4K Ultra Review: TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991): James Cameron’s Tour de Force Scifi Action Sequel Film

Terminator 2: Judgement Day 4K Ultra Review

Terminator 2: Judgement Day 4K Ultra Review, a movie directed by James Cameron, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong, Joe Morton, and Earl Boen.

Street Date: July 17, 2018

Plot

Over 10 years have passed since the first cyborg called The Terminator tried to kill Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John Connor. John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance, is now a healthy young boy. However another Terminator is sent back through time called the T-1000, which is more advanced and more powerful than its predecessor. The Mission: to kill John Connor when he’s still a child. However, Sarah and John do not have to face this threat of a Terminator alone. Another Terminator is also sent back through time. The mission: to protect John and Sarah Connor at all costs. The battle for tomorrow has begun…

Disc Specifications

Run Time: 137 min

Format: 4K Format and Digital HD with Ultraviolet

Region: A/1

Resolution: 2160p Ultra High Definition

Aspect Ratio: 16×9 Widescreen 2.40:1 Presentation

Language: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™, French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™, German 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™

Rating: R

Video

Though I saw the film in-theater and countless times previously on home release formats, this is the best presentation of the film so far. I don’t think seeing a picture on the screen in theater can achieve what an high-end HDTV and 4K Ultra player can produce. There are no artifacts on-screen. Zero. The picture is bright and clean, with all the subtleties of a scenes’ background lighting coming through as the film plays. I think the film’s night scenes show off the quality of the transfer better than the day time scenes.

Audio

Just with the audio playing though the television, not the sound system, I had to turn down the volume as the film began playing. Introducing a new score into the film that fits the music and tone of the first filmm’s score was a risk and a challenge but x pulled if off. The audio is balanced, with smaller, ambient noise coming through when quieter scenes call for them.

4k Ultra Bonus Content

* T2: Reprogramming the Terminator  – 55 Minute – Director, cast, and crew, minus Linda Hamilton, speak about the film from inception, buying the film rights (it took years), the writing of script, the casting of the film, and everyone’s separate experiences filming the movie. Robert patrick story about being so fast that be caught the stunt kid on the bike after the mall shootout was humorous.

* 2 Commentary Tracks – 23 members of the cast and crew, including director James Cameron and co-author William Wisher.

* “The Making of T2” Featurette – 30 Minute – a basic BTS doc on the film.

* Seamless Branching to View 3 Different Versions of the Movie – self-explanatory.

* 2 Deleted Scenes with Audio Commentary – The Kyle Reese deleted scene is good as is the Terminator head chip scene at the gas station. It’s debatable whether or not they should have been included in the final film.

* Trailers – The trailer featuring a new Terminator being made between The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day is one of the trailers available.

Missing behind the scenes videos. Missing Guns & Roses music video for the film. The versions of the film are not included in the set as it says on the package. The criterion version would not be missing these materials.

Movie Review

Eclipsing its predecessor, Terminator 2: Judgement Day is better than The Terminator in almost every way expect the human element from the future. Since this is a different story, told from a different perspective (machines from the future instead of a man and a machine from the future), that is to be expected. Taking its place is a strong human element from the present in the form of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).

Sarah shows how much she has changed between the two Terminator films in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Her physical transition matches her mental transition – Sarah has turned herself into a soldier, someone that can handle the world as is, the battlefield underneath it (the one everyone else is blind to), and the war that may or may not come. She is a physical example for her son and a flawed mental one – she single-mindedly focuses on Judgement Day, the war with the machines, and winning war go the exclusion of almost everything else. Judgement Day and John Connor are all that exist for her in her life.

Sarah Connor is the most complex and conflicted character in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Sarah Connor is desperate to warn humanity and stop Judgement Day but completely lacks credibility (she’s a criminal and in a mental institute) and the other necessary tools to do so.

For all of Sarah Connor’s mental issues, for all of her flaws, she isn’t a cold-blooded killer. Her breakdown during the attempted murder of Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton) illustrates that fact. It establishes that there is an emotional and physical cost to stopping Judgement Day, one that Sarah Connor could immediately feel (think James Bond’s first kill in Casino Royale) and one that she is incapable of paying. It is a brilliant scene and Hamilton’s besting acting in the film. Effectively, Sarah Connor can not kill Adolf Hitler and stop the Holocaust from happening.

Sarah Connor carries the interior burden of a future war on her shoulders and the weight partially cracks her e.g. her nuclear holocaust nightmares and her extreme aggressive qualities. If you were the only person alive on the planet that knew that a world-encompassing war was about to engulf it, what would that knowledge do to your personality and outlook on life? Linda Hamilton shows the viewers one of the possible results of that reality in her portrayal of Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

The most momentous action sequence in Terminator 2: Judgement Day is the Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane escape scene. It is the build up – the viewer is shown Sarah Connor, her living conditions, and then the escape attempt – that make the scene standout. The viewer wants Sarah Connor to succeed, even-though she seems unhinged. The brutality of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, already presented by the bar scene at the beginning of the film, is exemplified when Sarah Connor gets her revenge on her jailers, doctors, and tormentors as she tries to regain her freedom.

After Sarah Connor, the T-800 (Model 101) Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the next best realized character in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

The T-800 (Model 101) Terminator is the only stable presence that has ever been in John Connor (Edward Furlong)’s life, yet that is not how their relationship begins. John first sees the Terminator as something that can be used, like a toy, exciting the youth in John, executing any childish whim that John’s mind conjures. It’s only later that John and Sarah Connor see the truth about the Terminator – that the faults of humanity do not exist within it. That the Terminator, a cyborg, is the most dependable and trust-worthy organism on the planet. Like some faulted fathers, the Terminator is extremely violent yet that is mere programming to be over-written with compassion and a new perspective on its existence (and those that it exists to protect.)

Besides Arnold Schwarzenegger, his interactions between himself and Edward Furlong, and Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick’s T-1000 Terminator is the character that the viewer wants to know more about but is never given information below the surface on it. Though his character speaks sparingly, Robert Patrick emotes through his facial expressions and mannerisms a menacing yet limited personality. It all comes down to Patrick’s acting and his deliver of lines in key moments during the film. Picking a skinny actor to be the foil of muscular Arnold Schwarzenegger was an ingenious choice. Both Terminators have the same strength level while the T-1000 presents as being slightly more intelligent (possessing a state-of-the-art processor that can innovate, anticipate, and react more quickly).

Like most high-end sequels, Terminator 2: Judgement Day’s action scenes and the stakes have been amped up from its previous film. The T-1000 is a representation of this fact. The entertaining, future action sequences in The Terminator are an sensory extravaganza in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Men and women are splattered with laser blasts in city battle fields and machines are blown to bits in pyrotechnics splashes, leaving the viewer wanting more, more, more. And guess what? Terminator 2: Judgement Day delivers it to the viewer, time and time again.

Disc Acquisition

Purchase Terminator 2: Judgement Day 4K Ultra here:

Rating: 9/10

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