teaser trailer for the film that featured some of Cameron's artwork and was narrated by none other than Optimus Prime himself Peter Cullen.
But what would've been REALLY cool is a new Audio Commentary track featuring Cameron and Arnold and it would've been fantastic to see these two men sit down together and reminisce about the film that made their name though given the scheduling required to make it happen it would've only been a dream but still it what this new release needs as well as a re-production of the original mono mix from 84 like the recent Blu-Ray release of Jaws had both its original and new sound mixes for fans.
Overall:
Despite an outstanding video transfer and sound mix, a near complete lack of extras really holds this disc back from being something special as the new transfer really gives you a feeling of what might have been if Cameron had been involved with this release as he was with the recent Blu-Ray of Titanic which was a near faultless release and one of the year's finest but oh well you can't win them all but still if you don't have the film on Blu-Ray then this release is the one to pick up.
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