I've gotta go with the theatrical cut. I think it's possibly the most perfectly paced movie ever made. Director's Cut has some interesting additions (like the T-1000 malfunctioning) but the overall pacing suffers from the additional footage.
shareI prefer the extended cut. In fact, I have only watched the extended cut since I got the extreme DVD in 2005. Also the extended cut is not the director's cut. The director James Cameron has said he prefers the theatrical cut.
shareDirector’s Cut, most of the new scenes improve the film, and I love the T-800 attempted smile and the T-1000 malfunctioning.
shareTheatrical. Its much tighter. Im also not keen on the Kyle Reese dream chat scene.
Some of the other scenes were ok but not really needed. Its not as good as Aliens Directors cut which is pretty much essential apart from the Newts parents scene at the beginning.
oh, that is a good question. The additional scenes are really good; though I agree the one with Reese is not necessary. there is are interesting concepts that are added in and there is some good character development; but I also agree that it does negatively impact the pacing; especially the T-1000 malfunctioning scene and I think that it sort of ruins the moment that John doesn't know which is which. I like it better in the Theatrical cut in which he can tell just be how they acted. the fake sarah was begging for help to her son (something very out of character for her) but the real one just says sternly "Get out of the way John" that was more than sufficient for that scene.
However the operation scene in which they pull out the T-800 chip is a good scene. I think I would keep some of it and lose other parts of it. Maybe one day I will put together my own cut of the film; I did this for The OT star wars (well not quite done yet I have a few mistakes I made that I have to fix). But my goal was to get as close to the original as I could but keep the blu -ray quality. I am almost there with that goal.
So I just finished watching my custom cut of this film (in 4k). What I did was edit it so that the beginning up until the "Say that's a nice Bike" scene is the 4K Theatrical then it switches to 4K extended until the scene were Dyson drops the prototype cpu on the bomb trigger which than switches back to 4k Theatrical. This is now my preferred version of this film; it was freaking awesome.
shareTheatrical. I agree about the pacing. Also the scene where they are repairing him and then Sarah threatens to smash the chip, is completely stupid.
shareYup. Theatrical cut is best.
shareI like that scene; it adds a little bit of character development for John and the T-800 (it adds an interesting concept that their A.I. is limited by Skynet so they can't become too independent) it is the real beginning of Sarah's character development in the film and in the theatrical cut the way the scene was framed it felt like it was cut off. It always felt like there was something missing.
The Extended scene fixes that issue. Most of the cut scenes I agree were not necessary but this one I think should have stayed in the Theatrical.
The threat just feels empty to me. The T-800 just saved her life and is literally the only thing standing in the T-1000´s way of killing both her and John, not to mention Arnie is pretty much the main character. It feels like a cheap excuse to increase tension and suspense but fails miserably, that´s why I think its dumb.
shareHim interesting; you are correct that the film obviously was not going to let it happen so it felt sort of totally false suspense. But Sarah I think totally would have done it had not John intervened. We have to remember just how traumatized she must be by that thing. And obviously she doesn't trust it and feels they are better off on their own.
But I do get what you are saying that the effort seemed pointless and did not really provide a real pay off.
Theatrical.
shareWhy everone prefers the theatrical? More scenes = more material. More material = more fun.
shareDirector's cut, some of the scenes I could do without but the chip resetting scene was pretty intense when I first seen this. Plus we never got to see the T-800's cpu fully intact.
sharePacing. Think about Lord of the Rings part 3, it would've been a more rewatchable movie if they cut out at least 5 of the 10 endings.
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