Terminator 2 (5 Stars)

This is one of my favorite films. I watched it again today for the first time on Blu-ray, the Skynet Edition.

First to the film itself before I comment on the Blu-ray release. In the first film we see a machine from the future, a Terminator, sent to the past to kill Sarah Connor, because her unborn son John would become the leader of the Resistance. In this film another Terminator is sent to kill her son who is now 10 years old. (Supposedly. The actor Edward Furlong was 13 at the time of filming, and he both looks and talks older than a 10-year-old). The horror of being pursued by an unstoppable killing machine is once more shown perfectly, as in the first film, but with better special effects. The film could hardly have been made any better.

As for the Blu-ray itself, I have many complaints. Much could have been done better. The picture itself is excellent, an improvement from the DVD, but not quite as crisp as modern films. In my recommendations in an old post I advised against buying pre-1996 films on Blu-ray. This is a worthy exception, as far as picture and sound are concerned. The design of the Blu-ray itself is very faulty. It lasted minutes, literally minutes, for the Blu-ray menus to load. The time needed was so long that I would have suspected the disc was faulty, if not for having read other reviews complaining about the long loading time. Evidently the Blu-ray was searching for an Internet connection to somehow improve the menu usage.

The second major fault is an astounding design error. The Blu-ray is advertised as containing the "Skynet Edition" of the film, but it isn't listed in the disk menu. Only the theatrical release and the extended version are listed. The Skynet Edition of the film is only available after typing 82997 on the keypad of the Blu-ray remote control. There are no instructions to do this anywhere on the case or the enclosed booklet. I only know about it because I've read about this being an "Easter egg" in a review. Easter eggs are usually hidden extras. In this case it isn't an extra feature that's been hidden, it's the main film itself. Whoever came up with this idea should be fired, publicly humiliated or shot. This must qualify as the most stupid Blu-ray or DVD feature ever.

Nevertheless, this is the best release of "Terminator 2" so far. Go make yourself a coffee while the disk is loading. You have time. And don't forget to type 82997 when you finally see the menu.