Terminator Anthology is a fine package collecting all four Terminator movies, but it is not quite the complete package we were hoping for. First off, the original The Terminator film isn’t remastered. Second we are getting the Skynet Edition of Terminator 2: Judgment Day which drops a few of the items from the previous T2: Extreme DVD. Terminator 3 offers up some decent, but inferior sound (especially when compared to the other films).
What we are getting is a repackaging of what came before, nothing new, nothing added, but a convenient way to round out your collection of the Terminator film franchise. This is not a bad thing. If, however, you already own all four films on Blu-ray, you should put some serious consideration into whether or not this purchase would be worthwhile.
Regardless of what you think about any one of the Terminator films, they are great spectacles. For me, I wish a sequel had never been made, as the potential open-endedness of The Terminator was what made it so good. That’s not to say they aren’t good films or enjoyable – because they are. The weakest of them is the 3rd film, but even so, as action spectacles go, The Terminator franchise is one of the top. Terminator 2: Judgment Day not only raised the bar for special effects it set what has become the standard by which nearly all other sequels have been judged.
If you are unfamiliar with the film, I can not recommend enough at the very least renting The Terminator. It is one of the few films where Arnold Schwarzenegger is the villain. Coming in early in writer/director James Cameron’s career, it is also his shortest film at 108 minutes. It has become something of a cultural touchstone both for Cameron and Schwarzenegger, and is part of our cultural conscience.
Longtime fans of the franchise more than likely already have these four films on Blu-ray, barring personal budgetary restrictions. If you only have the DVDs, then this is a no-brainer, you need to upgrade (if you have the T2: Extreme DVD you might want to hold on to it for some of the lesser esoteric extras that didn’t make it onto the Skynet Edition).
For casual fans who may have one or two films on Blu-ray already, this makes a good purchase. While I can see the quality of the films, I’m not a fan of a couple of them, but I do like having the whole franchise gathered together in one spot. When I do want to watch all 4 films over the course of a weekend, this will come in handy. It isn’t the definitive edition of the series, as there is remastering that needs to be done as well as some compiling of extras from various releases, but this is as close to definitive as we can get in that regard.
You may remember when Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines was first released on Blu-ray it wasn’t as high definition as it should have been (1080i as opposed to 1080p). Thankfully this has been resolved with this release.
Do you have these four films on Blu-ray? Then you already have this, just without the nifty packaging.