The James Cameron Home Video Apocalypse

James Cameron, a devout perfectionist, almost to the point of tyranny if you hear from people who worked with him. A strongly opinionated on set leader with a very alpha personality, has output the most successful films of all time and has innovated Hollywood and enraptured our imaginations for decades now.

Except when it comes to home entertainment presentation. Granted, he did provide a killer extended cut of Aliens for the TV audiences which finally showed up when DVDs became a thing. But it was a treasured gem for years. Hundreds, if not thousands of people made sure to record Aliens on a blank VHS when it showed on TV. Those extra scenes on the colony showing life before the Xenomorphs destroyed it. Ripley’s daughter, giving weight to her relationship with Newt. And those killer automated machine guns!

When DVDs arrived, it was standard to release movies in both Pan and Scan and Widescreen versions as the vast majority of the population had 1.33 screens. Widescreen was considered a niche market.

Most filmmakers, notably Spielberg campaigned to have their movies released as Widescreen. The first “letterbox” VHS was The Color Purple, and before the presentation there was a disclaimer stating that no, there's nothing wrong with your TV. Those black bars are on purpose. You're not losing the top and bottom of your movie. In fact, it's the opposite. You're seeing the original image as intended in theaters.

The Abyss on DVD

Note the “Full Screen Edition”

Then came James Cameron, who loudly stated that he preferred pan and scan DVDs for his movies, as he wanted to cater to the market majority. Fast forward years later, all his pan and scan movies were quickly relegated to the garbage or 99 cent bins the moment widescreen 16:9 screens became standard.

The latest Cameron home video debacle? DNR. Digital noise reduction. You see two of his movies haven't been available since the days of DVD. True Lies and The Abyss. They skipped the Blu ray era (again, a strange decision) and they weren't streaming anywhere. This was a big signifier that there was no digital master available. The first sign of life came from a Ryan Reynolds tweet.

Suddenly the throngs of nerds rejoiced. Not only was there going to be a 4K remaster of The Abyss, but later on revealed there was True Lies and Aliens. The immediate thought was “wow, can you imagine how amazing those images will be?”.

Then came the streaming versions made available a few months prior to the anticipated physical copies. People were noticing for True Lies, something was off. There was no film grain, BUT, the faces of the actors in certain moments appeared “waxy”. After some digging it turns out Cameron had the film's remastered utilizing a digital noise reduction process which now includes artificial intelligence. AI, you know…SKYNET. The very thing Cameron warned us about.

The process was utilized for Peter Jackson's Beatles project, and it appears Cameron liked it so much he wanted it done on his home releases. Jackson used it to “upscale” 16mm footage from 1969 to 4K to make the image sharper.

You see, 4K resolution is remarkably close to the original presentation of lots of celluloid shot films. If it was originally shot in 65mm? Forget it. You'll have an amazing image on Blu ray. But 35mm still had it's limitations in regards to grain. The younger generation who didn't grow up with grain and were raised on 60fps video games, don't want to see it on their 4K Blu rays. It's “too distracting”.

Super 35mm film was a format that eliminated one side of the audio track to create a larger image then regular 35mm.True Lies was shot in Super 35mm, Kodak 5244 EXR film stock, which was brand new at the time. It was marketed as a ultra fine grain stock, meaning you won't get too much graininess. Originally True Lies was presented in both 35mm prints and blown up to 70mm prints. At the time Cameron (who is VERY well versed on the technical side of photography…like scarily so) stated the film print was “bulletproof” in regards to clarity.

Now? His team attempted to clarify the movie even moreso for digital standards, to the point of altering the appearance of the actors skin.

This has unleashed a beast of a debate about grain vs AI. Whether or not a filmmaker should alter their films to the point it changes appearances within a film. Like the old adage says, films are never finished. They're taken away from you. But is this a case of pushing it too far?

What do you think?