Terminal (Blu-ray Review)
Terminal follows the twisting tales of two assassins carrying out a sinister mission, a teacher battling a fatal illness, an enigmatic janitor and a curious waitress leading a dangerous double life. Murderous consequences unravel in the dead of night as their lives all intertwine at the hands of a mysterious criminal mastermind hell-bent on revenge.
Film 
Terminal is the neo-noir tale of a group of shady characters navigating through a dirty, shiny, anonymous city – potentially up to no good and potentially seeking salvation. Two young assassins, Vince (Dexter Fletcher) & Alfred (Max Irons) are out there on a mission to handle business for an unseen kingpin. Bill (Simon Pegg) is a terminally ill teacher who is spending the last weeks of his life pondering things at the local diner in the terminal. Annie (Margot Robbie) is the beautiful and curious waitress, with the sharp tongue, that works at the terminal diner. She spends her time listening to every kind of story imaginable thrown at her by wiseguys and by guys who should wise up. All of these crazy characters are topped off by the sketchy janitor that cleans up the terminal day in and day out. He also provides access to whatever vices you’re after…for a price. This peach of a man is played by none other than Mike Meyers.
Watching Terminal unfold was a treat for me, because it took hold right during the grand opening credits. The darkness infused with the neon haze of the grungy city made it all seem like it was part of a dream. I mean, you can go ahead and hate the film, but on pure aesthetics, Terminal is quite phenomenal. I think Margot Robbie did a great job, and a producer of the film as well, threw herself in with abandon into the project. She obliterates every scene she is in with delicious abandon.
Terminal may also seem like it’s a man’s world and that Annie is just living in it but you could not be more wrong with that assumption. She is no damsel in distress. When not serving ungrateful customers at the diner she is out and about navigating through the city and clubs also trying to get an upper hand on those that would do her and her friends wrong.
I watched Terminal on Digital HD a while ago and I loved it. There are instances of “slow burn” but it’s such a great looking film that it did not matter. You can scoop this film up with a spoon. Being that I love classic and neo-noir films – I was in heaven watching Terminal unfold. In fact, as I write this review, the title is jumping out at me. Yes, it’s about a subway terminal but we do have a character that has a “terminal” illness, as well. Think about it. Message!
I’ve watched Terminal twice already and it’s an entertaining romp. I had a lot of fun with it and I think everyone in front and behind the camera did a great job. I highly recommend the film. Let us see what the rest of the Blu-ray has in store for us, shall we?
Video 
Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Clarity/Detail: Contrast and sharpness levels were clean and crisp. Noise reduction was not an issue, but there may have been added filters to give some of the beauty make-ups that much more pop. Then again, the make-up artists are just that good. The detail was fantastic.
Depth: Terminal has insane depth in terms of video presentation. It takes place in a seedy part of town and very rarely leaves the desolated terminal where people go to get away. There’s a perpetual haze that is ever present there, which gives it an ominous glow.
Black Levels: Black levels were quite strong with only a few minor instances of crush here and there. Nothing major to report, though.
Color Reproduction: The color reproduction on this Blu-ray is quite spectacular. The film is neo-noir in terms of styling but has some bright and vivid colors injected throughout the film that give the overall presentation some added punch.
Flesh Tones: Flesh tones were nice and natural, with the exception of Mike Meyers’ character looking decrepit. We all know that Margot Robbie’s flesh tones are perfection, right?
Noise/Artifacts: The film was shot on the digital side of things and looks great. No grit, dirt, speckles, etc., were found on this magical digital presentation.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Dynamics: Terminal sounds great on Blu-ray. It’s primarily dialogue driven and does feature moments of violence and scenes of sleaze when at the nightclub. Granted, they’re classy, but the music and what’s going on onscreen get kicked up a notch. The lossless soundtrack handles it all in stride.
Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer (LFE) gets a nice and subtle workout — there are a few scenes sprinkled throughout that benefit from the extra low-end bass kick.
Surround Sound Presentation: Terminal is front loaded in terms of sound but the occasional gunshot, random act of violence, etc., do carry their weight to the surround sound channels. It’s crystal clear in the back section.
Dialogue Reproduction: The moments of cheeky dialogue come through nice and clear and free of anomalies.
Extras
The only downside to this Blu-ray release of Terminal is the slim-pickings in the supplemental features department. The featurettes included are just a sampler of what the film has in store but like a kid and candy, I wanted more. My favorite featurette of the bunch is the “concept to creation” one. They do a side by side comparison of the production design artwork and the finished film. It made me wish that they would release an “Art of Terminal” type-of-book, but oh well.
- “The Cast of Terminal” fetaurette (HD)
- “Building the World of Terminal” featurette (HD)
- “From Concept to Creation” featurette (HD)
- Photo Gallery (HD)
Summary
Divisive critical reviews aside – I enjoyed Terminal very much. It was a throwback to the classic film-noir of yesteryear, with a nice flourish of neo-noir and a splash of science fiction to boot. The video and audio specifications were nice and tidy and I really did wish that the extras were longer. Terminal has a great ensemble cast and the Blu-ray is priced just right. I highly recommend the film – 2018 really seems to be the year of the iconoclastic film…and that’s a good thing.
Terminal is now available on Blu-ray & DVD!
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