I really enjoy the whole TERMINATOR Franchise. I absolutely LOVE the now cancelled TV series (shame on you FOX). I haven’t really not enjoyed any of the previous movies. The first two are brillant. T3, while a bit too heavy on the humor, greatly entertained me in a otherwise dismal summer of blockbuster blunders. And I even like T4. Yes, even as a casual fan I noticed the continuity issues, but as a WAR MOVIE, I think it worked pretty well.

So when I read T-Hope’s thread and intention for this movie, I was very excited.
And now after watching, I am pleased to say I was not disappointed.

From a narrative restructuring point of view, this edit is excellent.
All cuts and reorganizing of scenes completely work and improve the overall story.
The new opening was very clever and I was impressed.
The editing of Marcus into a supporting character works well.
The handling of Kyle also works and makes more sense now.
So, again from the storyline perspective, exceptionally well done.

On the technical side, there a few minor issues, all which have been brought up by previous reviewers.
I too found the audio a bit quiet, but nothing distracting or significant. I just turned up the volume and
ate my popcorn!

A few cuts are very hard and noticebale. Also, many of transitions could use another pass to smooth them out.

But despite this, I still found this movie very enjoyable.
I would give this edit a solid 7/10.

Thanks for the fun T-Hope!!!

So with a fresh slate and no frame of reference I have to say that largely, T-Hope has crafted a movie that narratively, works fairly well and overall, I was able to enjoy the story and sights.

Technical
Visual quality was hard to evaluate as I was watching this on a small screen. It didn’t present anything that looked bad, visual edits worked well, however the new introduction felt occasionally off as the film quality from various sources varied wildly. However, the manner in which they presented Judgement Day far outweighed the visual inconsistency. The only scene I think I might have cut was the insertion of Dr. Silberman, its video quality was so drastically different and overall feel was so ‘cheap’ for lack of a better word that it pulled me out of the montage which I had previously been pulled into.
Audio wise I noticed many hard edits, but to be fair I was listening with headphones which are exceptionally unforgiving. But there were a few where the beat and pace of the music simply didn’t fit well, and then a few seconds later would have the same mis-step as the next scene came on. One that stands out is during the sequence where Marcus is learning about himself, and then makes his choice.

Editing/Story
Because I haven’t watched to original yet, I can say that I only noticed a few areas where something was obviously missing. While any overt mention of Skynet knowing who Kyle was, it was obvious from the footage left in that they were looking for him as the machines scanned him very specifically and reacted once he was Identified. Even without the supporting confirmation I could feel that something had been removed, which is further compounded by him being in specific isolation at Skynet and the fact that he was how Marcus leads John into the trap. More than enough was left on screen that I knew the subplot even with it being gone.
Marcus however was handled wonderfully. Reading the above reviews something was obviously cut at the beginning, but I never felt its absence, his story unfolded perfectly. I did not have a problem with the filter on his memory flashback. Not having seen the original i didn’t know that this was not original so good job.
Again, and this is not really in T-Hope’s hands, it was obvious that Marcus was suppose to be rescued in the final portion of the action sequence, if only because this is a big-budget Hollywood film. There are enough markers left that you know he’s supposed to get out of there somehow, and from reading the above reviews I guess this is true. T-Hopes method of editing out the heart surgery works well and seems a good choice, as described it’s a ridiculously over-the-top and contrived story point.

Overall Enjoyment
T-Hope has assembled a decent story out of what appears to have been a mess of a theatrical release, but even without seeing the original I could feel the edits and missing pieces.

Overall Score
7/10

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the original cut of T4. However, because of this, it’s easier to judge this edit without constantly thinking “this was cut, that’s gone, wtf that’s new” and so on. So let’s cut right down to it.

From a story standpoint, the edit is sound. Even knowing in the back of my mind that Marcus was a Terminator, his reveal was “shocking,” if you catch my drift. Also, the new intro. Ace. Absolutely awesome. (out of curiosity, did you use any shots from the movie “The Road”? Thought I spotted some. Anyhow). The intro really helped to set the mood. The only minor niggle I had with the story is why Blair suddenly decided to help Marcus. The scene with them after the attack helped to build their relationship, and without it, something just feels…off somehow.

I watched this on my laptop, so I have a feeling that video issues are going to be more apparent than on a DVD/TV. So take the next section with a humongo grain of salt…

Video was decent. The quality was consistent throughout, with a few exceptions: I noticed some interlacing during the intro. I don’t remember where exactly, but it wasn’t too distracting at that point, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. There was a shot in the first bit before the bomb goes off of a blonde woman in an office where the quality was noticably lower. Same thing with the shots of the bombs going off that was taken from Battlestar Galactica. I didn’t notice any other issues until the end…when Connor is being carried out of the Skynet facility at the end, the picture lookeda bit blurry, and the framing seemed off, almost as if the picture had been zoomed in on. Also, there was some interlacing on the final shots in the helicopter before Connor set off the fireworks show. And then…the strangest thing happened…the picture was amazingly sharp and clear during the helicopter finale and to the end. I was…confused. Finally, the final shot of Kyle at the end looks a bit stretched out.

Audio was great. Even on a stereo setup with my laptop speakers, I could still hear some directional sound effects and the like. Good show. I only noticed (read: remember) one hard audio cut, where the fire scene with Blair and Marcus was cut.

Now, for the edit: I didn’t notice anything (aside from the fire scene and the T-600 attacking Connor at the start), so all was good. However, there was a minor inconsistency in the edit: T-HOPE states that he cut the T-600 popping up behind John because, and I quote, “If a Terminator pops up behind you, you should be dead as its mechanical hand should already been ripping out your heart.” A very sound point…but shouldn’t that same point apply to the Terminator that pops out of the water during the opening base raid? Food for thought. Also, the fadeout to Marcus’s nightmare was…eh. Not sure how I felt about it. The filter on the dream was questionable as well. However, the second nightmare sequence during his “reveal” was probably my favorite sequence in the entire edit.

Overall, a very solid effort. The video stuff I mentioned earlier is really holding me from giving a higher rating. Perhaps it will look nicer once burned to a disc and played on a different system. However, editing is mostly sound, story was solid for the most part, and audio was close to perfect. THIS is what T4 should have been (or a very close approximation) the first time around.

Enjoyment: 9/10
Video: 6/10
Audio: 8.5/10
Overall: 7/10

“I don’t think Terminator Salvation can be saved, or turned into a good movie, worthy of being part of the Terminator saga. It will remain a very flawed and disappointing movie. However, this fanedit tries to make it watchable at least.”

Even if we agree that this is a big mess, there is still room for improvement. T-Hope seems to think so, as do several other hopefulls. I don’t neccessarily think that this edit took us nearer any appriciation for the movie. A couple of comments:

- Created new intro “Echoes from the past.”

Ok, nice, but I wasn’t wowed as the previous poster. The clear link to the previous movie was interesting, even if we could perhaps argue that Connor’s first words are a wee bit dramatic In general I thought this was a good addition.

- Removed the T-600 attacking John Connor.

Thank you. Slightly jarring, I thought it worked.

- Cut Ashdown calling John a prophesized leader. Cut Resistance Command knowing about Kyle Reese and his importance. John Connor is number one on the hitlist. Changed dialogue so Losenko says Connor is number one.

Much less silly, the last cut was a bit odd, but a nice try to make it seem like Skynet does care about Connor.

Hrm, I have to leave now. Perhaps I’ll add some more later on, but important was that I was left with a few ‘wth?’ moments and felt there was some inconsistency due to cuts. Also, the movie is not good. We got a little less of the stupidness, for which I’m glad, but in general I didn’t think you managed to salvage any better story out of it. It’s still dumb and still has a dumb ending, that somewhat confusing (not satisfactory?) As a whole I just couldn’t enjoy this, and I didn’t like all of the changes made. I salute the effort in trying to save this, but along with some issues with quality, I am thinking 5 or 6 for this one. Sorry, but not for me.

The good:
Said opening montage cannot be mentioned often enough. This is the first t4 fanedit i finished until the end and most of this probably lies because the opening created such a great terminator vibe

Removing Skynet’s knowledge of Kyle Reese gets rid of a lot of plot problems as well – at first I thought it doesn’t really make sense that skynet takes reese into a single cell, but from the edit this could either mean: reese was taken into the cell just by chance for possible experiments or skynet knew from marcus that connor was interested in reese and took him as bait but wasn’t aware of reese’s importance
reordering the discussion with serena also does the trick of making it less obvious that marcus is a robot
removing some cheese sequences like connor jumping into the water and terminator throwing around is also a big plus

the bad:
There are a some real glaring audio and video problems as well as transitions that don’t really work:

The shot of Silberman while being a great reference to the other movies is of bad video quality
As the previous reviewer already noted there is an awkward filter when we get marcus’ flashback which distracts and just looks fake, furthermore it wasn’t really necessary because the light itself indicates that this is a flashback and the video doesn’t require further filters

the opening sequence with connor has a hard cut where the t600 attack originally was

the altered audio where a guy says that connor is the nr1 target (originally it was kyle reese) is a good idea but the change is way too obvious and doesn’t sound well

at the end there are a lot of scenes with interlacing which shouldn’t be in any edit

there are also a lot of transitions that don’t work, but i can’t list them from my memory

the cut after kyle reese finds the photo is way too abrupt and we barely have time to realize what it’s about…probably because the original footage is not that much to work with

the cutting of the heart transplant works wonders, the only manko is the slight quality loss that is a result of zooming in to cut out marcus

overall this fanedit suffers from a lot of problems audio and video wise that i didn’t expect from a faneditor like T-Hope and it’s a real pity because the opening works just too damn well – I’d appreciate a redone version with the fixed errors so that i can finally put this edit into my shelf as the official T4

7/10 (6 for the edit but 1 big plus for the opening)

I agree with T-Hope’s own comments, this (i.e. the original movie) is mediocre at best and I don’t think it can really improved that much.

Before my review starts, I really liked that T-Hope created new scenes for his edit. A bold choice and I applaud him for it. And I don’t wish to diminish his efforts in anyway.

The edit definitely moves along at a much more coherent and fast pace; it’s quick to get to the heart of the plot.

I liked the freshly created intro and the new opening credits, although I did find the “JJ Abrams”-like camera shake during the nuclear detonation a little much. I liked the quick cameos from Dyson and Silberman – good tie in back to the franchise. There is one shot during the new opening that seemed a little low quality. The shot down the cell block (?) during John’s opening speech.

I definitely liked the re-sequencing of the original film’s scenes. Opening with the raid on the underground Skynet facility worked for me.

For me, the first 4 to 5 minutes of the edit had a weird and very noticeable “stutter” or “skip” to the motion. I noticed this when I watched it on my desktop and as a DVD. Maybe I got a bad D/L from RapidShare. Please let me know if you do not notice this when you watch it.

At 29:00 minutes into the edit, we get a “flashback” to Marcus and Dr. Kogan’s jail scene (originally at the beginning of the movie). T-Hope uses an odd looking filter//effect for this scene. I’m not certain what it is called, but it was odd and I don’t think it works. Too grainy and “fresco” like. I like the actual placement of the scene, how it is edited together etc – just not the weird effect. I get it – the editor is trying to show us that it is a memory/flashback.

Eliminating the parts where Skynet knows about Kyle Reese is a great choice. I like this edit because it re-focuses the plot back to what it should really have been: John Connors vs. Skynet. It’s this that really makes this edit stand out from the rest. Excellent!

I was a little disappointed to see the “Arnie” reveal scene cut down – I liked this part of the original movie – it’s the one scene in the movie that really tied this movie back to the first two. But I definitely liked the reduced “escape” scenes and final fight scenes – the originals of both of these dragged on too long.

Technically, a great edit. No major hard edits/cuts/audio issues. There is one sort of hard transition that happens after marcus dies (at approx 1:39:00) – the scene fades from Marcus and Kyle looking at each other, to a quick all white fade to John Connor on a strecher flying away – the audio is a little hard. I don’t recall this being the case in the original.

Other than that, this edit is seamless edit. Good job!

The video quality is fine – no different than the source DVD. I would have liked to see an HD source used to make the video quality better/sharper.

Overall, I liked and agreed with the cuts made to this edit, the new opening and the re-sequenced scenes. There wasn’t a single moment in this edit that made me go “Huh?”.

I have only watched my store bought DVD of this movie, Spence’s edit and now this edit. Of the three, this edit is the best, bar none. This will the version I go to when I want to watch this movie.