One must wonder when enough is enough when it comes to movie franchises like the Terminator series. Despite the most ardent of fans, the general public eventually becomes tired of all move franchises. That was even the case with the Star Trek movie franchise. Even a fine final film with the Next Generation cast went nowhere as did the Enterprise TV series despite the last two seasons which were excellent.
In order to reboot the franchise, new creative people had to be brought in to give the franchise a whole new look and a kick start, which is exactly what J.J. Abrams did with the Star Trek film. As a result, the general public and not just Trekkers are anxiously awaiting another film. The same is true for Terminator. The first two films were excellent and the third a bomb. Now comes Terminator Salvation, with a new look at the series. Will it be as successful in resurrecting the franchise? Only time will tell.
Film
Unlike the first three Terminator film which, while giving you a glimpse of the future are set in the present, Terminator Salvation is set in the future, specifically the year 2018, with Skynet having the remaining humans on the run. No need to imagine what the future will bring, it is all laid out for you.
The film focuses on two main characters, John Connor, as played by Christian Bale, and Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington, a totally new character, a death row inmate in 2003 who donates his body parts for science and is later brought back to life by Skynet. The film also co-stars Anton Yelchin ( who played Ensign Checkov in Star Trek) as Kyle Reese, the character sent back to the present in the original Terminator movie to stop the terminator and in the process, fathering John Connor. In Salvation, the resistance is continuing their fight against the machines.
While an important player, John Connor is not yet the leader of the resistance. His main goal is to find and save the life of his father, who the machines are seeking out to kill. It is here that the Markus Wright character comes into play. He meets up with Kyle Wright in Los Angeles but is unable to keep him from being captured by Skynet. He eventually meets up with John Connor and a segment of the resistance where he is discovered to be part human, part machine and created by Skynet.
John Connor violates the orders of the commanders and trusts Marcus Wright and travels to San Francisco with him to destroy Skynet’s headquarters and rescue the humans kept there, including his father. While I enjoyed the film, I found Christian Bale’s performance to be a little too wooden, a little too Batmanesque, even down to the deep imposing voice. I would have liked to see a more emotional performance than the one he gives in the film, with a little more depth. Sam Worthington on the other hand, was excellent as Marcus Wright and really dominates the film.
The film is filled with a ton of new terminators including terminator motorcycles which are quite interesting. However, there is no real resolution of any of the issues that needed resolving after the first three films. The film is essentially a place keeper and bridge to reboot the franchise for further films. In that regard, I didn’t find the film to be nearly as successful as Star Trek as I can’t say that we need any sequels to this film. Recommended as a rental only.
Video
I am not able to comment on how this release looks in comparison as to how it appeared in the theater as I did not take the film in during its theatrical release. However, I can say that this is a fine looking encode. The film has a very stylized look with a very muted color palette which looks almost bleached out with blooming whites. In this regard, it looks a bit like Saving Private Ryan. The images look desolate, trying to match the desperate conditions the human race is facing fighting for their existence against the machines. However, despite this appearance, clarity, detail, depth and shadow detail are excellent.
While most of the film has this stylized look, there is one section of the film where that changes. This is when Marcus Wright enters the control room at Skynet. There the look of the film is transformed, however briefly, featuring deep and inky blacks, bright and bold colors and a very neutral color palette with exceptional levels of detail and clarity, fully worthy of a 5 star rating. Overall, this appears to be an excellent encode that will surely please fans of the film. I was not able to detect any evidence of digital noise reduction or edge enhancement.
Audio
Bass junkies will love the audio of this release, which is reference across the board, containing scene after scene of demo material. You know you are in for some special bass response when the theme music kicks in at the beginning of the film. Da dum, da dum, da dum, really rocking the room. However, the audio here is not just about the bass. I found the overall fidelity to be reference as well, sounding incredibly rich and smooth with excellent transparency and imaging. Fell free to crank this baby up without fear of listener fatigue.
The balance over all 6 channels is top notch with the surrounds used aggressively throughout the entire film, creating a totally immersive aural experience. The sound of the aircraft moving seemlessly across the sound stage was a joy for the ears. This is one of the better sounding audio tracks I have yet to experience on Blu-ray and was a real treat and fully worthy of a 5 star rating. It is damn near, shall I say it, perfect?
Special Features
Terminator Salvation comes with three discs. Disc one is the Directors Cut of the film. Disc two contains the theatrical release as well as the supplementary materials. Disc three contains a digital copy compatible with MACs and PCs.
The extras include what has been designated as maximum movie mode, which contains a series of 12 very short clips about the making of various aspects of the film, including enlisting the air force’s cooperation with the film, building the various sets used in the film, the concepts behind the various terminators as ell as the CGI recreation of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the original terminator that appears in the film.
The extras also included two longer featurettes on the making of the film, “Reforging the Future whcih details how the filmmakers reinvented the franchise as well as “The Moto Terminator” where the design the the terminator motorcycles is explored. All of the extras are presented in HD.
The release is also BD-Live enabled and includes a compilation of 10 viral videos from the “Resist or Be Terminated” alternate reality game revealing Skynet’s secret plans, the first episode of Terminator Salvation Machinima series and a digital version of the first issue of the Terminator Salvation office movie prequel comic book.
Final Thoughts
While not exactly as successful a reboot of the Terminator movie franchise as was Star Trek for that franchise, Terminator Salvation is definitely worth a look for fans of the original three films. This film is rated as a rental only but the disc itself deserves a purchase.
