Terminator Salvation: Box Office Prediction/Discussion

[Corpus Luteum]

No T3 didn't kill it.

McG killed it.

 

[M.O.Steel]

nah, McG was just beating a dead horse

if you liked it, he was the EMT that was trying to save it. i was hoping for a miracle save

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

To be fair to McG I think that the Catwoman screenwritters made it impossible for any director to make a really good movie.

 

[M.O.Steel]

i liked TS, so i agree with you. i thought he honestly tried his best . I was watching all 3 films before seeing TS, and you can see the considerable decrease in quality of T3 (which is further noticeable when you watch it with the other 2), from the special effects (oddly enough), to the dialogue, to the story, to the pacing, everything.

 

[M.O.Steel]

btw i read you review ISS , and thought it was great. the only thing i would say differently is that you felt that there were no others film to be made outside of 1 and 2. i felt there was at least one other film, and that would be a prequel to 1 and 2, or TS. i think, and someone else said this also, if cameron did a T3 that was took place right at the victory of the resistance, and ending with john sending reese back in time, would have been awesome. it would essentially be an extension of the "flash backs" reese has and the intro to the films. i always felt that T2 was the final film, and should have stayed that way. it would have been good to see T3T4 as a prequel to these films.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

btw i read you review ISS , and thought it was great. the only thing i would say differently is that you felt that there were no others film to be made outside of 1 and 2. i felt there was at least one other film, and that would be a prequel to 1 and 2, or TS. i think, and someone else said this also, if cameron did a T3 that was took place right at the victory of the resistance, and ending with john sending reese back in time, would have been awesome. it would essentially be an extension of the "flash backs" reese has and the intro to the films. i always felt that T2 was the final film, and should have stayed that way. it would have been good to see T3T4 as a prequel to these films.

Thanks for the compliment.

I totally get what you are saying but the new movies (although not trash) have really tainted my feelings on rather the franchise should have continued in any way. I feel bad that they have but thats the way it is right now.

In theroy if JC had come back after doing Titantic and done a future war movie I think that it could have been really great but thats sadly just a theory.

 

[Rishi]

James Cameron + Future War prequel would have been something special.

in the late 90s though.. ehhh

Call me a graphics ****e but I think there would have been an overreliance on bad cg given the era

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I think that Cameron would have came out with a better movie than Salvation in the late 90's. I'm not a CGI-aphobe like alot of the people on these boards so I'm not seeing where you are coming from but you are intitled to your opinion.

 

[DDS]

This film deserves to flop.

I sort of agree, though not in the extent that it is right now. A film like Wolverine deserves that, IMO.

Though the summer's only begun, I still think there's only one truly good film to come out so far (do I even have to say what it is? ). For me, T4 and Wolverine were just so mediocre and bland. I really, REALLY hope Transformers 2 delivers. I don't want Star Trek and Up to be the only great blockbusters (though calling Up a blockbuster compared to Star Trek is probably a bit of a stretch, I know, but...it's Pixar) this summer.

Oh, and I know Up isn't out yet, but I will shave my head and rip out a tooth if I don't love it. [/bet]

 

[DACrowe]

McG is not a brilliant director. He is trying to reinvent himself and I respect that. However, while I think he has a real problem in creating genuine emotion in a building narrative, I would say he is not the root of the problem with this movie. He visually made a very stunning movie that did the concept of the future war justice in terms of simple cinematography and visceral scope. However, narratively it doesn't really go anywhere and plods along for the first half of the movie and has a rather anti-climactic second half despite some great action.

Part of that stems from the director possibly not being able to build tension or raise the stakes, but the screenplay is just full of platitudes. Given how the original version was described I am sure Jonah Nolan and Paul Haggis gave it a solid overhaul. But it came out still closer to Quantum of Solace than Casino Royale or Batman Begins. The main reason is there is no sense of epic scope to the story. The characters other than Marcus and the chick who liked him really don't develop, we never really get inside of John's head or his inner-struggle. He mentions it in passing to his wife but these scenes are treated as filler by the writers and thus the movie. They don't really make engaging characters and the plot is a bit small for the scope of the subject matter and the lok of the film. It boils down to: Marcus wakes up, meets Kyle and John and inadvertantly lures John to Skynet where

Spoiler

Marcus learns what happened to him and John meets Kyle,

despite the somewhat sad (but far too wide ending), that is it. This 2 hour movie felt like it should be condensed to the first act of 2 1/2 epic sci-fi war film. Instead it feels like a stretched opening act all the way to feature length with tact on ending and then some vague platitudes yammered over the closing shots.

The problem was the writing. And to be fair McG had it rewritten by two of the best and it still felt loosey-goosey.

I still think the tension in this singular story could have been better built and I do think Bale was wasted as an actor as he had nothing to do but yell a lot and his scenes reminded me a bit of the idea that McG is just there saying "Now be angry, be BATMAN angry, but without the growl."

So, there is some fault on him. But ultimately I thought it was an okay/solid action flick. Better than T3 and honestly better than most summer movies (I liked it better than Transformers or the Pirate sequels ), but it wasn't the much need kick in the pants to save the franchise that Star Trek, Bond and Batman got.

I would like to see a sequel still and see them try again, but given the numbers it looks like the Terminator franchise will always be somewhat fractured. However, given its history it is somewhat ironically fitting. Honestly, T2 should have been the end of it and given the multiple choice continuation we have, TSCC in its canceled form feels more satisfying in some ways than the T3/Salvation route. Sad.

 

[StorminNorman]

McG should stick to action.

Terminator Salvation is a fine film or average film, but it's a fantastic action flick.

Give him a Transformers-type property and not a Terminator-type property and he will be fine.

 

[Episode29]

Hmmmm... If McG did a Transformers film you may actually be able to follow what's going in the action scenes...

 

[Corpus Luteum]

Damn.

Good point. Michael Bay's worse.

 

[bullets]

To be fair to McG I think that the Catwoman screenwriters made it impossible for any director to make a really good movie.

If I was the director and heard " we got this script from the writers of Catwoman" I would of said nononononono like Shia Labeouf

 

[bullets]

McG should stick to action.

Terminator Salvation is a fine film or average film, but it's a fantastic action flick.

Give him a Transformers-type property and not a Terminator-type property and he will be fine.

I thought he did a great job with the action sequences.

 

[Eric Brooks]

I thought he did a great job with the action sequences.

yea, if you don't mind not being able to tell the robots apart, which one is megtron, which one is optimus, which one is bone crusher, was that suppose to be starscream? etc. etc. etc.

the only downside in the first film IMHO, all the robots looked like huge clumps of metal and they all looked exactly the same.

lets just hope they fixed this in the sequel

 

[bullets]

yea, if you don't mind not being able to tell the robots apart, which one is megtron, which one is optimus, which one is bone crusher, was that suppose to be starscream? etc. etc. etc.

the only downside in the first film IMHO, all the robots looked like huge clumps of metal and they all looked exactly the same.

lets just hope they fixed this in the sequel

I was talking about TS.


I agree about the last act of transformers.

 

[dark_b]

No T3 didn't kill it.

McG killed it.

how can MCG be the reason this movei didnt do mroe money in the first week?

i am reading that the action was good and the tv-spots showed a lot of action and money shots.

not defending him but i think the opening week is not hes fault. it really looks like they dont care for terminator.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

It's just easier to blame all of this on McG being as how he was the one who put himself out there to sell this to the fanbase instead of the general public. John & Jane Doe Movie-Goer don't give a rat's ass if Jonah Nolan is one of the writers or that James Cameron did or didn't like the script.

The truth of the matter is the Terminator franchise simply didn't have the kind of fanbase that something like Star Trek, Batman, etc. had. And it's just nowhere near as popular as it was back in the mid-90s with the general public which would have been the best part to revisit the franchise. Proof is in the pudding - i.e. T3 under-performing and The Sarah Connor Chronicles and T4 being flops.

The general public have always associated the franchise with Arnold who was not apart of this film. That hurt too.

 

[Nivek]

No T3 didn't kill it.

McG killed it.

No, the series had issues since Cameron left. McG did the best given what he had to work with.

 

[dark_b]

maybe we are to old? people i know all want to watch this movie only because its terminator. but they are from the generation that 15 years ago watched on the TV T2.

i guess small kids are not part of this group. because in the 90's i remember very good that T2 was on the tv 2 times every year. every f.... year. the same with robocop.

 

[Wiseman]

The truth of the matter is the Terminator franchise simply didn't have the kind of fanbase that something like Star Trek, Batman, etc. had. And it's just nowhere near as popular as it was back in the mid-90s with the general public which would have been the best part to revisit the franchise. Proof is in the pudding - i.e. T3 under-performing and The Sarah Connor Chronicles and T4 being flops.

I love when fanboys spout off bs and then call it "the truth of the matter". Star Trek was a dead in the water franchise before this reboot. It was over, the last show flopped, the last couple movies floped and even when it was popular no Star Trek film came close to grossing as much as T2. Plus Star Trek was always associated with nerds so that was a much harder sell to the general public then TS was. The difference is that Star Trek delivered, TS did not. TS would've opened with over 80 million dollars if it wasn't for the fact that by friday everyone who saw it thursday was at work telling everyone how much it sucked, and the critics helped anyone who was unsure about it not waste their money. Nobody associates this movie with Sarah Connor Chronicles and the show failed because it was on fridays when nobody is home to watch it.

 

[stargazer]

And yet we still haven't seen a sequel, quasi-sequel, Routhboot, reboot, whatever you want to call it.

yeah WB sucks!

lol yep. She is the great Batman protector, you are the great Superman protector and I'll just say I'm the great Spider-Man protector.

yep, we are superheroes on our own right. hehe t:

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

I love when fanboys spout off bs and then call it "the truth of the matter". Star Trek was a dead in the water franchise before this reboot. It was over, the last show flopped, the last couple movies floped and even when it was popular no Star Trek film came close to grossing as much as T2. Plus Star Trek was always associated with nerds so that was a much harder sell to the general public then TS was. The difference is that Star Trek delivered, TS did not. TS would've opened with over 80 million dollars if it wasn't for the fact that by friday everyone who saw it thursday was at work telling everyone how much it sucked, and the critics helped anyone who was unsure about it not waste their money. Nobody associates this movie with Sarah Connor Chronicles and the show failed because it was on fridays when nobody is home to watch it.

1. I was talking about how Star Trek has a stronger fanbase aka nerds that have kept it alive over the years through various mediums (i.e. film, television, comics, literature, etc.) Terminator doesn't have anywhere near that.

2. Actually the Sarah Connor Chronicles' ratings took a huge nose dive after the first few episodes. The fact that it got a second season was nothing short of a miracle. It moving to Friday didn't do any damage to the series that didn't already have.

3. The reason why Terminator: Salvation is doing badly is because the interest in that franchise from the general public is more or less gone.

4. If by "fanboy spouting off bs" translates to "someone who actually knows what he's talking about," then you'd be correct.

 

[Wiseman]

1. I was talking about how Star Trek has a stronger fanbase aka nerds that have kept it alive over the years through various mediums (i.e. film, television, comics, literature, etc.) Terminator doesn't have anywhere near that.

2. Actually the Sarah Connor Chronicles' ratings took a huge nose dive after the first few episodes. The fact that it got a second season was nothing short of a miracle. It moving to Friday didn't do any damage to the series that didn't already have.

3. The reason why Terminator: Salvation is doing badly is because the interest in that franchise from the general public is more or less gone.

4. If by "fanboy spouting off bs" translates to "someone who actually knows what he's talking about," then you'd be correct.

All completely wrong, as already stated in my post. So how about instead of replying to this, just look up at my post when you want to have an imaginary debate on issues you are wrong about.