Terminator 2: Hands of Fate

I can loathe T2 no more. THIS edit is a must have! All the cuts are clean and keep the film flowing nicely. I would personally liked to see a few more things cut of the Terminator acting human, but you have removed plenty as it is. You MUST give this edit a watch! I am not sure why the score is so low for this, I am giving it a well deserved 10.

T2 is one of the best action/sci-fi movies ever. I always considered the "Bad to the Bone" scene and the various cheese to be an annoyance, but they weren't deal breakers. However, after watching this edit, it becomes immediately obvious how changing the scene in the bar completely alters the tone of the film up until John meets the T-800. When he first sees him at the mall, John is scared of Arnie's Terminator, as he should be, and the viewer is unclear on the T-800's intentions as well. This is a major improvement, and is the way it should've been all along. I'm glad most of the cheese is gone, but there's still just a little left (just about the right amount).

The audio and video editing is top notch, and the amount of work that went into reworking the bar scene is really impressive. As always, ThrowgnCpr dazzles with his amazing menu screens!

Highly recommended edit!!

Audio/Video Quality 10: The quality of the 1280x720 mp4 is lovely.

Visual Editing 10: A great job here. ThrowgnCpr has used his/her own personnal taste as to what extended-cut scenes to use or not use and luckily I loved what was kept and didn't miss what was cut. All the editing was nicely done and the many removals of cheesiness were very welcome. The edits themselves are numorous and well executed.

Audio Editing 10: Sensational! The biker bar redub is inspired and worth the 'price' of admission for this fanedit alone. It not only changes our perception of Arnie's character but it changes our perception of his performance. All other audio editing was smooth and slick.

Narrative 9: I've knocked a point off for narrative as while I felt the vast majority of changes were an improvement... I thought that the removal of some of the early Sarah footage portrayed her as a slightly less physically threatening character. In the original it's made pretty clear that anybody who turns their back on Sarah is likely going to visiting the emergency room. In this cut she's just a bit angry until we see her escape. This didn't spoil my experience, as I've seen the official cut a gazillion times and have a well formed idea of who Sarah is. But I wonder about first time viewers?

Enjoyment 10: In all honesty this is probably gonna be the cut I watch in future. The story feels fully fleshed out like in the extended cut but less bloated. I was surprised by quite how much could be done to improve what some might consider a masterpiece already.

Watched this with my roommates last night, had a blast. Cheese cutting went over well.

I much prefer the theatrical cut of T2, Special Edition is too long. But for anybody who loves the SE this edit should be right up your alley.

Editing was smooth. The only nitpick is during the Kyle dream sequence I could hear the cuts quite clearly. But it was a dream sequence so it helped the atmosphere some.

The new music at the bar was awesome, 100% helps to set the tone and keep the suspense going.

A/V quality - 10
Editing - 10 visual, 9 audio
Narrative - 8
Enjoyment - 9 (10 theatrical)

Recommended drink: Judgment Day

August 14, 2009 @ 8:08 pm

Review by Captain Khajiit

**Warning!**

**This review contains spoilers!**

As a serious, no-nonsense edition of the film, this is virtually perfect. One of the intentions was to “create a new experience” and the faneditor certainly succeeds here. A series of subtle purposeful cuts gives the movie a much darker, grimmer feel, akin to that of the original. The scenes with Sarah in the mental hospital are now free of the inconsistencies of the original, and the reworked scene when the visitors peer through Sarah’s cell door has an impressive, almost sinister feel to it. I found it heightened tension and made us empathise with the character.

The rebuilt “bad to the bones” scene was superbly done, and shows exceptional technical skill, although the new voice for the bartender didn’t sound quite gruff enough and didn’t entirely convince me. While this redone scene does give a more menacing aura to the T-101, I still feel the viewer is still left in no doubt that something has changed about him and that the T-1000 is now in the bad guy role. For instance, unlike in the first film, he doesn’t actually kill at the start: he just defends himself, albeit with great force; whereas the T-1000′s first act of impaling a police officer leaves us in little doubt as to what he’s about. The two are obviously competing rather than cooperating to find John (given the T-1000′s contemptuous look and dismissive line at the house when told of the “big guy”: I wouldn’t worry about him!), so I still don’t think Arnie new role is much of a surprise, as it’s the only one he really could have. This is ultimtely down to the fact that the original material was inherently structured and presented in a certain way, not the faneditor. Those who want a more hardcore movie will nevertheless find the new “bad to the bones” scene and the numerous other edits to be definite improvements.

The weaving forth between theatrical and special edition versions is deftly handled, and the faneditor has a good eye for spotting where the added special addition material can enhance the theatrical cut and where it can be safely discarded. The removal of the majority of the cheese definitely helps the pace of the film, and the faneditor consistently implements his vision for the edit through to the very end, although – in my opinion – John teaching the terminator to smile could have gone, the give-me-five routine could have been shortened and I wouldn’t miss the following voiceover either. Nonetheless, this version was meant as a light edit, and as such it will no doubt be seen as a best of both worlds by many fans.

Editing: 10 out of 10 for the editing itself
Entertainment: 8 out of 10 (original theatrical cut 8 out of 10; original special edition 7 out of 10)

Image and video quality: The video quality was excellent all round. 10 out of 10
Audio editing and audio quality: I noticed no hard cuts, and the places where the soundtrack has been rebuilt were seamlessly integrated and completely suit the feel of the film. 10 out of 10
Presentation: If you are a stickler for presentation, this won’t disappoint you. The animated menus could grace an official release, and the extras are implemented in an utterly professional way. I far preferred these menus to those of my Skynet Edition blu ray. 10 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

A hugely accomplished and immensely enjoyable edit! While nothing has yet surpassed the theatrical cut for me, simply because of its pace, my special edition DVD can consider itself terminated.