Exclusive preview: Hands-on with Terminator Salvation on Blu-ray

One of the year's hottest titles is undoubtedly Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's forthcoming blockbuster Terminator Salvation. Touching down on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on November 23, the film finally gives fans of the Terminator franchise a chance to witness the future war between the mankind and Skynet's robotic legions.

HCC was lucky enough to recently receive an advance copy of the UK Blu-ray release for review and - while we're saving the in-depth look at the disc for #177 of the magazine (on sale December 17) - we thought we'd pop online to share our initial thoughts on the disc and give you a lowdown on the features it includes.

As promised, the Blu-ray disc includes both the 115min Theatrical Cut and the 118min Extended Version of the movie. We've not had enough time yet to go through both and discover every difference between the two editions, but the only material that has really jumped out so far is Moon Bloodgood's topless scene (which leaked onto the internet recently and has been turning up on film sites everywhere).

Killer bass
On a purely technical level, the disc itself is a real killer. The 1080p AVC 2.40:1 encode copes extremely well with the film's desaturated and deliberately grainy visuals, registering strong blacks and excellent detailing throughout. Even more impressive though is the extremely dynamic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. The sequence in which the giant robotic 'Harvester' attacks a gas station serves up a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of extremely deep bass effects that is sure to test both your subwoofer and the patience of your neighbours. We have a feeling that people will be using this sequence to show off their kit to their friends for quite some time.

In addition to the English language DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix, the disc also offers up Dolby Digital 5.1 English Audio Descriptive and DTS-HD MA Italian 5.1 soundtracks. As for the subtitles, you get English, English SDH, Italian, Danish/Dansk, Finnish/Suomi, Hindi, Norwegien/Norsk and Swedish/Svenska.

To the Max
Moving on to the extra features, the centrepiece is undoubtedly the Maximum Movie Mode. Anybody who picked up the US Watchmen: Director's Cut Blu-ray will know what to expect, but that doesn't mean that its not still a great example of how the format's added interactivity can deliver unique behind-the-scenes experiences. Director McG takes centrestage here in walk-ons while the film is running, sometimes pausing the movie to discuss a specific shot or special effect (hence, the Maximum Movie Mode features the Theatrical Cut, but runs for 122mins). When McG's not popping up on screen to chat about the film there are on-screen storyboards to check-out, a Terminator Mythology timeline to peruse, traditional Picture-in-Picture behind-the-scenes material and links to stills galleries and Focus Points to click on.

The Focus Point mini-featurettes themselves are also accessible directly from the disc's Special Features menu. Running between two- and three-minutes each, they provide a look at a specific scene or effect from the film and are easily summed-up by their titles - Digital Destruction, Enlisting the Air Force, Molten Metal and the Science of Simulation, Creating the VLA Attack, Exploding Serena's Lab in Miniature, Hydrobots, An Icon Returns, Terminator Factory, Stan Winston Shop and Napalm Blast. Handily, if you choose to access them from the menu, there is a Play All option.

Hi-def all the way
Rounding out the extras are the 19min Reforging the Future featurette (a more general look at the making of the movie), 9min The Moto-Terminator featurette (a look at the creation of the film's motorbike-styled Terminators) and BD-Live functionality including Cinechat, MovieIQ and the standard Sony Pictures portal. Also included on the disc are the usual Blu-ray Disc is High Definition promo and a trailer for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. As an added incentive, all of the bonus video content on the disc is presented in 1080p.

All told, it's a very impressive package. From this cursory look at the disc the AV appears to be first-rate and, while it doesn't boast the biggest collection of extras ever, the Maximum Movie Mode works extremely well. Just remember to pick up HCC #177 on December 17 for the final verdict on Terminator Salvation from our team of professional reviewers.