Terminator: Salvation Discuss/Grade <Spoilers>

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by nx1701g, May 19, 2009.

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Grade "Terminator Salvation"

  1. "I'll be back!" (Excellent)

    31 vote(s)
    16.5%
  2. "Come with me if you want to live." (Above Average)

    61 vote(s)
    32.4%
  3. "Thank you for explaining." (Average)

    50 vote(s)
    26.6%
  4. "If we stay this course we are dead! We are all dead!" (Below Average)

    26 vote(s)
    13.8%
  5. "You are TERMINATED." (Poor)

    20 vote(s)
    10.6%
  1. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I just got back from a midnight showing--I wasn't planning on going originally, but my brother and I were bored, so we said "Hell with it" and went. I was planning on seeing it this weekend or next week anyway.

    I really liked it. It was not a cinematic masterpiece by any means, and I'd still put the first two films ahead of it, but I thought it was a big improvement over T3. The action scenes were mostly pretty cool, though it started to get a little ridiculous at the end, and the story wasn't all that bad.

    My biggest gripe is actually not with the movie itself, but the marketing:

    It would have been so much better if they had kept a tight lid on Marcus being a Terminator, and been more subtle about it during the first half of the movie. Realizing that Marcus was not actually a human, but in fact a machine, could have been one of the coolest movie twists in recent years.
    Oh, and I thought Anton Yelchin did a great job as Kyle Reese. He sounded almost exactly like Michael Biehn in some of his lines, and did a good job mimicking his mannerisms and facial expressions.
     
  2. Frontier

    Frontier Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I went to the midnight showing tonight.

    Gotta say, I liked it a lot.

    It isn't a sweeping epic like T2, or a 'cult classic' like the original. But it's a solid action flick and fixes some of the issues of recent Terminators.

    That said, they trimmed a little too much of the "fat" out to fit into a run-time. The fat being, the story. There was a story, but it got trimmed to it's bare bones. The action was epic. The acting was great. The characters besides John, Kyle and Marcus and to a lesser degree Blair where really under utilized. The prequel novel did such a great job with Blair and Barnes and Kate, I expected more from them in the film and was disappointed not to get such.

    That said, the action was so good, so much better than T3 or TSCC, it really made up for some things. I hope they do an extended cut DVD as the story could be greatly "fattened" by such, as time would no longer be an issue.

    The much discussed Scwarzenegger CGI cameo? Fan-frakking-tastic. Perfectly done.

    There where many connections to the second film, few to the third, and a few to the first. There was one scene that was almost identical to the end factory sequence from T1. They gave John Connor his trademark scar we always saw in future-flashes in T2 and T3. They gave us some new things too.

    I'll be seeing it again Saturday, and will be able to make a better assessment then, but it was a solid film, even with it's faults. The action alone makes it worth watching. It's a bit of a Terminator fans wet-dream at times, lol.

    It's a great set-up film for a trilogy, and I hope it launches one. I also hope there is a little more balance to story next time. But I can live with it.

    My T-Rankings...

    T2
    T1
    TS
    TSCC
    T3
     
  3. Frontier

    Frontier Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I see 3 votes for "poor" but no posts to back them up with any specifics...
     
  4. NX74205

    NX74205 Captain Captain

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    I voted thank you for explaining or simply average.

    The story in all honesty is very weak. I mean very weak. You could almost tell that probably almost 21324 writers chipped in on the story as the story had a lot of side stories and plot points that simply were not followed through. I honestly felt that this movie had a lot of motifs and themes that could work for it and add more depth to the story and the characters. The Marcus character for instance really was a wasted opportunity, he really could have been used as a jumping point for the series to explore what is it about us that really makes us human and is a machine that thinks it is human really human etc.

    It will be really nice to see if the extra 30 to 40 minutes that were cut out of the film, if they add to the story at all and hopefully fill in some of the details and flesh out the characters. In all honesty, I felt the movie really almost degenerated into move here, find robot, fight destroy, move there, find robot, fight destroy rinse and repeat.

    On the positive side, you could tell that the writers knew their terminator and respected the franchise. There were a lot of homages or references thrown into the movie that would please the terminator geek. Also, the movie does feel like a futuristic war movie and you do feel the dread and fear that permeates humanity in this chapter. On the other hand though, some references from T1 like only moving around and fighting at night (mentioned by Kyle in T1), is kinda thrown out the window as almost all the fighting is done during the day. Also Skynet central in Silicon Valley...nice touch.

    I hope they make a sequel to continue the series, but after this movie, I really am afraid that Terminator may in fact be terminated. What a horrible week for the fans, TSCC gets canceled and Salvation is just meh.....yikes :(
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2009
  5. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I thought there were supposed to be more films in this new series? I mean, after all, Salvation never showed this scene:

    Kyle Reese going back in time
     
  6. NX74205

    NX74205 Captain Captain

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    Yeah...to my knowledge more are planned but I am just assuming that in order for them to be greenlit Salvation needs to make some money. I am only afraid that the mixed reviews may scare some people away.
     
  7. John Picard

    John Picard Vice Admiral Admiral

    The Washington Times gave it a good review.
     
  8. NX74205

    NX74205 Captain Captain

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    Ok NX....its the afternoon now....time for your review! :p
     
  9. nx1701g

    nx1701g Admiral Admiral

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    And you shall have it... Remember this is from the early views I saw and not the theatrical cut. I don't know if anything else was removed as I have not yet gone to see the film in the theatre and don't intend to go until tomorrow.

    So what did I think of Terminator Salvation? That's a pretty good question. When I go into a Terminator film I'm not exactly expecting to be watching Shakespeare, but I do want to be entertained. Did McG meet that goal? Yes I was suitably entertained, but that doesn't mean that the movie didn't have some faults.

    I've wanted a Future War film pretty much since I first saw The Terminator and the small peek at the battles in T2. TSCC cemented that with their low budget battles in the future, but the final scenes in T3 told me that I knew I wanted to see the war. This is still very early in the war but they did a good job at building a world beyond imagination that was frightening. Still there were some plot devices that made me roll my eyes. How exactly could kids set such elaborate traps? How exactly did the Jeep survive and still work (yes Marcus did some work to it but it should have been fried)? These were minor though and the homages were fun.

    My biggest problem though was not the fault of McG or pretty much anyone, it was a problem with the marketing personnel for the film. It should NEVER have been revealed that Marcus was a terminator before the film was released. I like to play detective when I'm watching a film and the mystery around Marcus Wright is too easily answered when they tell you basically right in the beginning that Marcus is a terminator. It cut all the resonance that the scenes, specifically the mine detonation, would have had. They should have done what T2 did where you were supposed to keep guessing who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. Plus the big, you were supposed to get Connor here, reveal wasn't exactly a surprise. At least they kept the TSCC connection to Marcus.

    They needed to give some of the cast more to do though. For many it reminded me of the Natalie Portman in Star Wars Episode Three syndrome, she was there but really didn't know why she was there. I have to wonder if they had kept Claire Danes as Kate Brewster/Connor if they would have given her more to do than what they did. She didn't really remind me much of Sarah Connor (like John claimed in T3). For once too I want Michael Ironside to play a character that I like. I really liked SeaQuest 2032, but I'm tired of Ironside basically playing shells of his former characters. At least he has military characters down pretty well.

    The final battle didn't evoke the same feelings for me as it should have though. When I saw it promoed I thought it looked like just a rip off of the final battles in The Terminator and Terminator 2, but that was to be expected a bit. I have a recommendation though: can we avoid the molten steel bits in future films? It's starting to become cliche in Terminator.

    But, did I enjoy the film? I would say yes, but I'm biased (which shows in my excellent views because I saw what I wanted to see: a lot of explosions and a bleak future). It had its flaws, but it was supposed to be a popcorn flick and not a thought provoking film (which it could have been had it not been revealed so early that Marcus was a machine - anyone wanting to see how I would have handled this the fanfic in the signature below explores this theme as I would have).

    Like I said though my review is from the cut I saw which may not end up being the theatrical cut (I was told there were still some edits that they may do). After I rewatch it I'll post expanded thoughts.
     
  10. Yoda

    Yoda Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That movie was not good. Some of the action scenes were decent, and the Ahnuld thing was pretty cool but that's it.

    It all felt very B movie to me. It felt cheap, despite the huge budget. The Sony Vaio product placement was far more painful than Nokia in Star Trek. The ending sucked. The story logic was bordering on nonexistent. The logistics of the future war didn't seem very consistent with what we had seen before. I love Michael Ironside, but everything about 'command' felt off. I wasn't too keen on the fishy terminators that felt like they were ripped straight out of The Matrix and shoved underwater, either. And what was up with the resistance having such a good air force? I mean, they have shiny A-10s, endless piles of choppers, cargo planes... the resistance having so much as a runway to have the planes take off seems to strain credibility. I might be overly nitpicking here because the movie wasn't that interesting.

    I don't think I've seen anything by this McG character previously, at least not knowingly, so I went in with an open mind on that front, and generally I thought the trailers looked pretty good, but the movie just didn't work, and I think McG's reputation is looking pretty well earned.

    I voted Below Average but I'm starting to wish I could take it back and just vote Terrible.
     
  11. nx1701g

    nx1701g Admiral Admiral

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    Just wanted to say that comes from the comic books and remember this is still early in the war.
     
  12. Ayelbourne

    Ayelbourne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Apr 25, 2005
    I think it's perfectly believable that they'd still have a lot of that stuff early in the war.
     
  13. nx1701g

    nx1701g Admiral Admiral

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    A sequel is very likely to happen. McG has already said they were working on story ideas.

    Skynet learns how to transport metal through time without a living tissue covering. It then sends an army of endoskeletons, mototerminators, harvesters, HK Tanks, and HK flyers to the past to take over the world sooner. Connor would then go back in time and try to stop them.


    Interesting story on Yahoo's main page:

    Real Soldiers Love Their Robot Brethren.
     
  14. NX74205

    NX74205 Captain Captain

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    I know that that idea is being floated...but if so it is the WORST idea for a terminator movie I have ever heard. I won't be checking that film out as it sounds like a bad fanfnic.
     
  15. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    I have a question for Frontier. But anyone else who has seen the film can answer as well.

    You were concerned from the soundtrack that Danny Elfman did not use the Terminator theme enough or at all. How much is it used in the actual film?
     
  16. Yoda

    Yoda Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    What comics? I know it's all geeks here, but I don't think comics are relevant when it comes to a big movie franchise. I mean, I don't even think 'what happened in the comics' is all that important in an actual comic book movie, let alone some comic spinoff of a movie franchise.


    Was it really that early in the war, 2018? Is my timeline screwed up? Wasn't this like 15 years after judgment day? I always got the impression that the resistance was a little more like what Kyle was up to in the beginning of the movie, maybe minus the ACME roadrunner hunting kit he borrowed from Wile E. Coyote.

    I thought humanity was on the verge of winning because John Connor was a superior leader, not because the terminators failed to destroy the infrastructure required to maintain a viable air force in the initial surprise holocaust. I just didn't get it. Why the hell did anyone care that John Connor told them not to attack on the radio? It's not like he supplied any logic. What has he done to develop a worldwide cult that follows his every suggestion? All I saw him do up until that point was survive a couple of helicopter crashes. Considering I usually find Christian Bale to be pretty awesome, John Connor, soon to be leader of the human resistance was pretty lame.
     
  17. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    Agreed! I had read that before today. My guy instinct says even if they are toying with the idea now it will not make it to the screen. Also why give it away now?
     
  18. Endymion

    Endymion Captain Captain

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  19. TremblingBluStar

    TremblingBluStar Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Like others, I wanted to see more of the future when I was a kid. Back in 84, it was shocking to see people living in such a desolate land battling hulking machines.

    Now, it's old hat. Been done to death. I simply could care less.

    I can't help but feel the glimpses of the future we saw in SCC will blow away this film in nearly every way.
     
  20. NX74205

    NX74205 Captain Captain

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    Tru...although honestly, now that I have seen the movie I do think that the controversial ending that was leaked would have been a better ending to the movie. So you never know. The movie did kinda setup the fact that Connor was more of a symbol than anything else and symbols are needed if you are to get through a tough fight.

    Why was the movie so heavily edited?!?! There were at least 3 scenes off the top of my head that were featured in the previews that did not even show up in the movie......I think that if they had showed the extra 40 mins of footage that they cut out we would have gotten a much more fleshed out story.