Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Skynet Edition) – Blu-ray Review

He’s back. Arnold returns to high definition and this release features something old, something new, and something Blu.

The picture looks great to me, but all of the special features are going to be very familiar to fans - even though they’ve been gussied up with new menus. However, those new menus might be a bit busy and there have been reports of some players having trouble with the disc. It’s been eleven years since Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) encountered and defeated an assassin from the future. The robotic assassin, dubbed a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), was sent to kill her because her son, John, would be the leader of the resistance that was fighting a machine dominated future.

In those eleven years, Sarah has been committed to an asylum because of her belief in the killing machines and a teenage John (Edward Furlong) has been placed in foster care. Two more Terminators arrive from the future. One looks exactly like the model, the T-800, which was sent to kill Sarah in the first place. However, this time the future John Connor (Michael Edwards, eerily looking like Christian Bale) has sent the machine back to protect his younger self. The second is an improved model, dubbed the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), who has been sent back to kill the young John Conner. The T-1000 is made of a liquid metal and can take on the appearance of anything it touches. It’s also disguised itself as a policeman. Both Terminators track John to a mall and a battle ensues, with the T-800 protecting him from the T-1000. After the mayhem, the T-800 imparts that the most likely course of action for the T-1000 would be to kill Sarah and take on her identity to trick John. John orders the T-800, who has been programmed to obey him, to protect his mother. Of course, she’s frightened out of her wits by the image of her old attacker but begrudgingly goes with him when the T-1000 attacks the asylum. She probes the Terminator to find out the origin of Skynet and he tells her that a scientist named Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton) will create the humanity destroying supercomputer. Sarah breaks away to make sure that Dyson can’t do it and the T-800 and John pursue her to keep her from killing Dyson. However, the T-1000 is never far behind and will make sure that John is killed to protect the future domination of the machines.

It’s a rarity when the sequel is superior to the original film, but that’s just the case with Terminator 2. The film would cement Ah-nuld as an action hero icon and would become his signature role as the Terminator. It would also become a template for the summer blockbuster movie, loads of action and high dollar special effects. Time has dulled some of the effects, but I can remember being in awe with the T-1000 melting effect. It certainly is head and shoulders about anything done in the first film. Terminator 2 is a groundbreaking film. Not only did it cement Arnold, but it also featured a great role for Linda Hamilton and would become one of the biggest female empowerment roles of the time period. Young Edward Furlong also shines and I’ve always thought that Joe Morton does a great turn as well. Robert Patrick would bring the T-1000 to steely life when he wasn’t a glob of liquid metal. T2 has been on Blu-ray before and I’ve always heard some bad things about that release. This release does feature a newer transfer (the something new hinted at in the teaser) that appears, as I don’t have the first release, to be an improvement. All of the special features have been on previous releases; they’ve just been gussied up with Picture-in-picture and a new menu (I guess another something new if we’re counting). However, that new menu feels a bit busy to me and even on my 52 inch television I had to squint to make out what some of the stuff says. Our DVD editor got a copy of the disc and was not able to make the PiP features work on his standalone player. I had no problem on my PS3, but wasn’t exactly sure if some of them were really working. I turned on the screenplay option, it put a box in the corner of the screen, and nothing appeared in it in the bit I sampled. The storyboard function worked, but more on those options in the special features breakdown. My machine did download some updates, or so I suspect. I say suspect because it’s all done with the gag of opening Skynet, so I’m not sure if it really did download something or it if was just the conceit of loading the menu.

The film does feature three cuts of T2. You get the theatrical cut, special edition cut, and the extended special edition cut after you put in 82997 [Judgment Day] in the code box. The extended special edition cut is the same as the special edition cut but adds the future coda deleted ending to the film. Terminator 2 is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). There are two commentaries. The first is a production commentary, hosted by creative supervisor Van Ling and features many members responsible for making the film. The second commentary features writer William Wisher and director James Cameron. Great tracks, but both of them are from other releases.All of the special features are in high definition. You can watch the special edition in several “interactive modes.” “Visual Implants” lets you see a making of documentary using the PiP functions (providing your player is equipped with Profile 1.1). “Trivia Data Overlay” puts up trivia and text commentary, “Production Data Overlay” provides textual information about shot methodologies used in shooting the film, “Linked Data Modules” allows you to link outside the film to behind-the-scene sideshows with audio, “Source Code” puts up the screenplay, “Schematics” puts up storyboards, and “Query Mode” puts up a quiz you can take during the film. Next is a link to “Ancillary Data” on the menu bar. This section has five trailers. “Terminated Data” are two cut scenes (the T-1000 searching John’s room and the Future Coda happy ending). The “Dyson Protocol List” is the Blu-ray credits of the disc. The disc is also BD-Live equipped (if your player is Profile 2.0 that is) for “Skynet Access” (which was not available at the time of this writing). The disc appears to be an upgrade from the previous release, but the special features are on a busy menu that can be hard to read at times. It’s all interesting, but you’ve seen all of the special features before. It’s a good release, but not definitive. If you don’t have it in your collection it can’t hurt to pick up this release but others might want to give it some consideration.