Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The year is 2018. Judgment Day has come and gone, leveling modern civilization. An army of Terminators roams the post-apocalyptic landscape, killing or collecting humans where they hide in the desolate cities and deserts. But small groups of survivors have organized into a Resistance, hiding in underground bunkers and striking when they can against an enemy force that vastly outnumbers them. Controlling the Terminators is the artificial intelligence network Skynet, which became self-aware 14 years earlier and, in the blink of an eye, turned on its creators, unleashing nuclear annihilation on an unsuspecting world. Only one man saw Judgment Day coming. One man, whose destiny has always been intertwined with the fate of human existence, John Connor. Now the world is on the brink of the future that Connor has been warned about all his life. But something totally new has shaken his belief that humanity stands a chance of winning this war: the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger from the past whose last memory is of being on Death Row before awakening in this strange, new world. Connor must decide whether Marcus can be trusted, but as Skynet adapts new strategies to end the Resistance forever, Connor and Marcus must find common ground to take a stand against the onslaught to infiltrate Skynet and meet the enemy head-on.

And the saga keeps rolling. Remember how cool the opening sequences of Terminator and Terminator 2 were with the glimpses of the war on the machines? Well, this is sort of like that. I guess we haven’t gotten quite to that level of battle yet, but this dark future is still a fun popcorn ride that takes the series in a better direction than the last Terminator flick. Bale is solid as the hope of humanity and the story actually holds up pretty well despite some occasional production shortfalls. I wanted to like it a bit more than I did, but it was better than most of this summer’s big offerings.

Warner does a bang up job on the presentation for this one. Detail and contrast are excellent with close ups delivering reference quality fine object detail. Blacks are deep with plenty of shadow detail and the depth of image throughout is excellent. This film employs that noisy look that has become so popular with action films but it fits the gritty theme. The audio is nothing short of stunning with several demo worthy sequences that make the most of Blu-ray’s dynamic range. This is also one of the few Warner films with a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.

Like the recent release of Watchmen, Warner delivers a very cool Maximum Movie mode giving you a visual commentary that is seamless with the film playing. You also get a look at the production of the film and a digital copy for portable devices. This set includes both the theatrical and director’s cut of the film on separate discs.

While not the summer knockout I was hoping for, this one wasn’t nearly as disappointing as most of the other summer tent poles. Warner’s treatment here is outstanding making it an easy recommendation for fans of the series and genre.