Under The Terminator's Skin

He just won't die!!

This was a great cut of an old classic. This is pretty much all the action from Terminator, in one fell swoop. At times, I needed to remind myself to take a deep breath... it just goes and goes and goes. The music keeps the whole thing on the epic edge.

I didn't even notice any cuts at all - a sure sign of a good edit. Bravo!

I loved this one. I was amazed at how deftly Dom dealt the knife to a classic. All the plot you need to know is right at the beginning (and maybe some exposition along the way). Once the action starts, it don't let up. Awesome music, and I'm amazed to learn how many different pieces he used.

I was not - and am still not - sure what Dom’s purpose was with this.
For a straight up experience, it can be a challenge, any stray dialogue is muffled throughout.
The replacement audio predominates, a heavy, slow wash of industrial.
I modified my expectations and began to view this as a film from the Terminator’s POV.
It’s perspective, the soundtrack fellow robots would reference, their priorities which might differ wildly from those of fleshy humans.
If so, then this is audacious, brilliantly original.
Not that there is much in the way of narrative, yet what would an android care about narrative?

Terminator has a very basic plot, which makes it a perfect candidate for a short film. The editor has done a great job. Nothing feels rushed, there are no jarring cuts and everything flows as if the film had always been this length. The limited dialogue and choice of music serve well in maintaining tension.

I dropped a point for audio editing because I felt that the dialogue could have done with being a bit louder. The music often drowned it out, but then again, that may have been the editor's intention.

Video quality was slightly pixelated. This wasn't too much of a problem for the most part, but it became very noticeable during shots of the exploded truck.

Narratively this was generally fine, although it was slightly odd that Sarah goes from cowering and confused ("please don't kill me") to suddenly trying to save Kyle's life.

All in all though, this is a good edit. Many memorable parts of the film have been seamlessly blended into something nugget sized. Well worth a watch.

Dom brilliantly retells the original 1984 film, capturing most of the major details and driving it all to the haunting "Under the Skin" score. The music is integrated so well, I actually had to check to make sure he wasn't just using the original soundtrack!

Dom is able to play the movie mostly silently, telling nearly the entire tale with visuals alone, which makes Sarah's story all the more visceral and nightmarish.

The only plot element left out is the issue of John Connor's parentage. But considering the kind-of creepy way it played out in the original movie, maybe that isn't such a bad thing. Perhaps Dom is implying that in this alternate history, John actually has a different father!

I feel bad not giving this edit the full highest marks. There's nothing that it does wrong; it's just that a couple of the other shorts in this consecution were so inventive that I had to rate them even higher, so I had to indicate a slightly different level of enjoyment. But there's nothing that I would have told Dom to do differently.

If you love the original films, this is a must-see!