The Cameron Video Abyss: Aliens, The Abyss and True Lies on 4K UHD 

Wonderful and extremely helpful comparisons from fkid from the bluray.com forums: Aliens: forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21969300&postcount=6652 The Abyss: forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21959279&postcount=3645 True Lies: forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21963232&postcount=3841 True Lies Spanish import BD (do keep in mind it seems to be a bootleg but is available on Amazon): amzn.to/43BSf97

I've never fallen out of love with a filmmaker faster than when I was a teenager, buying my DVD copy of Terminator 2 (my favorite movie at the time), turning on Cameron's commentary in order to get his juicy insight, and becoming increasingly crestfallen as half the commentary seemed to consist of his shitting on the innovative special effects and filmmaking techniques, openly wishing that he could just redo the whole thing with digital effects and CGI. It's fascinating how arguably one of the most talented filmmakers of all time just seems to have zero respect for filmmaking as a medium, instead only seeing films as valuable if made with the newest toys on the market. It's such a sad approach to art.

Grain over man, Grain over

I said it before and I'll say it again: even Ridley Scott let the previous versions of BLADE RUNNER exist alongside his director's cuts. He understood the importance of preserving different cuts. I'm starting to wonder if the original negatives have been destroyed somehow and that's why they won't go back to them.

He can’t be bargained with, he can’t be reasoned with. He doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until your favorite movies are dead!

Not even George Lucas dared to do something as outrageous as this

My iTunes copy of Aliens is about to be destroyed by what is sold as a “free 4K upgrade” 💀… just goes to show that you have to own the media you care for in a physical form that nobody can manipulate retrospectively!

Cameron is the kind of guy that doubles down. “Oh you don’t like papyrus font on avatar? I’m using it for everything in the sequel.”

It's such a travesty because Alien 4K is like my top PQ disc on an OLED. perfect amount of grain, detail. I absolutely hate this Aliens digital look.

True Lies and Aliens are so bad in 4K that the 35 MM scans online with print damage and other flaws are a million times better. And that's just pathetic and sad. Both films including The Abyss deserved so much better than what they got from James Cameron and the Park Road crew.

This has spiraled out of control so much, that I've basically just resorted to VHS. I've grown used to watching films on inferior formats anyway. If Cameron has any control over Strange Days, and decides to go after that one next, hey, I got that on VHS, too. Studio labels don't often get my money anymore.

Excited to see how Cameron’s fans are going to react to this, so excited for this video :D

I think you underestimate videophiles, considering they're basically holding up the UHD platform. Bad press seemed to send T2 to the bargain bin. People won't just buy whatever's put out.

What really stings here is that there is no real good alternative for The Abyss. The DVD of The Abyss is almost like a VHS format onto the DVD, but it at least doesn't have the ugly teal tint. The Stinky Tuna Blu-Ray doesn't have that teal tint either, but although it is better than the DVD, it isn't the best video quality because it looks pixelated. Plus, the Stinky Tuna Blu-Ray only has the extended cut and not the theatrical cut. The 4K UHD transfer is definitely better as it includes both cuts of the film, however, what ruins the 4K is the DNR usage in the whole film as well as that teal tint, and that's incredibly disappointing. I seriously hope that there is a fan film restoration that can do a much better job, and therefore give The Abyss the proper treatment it deserves. As for True Lies, the Spain Blu-Ray is 1,000,000 times better than the new 4K. And for Aliens? The 2010 Aliens Blu-Ray is 100,000 times better than the 4K. Yeah, for Aliens, it could be better, but decent to my eyes, At least there is some grain included for the 2010 Blu-Ray. Overall, awesome analysis sir. You sure know what you are talking about. You really should get hired to work in a film mastering studio to fix any disc problems on Blu-Ray and 4K.

Finally someone who will speak the truth!!! Reminder that supporting these releases tells the studios that this AI process is a success and is accepted! Supposedly they are already looking into using this process to save money when doing 4ks for other 20th Century back catalog and WE NEED TO STOP THAT. Because I swear to god if after years and years of waiting, if they actually finally come out with The Fly (1986) on 4K UHD Blu-ray and it has been AI'd, no power on earth will contain my anger towards those responsible ! (thats a joke I would not harm those that supported this.......or would I???!?!....No, buuuut) Hopefully Cronenberg and the Cinematographer for The Fly would stop that process being used on that film though. Maybe Sony will stop them as well??? Doubtful though. This needs to be nipped in the bud like real quick or the whole physical media and restoration industry will literally crumble real quick if this starts to take root. Some people already have their favourite films on 4k or are blind and enjoy these Cameron "remasters" (they aren't remasters they are fake), but my favourite film of all time The Fly (1986) is DIRECTLY in the crosshairs of this AI process and the success of these releases could very well determine the direction taken for a 4k for that film, and if not just that and other 20th Century films but this could spiral wildly out of control to every 4k release outside of Boutique Labels that have braincells and wouldn't do this. I implore you to fight the need to have these films on 4k even when you know they are bad because on their own sure maybe they aren't the absolute worst and maybe it isnt that bad Cameron can do what he wants (he can't and shouldn't but whatever) but this could have explosive ripple effects throughout the industry and change everything and not for the better. This could be how they kill physical media off for good becuase eventually people won't accept this kind of trash anymore. Dear god dont let this go any further. And please keep the AI process away from the films we care about. Don't let this happen to The Fly.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've said however, unfortunately, these films are so beloved by fans who have waited decades for them to receive a new release beyond DVD, that they are better than what they had. So I don't necessarily blame them for wanting to purchase them. As you pointed out if you're only being offered a turd the only thing you can do to it is polish it or flush it down the loo where it belongs........ and wait for a sympathetic restoration that will probably never come. It's hard to believe that JC has delayed the release of these films only to do such a poor job 😭

Me when I see Cameron descrate all of classic his films in HD: "ITS GAME OVER MAN! ITS GAME OVER!! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO NOW?!!! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!!!!!

I have to admit, I did order The Abyss, as it seemed like the only one worth getting (with Titanic and Aliens having already fantastic Blu-rays, while True Lies is stuck in limbo with that okay but kinda crummy Spanish bootleg BD). I did watch a very low bitrate stream of the theatrical cut when it was uploaded to Amazon Prime Japan (randomly was checking it with a VPN and was shocked to see it was there, new master and all), and I gotta admit, the low bitrate sure helped hide a lot of the issues. So I guess I’m part of the problem for getting one of them, but at least I held off the other three, so I’ll take a partial victory here. The one slight positive of them selling well is that Disney might take notice and release more of the Fox back catalog on UHD. One can hope…

Thank you a lot for always keeping your objectivity and integrity. I still dont understand why many other reviewers suddenly decided to turn off their brains to review these releases and judged them under different standards and criteria than they use to judge any other home media release. Why suddenly everything they complained about turned now to be "good" and "aceptable"? Is it because is Cameron? Because Cameron contradicts himself like George Lucas now his fandom has to do it too? That's when fanaticism reaches unhealthy levels, when somebody goes so far to deny reality itself just to defend what they love, blindly. I don't get it, I love this movies too, and It is precisely because I love them that I want the best treatment and respect for them, the best quality possible which is definitively OUT THERE. If independent studios can give us outstandingly superior quality than these studio releases... how come that Cameron, with all the money in the world, specially after the last 2 Avatar movies, is not willing to put a penny to do a PROPER JOB and go back to the negatives to do a proper restoration? Nobody is asking him to do it for free, people pay for this things. But why should we pay for a blown up 1080p movie that we already have in Blu-Ray, DVD, Laser disc, and VHS, if the only thing that is new here is something that any TV does automatically and for free. DNR is ugly and something that we always tun off. Even THX tells you to turn it off. See the rabbit hole of contradictions? And one thing should be clear to those who complain about us complaining about these releases, that is that most people who buy physical media are people who care about film preservation, people who wants more quality than what streaming offers, we notice details that the average consumer wont, because we are film geeks, cinephiles, and some of us are filmmakers or aspiring to be filmmakers. Every detail counts. Among all people and potential costumers studios have, we are the demographic that will always be willing to PAY MORE TO OBTAIN THE BEST.

Save film grain at all costs! Yes, there are some 4k discs from boutique labels that do a great job of restoring the original film elements but they are few and far between. For me the 4k format has been incredibly frustrating. Even trying to find a film that has it's original audio or god forbid it's original aspect ratio... ha hum (Robocop Arrow 4k) is a complete hassle. Great video!

Have you ever seen the 35mm scan of "True Lies"? I found it through the Original Trilogy forums. Interestingly, it's graded differently than the D-Theater version. The 35mm version has blue tints in certain scenes (as intended by Cameron and originally shown in theaters), whereas these tints were removed for the D-Theater release.

I will say that I watched The Abyss 4K disc last night and yeah while it could have been better, I don't think this looks too bad. Yes there are spots where all the film grain is blown away, but I didn't think it ruined the detail to the point where it is unwatchable. As for True Lies and Aliens, I am happy with the Blu-rays I currently have (the Spanish bootleg and the earlier Aliens set that has the theatricals and special editions on the disc). Thanks.

He needs to let go of Avatar. Working on those films ruined his brilliant eye for detail! And maybe Arrow, if not Criterion (why, even Shout Factory), could do a brand new 'from scratch' restoration, ie., if they are lucky enough to somehow get their hands on those film negatives being guarded now, I am sure, with such ravenous hunger by the unforgiving witch of a dragon, Disney! And perhaps, film companies could make their directors sign binding contract that prohibits them from changing the visual traits of their film after release. Director's cut, and black and white are all ok but tweaking the colour from theatrical tone to something else entirely, grain removal, botoxian waxing hysteria, teal and green madness... it seems to be some sort of a plague affecting directors alone!

This is so frustrating, and it sucks that some of these movies still look best on laserdisc. Especially because so many of us can’t even play laserdiscs. Getting a working player for a good price is almost impossible as is, much less one with digital audio capabilities. So for the majority of us, the only realistic way of seeing these movies is a dvd port I’m just thankful I’m not a Cameron fan at all, so I don’t have to touch these with a ten foot pole. I can happily live with my dvd copies of the movies since I pull them off the shelf next to never

Unfortunately, understanding things like the importance of preservation and the ethical and philological aspects of restoration requires some degree of culture and intelligence, something that's lacking even in some comments below this video (only a few, but if they're indicative of a larger audience, movie preservation is screwed forever).

Highly thoughtful video essay on JC's relentless pursuit to cut and splice and atomize his filmography. I think your video here just proves how much fuller of himself he actually really is. I think he likens himself to be the Prince Prospero of the digital age. He or his lackeys wave their hands or magic walking sticks over their consoles in hopes to "keep up to date" with his films. Apart from the original The Terminator from 1984, never was a die hard fan but the arguments you posed here should be shared with people who really obsess over his filmography. Your video here just reinforces the idea that its good to hold onto physical media copies of one's favorite films because things just continually seem to be disappearing and or being deleted for the next "shiny and brand spanking new and up to date" version. JC's been power tripping for years now and hopefully will reach an age where he'll just let all of this nonsense go. Someone needs to tell him to read Walter Benjamin's essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" so he can get back to his un-AI senses.

I guess I will stick to Blu-ray for Aliens. Hopefully, 3 and Resurrection won't suffer this tragedy if it ever comes out in 4K. If Alien Anthology 4K ever comes out, I will watch Alien, 3, and Resurrection on 4K and Aliens on Blu-ray.

I remember watching a bonus feature on a German Blu-ray release of The never ending story, where they proudly talked about taking the grain out completely and adding it later again. It's a tragedy

I was waiting for your to do a video like this. I couldn't have said it better myself. James Cameron is far closer to Lucas and his Special Edition revisionism than people would like to admit and these 4Ks are proof of that.

Gen X content gets treated the worst.. You find all the boomer classics in great quality.

I pre-ordered "The Abyss" and I've watched both versions, I'm happy* with it. "Aliens" on the other hand, I opted not to pre-order because I wanted to see for myself before I made a purchase, I've just managed to get hold of the 4K on rental and compared a number of scenes to my 2012 Blu-ray (from the Quad set) and I cannot bear watching the 4K ! At times I feel like my brain is working extra hard to try and make sense of the image I'm looking at and I think if I were to watch the entire movie I'd have a headache by the end. When there's a relatively static close up of someone's face or something else then it's all brought into high focus/detail and it's absolutely fine but when the image includes lots of background at different depth and multiple actors it feels like it's all been smoothed out with some of it looking very flat but some of it having detail and it doesn't look like "normal focus" to me. I think things get worse when motion is involved as well like a sort of unnatural motion blur, I don't really know how to describe it. The colours/contrast all seem wildly different as well and that alone makes the experience worse than the blu-ray for me. As soon as I switch back to the blu-ray I feel like my brain relaxes and can enjoy what I'm seeing and it all looks much more natural (and enjoyable !). I totally get that a lot of people seem to like this 4K and I 100% believe them, I think this highlights that we don't all see/experience artifical things/motion in exactly the same way. I remember watching the Sopranos and being totally freaked out by the "CGI Mom" episode but a friend of mine who loved the show had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, it looked fine to him. I showed him some *obviously* fake CGI jokey stuff once and he was asking me if it was real (because to him it looked real). I think we have something similar going on here, some of us are more sensitive to this artificial "enhancement" than others and that's why this is so polarizing. I guess we just have to accept that some people will be very happy with this "look" and some wont. For myself, I'm very happy with my blu-ray of Aliens (even more so now !) and I definitely wont be "upgrading" to this 4K. I'm hoping to be able to check out "True Lies" soon. *EDIT* Although I'm happy with "The Abyss" I know that if it had been "restored properly" then the 4K would be a LOT better ! but I can watch/enjoy the 4K of "The Abyss" but I cannot watch/enjoy the 4K of "Aliens". I "forced myself" to stick on my non-anamorphic DVD of "The Abyss" after I posted this and sitting closer to the screen (because my TV will not zoom this image so I have massive black borders on both sides as well as top/bottom) I gotta say that it highlighted to me a bit more that DVD does indeed look more natural, especially on the "ship scenes". The colours were also more natural as well, on the 4K the colours are very nice and rich in some scenes and dulled or blued in others which I thought was down to the lighting but I can see it's a definite change now. Oh well, as I say, I can watch and enjoy the 4K of "The Abyss" (I've done it twice) but I'm forced to lament the fact that it could have been so much better.

They were saying the green effect we see in The Matrix series were all some film issue. How could that be the case? And that that's why they fixed the green issue on 4K. 😭🤦 And that bit in the beginning with the two grandmasters, brilliant!

It’s so odd. Some parts of all 3 look pretty decent but at times, you can tell there’s some weird tweaking added to it. The Abyss looks the best of the 3 to me but that doesn’t say much. Do I think it’s horrible? Not so much. To me, the picture is a mixed bag, but the sound on the other hand was well done. Great atmos tracks and the option of having the original 5.1 mixes on the included Blu-rays. I’m just split on it. Oh and also they must’ve done the weird AI upscaling on the documentary for True Lies because the VHS quality stuff looks weirdly enhanced to be in 1080p.

This is exactly why I kept my DVHS copy of True Lies. I also have a French copy of T2 on HDDVD the picture quality was always superior to the Blu-ray and unlike the WB HDDVD's it still works.

so to sum it up in a perfect world these would of been licenced out to Arrow/Shout factory and Fidelity in motion

That's sad to hear Spencer was looking forward to getting these for my Physical Media Collection. Sadly though I've owned many titles in my collection with not so great transfers and QC issues cough cough I'm looking at you WB with the Superman 4K Set.

Remember The Terminator’s remixing of the mono sound to 5.1 and altering the sound effects… 🤦🏻‍♂️

I think this will become the industry standard or the 'new normal' for future 4K transfers. This certainly will be seen as a beta test for using A.I. more readily, which will further hamper film preservation for those who desire a film to be treated with the respect and the attention necessary to justify an all-around experience of satisfaction. I feel sorry for consumers who buy these 4K films, not understanding the legacy or the backstory to how we arrived at this point. This is very much a regressive step back to the Dark Ages. To a time where technology is actually being applied that disables the image and sends film into a backwards terjectory. Quite honestly, it's become a shit show. But nothing surprises me these days.

Another top notch episode, on a sad set of releases. Going forward could you note what you feel is the "best" (or least bad) existing physical media version in the show notes?

The opening "interview" would make a great standalone video!

I'm surprised you only have one version of the Abyss DVD - It looks like that is the single disc release - There is the original 2 disc special edition and then the later repackaged edition of it.

I won't be purchasing any of these i've never seen the abyss and i don't care to as for aliens im very happy with the blu ray. True lies is truly disappointing though i will be getting the spanish bootleg for sure now per your advice. After everything cameron as done i have zero hope in a proper original terminator 4k release and that is the most disappointing of all since it's easily the best and my favorite work from cameron. As always very informative information from your channel your videos have been a godsend in helping me with my physical media collection.

With what Cameron did to the 4ks (which anyone who knows Cameron could've seen coming a mile away), what's the best version of these three movies I can obtain? I'll find laserdisc rips if I have to. You're very knowledgeable on this stuff

I pretty much agree with everything you said here. Even though I'm getting the Abyss,there aren't many other options although I do own that Laserdisc box set and was there to see it opening night in theaters,there should be an option to have the original. A perfect example of how to do a film like this right is the 2001 4K release. That film looks and sounds great but you can still tell it's actually film and that it was made in a certain time and place. That's nothing to be ashamed of. It's like recently I picked up the 4K of Oshii's Ghost in the Shell. I was really pissed off at the end when they completely took out the original music and replaced it with the bland techno garbage that Manga had made for it. Not even an option. Just a straight up removing of the music even on the subtitled version. Terrible but not many people talk about it. Or they think it's acceptable. It's not. Not when you are straight up removing the original. So I understand your frustration.

Oh this is going to be great

There needs to be a broader discussion of when changing a film goes beyond remastering into a completely new cut. I can’t wait for Cameron’s next T2 Remaster, where Arnold’s T-800 lives at the end. He’s the director and can change the ending to match his new 2024 right? 😂

Awesome video again. Thank you so much for all of your very hard work.

New to the channel but love your in depth and detailed reviews ! This Cameron 4K kerfuffle is so wrongheaded and damn frustrating and as you said hopefully it doesn't set a new standard for future releases to come Boggles the mind why the hell they can't just release a disc that includes both a more true to the original restoration, and Avatar Cabrons AI-fied wonky playground version as well

You mention reviewers actually liking these Cameron transfers, and it seems to be more of a feature than a bug of online home video reviews. I still love the cartoons of my childhood (warts and all), and they’ve been treated tremendously bad since the rise of DVD, with DNR, time-compression (mainly the famously abused and desecrated Filmation library), awful color timing, issues with re-takes (a great majority of which seem to only exist on video), censorship, bad audio remixes, and digital alterations, but most of them got glowing reviews on release. The reviewers don’t necessarily know what the things they review originally looked and sounded like, and will be easily awed by the increased clarity and fancy surround sound. I remember when the ‘80s Twilight Zone hit DVD as straight transfers of the video masters, and it got HAMMERED in reviews for “looking like an old VHS” so hard that one of the showrunners felt the need to post a review on Amazon explaining that the video master was the ONLY way that a complete version of the show could exist without essentially remaking the show from scratch. And then years later CBS did just that with Star Trek: TNG and made all sorts of revisions to the special effects (especially the CGI effects) and even computer displays (because Mike Okuda has totally let his status as being in charge of Star Trek’s continuity go to his head, it seems) to massive praise all around.

I still might pick up those new releases of Abyss and True-Lies, mainly for the new retrospectives as opposed to the picture, but I will not pick them up full price. Instead, I will wait until they hit bargain prices (which should be quick). In terms of transfers, I have two bootleg blu-rays of those films, and their transfers are fantastic, much better than what I've heard about the official releases. I still respect Cameron as a filmmaker, as he's made some of the most classic films in his career, but I'm still weary about the transfers of his films. The best looking transfers of his films (outside of bootlegs) were the first Blu-ray of Aliens, the 2013 Blu-ray of Terminator 1 (despite the darker color grading, and the lack of mono, the detail looked great), and the 2015 blu-ray of T2, whose transfer was based on the Japanese Laserdisc.

Out of my 26 years on my life the only movie I’ve seen on almost every format is Aliens. I’ve seen it on DVD, blu-ray and was even fortunate enough to see it on 70mm (even though the print was badly damaged) on my 20th birthday back at 2018. Definitely can say I’m not sure how I feel about this…time to smoke my weed bowl and cannot wait to hear your take on it!!!

Unfortunately the masses just see the film titles and the words 4K and will end up buying it anyway. All are now virtually sold out in the states. I weep for the future of 4K.

Im not a huge Cameron fan myself but I do love the first Terminator film. I never got the blu ray because its missing the mono mix and have held on to my dvd (which holds up ok). I have been hoping that mgm would release a 4k themselves via a boutique and maybe we might get a nice HD image with the mono. Like what they did with Mad Max. Hearing that Cameron is somehow involved with mgm to restore that one makes my heart sink. Is that legitimate? I have not heard that anywhere. Also, i dont plan on buying these Cameron 4ks but Aliens (which is another Cameron film I do like) has a stereo track included. The old blu ray is 5.1 only. Do you know if Aliens was released in stereo exclusively back in 1986? Or was there a 6 track mix? Im okay not buying Aliens in 4k but Im curious about that stereo mix.

I was all excited when I heard these Cameron classics were coming to UHD, thank you so much for saving me the money I'd have wasted.

I love these videos!! Please tell us what the best physical releases of each of these films are. I am new to physical media and I need to know!! I do not want to own these atrocities

Still the best 4k transfer of an old film I have ever seen is JAWS. If you can use the team that worked on that restoration then your're winning.

I heard that the Terminator blu-ray uses a lowry digital master and if that's really the case then do you know if they also degrained it and then added fake grain like on Aliens and the older Bond movies?

That intro was good, its just sad they do this to these beloved movies, i wonder if james Cameron and others see these videos, now they Are working on t1 and t2, some body should please tell Cameron please leave the film grain alone and dont change the color timing on these 2 classics.

@damnfooolidealisticcrusader HAS SHOOK UP THE WHOLE RU-vid PHYSICAL MEDIA REVIEWER COMMUNITY. THEY ALL KNOW WHO THEY ARE 😂😂😂😂

I saw The Abyss 'restoration' presented in digital 4K on that one special showing and it was definitely the same master as was used for the encode on the disc. Honestly that showing was pretty good, and now looking at the disc I do think it looks miles better than any of the 'definitely legit' versions I have when doing direct image comparisons on my PC. Aliens is not as good and arguably trades blows with the existing BDs at points, but True Lies is just awful. I can't look at True lies for more than a couple minutes and do not understand how that was OK'd. I am glad I have the lionsgate 2D BD of T2 since every other version of that movie is bad too.

Great review! Where did you get the info that these aren’t using 4K scans?

I see positive reviews everywhere. What is going on here? Cover art and transfers are worse than they've been for quite some time, and the reviews I see have gotten more ignorant. These transfers are not good. Like, at all. Like, they are clearly 0 out of whatever. It doesn't matter how good you want a disc to look, that doesn't make it better than it really is, and I get to thinkin' that is what is happening here. That would also explain how the hideous Dragon Ball Z steelbooks are magically "good enough." People want good transfers so much that they wind up praising garbage. It makes no sense but I see that happening.

Hollywood has always been about profit, the fact that it sometimes produced art was a byproduct or subterfuge. As you said, the majority of the public buying these discs will be happy. I saw The Abyss theatrically, had the laserdisc boxset, fullscreen DVD (for 4:3 TV) & have seen previous HD transfers streaming, only True Lies disappointed. I don't have a 4K player (for fear of another upgrade cycle) & my eyesight (& visual memory) is not as good as yours, so my approach is to wait for the $4-6 ATV+ rentals, when there's little to lose and enjoy. Otherwise, I've already sunk enough money into the abyss!

Titanic was already unnatural in terms of the look. So I´m fearful of those three titles. The Abyss will hurt the most because there´s no alternative.

I sadly can't find a rip of the laserdisc for The Abyss. You said the DVD is bad, but compared to the 4K, is it better/more acceptable?

In Spain there is apparently some loophole that allows bootlegs to be released. I imported off Amazon Spain to the U.K. the True Lies disc. It’s a proper pressed disc it’s not a BD-R which surprised me. It’s worth getting anyway. It’s even got some extras that are very unique including Cameron mentioning Spiderman being his next film at a press event. Shame we have to do this of course but I’m not paying for wrecks. The Abyss is the only one I’m annoyed about most as the bootleg of that you just can’t find outside of means I don’t want to get involved with.

You collect LD/DVD/Blu-Ray discs like a lot of us collect LP’s. Love it! 🤘

Now I’m sad. I’ve been hoping we’d have brilliant versions of these films and preordered as soon as I was notified. The Abyss and Aliens were delivered today and I’m afraid to even watch them.

I just noticed that you passed 6k subscribers; congrats:)

I sincerely love the justified bitchiness of this vid. Roast'm all

What i cannot fathom is - Cameron is no idiot. He must know and see the issuesso why does he think these are acceptable? Its not like they have no budget for these products or that they have been rushed- we've been waiting since 2006 for The Abyss on Blu-ray. Cameron delays and procrastinates while diverted by Avatar films and then THIS is what is finally arrived at? I cannot understand why he doesn't want his past work archived and represented properly. As I say, he is no idiot. So why? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Thanks for your hard work on this! Looking forward to watching it (right now).

I respect Cameron in a lot of ways but damn we have very different tastes for what film should look like on home video. I buy 4ks because I want to see all of that natural grain hopping around like intended. Screwing around with the core aesthetic and applying DNR and other AI manipulations is a major hang up for me. No sir I do not like it!

Why can't we have nice things anymore....Dammit!

Coppola appears to have played this about right. Yeah, he’s played around with Apocalypse now but the fans demanded it as there was so much unseen footage, but he’s restored the actual stock film beautifully. I had the pleasure to ask Walter Murch a question during the promotion of Apoc N Redux. I asked if Coppola was tempted to do what Lucas did with Star Wars and change or tweak with CGI and he looked at me bemused. That was best answer I could get. Ha.

I think to the people that say things like "It's the directors movie. He can make changes to the look of the film if he wants to." It's not like that. He didn't make these films alone in his backyard. Hundreds to thousands of people worked to make these projects come to life. Do the cinematographers, set designers, actors, sfx department etc not deserve to have their hard work shown not just in the best light but also in an proper unaltered state? This just makes me sad because generative ai in its nature is making up detail. How long before they get so good you won't know If you're looking at a proper remaster or something that looks really good and proper but is nothing like the original film that was shot?

These are really bad Masters, should not be consumed by the public but the public does not care.

Graffiti's grain elimination, then adding in a fine layer of digital "grain", is a crying shame, because its color grade is really beautiful. I would've just reduced natural film grain by 20% and called it a day.

The restoration of "American Graffiti" looks just fine.

Maybe the man just does not care anymore about his decades upon decades old work. He's 70 now and human lives are short. If imdb stats are true, he got a whopping $350,000,000 from the first Avatar alone, so there's that too. I can imagine a scenario where someone calls him and says "hey people would really like to see some of your old movies made into 4K to watch on their big new oled TVs" "Not this again? Ok.. so what is the quickest way to approach it?" "DNR and AI upscale but home video fans despise it.." "Just do that then.. and get off my back" I'm just guessing these.. but maybe he sees his old work differently than we, his devoted fans. I've been on the fence whether or not to get the 4K releases but based on this video, I just went from probably to not likely..

23:10 this is what I’ve been saying day 1 when Lucas only released the special edition of Star Wars on dvd. Do what you want to creatively with your films now with technology but please present us the option to watch the film we all loved originally

I don't understand... Anime fans can find original negatives and do unbelievable restorations like Super Mario 86' Movie & the Project Ako movies, which looks absolutely fantastic, but multi billion dollar companies can't do it???

Preach I got my father into physical media and no matter how hard I explained to him and showed him examples he has always loved the worst 4ks ever made and he pre ordered True Lies absolutely loved it.

I really hope that someone find and scan a 35mm or even 16mm print of The Abyss (they already did this with True Lies and Aliens), any grindhouse old print will be better than this goddamn disc.

I think a lot of this could be avoided if they actually sold an untouched version from the 4K scans with they’re doing. I mean, it shouldn’t be too hard to have two masters done, especially since all they really have to do for the untouched version is run the real and copy to a drive, they could list it as pure, uncut, film, or untouched, and the new version could be called. AI restored, see what people like Best when it comes to these films. 11:26

Great channel, keep up the good work.

Film needs to be scanned in 8k

I’ll just stick with the aliens blu Ray even with its own flaws

So much work and years to restore perfectly Vertigo without changing it and it shows. They should all do that

There is a video by Rick Worley who has a 3 hour video defending the Star Wars special editions. I’m assuming you don’t like the special editions but I thought Rick’s video was really fascinating and I’m curious if you ever watch it to know what your thoughts are On that video.

Years and years ago, I saw an interview with Cameron. He acted normal and polite but the feeling I got was that he was a prick. I think you proved that here.

for this artwork to say a film by , shouldn't say , a AI by james cameron , to use word film is offensive with this disc

Grain almost always looks like compression to me and can be distracting in certain cases, especially for darker shots in some films which can look like a flickery mess. I honestly feel like a lot of 4K enthusiasts are taling this whole situation way too seriously and blowing things out of proportion.

great video mate

I knew going in that these were revisions but I still bought all 3. True lies is by far the worst (though still not T2 horrible but still bad). Aliens is okay. The abyss as waxy as it is still looks way better than the old DVD where I would rather watch the 4K over the dvds.

James Cameron is the Mike Love of filmmakers

So many of the 80s and 90s films I've purchased 2 or 3 times already and have no interest in buying again. I actually purchase very few UHD discs, mainly new films only. I find HDR does little for older films. Some films I even prefer on video -- 80s horror films just work on video played on a CRT.

This guy is right Cameron is up to complete tom foolery.

I used to think that changing a movie on a such deep level was some thing that had to do with a 'fan editing', but now I don't know what to think... There is no better initial source to make any 'fan edits' anymore when movies may be initially processed with AI... UPD: maybe JC just got tired of everyone asking him for the 4K, while he was secretely working on a 10K remaster in a "hidden pvivate lab"? 😂😂😂

This is the longest yet most entertaining video on this cameron 4k situation .