5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Two hitmen agree to take on a high risk mission for a mysterious employer and a large paycheck. Along the way they encounter a woman who may be more involved in their mission than they first realized.
Starring: Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg, Matthew Lewis (III), Mike Myers, Max IronsCrime | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Terminal is the first feature produced by actress Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), and you can see what
attracted the rapidly rising star to the project, with its multi-faceted femme fatale lead and
dialogue that, at least on the page, must have sounded juicy and exciting. Unfortunately, the
movie created by writer/director Vaughn Stein, a former AD making his feature debut, is a
headache-inducing mess, a junkyard of semi-coherent cinematic references and genre cliches.
Stein says in the Blu-ray extras that he wanted to combine a dystopian landscape with film noir
tropes, but the result is more psychedelia than foreboding mystery, more Ken Russell than Ridley
Scott. It's a bad trip that takes its sweet time going nowhere.
Shot in Budapest with European financing, Terminal was filmed in 2016, and a rough cut
screened at that year's Toronto International Film Festival. But distribution had to wait until
2018, when U.K. rights were acquired by Arrow and U.S. rights by RLJ Entertainment. The film
reportedly received a U.S. theatrical release in May, but if so, it was such a minor event that Box
Office Mojo has no record of it. RLJ is now releasing it on Blu-ray.
Let's start with Terminal's aspect ratio. IMDb has no listing on the subject, but the excerpts in
the extras are all framed at 2.39:1, and the displays on the monitors in behind-the-scenes footage
reflect the same intended aspect ratio. For video, however, someone has decided to present the
film at HDTV's full-frame ratio of 1.78:1. It's not a disastrous choice, because there doesn't
appear to be major cropping at the sides, just an expansion of the frame at top and bottom, and
many of the huge sets built in abandoned buildings actually benefit from the greater sense of
height. But for a film where visual style is so self-consciously considered, reframing the image
from what the director and DP intended is a dubious decision (unless one of them was involved,
which we don't know).
Terminal was shot digitally by British cinematographer Christopher Ross (Black Sea), who has
taken his cue from the intensely colorful neon signs that bedeck the film's nameless city. The
frame is routinely awash in brightly fluorescent blues, reds, greens, oranges and yellows, with
different hues often competing for attention. Reds are especially striking, particularly the
signature full-length coat sometimes worn by Margot Robbie's femme fatal. Alternating shadows
and streaks of bright light scream "Look at me! I'm noir!", and there's barely a natural flesh tone in
sight. Fine detail is superior where it's intended to be visible (mostly in closeups) but routinely
fades into darkness or is blown out by intense brightness. If a psychedelic graphic novel is your
thing, then Terminal may be the movie for you, and the Blu-ray effectively delivers Ross's
intense palette
However, the image is not without flaws. Occasional banding appears, but it's minor and brief.
More serious is the subtle but frequent background noise in the riotous clashes of colors, and
these recur in irregular background streaks throughout the film. They will be more or less
obvious depending on the size of your display and its settings, and they are fleeting enough to
pass without major distraction for many viewers, but they shouldn't be there at all, because they
are almost certainly an artifact of overcompression. RLJ/Image has mastered the film on a BD-25
with an average bitrate of 19.99 Mbps, which simply isn't sufficient for Terminal's busy images.
I suspect the compressionist has done the best he or she could with the limited space available,
but RLJ should have sprung the few extra pennies per disc for the BD-50.
Terminal's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is loud, and you may find it necessary to turn down your customary volume setting by a few db. It's not the sound effects, which are effective though relatively modest, but the score by Rupert Gregson-Williams and Anthony Clarke (who worked together on Wonder Woman and Hacksaw Ridge). The music has been mixed to fill the entire speaker array, pulsing and throbbing as it does its best to rise to the level of the overcooked visuals. To the sound mixers' credit, the dialogue never gets buried, remaining intelligible and firmly anchored to the front, but, like the bright colors and odd angles onscreen, the soundtrack is working overtime to knock you sideways with suspense and foreboding in a film where, for a very long time, not much happens and the ultimate reveals aren't worth the wait.
Good writing is hard work, and not everyone has an ear for great movie dialogue. Vaughn Stein
shows promise as a visual stylist, but he needs a gifted screenwriter, or at least a writing partner.
Terminal is a potentially interesting experiment betrayed by the weaknesses of the derivative
script. RLJ has given it a merely adequate treatment on Blu-ray. If you're curious, you might as
well stream it, given the unfortunate overcompression.
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