DVD Reviews

The Terminator [Blu-ray Book] - Blu-ray Review

By Patrick Luce Jul 18, 2011, 18:04 GMT

In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can fulfill her destiny and save mankind. ...more

James Cameron’s classic sci-fi flick The Terminator returns to Blu-ray – this time packing a 25-page booklet to make it worth the double-dip. The movie looks solid on Blu-ray and is still entertaining despite the dated special effects.

Released in 1984, The Terminator was co-written by Cameron with Gale Anne Hurd and William Wisher, Jr. It starred Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, and Arnold Schwarzenegger - who would turn a role that only had about 18 speaking lines into a franchise character.

The film was made on a small budget of about 6 million, but would become one of the most iconic movies of the sci-fi genre and spur a franchise that has gotten a tad weaker with each sequel (Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day was probably the best of the bunch).

By today’s standards, the film looks and feels very dated, but still works as a straight-forward chase with a time-traveling story that will make your head hurt if you try and think about it too much. Thankfully, Cameron keeps the film’s pace so rapid that you don’t have much time to worry about all the time travel elements.

Basically, the story revolves around Sarah Connor (Hamilton) – who unknowingly is destined to be the mother of the man who will become the only hope for humanity after the machines rise up to take over the world.

Unable to kill her son John Connor in the present time, Skynet, the computer system that becomes self-aware and launches the war, sends a cyborg killing machine known as a Terminator (Schwarzenegger) to kill him before he can be born by killing his mother. In a last ditch effort to stop the Terminator, John Connor sends resistance fighter Kyle Reese (Biehn) to stop the machine and save his mother.

Back in 1984 Los Angeles, the Terminator rips a phonebook from a pay phone and starts tracking down everyone named Sarah Connor. His mission is clear: knock on the door; ask for Sarah Connor; and fill Sarah Connor with a generous amount of bullets.

While having a bad day at work, Sarah Connor discovers that women with her name are being hunted down and eventually crosses paths with Reese – who saves her from the Terminator’s first attack, but is locked up by the police.

Believed a crazed nut, the cops assure Sarah that she is safe and Reese’s story is just a bunch of nonsense. Unfortunately for the cops, the Terminator heads to the police station to complete his mission (and deliver what would become one of Schwarzenegger’s biggest catch-phrases).

The third act of the film is an extended chase with Reese and Connor on the run from the Terminator, but taking enough time to enjoy a one-night-stand at a hotel so that John Connor can be born nine months latter.

The film ends with a massive shootout between Reese, Connor and the Terminator, and with an ending that hints at the birth of the franchise - even if it would take Cameron about seven years to bring the character back to the screen.

Although the film was released in 1984, The Terminator is still one of the best sci-fi films ever made and features some incredible effects by the legendary Stan Winston. I have seen the movie hundreds of times, and still enjoyed every minute watching it on Blu-ray. The movie is ultra-violent, and Cameron makes sure the camera never flinches from the violence and feeling of dread.

Hot off of Conan the Barbarian but not yet a Hollywood superstar, Schwarzenegger owns every minute of screen time he gets, and is able to make the character one of the big screen’s most recognizable icons. His acting ability might be a tad limited in the film, but he is able to use those limitation to further develop his cyborg character – which seems to even benefit from the actor’s thick accent.

Hamilton and Biehn make the most of their characters, but aren’t given too much screen time to really develop (although Hamilton would turn Sarah Connor into one of the screen’s strongest female characters with the sequel). Deleted scenes demonstrate Beihn’s emotional growth with the Reese character as he struggles to deal with seeing the world before the machines devastate it.

The Blu-ray release comes with a retrospective, deleted scenes, and a look at the film’s effects and music. The addition of the booklet is without a doubt the main reason to purchase this Blu-ray over previous releases on DVD and Blu-ray. The book includes pictures from the film, production notes about the making of the movie, and a look at the cast and filmmakers.

While some fans might not want to purchase yet another version of The Terminator, this Blu-ray is worth checking out thanks to its booklet. The picture and sound are the quality you expect from the format, and the film manages to continue to entertain. The franchise might be getting weaker with each sequel, but the original is still the best and Blu-ray is the way to watch it.