The Terminator appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. On the surface, this Dolby Vision presentation became the best the film has ever looked, but it didn’t seem to accurately represent the source.
One change occurred in terms of the film’s color timing. This version took on a distinct teal overtone with some orange/amber as well.
While not overwhelming, this tint pervaded the image and altered the original. HDR did give the hues a bit of added kick, whether “natural” or not.
Other modifications related to sharpness. Like other recent 4K releases for James Cameron movies, this scan appeared to use AI to accentuate delineation.
This left us with an image that likely boasted more detail than ever existed on the original film. While this seemed appealing in the abstract and left a movie with little softness, it just didn’t feel right for the period.
A low-budget movie from 1984 should look more rough around the edges than this one, as the Terminator 4K often seemed like something shot yesterday. Though this could seem pleasing in the abstract, I didn’t love the way the film failed to come across as a product of its time.
Moiré effects and jagged edges caused no concerns, and I detected no examples of edge haloes. No print flaws appeared.
The image did boast a decent layer of grain much of the time, though some segments appeared to de-emphasize grain a bit too heavily. For instance, the nightclub scene in which Kyle and Terminator initially face off looked unnaturally devoid of grain.
Shots that did include grain still appeared likely to have used reduction techniques. This seemed especially probable during darker shots or those with heavy effects.
Blacks came across as deep and dense, while shadows offered appealing clarity outside of some murkiness in the shots affected by grain removal. Whites and contrast enjoyed a boost from HDR.
Ultimately, how much you like this image will reflect your tolerance for cinematic revisionism. Objectively, the film looked terrific.
But with an altered color palette, reduced grain and AI-accentuated sharpness, it didn’t resemble the movie as released 40 years. I went with a “B” as a compromise between what I saw and what I felt I should have seen.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the UHD’s Dolby Atmos audio also altered the original mix in a major manner. An adaptation of the 1984 monaural, the Atmos soundfield really opened up the track, as it offered a broad and engaging spectrum.
For a track compiled from a mono mix, Terminator offered a terrific soundfield. All the channels provided an active experience, and they added a solid sense of environment.
The score showed good stereo separation in the front, and the effects often came from all around me. The Future War sequences seemed to be especially effective, as they showed good split-surround usage and some fine breadth.
Audio quality betrayed the film’s age at times, but I didn’t think it put a tremendously negative spin on the action. Dialogue usually sounded reasonably clear and natural, though speech appeared somewhat thin and reedy at times. Intelligibility was never a concern, however.
A little distortion accompanied a few effects, but they usually seemed to be clear and accurate, and they offered some positive depth. Some effects were redone for the remix, so don’t expect all those elements to come from the 1984 source.
The score appeared nicely vibrant and bright, and it demonstrated good dynamics. Ultimately, The Terminator was a good reinvention of the original soundtrack.
Presented as a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track, the UHD also included the movie’s original monaural mix. Though I feared it would simply act as a “fold down” of the Atmos and use the newly-created effects, it appeared that the mono truly replicated the 1984 audio without revisions.
This meant the mono track lacked the breadth and depth and impact of the Atmos mix, as fidelity seemed significantly more “lo-fi”. And you know what? That was more than fine with me.
I tend to prefer original mixes, and that became the case here. The Atmos track offered more bang for the buck but the mono version reminded me that I was watching a movie from 1984.
And I preferred that. Granted, this created a mismatch with the “updated” AI-enhanced visuals, but I still enjoyed the period feel of the mono mix.
How does the 4K UHD compare to the remastered Blu-ray from 2013? The Atmos audio expanded on the 5.1 from the BD in a moderate manner, though I didn’t think it reinvented that wheel.
The 2013 BD lacked the original monaural mix. I felt happy it appeared here.
In terms of the UHD’s Dolby Vision image, both it and the 2013 BD shared the altered color palette. The hues came across better on the 4K due to HDR, but nonetheless they remained different than what audiences saw in 1984.
As noted, sharpness usually looked great, but that also came as a factor that didn’t seem to reproduce the source well. AI gave the movie “definition” that I doubt ever existed.
Do I regard the 4K as the most appealing version of Terminator on the market? Sure.
However, that’s partly because its Blu-ray predecessors came with their own issues. Given James Cameron simply refuses to release home video versions of his older movies that allows them to look like older movies, this probably becomes the best we’ll ever get.
I still find Cameron’s desire to make a 40-year-old low-budget genre flick as disappointing revisionism. I’ll keep it as my preferred Terminator but will nonetheless view it as a disappointment.
A smattering of extras show up here, and in the 12-minute, 58-second Creating The Terminator: Visual Effects and Music, we hear from writer/director James Cameron, Fantasy II VFX supervisor Gene Warren, visual effects pyrotechnician Joe Viskocil, producer Gale Ann Hurd and composer Brad Fiedel.
The show looks at some visual effects elements as well as the movie’s score. “Creating” gives us good info about effects and music.
Next we get a collection of seven Deleted Scenes that add up to nine minutes, 59 seconds of material. Many of these offer very brief cuts, such as a shot of the Terminator as he leaves the scene of his first Sarah Connor murder.
However, a few are more substantial. For instance, we get a piece that shows additional character interaction between Sarah and Reese.
These deliver interesting segments, though I agree that most of them deserved to be cut. I would have kept a short snippet in which Paul Winfield’s character departs the movie, but otherwise these bits were unnecessary.
We can view the scenes with or without commentary from Cameron. He covers the deleted shots well. He goes over some background information and generally relates why they were removed. The commentary adds some good details and helps make the section more effective.
Not found on the prior releases – or at least not on the four I saw - Closer to the Real Thing spans 11 minutes, 56 seconds. It brings info from Cameron, MIT postdoctoral associate Russ Tedrake, T3 director Jonathan Mostow, MPS project coordinator Earle Bishop, MPS test pilot interface designer Hideyoshi Izumi and T3 writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris.
“Closer” examines the circa 2005 state of robotics as well as
Also absent from the four discs I viewed previously, Unstoppable Force goes for nine minutes, 38 seconds. We get remarks from Mostow, Ferris, Brancato, Cameron, filmmaker John Landis, andT2 actor Edward Furlong.
With “Force”, we get another circa 2005 reel that discusses retrospective thoughts about The Terminator. Though we find a few production insights, this mostly acts as a semi-banal appreciation.
Note that the UHD drops extras from earlier sets. The 2001 SE DVD offered the best batch, as it gave us an hour-long documentary we’d never see again as well as an original treatment, trailers/TV spots and still galleries.
Both the 2006 and 2013 BDs included the “Creating” featurette and the deleted scenes. They also offered a 20-minute featurette called “A Retrospective” that goes absent here.
I assume rights issues caused the absence of these various features. Nonetheless, I miss them, especially since the 4K becomes the only version of the film to lack any notes from the movie’s actors.
While The Terminator doesn’t match up tremendously well with director James Cameron’s later films, it remains an influential, seminal and enjoyable movie. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in heart and energy to a degree.
The 4K UHD brings shiny visuals that don’t seem to represent the original film. The Atmos audio also delivers a major update, though at least the disc includes the 1984 mono as well.
Supplements offer a few good materials, though the UHD loses bonus pieces from prior releases. I’ll take this as the best Terminator yet found, but it nonetheless should’ve been better.
To rate this film, visit the DVD review of THE TERMINATOR
