review by boon23

Prologue:
I am one of the few, who really enjoyed Terminator Salvation. I loved the incredible amount of references and nods to the predecessors, especially because T2 did the very same thing with T1, yet it did not feel too artificial in T4. For a Terminator fan it was obvious very soon (or from the very beginning) that Marcus was some kind of Terminator, yet the final revelation was still strong enough to convince me and have me entertained. I liked it how they displayed the terminator universe not just at night and in huge battles, but in broad daylight. The one thing that bothered me was that the original movie had too much action and was overall too loud, which annoyed me after a while.
When Scaperat, whom I still think to be a great fanediting talent, tackled this one I knew right ahead I would give ti a watch. Here are my impressions:

As for all my reviews: this is just my personal opinion of this fanedit. I cannot tell anybody else, if he or she will experience it in the same way or the opposite. So my review is not objective and does not reflect the opinion of fanedit.org.

!!!!This review contains heavy spoilers!!!

The edit:
the movie starts with the original beginning but then radically switches to a new take with self created continuing credits (it is Brad FIEDEL by the way). This was interesting, yet not too convincingly done as these credits played too long in the movie and made it almost feel like a TV show. The plot unfolds really well after that for the most part, only a few times edits felt forced, like John Connor in the ocean or Marcus dropping from the transport. When Serena Kogan is finally introduced it still feels forced, even though Scaperat took care by keeping the dream sequence, yet when she has her skynet appearance I got the feeling there was way more to it. The ending worked kind of well, yet it did not have any magic to it (just like the original).
The removed scenes were overall a great choice and were not missed at all. Since I only watched T4 one time so far, I can only think that most of them would have annoyed me a lot on the second viewing. Especially toning down young Kyle Reese was a very good idea.
The end credits are the original end credits with new music. I would have probably listened if there were self made end credits, but the music itself was not interesting enough for me to do that. Overall I was mildly entertained by this version but also not excited. The original had more impact to me without being great. i think this is not the final word on possible T4 edits, but it already has a few interesting approaches.

editing: 8 of 10 (some cuts felt forced, starting credits were too long)
entertainment: 6 of 10 (it was ok, but I will not watch it again and will rather stick to the original, which I rated on imdb 7 of 10)

Image and video quality:
I watched the DVD, so I was expecting great quality, which I did not get. Some scenes in the dark had artifacts, some scenes seemed to have a blue filter that felt annoying. Overall the image quality was ok, but not really DVD quality.
Video quality: 7 of 10

Audio editing and audio quality:
audio quality was good. I still found the movie just like the original too loud in parts (in the mix of action music and explosions).
audio editing: 10 of 10
sound quality: 8 of 10
resulting in a 9 of 10 for overall audio

presentation:
The DVD comes with a still main menu with the terrible main theme from T4. The image chosen is not a good one IMO and the yellow font and links also do not support the mood of the movie. There is a trailer and a deleted scene thingie as extras, both of which are ok, but not too much fun to watch either. The starting credits were partially self created, yet I did not see the fanedit title or the editor name (unlike in the trailer). There is cover art and disc art, both are ok.
To sum it up:
there is room for improvement, yet an overall ok presentation.
resulting in a 6 of 10 for overall presentation

Final result: 7 of 10
Can be enjoyed, but I am still hopeful for a better T4 fanedit.

I’m having a hard time rating this, so I will hold off for a while to think abut it. Good on the technical side, but the editing choices are nothing like what I wanted. Right now I feel like 5/10.