...in high definition T2 looks and sounds better than ever, and the German edition provides all the bells and whistles.
Audio:
The French Studio Canal sound engineers provide a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack in English and French, and the German Kinowelt folks provide a DTS-HD 7.1 track in English and German. In both cases, there is plenty of rear-channel activity, especially in the big fight and chase sequences. Indeed, the audio shows its strengths in its wide frequency response (the bass thunders), its strong dynamic contrasts (things explode with vigor), its powerful dynamic punch, and the all-around tautness and clarity of its reproduction.
Now for a couple of "howevers." First, when I started playing the German disc, I found some split-second audio dropouts every few minutes. Needless to say, I was momentarily distressed. But after taking the disc out and wiping it down with some eyeglass cleaner, it played perfectly throughout the rest of the film. No, I did not see any marks on the disc, so whatever was causing the dropouts is anybody's guess. Second, in comparison to the 5.1-channel French soundtrack, there seems to be a little something missing in the sound of a few scenes when playing back the German 7.1 through my 5.1 setup, as though the German audio engineers expected the listener to have the additional side speakers present for 7.1. It's not a big issue, though, and I wouldn't probably have noticed had I not been listening to and comparing the German and French imports one after the other.
Extras:
It's in the bonus-materials department that the German import excels. There is so much here, you'll be digging around in it for hours. To begin, there are five separate viewing modes for watching the film. The first is the movie-only mode, the Director's Cut at 153 minutes. The second is the "Inside T2" viewing mode, which is a Picture-in-Picture experience. (If you are bitstreaming the audio out of your player for your receiver to decode, remember to switch your player's "Digital Direct" setting to "Off" and then back on again afterwards.) The third is the Quiz viewing mode, wherein a series of multiple-choice questions accompany the film, and you use the A-D buttons on your remote to select your answers. The fourth is the Interactive viewing mode that apparently requires a connection to the Internet, which I don't have hooked up. (Trying to read some of the directions for these things in German is a chore for somebody like me who doesn't speak German.) The fifth is the Spy viewing mode, which takes you behind the scenes to look at some of the goofs in the film.
Next up, we have two separate audio commentaries, one by co-writer and director James Cameron and co-writer William Wisher and the other by members of the cast and crew. Following these items are several deleted scenes in various forms. Next, there is a "Marketing" section that contains a whole slew of documentaries and featurettes, including "No Feat But What We Make," twenty-four minutes; "T2: On the Set," eight minutes; "The Making of Terminator 2," thirty minutes; "T2: More Than Meets the Eye," twenty-one minutes; and "3-D: Breaking the Screen Barrier," twenty-three minutes.
After that are several more sections, the first of which is "Planning and Design," which includes storyboards and scripts that you can watch along with the movie; "Research and Development," which includes a series of small, brief featurette inserts; "Construction," which includes segments on props, costumes, marketing, cinematography, and the like; and "Manufacturing," which includes segments on preproduction, production, postproduction, editing, sound design, music, etc.
In addition to all of the above, the disc contains a bookmarking feature; a "Skynet Access" connection to the Internet for further downloads; twenty-two scene selections but no chapter insert; two theatrical trailers, a Special Edition trailer, and a teaser trailer; English and German headphone surround tracks; in-movie pop-up menus; and, as I understand it, hidden Easter eggs, which I did not look for and cannot confirm. English and German are the spoken language choices, with German, Austrian, and Turkish subtitles.
A final note: This is probably the longest HD disc in my experience to load, and I'm using Toshiba's newest top-of-the-line player, the A35. It's worth the wait, to be sure, but if you're impatient, you may think the disc is defective or it's not going to load at all. Hang in. On a more positive note, the disc comes packaged in one of the best-looking cases I've seen, a plastic-and-metal affair that is strikingly handsome.
Parting Thoughts:
Without question, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is the best of its breed. It's a milestone in the evolution of action films and their now-omnipresent computer-generated imagery. It goes without saying that in high definition "T2" looks and sounds better than ever, and the German edition provides all the bells and whistles you could possibly want. Decisions, decisions.
"The unknown future rolls towards us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too." --Linda Hamilton, "T2"
The French Studio Canal sound engineers provide a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack in English and French, and the German Kinowelt folks provide a DTS-HD 7.1 track in English and German. In both cases, there is plenty of rear-channel activity, especially in the big fight and chase sequences. Indeed, the audio shows its strengths in its wide frequency response (the bass thunders), its strong dynamic contrasts (things explode with vigor), its powerful dynamic punch, and the all-around tautness and clarity of its reproduction.
Now for a couple of "howevers." First, when I started playing the German disc, I found some split-second audio dropouts every few minutes. Needless to say, I was momentarily distressed. But after taking the disc out and wiping it down with some eyeglass cleaner, it played perfectly throughout the rest of the film. No, I did not see any marks on the disc, so whatever was causing the dropouts is anybody's guess. Second, in comparison to the 5.1-channel French soundtrack, there seems to be a little something missing in the sound of a few scenes when playing back the German 7.1 through my 5.1 setup, as though the German audio engineers expected the listener to have the additional side speakers present for 7.1. It's not a big issue, though, and I wouldn't probably have noticed had I not been listening to and comparing the German and French imports one after the other.
Extras:
It's in the bonus-materials department that the German import excels. There is so much here, you'll be digging around in it for hours. To begin, there are five separate viewing modes for watching the film. The first is the movie-only mode, the Director's Cut at 153 minutes. The second is the "Inside T2" viewing mode, which is a Picture-in-Picture experience. (If you are bitstreaming the audio out of your player for your receiver to decode, remember to switch your player's "Digital Direct" setting to "Off" and then back on again afterwards.) The third is the Quiz viewing mode, wherein a series of multiple-choice questions accompany the film, and you use the A-D buttons on your remote to select your answers. The fourth is the Interactive viewing mode that apparently requires a connection to the Internet, which I don't have hooked up. (Trying to read some of the directions for these things in German is a chore for somebody like me who doesn't speak German.) The fifth is the Spy viewing mode, which takes you behind the scenes to look at some of the goofs in the film.
Next up, we have two separate audio commentaries, one by co-writer and director James Cameron and co-writer William Wisher and the other by members of the cast and crew. Following these items are several deleted scenes in various forms. Next, there is a "Marketing" section that contains a whole slew of documentaries and featurettes, including "No Feat But What We Make," twenty-four minutes; "T2: On the Set," eight minutes; "The Making of Terminator 2," thirty minutes; "T2: More Than Meets the Eye," twenty-one minutes; and "3-D: Breaking the Screen Barrier," twenty-three minutes.
After that are several more sections, the first of which is "Planning and Design," which includes storyboards and scripts that you can watch along with the movie; "Research and Development," which includes a series of small, brief featurette inserts; "Construction," which includes segments on props, costumes, marketing, cinematography, and the like; and "Manufacturing," which includes segments on preproduction, production, postproduction, editing, sound design, music, etc.
In addition to all of the above, the disc contains a bookmarking feature; a "Skynet Access" connection to the Internet for further downloads; twenty-two scene selections but no chapter insert; two theatrical trailers, a Special Edition trailer, and a teaser trailer; English and German headphone surround tracks; in-movie pop-up menus; and, as I understand it, hidden Easter eggs, which I did not look for and cannot confirm. English and German are the spoken language choices, with German, Austrian, and Turkish subtitles.
A final note: This is probably the longest HD disc in my experience to load, and I'm using Toshiba's newest top-of-the-line player, the A35. It's worth the wait, to be sure, but if you're impatient, you may think the disc is defective or it's not going to load at all. Hang in. On a more positive note, the disc comes packaged in one of the best-looking cases I've seen, a plastic-and-metal affair that is strikingly handsome.
Parting Thoughts:
Without question, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is the best of its breed. It's a milestone in the evolution of action films and their now-omnipresent computer-generated imagery. It goes without saying that in high definition "T2" looks and sounds better than ever, and the German edition provides all the bells and whistles you could possibly want. Decisions, decisions.
"The unknown future rolls towards us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too." --Linda Hamilton, "T2"
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