Vintage Magazine Collection: Starburst Special #10 December 1991/1992

Starburst gave Terminator 2: Judgment Day great coverage not only during its original run, but also months and also years after. As far as their Yearbook Special from the 1991/1992 turn, it's fair to say how could you not put T2 on the cover and as a feature article in a sci-fi magazine summarizing the year 1991. T2 wasn't one of those movies that became an icon and classic with years, it was an instant classic and milestone, and Starburst wasn't the only magazine which gave T2 a cover for the 1991 update. 

The subject matter of the article are ILM's computer effects which understandably at the time made jaws drop, and are holding up as some of the most naturally blending in and photorealistic CGI effects even to this day. At the time many, many magazines from Entertainment Weekly to Post, focused on T2's effects and put the subject matter on the cover, but this one's a little different as it's an interview with one of the main animators Mark Dippe and the head of ILM's morph team, Doug Smythe. And while in the States the ILM work has already been covered extensively in few magazines, this is a first detailed spotlight on it in the UK press. 

It's pretty much everything that has been said in the same type of feature articles in US, but Mark Dippe wasn't interviewed exclusively yet. The article goes through all of the major ILM shots explaining how they were done, and how the T-1000 character was prepped. In the photos you can see Stan Winston's props such as Jeanelle's blade arm next to the computer as a reference

Featured is also a full page, extremely rare photo of the T-800 which is on a rare side even today, so that's a cool bonus. Also, on the earlier pages there is a retrospective on the year in which Starburst's author, Howard Maxford, doesn't hide not being as impressed with T2 like everyone else. He calls the dialogue cringy, the plot less satisfactory and complains the movie is much too long. He also pompously claims that the film's audience that loved the film didn't care about its plot or dialogue but came to see "technical fireworks" and "Arnold strutt his stuff". Wow. He does praise the special effects and the Canal chase. Same reviewer later explains that he didn't like Tim Burton, and that the year's best film was The Rocketeer. He also tears up Predator 2 and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves but gives praise to Maniac Cop 2 so, nothing much needs to be said.

Back to Terminator Trilogy