Terminator Salvation: Review Central

[Cain]

Exactly. They turned one of the smartest and most cerebral sci-fi movies of all time and made it "a dumb popcorn flick". That, is why is sucked. Although, the same case could be made of T3.

Except John Connor was well written at least written like a human being and Kate and he had some good chemistry. The action scenes had some originality to them instead of always seeming like a rehash of another action movie. The performances were serviceable and it packed some nice twists especially with the ending. Most importantly the editing wasn't garbage and the writing was above average as opposed to below mediocre. It didn't feel like 34 different scripts frankensteined together into a mess of paper and words. It felt like a lot more effort was put into that one from Mostow than McG with Salvation.

I never saw T3 at the flicks I wasn't interested. I caught it on TV one night and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it's rep says it was. It wasn't the greatest it has it's flaws but it's a pretty good flick because at least you could tell they tried, I certainly found it a lot more interesting and entertaing than TS. I wish I had seen that in theatres and not this one.

 

[Erzengel]

For those giving this movie 9s and 10s, what do you rate T2?

 

[Octoberist]

Exactly what I said to a friend. T1 and T2 were good movies because they had action and made you think. T3 was just mindless action and so was T4. This is why I was dissapointed by this and Wolverine. Two franchises that once made good movies with many undertones and great characters and they drove both franchises into the ground. T4 only was a bit better because it looked way better and had better action. But, they both are dumb popcorn flicks. Transformers 2, which is meant to be a popcorn flick, will blow both of these out of the water.

I have to admit that after Wolverine and T4, I was a little depressed how hollow modern day movies were, or can be. Hell, Transformers had more personality! That's right, Trans-to-the-formers!

But Star Trek saved my soul.

 

[Ol'Canucklehead]

I thought Star Wars was great, but not Epic....To me Salvation had much more Epic qualities.....and to tell the truth.....so did Wolverine.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Fanboys should be banned from using the word epic because they don't know what it means.

Love or hate Wolverine it was so far from being epic that it wasn't even funny. As for Salvation; I just watched T2 for the 100th time last night and it was far more epic than Salvation at it's best could hope to be.

It's action scenes are lightyears ahead of Salvation's and it was made 18 years ago. To be fair T2's action scenes are better than most movies action scenes made now or days and Salvations saving grace is it's action scenes but T2's are still better.

 

[DarKJediKnight]

For those giving this movie 9s and 10s, what do you rate T2?

15.

And I gave this film 8.

Which is why it was rated "R".

TS was obviously written for people who can't look past the special effects.

Why is it always that when a poorly reviewed film gets enjoyed by a few, these few are always stereotyped into those "who can't look past the special effects"? I enjoyed TS, yet I put T2 in high regard. Maybe saying that I love "The Shawshank Redemption" could add to my credentials.

I thought Star Wars was great, but not Epic....To me Salvation had much more Epic qualities.....and to tell the truth.....so did Wolverine.

And that's where I have to disagree with you. How come TS and that Wolverine flick had much more epic qualities than Star Wars? While I enjoy TS - I have no problem with it because I saw it as a plain action flick and nothing more - it has nothing compared with Star Wars. Star Wars covers almost any issues to be talked about - political, social, philosophical and a lot of other things. TS is just a war film. And don't get me started with Wolverine.

 

[vanson]

just came from the cinema... i think the movie was good...
maybe i missed something, but one thing really bugged me.
And that is the thing that marcus has an actual real human heart.

i really didn´t get that... he´s a machine..
first i thought " ok, he has a heart for the blood which has to be pumped through his skin,.. more realistic, for better infiltration.. and so on"

but then they show that he can be killed by wounding his heart...ergo he has only the heart and no
other power"device" or am i wrong?

its a movie ok, but a human heart would never be capable to run a machine like marcus.

that whole thing really crushes the movie for me a bit...

 

[nogap87]

Count me as one who thought T3 was better than TS. Neither one of them were particularly good but at least I sort of cared about what happened to John Connor in T3. I didn't care what happened to Connor in TS. At all. The first half of the movie looked like a bland video game and the second half just reminded me that the T-1000 is still the best and most formidable Terminator model. I give it a 5/10.

 

[bweurk]

I saw the movie yesterday, i'm a big Terminator fan since i was a child...
I really don't get all the hate about this movie. Of course, the movie isn't as good as the first two, but it's far superior than the third.
As for the CGI Arnold, I liked it, I even found it more credible than the real and wrinkled Arnold from T3, of course I could tell it was CG, but it didn't ruin anything... you know, in T1, when he removes his eye, you can tell it is a puppet, and in T2, you can tell the silver T-1000 is CG. If unperfect special effects ruin a movie for you, I really have pity for you because I guess there are not a lot of movie you can enjoy...

The movie had some issues, too many explosions, sometimes I had the feeling I was watching a Michael Bay movie, but, fortunately, without the slow motion army shots in the sunset, or the unnecessary american flags everywhere (and even if i'm french, i'm not saying that in an USA-bashing way). I didn't like the moment when Skynet explains it's plans to Marcus, using Serena's face. I have nothing against Helena Bonham Carter playing Skynet, but i would prefer her to be a Cyborg speaking for Skynet (like the mouth of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings) rather than a crappy video on a screen, it's not a terrible mistake, but it's something that we often see in movies, just like we often see unrealistic computers (you know, computers where you have to use the keyboard to move the mouse cursor, or with crazy software that can output some crisps high definition images from small and blurry low definition security cam footages, i'm sure you know what i mean), that always makes me cringe a bit...
And there were some little stupid ideas (I agree, Skynet should put more Terminators to keep its facilities), but nothing "movie-ruining" to me..
Christian Bale was not as bad as some people say... yeah, that's right, he didn't really act like the "worldwide human resistance leader" and he seemed a bit confused by what happened around him, but it was the purpose of the movie (hence the "it's not the future my mother told me about")

I would love to see Terminator Salvation as it was intended to be before Warner came to McG and told him to reduce the movie so they could get a PG13 and more screenings per day. I have nothing against short movies nor PG13 but I think that if you want to make a PG13 movie, you have to conceive it that way from the beginning, that's what they've done with the Dark Knight, and it worked pretty well, but that's clearly not what happened there... It's really a pity... I hope the Dvd will fix this.

(once again, excuse if my english sounds a little clumsy sometimes, but that's not my everyday language)

 

[Episode29]

Exactly. They turned one of the smartest and most cerebral sci-fi movies of all time and made it "a dumb popcorn flick". That, is why is sucked. Although, the same case could be made of T3.

Okay, let's not go crazy here. T1 and 2 are far from being the brilliant works of science-fiction filmmaking of all time.

 

[DACMAN]

Well I'm gonna disagree. The first one inspired practically every other sci-fi movie we have today. The idea that we advance so much that we destroy ourselves, and then the things that were going to destroy us, destroy themselves once they become like us is beyond brilliant. Self destructive by human nature even when the human nature is artifical. If the machines hadn't built the time machine to send Reese back there wouldn't have ever been a John Connor anyway. Pure genius. What would you say is the best sci-fi movie of all time? I'd really love to know.

 

[DACMAN]

Why is it always that when a poorly reviewed film gets enjoyed by a few, these few are always stereotyped into those "who can't look past the special effects"? I enjoyed TS, yet I put T2 in high regard. Maybe saying that I love "The Shawshank Redemption" could add to my credentials.

I was making a point. Read what he said. I was being facetious.

 

[scatterax]

Well I'm gonna disagree. The first one inspired practically every other sci-fi movie we have today. The idea that we advance so much that we destroy ourselves, and then the things that were going to destroy us, destroy themselves once they become like us is beyond brilliant. Self destructive by human nature even when the human nature is artifical. If the machines hadn't built the time machine to send Reese back there wouldn't have ever been a John Connor anyway. Pure genius. What would you say is the best sci-fi movie of all time? I'd really love to know.

for me, it's... STARWARS. (empire strikes back, actually.)

 

[scatterax]

btw, i finally saw T1 for the 1st time the other day. it was awesome. but not as good as t2 for me. or TS.

 

[Ol'Canucklehead]

And that's where I have to disagree with you. How come TS and that Wolverine flick had much more epic qualities than Star Wars? While I enjoy TS - I have no problem with it because I saw it as a plain action flick and nothing more - it has nothing compared with Star Wars. Star Wars covers almost any issues to be talked about - political, social, philosophical and a lot of other things. TS is just a war film. And don't get me started with Wolverine.

OMG dude I so totally boned on that post, I meant to say Star Trek not Star Wars. My EXTREME apologies, I guess I just had Star Wars on the brain because of that super mega epic trailer for The Old Republic and accidentally typed Wars instead of Trek. My Uber bad, rocks should be cast at me for even accidentally typing that. I'm a huge SW fan from way back, my apologies.

But yes as I was saying Star TREK was good, but not as Epic as Terminator Salvation.

 

[Rishi]

Which is why it was rated "R".

TS was obviously written for people who can't look past the special effects.

It was only rated R in america. Canada, the UK, and every other country had pg-13/14A/some variant. the only scene worthy of an R is the fist through the cop, theres no harsh swearing and no blood anywhere else in the film.

HAHAHA!!!! IT WAS WRITTEN BY THE SAME PEOPLE! And you really think "So that's what death tastes like" was better? At least T3 knew it was having fun. TS wanted so bad to be the first Terminator but just ended up being a mess with plot holes and bad dialogue. Given T3 had some bad dialogue, but at least it didn't have the massive plot holes that ruined the entire franchise.

T3 had plotholes. Maybe not as massive, but it had pretty big ones.

Why did John treat the 850 like the 800? Why did it know the stuff John taught him in T2 despite saying he wasn't the same one? How did the T-X know to follow them to Crystal Peak? Why did the T-X disguise itself as Kate's husband for absolutely no reason? Why can the particle accelerator magnetize the T-X but not the saw it uses to free itself? Why can Arnold just "screw" his head back on in two seconds? How does he just "will himself" out of the virus? Why can the virus affect communications and everything else but not launch nukes on its own anyway? Why does the virus exist besides being a deus ex machina?

I didn't even bring up Mike Krypky's basement (ugh).

And gotta disagree. People didn't go see TS because it sucks. I've been asked by at least 20 people should they go see it and I tell them not to, and they haven't. Word of mouth killed this film. Star Trek is doing great even though the last one sucked. Look at Batman Begins. And why? Because they're good films. Do be naive.

no u

Word of mouth? Maybe. Everyone I've asked about it loved it. Most people who haven't are hesitating cause of T3 or reviews. Some didn't even know it was out (bad promo?).

And even if that was true (which obviously is isn't) it doesn't explain the bad reviews when T3 got mostly good reviews.

it is, and shut up about the reviews already. look at my other post, the public thinks T4 is better on two different sites. Don't let Arnolds participation in the film blind you, T3 is a piece of ****. It fails on every level.

 

[RKO]

Exactly. They turned one of the smartest and most cerebral sci-fi movies of all time and made it "a dumb popcorn flick". That, is why is sucked. Although, the same case could be made of T3.

T1 and T2 are two of my favorite films of all time, and they have alot of emotion. But 2 of the most cerebral....really? I don't believe they're that complex.

 

[Eric Brooks]

As for the CGI Arnold, I liked it, I even found it more credible than the real and wrinkled Arnold from T3, of course I could tell it was CG, but it didn't ruin anything... you know, in T1, when he removes his eye, you can tell it is a puppet, and in T2, you can tell the silver T-1000 is CG. If unperfect special effects ruin a movie for you, I really have pity for you because I guess there are not a lot of movie you can enjoy...

very strong pity

the CGI Arnold was perfect

 

[Kent]

T1 and T2 are two of my favorite films of all time, and they have alot of emotion. But 2 of the most cerebral....really? I don't believe they're that complex.

Yeah. I love T1 and T2. They're fantastic films, and expertly put together, but I'd hardly call them cerebral.

 

[Nivek]

Yeah. I love T1 and T2. They're fantastic films, and expertly put together, but I'd hardly call them cerebral.

No kidding. But this is the same mentality that has people complaining about every horror remake like these are quality films that are timeless.

Terminator was an awesome action film that was above average and made Ahnuld a true star. But it is not what I call a "thinking mans film" by any means. It has a cyborg punching through a mans chest and ripping out his heart for crying out loud. Some people need to just step back a wee bit from jumping that shark tank.

 

[Figs]

No kidding. But this is the same mentality that has people complaining about every horror remake like these are quality films that are timeless.

Terminator was an awesome action film that was above average and made Ahnuld a true star. But it is not what I call a "thinking mans film" by any means. It has a cyborg punching through a mans chest and ripping out his heart for crying out loud. Some people need to just step back a wee bit from jumping that shark tank.

Exactly.

Great action/sci-fi films but not works of art and they're certainly not as deep as some fanboys make them out to be. That doesn't mean we should ignore TS's plot holes but too many people put the original two up on too high of a pedestal.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Fanboys should be banned from using the word epic because they don't know what it means.

Love or hate Wolverine it was so far from being epic that it wasn't even funny. As for Salvation; I just watched T2 for the 100th time last night and it was far more epic than Salvation at it's best could hope to be.

It's action scenes are lightyears ahead of Salvation's and it was made 18 years ago. To be fair T2's action scenes are better than most movies action scenes made now or days and Salvations saving grace is it's action scenes but T2's are still better.

The effects in T2 are just simply...amazing. Even to this day, they look better than 9.5 out of every 10 movies that come out, and it was made a while ago. That is simply amazing.

They are truly, epic

Well I'm gonna disagree. The first one inspired practically every other sci-fi movie we have today. The idea that we advance so much that we destroy ourselves, and then the things that were going to destroy us, destroy themselves once they become like us is beyond brilliant. Self destructive by human nature even when the human nature is artifical. If the machines hadn't built the time machine to send Reese back there wouldn't have ever been a John Connor anyway. Pure genius. What would you say is the best sci-fi movie of all time? I'd really love to know.

Agreed, and that is why T1 and T2 are utterly brilliant films. While I would say 2001: A Space Odyssey is my pick for best Sc-Fi movie ever, the first 2 Terminator films are easily in my top 10 or 5 Sci-Fi films area. Few pieces of Science Fiction have ever been as brilliant as those 2 films.

 

[Steyin]

Okay, let's not go crazy here. T1 and 2 are far from being the brilliant works of science-fiction filmmaking of all time.

I completely agree.

Well I'm gonna disagree. The first one inspired practically every other sci-fi movie we have today. The idea that we advance so much that we destroy ourselves, and then the things that were going to destroy us, destroy themselves once they become like us is beyond brilliant. Self destructive by human nature even when the human nature is artifical. If the machines hadn't built the time machine to send Reese back there wouldn't have ever been a John Connor anyway. Pure genius.

I wouldn't give the film so much credit considering other sci-films before it and existing at around the same time. As for your last sentence: John Connor existed before time travel if you consider the first future shown in T1 as the first time line. I'd say your logic is flawed.

 

[SatEL]

This movie was a huge let down seriously this is what Bale went psycho for? After Bales meltdown on set I was kind of expecting something epic or a great action film was some superb emotional scene so during my time viewing this medicore fluff I kept bracing myself for that scene (That scene been the emotional scene bail threw a tantrum for) sadly I didn’t get it.

This is not the future my mother warned me about, well hell ***** this isn’t the future James Cameroon had in mind, in T1 when we got flashes of the war scenes they looked brutal and scary in this film its just mehhhhhhhhhh another post apocalyptic survival them against us film. Also is it just me or have these post Cameron Terminator films *****fied Terminators. In previous Terminator films when you saw a Terminator your initial thought was **** I don’t want some of that, with this movie I am sat there evaluating just how quickly it would take for me to Terminate (Minor pun intended) these *****fied Terminators. I could go on and on about things this movie got wrong and how it failed.

Simply put this is a medicore film and isn’t worth going out of your way to see it, if you don’t have anything better to do and you want to kill time then by all means check it out otherwise wait for it on dvd or even TV.

Overall rating 4/10.

 

[Tojo]

Finally got round to seeing it and am frankly astonished anyone could think it's a good movie. The trailer made it look like a fantastic dark horse film of the summer. I was just so disappointed by this, and the rest of the series is so redundant now.

The story, editing, pacing, acting, sets, effects, action were all horrifically sloppy. Ok, it wasn't Star Wars territory, but TS was essentially a series of loud set-pieces with a sad attempt at story and character clunked in between. If this was the third or fourth draft, i'd hate to see the script that Bale originally rejected. And since when does a Terminator, once having it's primary target in it's grasp, simply throw it against a wall. They don't, they grab them and break their neck. I know, Bale can't die, but that is why you have the T-800 chasing him through the factory. There was absolutley no sense of what the human survivors had gone through in the last ten years, and what living in post-apocalyptic conditions would really be like. Conners wife has Salon quality hair, and they all look like they get their 3 meals a day. In T1, there was a definate sense of the struggle in the dream sequences, and also in Biehns performance.

McG is a hack, plain and simple. This script could be read out on stage in a cold reading. Get real A sorry excuse for a Terminator film.