Under The Terminator's Skin

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8.7 (18)
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7 reviews with 7-9 stars
18 reviews
 
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5-7 stars
 
0%
 
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1-3 stars
 
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Overall rating
 
8.7
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.4(18)
Audio Editing
 
8.6(18)
Visual Editing
 
9.6(18)
Narrative
 
8.4(18)
Enjoyment
 
8.7(18)
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(Updated: June 14, 2022)
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
As a huge fan of Mica Levi's score, and both films, I was excited to watch this. It lived up to what I expected. An introspective, stark, but definitely coherent short narrative (with an incredible score) about a Terminator hunting it's prey. Great work! Thanks for sharing!

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Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
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.

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Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
DVD
T
Top 50 Reviewer 103 reviews
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(Updated: December 13, 2014)
Overall rating
 
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
6.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
I absolutely adore Terminator 1, and I really like Terminator 2, but all the other sequels didn't do it for me.
I was intrigued to see this experiment of telling the story of Terminator 1 as a short-movie. As an experimental short-movie I think it works and I like the new music, it gives it a more ethereal atmosphere.

----Spoiler-warning----------
The narrative works for the short movie. The explanation for the terminator wanting to kill her: "I didn't do anything", "But you will", makes it work for the short-movie, but it's lacking something crucial when it isn't told what she will do that causes all this timetravel. In some way it relies on the viewer already knowing the story of Terminator.

This 15-minute-movie also shows greatly that for a real movie more time is needed to give scenes their emotional impact. For example at the end when Sarah Connor's protector Kyle died, it had no impact for her as she met him just a few minutes ago. And when the terminator was pressed down by the machine she had that exhausted look on her face and a certain hate and rage in her eyes and a triumphant feeling of accomplishment but in this movie it wasn't earned at all and so the emotional payoff was not there.

--------Spoiler-warning-end-------

Still I recommend it because this works as an experimental short movie and the editing is done really well and because of the interesting and eery music used.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
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!

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Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I absolutely loved this. Great re-telling of the Terminator with a brand new eerie soundtrack which gives it a completely different tone which is more akin to horror than sci-fi action. Strangely, I was reminded of "Drive". But perhaps that was synesthesia at work.

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Yes
Format Watched?
DVD
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