Terminator Salvation Blu-ray Review

… but who will save the Terminator franchise?

PACKAGE:  
Terminator Salvation arrives as a three-disc set, complete with a fancy disc sleeve, and two BD-50 discs. The other disc is a standard definition DVD that stores the digital copy of the film.

The second disc is the much ballyhooed director’s cut, which is all of three minutes longer and kind of joke. The only noticeable addition is nudity – beautiful, voluptuous nudity – but that barely justifies an entire BD-50 disc dedicated to a pretty tame director’s cut.

The first disc contains the theatrical cut and Maximum Movie Mode, Warner Bros. sanctioned Picture-in-Picture commentary that lets the director breakdown the film in three-dimensional space. It’s a pretty neat feature, one we’d like to see in more films, and McG makes adequate use of it here.

Most of the features are also available for individual browsing, and are broken down into digestible segments. Coupled with the second disc’s BD-Live support, it’s a decent set of supplemental material.

That said, compared to the studio’s own summer offerings and competition, it comes up way short. The director’s cut is nothing more than a marketing ploy and there’s not much in the way of supplemental material outside of Maximum Movie Mode.

But – hey – maybe we don’t really want to know what went on behind-the-scenes. We already had enough of that a few months ago, right?

BIAS:
Dark, gritty and explosive – Terminator Salvation is not much else.

McG does realize the dark, bleak future of the Terminator franchise, but fails to create a meaningful, memorable narrative. Hampered by uninspired performances, save for Sam Worthington, and a dodgy script, it’s as about as disposable as a paper plate.

The sad thing is there is a story here, a story worth telling. McG could have really put his mark on the franchise, and push the boundaries of the genre by redefining the rules. Instead, he opts for a ridiculous ending that caps pretty standard action fluff.

The director’s cut is a joke, and there’s not enough material here to warrant a three-disc set sold at such a high MSRP.

The audio and visual presentation is pretty great, but there are better values out there for reference tracks, and the film – quite frankly – is not worth owning.

Salvation is worth a peek for the ardent Terminator fan, but the rest of us would be fine just catching it on cable on some lazy Sunday afternoon.

There is no fate but what we make, right?

Verdict:  AVOID / CONSIDER / RENT / BUY / TREASURE

Editor’s Note: This is a review of a Region 1 release. Terminator Salvation is also available for all Region 2 territories.

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