MovieChat Forums > The Terminator (1984) Discussion > Remastered version with the dated visual...

Remastered version with the dated visual effects eliminated: yay or nay?

posted 4 years ago by BlackMass (694)
18 replies | jump to latest

T1 is a classic, one of my favourite films. But every time I go back to it, I cringe more and more. The shot of the dummy head looking in the mirror is pretty embarrassing, and the scenes where it's driving the truck aren't much better. The stop motion on the endoskeleton looks seriously dated as well.

I actually made my own edit of the film, in which I erased/reduced some of the dummy and puppet shots, and smoothed out the stop motion by using editing software to create new frames. I showed it to my dad who thought it was sacrilege, but I might try finding somewhere to host it anyway.

How would you feel if Cameron signed off on a remastered cut that eliminated all the dodgy visual effects?

[–] PaladinNJ (20307) 4 years ago

I'd stick with the original.

[–] 10200 (656) 4 years ago

I wouldn't change a thing - love it just the way it is.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Nay. I like it the way it is.

[–] zephyr_cape (2979) 4 years ago

Everything you’re pointing to as dodgy comprises my favorite things about the movie. The stop mo endoskeleton is the best part of the whole thing. It doesn’t get more iconic and the herky awkwardness of its animation makes it all the creepier. It can’t be improved upon. It’s perfect.

[–] Gd5150 (10983) 4 years ago

Barf CGI all over a classic? No thanks. One Star Wars was enough.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I don't know about 'signed off'... I guess you mean your edit? I'd have to see it.

I'm with you generally which makes us outliers. There's a lot of older movies that I think could benefit from modern day CGI tweaking. The trick is to be restrained and avoid going all 'Lucas' on it, i.e. jamming every square inch of screen real estate with CGI.

An example of where CGI was used well, IMO, was in the re-mastered version of the original Star Trek series. It was gorgeous.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Noooooooo.

Trying to insert modern effects into these old movies just results in an inconsistent looking mess.

[–] mitzibishi (1615) 4 years ago

The best solution would be to make it look really good, blend perfectly into the scene in regards to lighting and have it move stop motion like following the exact same path and movement. Have it overlay and not redo the whole scene.

But we all know hollywood, they will probably start doing triple backflips with crappy CGI.

The only problem I see is the matting effects are bad and the picture looks washed out and lower resolution when the exo Terminator is walking to the door where Kyle and Sarah are trying to shut the door and you have that square where its matted over and a lower frame rate.

Even if they clean up the matting a little better and improve the frame rate differences.

[–] kwestmo (4114) 4 years ago

You think you have improved upon James Cameron's work? Think again. You desecrated it

[–] BlackMass (694) 4 years ago

Okie dokie.

[–] TheDodgyCodger (3) 4 years ago

Why? Why do people have such a problem with 80's FX in an 80's movie? Should we update LCJr's transformation in the Wolfman? Or touch up the visual FX in the House on Haunted Hill? The Terminator is more than five minutes of special effects and to tamper with that means disrupting the visual aesthetic of the film as a whole.

[–] mitzibishi (1615) 4 years ago

Because the youbglings cant handle it. Janky overdone CGI with crazy physics and uncanny valley faces is the only way to go.