The Terminator returns to theaters with 4K transfer…Will AI ruin another James Cameron film?
Mathew Plale
James Cameron’s The Terminator returns to theaters this week but some are rightfully concerned it will be another 4K disaster.
He wasn’t kidding when he said he’ll be back. To mark the sci-fi classic’s 40th anniversary, The Terminator will be returning to theaters this summer courtesy of Park Circus, complete with a 4K restoration. And while any theatrical release of a fan favorite is certainly something to get excited for, those who have been following James Cameron’s other 4K releases might have reason to be cautious…
As we have reported on throughout the various releases of some of James Cameron’s best films, there has been quite a bit of controversy over the transfers of said movies. The main problem here is the use of AI to clean up the images, doing so to such an extreme degree that the films not only lose grain structure but authenticity. When viewing these films on their 4K home video releases, it’s so obvious that the image has been touched up to the point that they’re hard to enjoy. Sure, the action and storytelling isn’t changed but the distracting touch-ups throughout can easily pull you out of the experience. So, yes, it’s reasonable to be concerned about the upcoming 4K of The Terminator, which was approved by Cameron himself.
James Cameron certainly sees the benefits of AI, once saying, “As you go down levels of magnitude you see more and more patterns, and you realise that greater pattern, the grand pattern, is made up of all these kinds of fractal details that need to be there. And this is where I think AI can be helpful because it can fill in some of the some of those detail levels and allow us as artists to stay at a higher level.” But that right there is a perfect demonstration of just how AI can be misused when it comes to transfers, as relying on it for these minute details can easily serve as a shortcut that gets out of hand. And that’s how you end up with the horrendous transfers of great films like True Lies and Aliens, giving us pause on getting too excited for The Terminator.
But others have defended all of these. Film preservationist Robert Harris was kind enough to reach out to JoBlo about these issues, writing, in part: “There should be no problems with the original elements. The work performed was a re-visualization. An entirely new digital product, which (to varying degrees of success) appears to have achieved Mr. Cameron’s goals. If these were attempts at restoration, they would fail in all regards.” You can read his entire thorough defense here.
The Terminator returns to theaters on July 25th.
On the bright side, The Terminator is probably the funniest choice of movie to ruin with AI
Why waste AI on this. It should be used to make unwatchable movies better.
Like fixing the audio editing in Christopher Nolan movies, so you can hear the dialog.
Or removing camera shake and pointless cuts.
Or making the night king battle visible without blackout curtains and milspec night vision goggles
I’d love to read more studies on the Christopher Nolan thing. I have trouble hearing anyone talk day to day, even when looking at them directly. Anyone with an accent, my brain immediately can’t make sense of it.
I’m not trying to be mean, the dialog just becomes gibberish and I don’t know why. Even if I buckle down and watch their mouth and focus, I can’t decipher things.
But I had zero issues with Inception. My wife wasn’t so lucky. For the first time in forever I was telling her what was said.
How is that any different than George Lucas going back and messing up the original trilogy with pointless edits. “Camera shake and pointless cuts” sounds a lot like changing the original film intention.
Totally ok with giving movies sound options like video games. Hearing is so different person to person and doesn’t impact the structure of the story making things customizable to your hearing situation.
Visually, there are just as many differences and impairments as with hearing.
Many people don’t do well with unnatural shakeycam and rapid cuts.
Considering how the 4K releases of Cameron’s films have turned out, I’m happy to stop at the Blu-ray level, and it requires some research too.
I have both Terminators twice on Blu-ray and weirdly, the newer transfer of the original film looks excellent, whereas that despite multiple releases of its sequel, it is the oldest Blu-ray that looks the most faithful. All subsequent releases start introducing different levels of DNR.
Why the author feels the 4K restoration of Aliens was anything besides the greatest transfer ever, I cannot fathom. The real red flag was the massively over-DNRed 4K version of T2
I wish people would understand why the T2 4K release was so botched. According to Bill of The Digital Bits back in September 2021:
In less good news on the 4K front, StudioCanal is apparently re-releasing their 4K Ultra HD edition of James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day in a new 30th Anniversary Edition on December 6th, complete with fresh packaging and a new Endoskull replica. Unfortunately, it’s apparently still the same heavily DNR-scrubbed 3D master used for the image. I know people who’ve seen that original 4K scan and restoration who report that it looks fantastic. If StudioCanal would release that, I’d be happy to buy it. As it stands, I couldn’t even bring myself to review their original T2 4K, it was so horrifyingly bad. I mean, it’s embarrassingly bad. As in, it should never have been released, and the powers that be at StudioCanal should have known it was terrible. And the fact that they’re re-releasing it now without correcting it makes me doubt their judgment as a company. Even thinking about this is making me angry. Not only should T2 fans NOT buy this new 4K set, they should go on social media and politely request that StudioCanal fix this disaster for the new release.
Don’t believe me that it’s bad? This is the message that appears when you play the film in 4K Ultra HD…
Why the hell does a 4K Ultra HD release need a message about “This 3D Version” when it’s not actually in 3D? Because someone at StudioCanal got lazy (or didn’t know the difference) and grabbed the actual 3D master to use for their 4K release instead of the proper original 4K master. The problem with that, is that the 3D master was scrubbed of all film grain and fine image detail in order to make 3D post-conversion easier… WHICH IS THE LAST DAMN THING YOU WANT TO DO FOR AN ACTUAL 4K ULTRA HD RELEASE!
Ugh.
Even worse news (possibly), according to the source of the news, the tweet I have included below, the transfer was worked on by Park Road Post. The same company that worked on Let It Be, Aliens, True Lies…oh.
I still want my money back for the travesty that is this disc
The Blu-ray version of Aliens looked better than the 4K version.
Does anyone have a link to an example of this AI upscale weirdness?
If you start exploring this thread from Blu-ray.com forums, your should see plenty of examples.
The 4K was announced, it hit streaming services late last year first and the forum just exploded with everyone picking it apart for how weird it looked.
There’s also a thread for Aliens there as well somewhere which also features examples of weird AI anomalies.
Nerrel did a great video, explains the difference between good remaster techniques and just pointing AI at it as well
I’ll go and see it in the cinema if it is on near me. I just won’t get my hopes up.
Cameron does have a history of overdoing it with his “restorations”. Hopefully he is aware of this himself by now, but we’ll see.
