Terminator 2: Judgment Day <\/em>was \u2014 and is, for some \u2014 the standard-bearer for bombastic tentpole action films after it was released in 1991, but many of its fans have been less than enthusiastic about its Blu-ray releases. In recent years, though, people who love the movie have been restoring it using 35mm prints, and one of those efforts has been making the rounds over on X. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jon W., who frequently posts about movies and projects like these, compiled a few screenshots<\/a> in a thread comparing the new version with other transfers. They didn\u2019t credit the person working on this directly, but did post a screenshot<\/a> of text from \u201cthe person who restored Terminator\u201d \u2014 Googling some of it verbatim led me to Rob\u2019s Nostalgia Projects<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n A big part of this effort is aimed at \u201cfixing\u201d the coloring of this movie, which is very muted throughout \u2014 that was pretty common in a lot of movies back then, especially grim films like Terminator 2 <\/em>or Robocop. <\/em>I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s an improvement, but I do like some of what\u2019s seemingly aimed for here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Take the fan project\u2019s (top) now-much-warmer shot from a scene in which Robert Patrick\u2019s T-1000 questions some youths about John Connor’s whereabouts and other versions of the movie. It makes the scene feel more like it\u2019s set in the early morning or late evening, which makes sense given the long shadows in this and other, adjacent sequences. I\u2019ve always thought there are parts of this movie that are too cold-looking for me, and this gives it some life it doesn\u2019t otherwise have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But there are a lot of places it doesn\u2019t work \u2014 for instance, the transition from these blue shadows to the sandy colors where the sun hits the ground is too harsh. Comparing this shot to the lower one from the Blu-ray, as well as my almost 30-year-old copy of The Ultimate Edition DVD, it seems like the dustier brownish gray of those transfers is just how director James Cameron wanted it to look. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The fan version\u2019s heavy-handed coloration also shows up in the above shot, where much of the detail that was there before ends up crushed in blown-out reds. But the Blu-Ray version of this scene has a weirdly salmon-colored pall that goes redder a few moments later. Again, I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s better, but the fan version\u2019s colors do feel a little more consistent at times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ultimately, the biggest benefit this transfer gives the movie, in my opinion, is letting the movie be grainy. People complain that the Blu-ray transfers overuse digital nooise reduction, resulting in a sort of waxen look, and seeing the film grain in 1080p is really comforting, somehow. It\u2019s just a shame the color grading feels so unpolished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Still, I applaud efforts like this as much as I do the folks who brought us the Star Wars <\/em>theatrical restoration project known as \u201cThe Silver Screen Edition<\/a>,\u201d which attempts to deliver the version of that movie as it was shown in theaters originally before it even had \u201cEpisode IV: A New Hope\u201d added to the opening text crawl. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n I might not prefer this version of Terminator 2, <\/em>but it\u2019s still fun to watch in the same way that turning the color saturation down on my TV just to see how my color movies look in black and white is. Especially when you\u2019ve seen the same movie a hundred times, and you just want something a little different.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n