Terminator: The Resistance Cut

Its ten Terminator eyeballs all the way!

What can be said other than mission accomplished. This is the 1 to the 2. Deleted scenes are appreciated. Cheers :)

As of late I've been going thru all available 1984's "The Terminator" edits and having just watched this one, I find it to be special and unique. I have to commend fan editor skyblue for the incredible amount of audio work done to this edit. It's absolutely mind boggling reviewing all the tiny little edits that permeate the edit throughout the entire movie. Reading through the list of things that were modified or added to the audio of this movie gave me a sincere appreciation for the talent and patience skyblue has in performing his magic on this movie. The audio work is absolutely perfect and really brings the movie to life. I highly recommend this edit just for the audio work alone.

The only gripe I have is the inclusion of the deleted scenes. Although they do serve a purpose and expand upon the character development for each of the main cast, I find it to be very distracting. Why? It's solely because of the horrible quality the video and audio. It's jarring watching this fan edit in extremely high audio and video quality and then suddenly low quality footage pops up. I do understand the desire to include the deleted scenes as they are worthwhile and have been included in many other fan edits. However, the drop in visual and audio quality is far more noticeable than any other fan edit I've watched due to the incredible sound work skyblue performed on this outstanding film.

That being said, I highly recommend this fan edit to anyone who loves The Terminator. You won't regret watching it.

"Terminator: AC/DC"

The visuals are good. I noticed two scenes where the video quality dropped for 8 seconds and there was a quick discussion likely to have been left on the cutting-room floor. Otherwise, all the visuals were good, and I could see in some spots where the edit had improved from the original.

All the audio additions were good and fine, it's appreciated. But the AC/DC opening song goes on way too long, it's gotta fade out sooner or begin later. And then the sex scene song - NO. That became a laughable moment, when they're boning and "dirty deeds and they're done..." Also, the movie was more than audible, then the music would go rock-concert loud, which is great for AC/DC fans, but people are coming to the movie for the sci-fi story not the AC/DC music. So there were three times when we had to crank the audio down, because then it's AC/DC playing again at the end, too? Three songs, one band? By all means, keep making movies to suit your tastes.

I watched the version with the ACDC songs inserted first mainly out of curiosity for where you placed them throughout the edit than watched the version without them as I generally prefer the films OST not that I have anything against ACDC and their music as I listen to some of there songs from time to time though I am glad there’s alternate viewing options for viewers and reviewers such as myself as it not only provides more variety in viewing but also in music taste which like comedy is subjective from person to person and group to group.

I like the way you designed and animated the Resistance Cut text as it’s manner of speed and presentation gels well with the looming and systematic threat of the Terminator itself and also symbolises how the tension will continue to fluctuate and rise throughout the edit.

Sound usage and layering is superb throughout and although I can tell you’ve replaced and mixed the new SFX with that of the films natural noises based on my memory of watching the theatrical cut, said sound effects feel natural to that of the films and the very placement of these sounds shows that you have a good eye for detail in sound design. Speaking of detail the theatrical scenes look smooth and nicely defined however there are some visual inconsistencies between the deleted scenes and the theatrical scenes as some of the deleted scenes are a little on the blurry side.

Not only that but the padding between the deleted and theatrical scenes (the black bars surrounding the footage) are a little inconsistent visually as there proportions don’t quite align with each other otherwise in terms of the deleted scenes narrative value they are very well integrated into the story as they not only improve pacing but give a good estimation as to where everyone is during the whole thing especially during the first car chase scene though my personal favourites have to be the ones between Sarah and Kyle due to there buildup and foreshadowing along with the insight and relationship building between said characters.

Any other potential sound or visual problems have already been pointed out by someone else so rather than parrot what they have said I will say that In conclusion I would consider this a near perfect extended edition of the first Terminator Film.

I commend the editor for tackling the under-appreciated challenge of replacing the dated sound effects we grew up with (and are challenged to tolerate with more modern ears). For the most part, I think they were successful in their goal of enhancing the SFX. Other areas are somewhat problematic (for me).

Visual Editing

For me, the strategy of upscaling, sharpening, and downscaling doesn't result in a pleasing image. A lot of detail has been lost in this process, including all film grain, which might have been the editor's intent, but it's also resulted in extreme aliasing on almost all edges ("jaggies"). The process (to my eyes) has left the image looking very waxy, and also oddly video-game like, and has created artifacts in some key areas, including the characters faces. Unfortunately, the re-inserted footage looks even worse, having started from a point of lower resolution. The visual artifacts are noticed throughout, though most prominent in static shots. The closing shot with the matte painting of the mountains (at least I think it's a painting) looks especially unusual, and lingers as the closing shot, so I need to grade this category quite low.

Audio Editing

I think a lot of the SFX replacement has worked well. The sheer volume listed in the change log is a testament to that, as there were only a small number that really jumped out as being more obviously added. Unfortunately, there are some significant challenges with the music.

The AC/DC songs are perfect fit for the movie, and fit into the concept of enhancing a low budget film that wouldn't have had the money for lots of music licensing. However, the opening song is much too loud to my ears, and stretches across four scenes without much relief (there's a slight dip when we move to the garbage truck, but then it comes back to full volume when we cut back to the Terminator). One suggestion here would be to have the music begin with the main "THE TERMINATOR" title (after the future opening), and then on the cut to the garbage truck, switch to having it playing on the radio in the cab. Then have it cut out when the electrical stuff happens. That gives us the rocking tune as we watch the slow (by today's standards) opening title, while setting us up for something fresh.

The closing AC/DC song is also an excellent fit for the film, but unfortunately it comes in over top of the existing score, and it seems like the existing music may be playing underneath. There is also a sharp volume raise on the closing shot as the Jeep drives away.

Compounding matters, the core audio in the movie seems to be unusually quiet. I had to raise the volume on my PC to hear it at a level that matches the blu-ray.

Narrative

The inclusion of the extra scenes was really interesting, and I did my best to ignore the low quality, but not all of them improved the narrative, in my opinion, so I've marked this a bit lower.

Enjoyment

It's The Terminator, one of my favourite movies, so enjoyment was all but guaranteed. I've dropped it a bit due to the other issues, however.

Audio/Visual

The large file size doesn't match the low quality image, so I've rated this down a bit.