Terminator - The Hunt for Sarah Connor

A very inspired edit. This brings you right into the story - no slow buildup required - and introduces mystery in regards to the hunter, whilst the original had none, and it also puts the viewer in Sarah's shoes.

The second half's chase sequences could've done with some trimming as well, but that's just my personal preference.

Editing was superb and A/V quality was great.

This is a great alternate way of viewing The Terminator and I preferred it to the original.

tl;dr. Turns the beloved campy thriller into a fun, exciting, mystery romance thriller, in the best possible way.

Stunning edit! The other reviews do a great job summarizing - great, fast pace, super interesting to view from Sarah's perspective and makes her the main character. As someone who became a Terminator fan in the early 2000s, I watched the first movie under the expectation that Arnold was a villain protagonist. This movie really reset me, framing Sarah as the hero protagonist. Definitely a good watch.

Not mentioned in the other reviews - this edit also really plays more into the Sarah-Kyle romance, which I liked. The original has their romance as a jokey, forced Virgin Mary, who will birth the messiah, romance. Whereas this edit really does a slow burn on their relationship. As ridiculous as it sounds, this edit makes it make sense that Sarah Connor would trust this Kyle a man who says he's from the future and fell in love with a picture of her that her unborn messiah son gave her. Another review said more of the romance could've been cut, but I really enjoyed it.

This edit also breathes new life into the franchise. The mystery element was really well done. While I love the series, 1, 2, 3, and 6 all have the same plot. This edit has inspired me to think of how future iterations (or fan edits) could breathe new life into the series. It makes want Terminator 7 to be a mystery - two terminators come back from the future, and they fight to 'protect' the future great leader, but you don't know which one is the good guy, which one is the bad guy. Imagine, Terminator 6, but Sarah (who we know is a hero) meets Dani first. We don't know if Grace or Gabriel are good or evil. They're both chasing after Sarah and Dani, and fight each other along the way. But neither get close enough for us to know which is the good one or bad one until the end. Both use vague dialog like "i'm saving humanity from its future" and say each other is here to "destroy earth as we know it" which could mean Grace is protecting humanity's future hero, or Gabriel is terminating Dani to protect humanity from itself. Not sure how it would end, but this edit shows how something like that could work. Thanks for revitalizing the franchise! lol

My first review, so 10/10 for enjoyment and narrative. 9s for the others since it was well done, but I don't have enough basis of comparison, so I gave it a 9.

Firstly: I love this edit. It was like seeing this classic movie from a new angle.

MINOR SPOILERS BENEATH
Small things I think could be improved is within the first minutes. I did not fancy the title card, it does not fit the rest of the movie in my opinion. Also the first scenes with Reese are a little to sudden, and could probably be edited differently. But don't let that keep you from this edit. The rest is pure movie magic. How the Terminator is subtly introduced to the plot. The new use of the photo of Sarah. Wow, I did not know that the movie could be told from this perspective. Well done!

The picture and sound quality is really good. Editing is seamless. I will watch this again. I totally recommend it.

Quality:

No obvious signs of compression. Looks as crisp as it should for an HD source of an old b movie.


Visual editing:

Another reviewer wasn't keen on the title card, but I thought it worked nicely. It could maybe do with being a little softer, and being less squashed against the main title, but I'm nitpicking. The font seems perfectly apt for an old, 80s sci-fi thriller.

I do agree that the entire opening sequence is a touch rushed. I don't really have an issue with the sequence of shots as such. I think the title card should linger for longer, the cityscape shot should linger for longer and/or have an extra establishing shot; and when we cut to Kyle Reece at 1:04, the shot should be trimmed so that we don't see the residual smoke from his journey through time. It fades quickly and is gone from 1:08, and I think the shot is long enough for it to start from when the smoke is absent.

The current shot of the city is taken from a newer film and you can kinda tell, but I think it works well enough. The added grain definitely helps.

Outside of this, the only other thing I noticed was a very slight jitter when the Terminator is searching Connor's apartment at 17:38/39, which I assumed to be something to do with the pan and crop going on to aid the cuts there. It's very subtle, but the camera kinda darts to the side quite suddenly and unnaturally. Otherwise, that sequence is really nicely executed.


Audio editing:

I feel like something odd is happening with the audio between 40:46 and 40:55. The score sort of finishes, starts again, fades out and then fades back in again all in quick succession. It's relatively subtle, but it sounded a bit unnatural to me.


Narrative:

Practically flawless. 24 minutes cut and the result is a more ambiguous story that still delivers all the essential information to the viewer, just in a different way. One small thing: when Kyle and Sarah are in the motel, some of the cutting back and forth between them and Arnie felt a little choppy.

Judging from what the editor has written in the IFDB info, they see the mother's call as exactly as it seems and nothing to do with the terminator in this version. Well, if that was the case I would just cut it, as it is superfluous. However, from my perspective, it still worked in the same way. Even if it isn't clear HOW he finds her, we know that information has been put out there and that he could well pick up on it by some means.

Was really surprised to see the iconic "I'll be back" line cut - kind of a crime, no? :P I get the reasoning though in terms of making his entrance more of a surprise, and I didn't really think about it till the end but it's cool that we actually don't hear Arnie speak once for the entire film. Makes him seem all the more ominous.

Personally, I would have liked to have had less of the sex scene as it's so damn cheesy and hilarious, but I imagine it's not an easy thing to trim down while still ensuring the audience know they've been busy making the saviour of the planet.

Thank you for cutting Sarah's melodramatic screams! A mercy.


Enjoyment:

This is an excellent edit and a highly enjoyable alternative spin on an already great classic. Great idea to keep the science fiction elements ambiguous - Reece absolutely comes across as a nutball when the context is initially stripped away, and it's fun to journey with Sarah in questioning what's going on. Would love to see a polished version 2.