Terminator Salvation – T-HOPE Edition

July 23, 2010 @ 5:54 am

I hadn't watched an edit of this since I had D/L'd the Spence version and was excited to watch this one.

I agree with T-Hope's own comments, this (i.e. the original movie) is mediocre at best and I don't think it can really improved that much.

Before my review starts, I really liked that T-Hope created new scenes for his edit. A bold choice and I applaud him for it. And I don't wish to diminish his efforts in anyway.

The edit definitely moves along at a much more coherent and fast pace; it's quick to get to the heart of the plot.

I liked the freshly created intro and the new opening credits, although I did find the JJ Abrams-like camera shake during the nuclear detonation a little much. I liked the quick cameos from Dyson and Silberman good tie in back to the franchise. There is one shot during the new opening that seemed a little low quality. The shot down the cell block (?) during John's opening speech.

I definitely liked the re-sequencing of the original film's scenes. Opening with the raid on the underground Skynet facility worked for me.

For me, the first 4 to 5 minutes of the edit had a weird and very noticeable stutter or skip to the motion. I noticed this when I watched it on my desktop and as a DVD. Maybe I got a bad D/L from RapidShare. Please let me know if you do not notice this when you watch it.

At 29:00 minutes into the edit, we get a flashback to Marcus and Dr. Kogan's jail scene (originally at the beginning of the movie). T-Hope uses an odd looking filter/effect for this scene. I'm not certain what it is called, but it was odd and I don't think it works. Too grainy and fresco like. I like the actual placement of the scene, how it is edited together etc. just not the weird effect. I get it, the editor is trying to show us that it is a memory/flashback.

Eliminating the parts where Skynet knows about Kyle Reese is a great choice. I like this edit because it re-focuses the plot back to what it should really have been: John Connors vs. Skynet. It’s this that really makes this edit stand out from the rest. Excellent!

I was a little disappointed to see the Arnie reveal scene cut down, I liked this part of the original movie, it's the one scene in the movie that really tied this movie back to the first two. But I definitely liked the reduced escape scenes and final fight scenes, the originals of both of these dragged on too long.

Technically, a great edit. No major hard edits/cuts/audio issues. There is one sort of hard transition that happens after marcus dies (at approx 1:39:00) – the scene fades from Marcus and Kyle looking at each other, to a quick all white fade to John Connor on a strecher flying away – the audio is a little hard. I don’t recall this being the case in the original.

Other than that, this edit is seamless edit. Good job!

The video quality is fine, no different than the source DVD. I would have liked to see an HD source used to make the video quality better/sharper.

Overall, I liked and agreed with the cuts made to this edit, the new opening and the re-sequenced scenes. There wasn't a single moment in this edit that made me go "Huh?"

I have only watched my store bought DVD of this movie, Spence's edit and now this edit. Of the three, this edit is the best, bar none. This will the version I go to when I want to watch this movie.