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"It's in your nature to destroy yourselves"
James Cameron certainly knows how to push the envelope on the
proportion of films today. Yes, the word "epic" does come to mind.
As a director, this man has won the respect of many, and rightfully
so. Being a director is no easy task, and the bigger the film
gets, the harder the job has a tendency to get (Just watch the
"making of" feature for the film 12 Monkeys to get a good idea
of what I'm talking about). The man really gets things done, and
for that, he has my respect.
When I saw the original Terminator film, I remember being in
complete awe of all the action and special effects. In fact, I
liked it so much that I watched the film probably more times than
I'd like to admit. Arnold had such a captivating and commanding
presence that you couldn't help but remember him. In fact, I can't
think of any other phrase from a film that I've heard people mention
more than, "...I'll be back."
I'll keep the film synopsis short for the fact that, chances
are, most of the people have already seen or know all about the
film (the fact that it made $514.8 million worldwide theatrically
gives an indication how popular the film is).
Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) is the mother of John Conner, the
future leader of a revolt against the machines that attack the
human race in the 21st century. In the previous film, a Cyborg
terminator was sent from the future by machines to kill Sarah
Conner to eliminate her offspring. Now almost 10 years later,
another Terminator (played by Robert Patrick), that is far more
advanced than the previous, has been sent to kill John (Edward
Furlong) and anything that stands in its way. Once again, someone
else was also sent from the future to protect the Conner family,
but this time it's another terminator (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as Live Entertainment)
brings us T2 in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (and anamorphic
as well). This isn't the director's cut of the film, which would
have been ideal, but I don't find it too hard to look past that.
The quality of the video transfer is definitely impressive. Is
it top notch. Well, not exactly, there is a slight amount of grain
to be found, and the sharpness is not exactly up to the standard
of what I would like to see. Nevertheless, the blacks are deep
and dark, and the color is right on the money. Considering the
fact that this one of the earlier DVD's produced, in fact it was
the first commercial dual-layered RSDL disc, it really does impress
me. Now studios have become more skilled at authoring these beautiful
transfers, but this transfer holds up extremely well in comparison.
Basically, I was extremely pleased overall with the transfer.
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
Even more impressive as the aforementioned video transfer is
this disc's sound. The soundtrack sounds exactly how it should:
the dialogue, sound effects, and the score all sound great. Both
subtle and action sequences sound great. A subtle surround effect
that I particularly liked hearing was in the scene where John
and the good terminator go to stop Sarah from killing Miles Dyson,
you can hear the pick up truck's doors close before you even see
the truck, which really made me feel like I was in the room with
Sarah as the camera panned over to the truck The low frequency
effects sounded clean and right on the money. Is it the best sound
I've ever heard on a DVD? No, but it is one the better ones.
Also included is a Dolby 2.0 surround DVS (Descriptive Video
Service) track for the hearing impaired. Also included are English,
French and Spanish Dolby 2.0 surround options and English, French
and Spanish subtitles, plus English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The extras are pretty standard. There's a theatrical teaser and
trailer (the trailer is full frame), cast and crew bios, as well
as animated menus (which I think were the first ones ever on a
DVD), and a whopping 73 chapters to search through. There's also
a Live Entertainment "Coming Attractions" trailer as well as a
DVS (Descriptive Video Service) Promo.
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc
in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting Thoughts
All in all, chances are that if you like this film, you've already
bought the DVD. However, if you are new to this wonderful Home
Theater format, and you like the film, then I highly recommend
picking this disc up.
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