Terminator - The Hunt for Sarah Connor

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9.5 (8)
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Overall rating
 
9.5
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.8(8)
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9.5(8)
Visual Editing
 
9.1(8)
Narrative
 
9.5(8)
Enjoyment
 
9.4(8)
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(Updated: January 14, 2023)
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Fresh alternative to the original. Needless to say. It works!!!

Could this be the groundwork for some Grindhousing? Liscence to paste in some sexy scenery and better CGI is just what the doctor ordered. Not to mention better 80's music. But who dares??

Its difficult to critique this as soundtrack and scenes are already set up perfectly. It may be a good idea to alter some arrangements to amplify the (aforesaid) mystery romance appeal. Only marginal additons of Terminator footage are sought after in my mind. In the end this is entirely satisfactory as is. Good intro to the movie too. I can't say I was suspecting our soldier of fortune at any point but the blinkering of the man on the hunt and the phone-book killer themes does succeed at a focused intrigue. I'm sure first time viewers will be suspicious though. And then the entrance of our cyborg of fate will be massively impactful, I'm sure. Still its good for a muse. Its really interesting to the highlighting of Sarah Connor's vulnerability and confusion with a gradual move towards her acceptance of an imminent Judgment Day. Its one to watch with the girlfriend!!!

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(Updated: March 02, 2022)
Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
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.

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2 reviews
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
A great cut of this classic. Those first fifteen minutes really build nicely with a lot of ambiguity as to Reese's intentions, My only nitpicks would be that opening credits/titles would really lend a lot to a film like this. I understand wanting to cut right to the chase, but the pace and typography and music of an opening credits all let the viewer know what kind of film they're in for and start to sink into the mood. Other than that, a great edit overall.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
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.
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
An all-time great edit! I've always been a bit lukewarm on the original Terminator; I appreciated its unflinchingly gritty tone (even the excellent T2 gets a little too jokey for its own good at times), but always felt like the storytelling was a little too straightforward. This edit fixes that, by obscuring the T-800 and making Reese seem much more threatening in his initial scenes. It adds an entire new dimension to the first act, and it's a much better film for it. (One almost gets the sense that this might have been Cameron's preference, given how the ambiguous first act of T2 plays out, but with Schwarzenegger's star power, hiding him from view was never going to be an option.)

I do have a couple of nitpicks, both to do with the editing of Arnie. When we see him appear for the first time in the club, the cut to a medium shot already taking a bead on Sarah Connor doesn't seem like the best way to introduce an entirely new element/character. Either a long shot in the crowded club or a partial close-up (hand, boot, etc) would seem like a better way to gradually hint that a new player has entered the scene. Also, the iconic first visit to the police station "I'll be back" has been removed, seemingly for no reason other than to completely strip out Schwarzenegger's dialogue, which seems a tad excessive given what powerful foreshadowing that scene is.

Aside from those quibbles, this is an enormously effective edit with a terrific concept that "I'll be back" to watch over and over.

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