TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY - EXTREME EDITION
© 2003 Artisan Home Entertainment

Mania Grade: A+
Disc Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: R
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Writers: James Cameron, William Wisher
Director: James Cameron
Distributor: Artisan Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 1991
Retail Price: $29.98
Extras: two-disc set; extended edition; THX optimized HD 16:9 widescreen; Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX; HD Windows Media 9; Dolby headphone track; English & Spanish subtitles; featurettes; commentary track; annotated track; trailers; insert booklet; DVD-ROM features
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TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY - EXTREME DVD

So, you bought TERMINATOR 2 one of the best action films ever made - on VHS tape, then the limited special edition laserdisc box set, then on DVD, then the "Ultimate Edition" DVD that came out a couple years back. Is it worth it to you to buy yet another edition of this movie, even if it's your favorite film of all time? Isn't this yet another attempt by a video label to cash in on an upcoming sequel by issuing a previous film in the series in a new package? Or is it something more worthwhile?

The answers are "yes", "yes" and "yes," as the film's creative supervisor and f/x coordinator Van Ling explains in his introduction in the insert booklet. Ling has since become the film's "guardian" through various video incarnations, including serving as the DVD's producer. Sure, with T3 poised to become one of 2003's biggest summer movies, and their Ultimate Edition disappearing from stock, Artisan was anxious to put out a new T2 in time to cash in. But to make the project interesting for himself and the fans Ling decided to make sure this Extreme Edition contained fresh material, starting with the most important piece: the film transfer itself, which presents the extended 152-minute version of the film without the tricky code input of the Ultimate Edition, in a THX-approved "brand-new, 1080p, 24sf High-Definition digital telecine" transfer, which is described in detail in the booklet. Unless you have the most advanced home theater video system on the planet, it's not likely that you'll be able to appreciate the technical beauty this produces, but it's nice to know that Artisan has gone to the bother of staying a step ahead of the game so that this edition of T2 will remain current when the marketplace catches up to it and all DVDs have tighter transfers.

The disc attempts to help consumers bridge the gap in other ways: despite a growing number of DVDs that feature high end audio mixes, most viewers still hear movies at home through two speakers, so there's a special Dolby "headphone track" specially mixed to simulate the Surround experience.

The edition's other major attraction is a rare commentrak by director James Cameron, accompanied by his co-writer William Wisher. Watching the film with these two key players allows for spontaneous memories and heretofore unrevealed tidbits of information about the production from their unique position at the center of the action. Though informative, their chat is relaxed enough to include plenty of amusing behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Whatever info/trivia slack they leave is ably picked up by the set's other extras, starting with an "Interactive Mode" annotation subtitle option. This gives the viewer a running feed of below-the-matte text commentary, an above-the-matte simplified explanation of how each effects shot was accomplished, and an icon that pops up occasionally to let you access a short scene-specific featurette, if you so choose, before getting back to the film. Many of the audio interview clips, artwork and stills are from archival material that Ling dug out just for this edition. Though the dataload doesn't allow toggling between audio and subtitle options, if you set it up right you can enjoy both the commentrak and the annotation at the same time.

Some parts of the T2: Extreme DVD experience are decidedly low-tech specifically, the disc packaging. Yes, this edition comes in a handsome metal sleeve, but it's wrapped around a rather undistinguished keepcase with a standard shot of Schwarzenegger on the cover. You might find the sleeve's fit kind of tight. I did, and could only get the case out with difficulty, scraping the edge of the plastic on the metal.

After the brilliance of disc 1, disc 2 is a bit of a disappointment. Its main component is the film in Windows Media 9 format. I thought this might be a bit of a breakthrough the first DVD that doesn't need to be played on a DVD player. Alas, you actually do need to access the film via a DVD-ROM drive. Other recommended requirements include Windows XP Professional, 512 Mb of RAM, a 3 GHz processor, 128 Mb video card maybe I'm missing something here, but if you have all this, what's the purpose of providing the film in this format? I may never know, since I haven't found a computer yet that will play it, and the disc 1 version works just fine.

The other disc 2 features are a mixed bag. "No Feat But What We Make" is a new 24-minute documentary that concentrates on T2's landmark role in the development of digital f/x. "T2: On the Set" is an 8-minute montage of behind-the-scenes clips. DVD-ROM features include a fun Terminator-themed photo morphing studio application, and another that you can use to somewhat simulate what someone would look like as a damaged T-800 unit. Both depend a great deal on your individual talents and finding suitable photos to use. The other DVD-ROM feature is an online Shockwave game in which you configure attributes of your own little robots, then send them off to battle other players. Though the game often encountered runtime errors, I managed to get through quite a few matches and found the competition to be a bunch of sorry losers.

In all, the first disc of this new edition kicks ass, but don't throw away your Ultimate Edition.