On DVD: 'Terminator' franchise is bankrupt

BALE

Many of the current problems plaguing contemporary filmmaking are on display in Terminator: Salvation (Warner Bros), which comes to DVD this week.

It was the fourth film in a franchise that should have stopped with three.

It proved the most costly "independently" produced film ever with a budget of $200 million. Despite grossing more than $370 million worldwide, it's deemed a commercial failure in many quarters because it didn't open up setting box office records.

Finally in some of the stunt casting there were people playing roles not necessarily because they were the best fit for the part, but because they had a big enough name that the studio thought they could lure people from particular demos and niche audiences.

Ultimately Terminator: Salvation was more of an artistic disappointment than anything else. Set mostly in 2018, it chronicles the battle between Skynet, the computer system that now rules the world and the resistance, a group of human survivors from the carnage trying to overthrow the tyranny of machines.

Christian Bale landed the key role as John Connor, but wasn't nearly as charismatic or effective here as in other action mainstays like the Batman flicks. In fact, the characters of Cyborg Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) and a youthful Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), a leftover figure from the 1984 classic film, proved more compelling on screen.

The script did try to cover some potentially gripping issues, more notably what really determines one's humanity and what impact constant conflict has on someone's soul. But those were buried underneath waves of action sequences and elaborate special effects, some of which were quite good.

The film also introduced some new lore into the Terminator legacy, particularly the T-800 model 101 Terminator.

With the DVD release this week, Terminator:Salvation is being offered in multiple versions. There's a director's cut edition that has various extras, a Blu-ray version with those same features (for more money) and the basic DVD that shows the film and a handful of bonuses.

While nowhere as captivating as either the first or second Terminator films, it is an improvement over the third and also contains more details and characters than the (now canceled) television show.

Other releases

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian [Two-Disc Monkey Mischief Pack] (20th Century Fox), which is also being released this week, is the follow-up to the blockbuster film that introduced the character of museum guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) and the magic Egyptian tablet that brings historical characters at New York's Museum of Natural History to life.

This time the tablet has been transferred to the Smithsonian, and Daley wants to "rescue" it. Once again he crosses paths with famous characters, among them a phantom (Hank Azaria) and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), plus some returning figures from the first film (Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Robin Williams).

As usual, there's a bare bones plot, but the fun comes in watching Stiller interact with historical figures and seeing how/when he'll figure out what's happening in both the present and the past.

The Monkey Pack is a bonus second disc that's part of the two-DVD package. That set has director and writer interviews, deleted scenes, a gag reel and many other items that aren't available in the single disc version.

While it didn't do quite as well as its predecessor, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian still grossed more than $171 million domestically ($411 million plus worldwide).

TV on DVD

It didn't get as much push or promotion last year on ABC as the comedies Modern Family and Cougar Town have this season, but Better Off Ted helped usher in a new bunch of sophisticated, smart half-hour programs last season.

Unfortunately the show only got a 13-episode order, and had to endure a bunch of time slot changes before getting a renewal order for the new season.

Better Off Ted: Season 1 (20th Century Fox), a two-DVD set, will be released this week. It contains all the programs from the first year in chronological order uncut, plus a few informational extras. Most importantly, it spotlights the characters of Ted (Jay Harrington), a manager and the only person with both sanity and a heart at the giant corporation Veridian Dynamics, plus his boss Veronica (Portia De Rossi), a devious, brainy and beautiful woman who values status and prestige above everything else.

As a spoof of corporate culture and those entangled in it, Better Off Ted was among last season's revelations. It even earned an Emmy nomination. Hopefully the DVD will serve as a good introduction to the second season that begins Dec. 8 at 8:30 p.m. (WKRN-2).