Terminator: Salvation Discuss/Grade <Spoilers>

B...S!!!

Let's hear your idea for it. What, pray tell, would you have done to make it better...we're all eyeballs.

 

Cameron will likely make more Avatar movies or do something new. I highly doubt he'll return to The Terminator films.

 

Compared to T4, they're VERY significant.

 

Toward the end of the movie, I started thinking... What if Skynet turned John Connor into another cyborg servant like Marcus.

I thought it was because John Connor was seen as a sort of messiah and represented salvation for mankind.

 

I loved the movie. Now this is coming from someone who's not a huge diehard fan of the series but is a sucker for cyborgs/androids/artificial creations trying to find their humanity/soul stuff, so of course Im glad that so much centered on Marcus & I dont think I would have liked it as much if it hadnt.
Now I just hope he's not really dead, I want to see him in the sequels!

Loved the Arnie cameo, I expected it to be cheesy but it worked really well.

I thought the acting was fine. I thought Bale was good, I dont know why so many people diss his acting in genre films. I would have liked more scenes b/w Marcus & John, and Marcus & Blair. The one character that really bugged me was the little kid. Blah. Why was she there?!? Please tell me she wasnt there just to make the movie kid friendly.

someone mentioned some of the editing being subpar & I will admit I noticed it too. Im hoping the dvd will have the misising scenes restored.

one more thing, the movie was LOUD! like everytime something exploded or got hit the whole theatre vibrated, I vibrated! & it felt like my heart was gonna pop out! was this just my theater being too loud or have action films just gotten louder now. I havent seen a proper action film in the theaters in a while, mostly these days I just watch Harry Potter flicks & Pixar films in the theaters, & I rent everything else.

 

Why would you punch a titanium robot? Especially when you have experience with how indestructible they are? Especially when in your past experience with them, you knew no one man could even hope of taking one on and all you could do is run. But now, here, 20 odd years later, you decide to throw a knuckle sandwich one Terminator's way. As if it could feel pain.

This movie was so dumb.

 

I saw it, I liked it, and I give it Above Average.

I like the first 3 Terminator movies more, but this one was entertaining and didn't make me mad like another May movie did (Wolverine).

 

Well, why do Wolverine and Sabetooth fight? You're both immortal and can heal! You cannot hurt one another!

Oh, wait. That's a weak argument.

 

Typical studio interference. You end up seeing a movie that is enjoyable, but obviously less than it could have been. You then have to wait sixth months to see the "real movie" when the extended cut DVD arrives.

 

Damn straight! Cameron! We need you!

Tell that to Cordelia Chase.

Perhaps, even after the events to T2, some of Skynet's existence still stems from Miles Dyson's research of the original T-800 components.

 

Ok, saw it.

My original estimation of McG was the correct one. He's just one more in a line of directors who is technically adept, like Brett Ratner and Peter Hyams, who can make pretty, competent films, but really lacking in heart, soul. Just moments. Those kinds of films are heavily dependent on actors bringing the A-Game, because the movie is really structured around set pieces and the scripts are servicable at best.

Like Star Trek, it's full of nods to what has come before, but unlike Star Trek, most of them don't feel organic. I mean, they are fun, but most of them don't really support the story.

Mostly, it's an exercise to have big machines going at it and blowing up stuff really good. It isn't the abortion that Harry Knowles made it out to be. But this is the first film about the future war. And this should have been a grand epic. I should have felt it. I should have been taken on an emotional journey.

At best, I got "neat", "cool", "nifty".

Marcus had heart issues. So does this movie.

I will get it on DVD, but I will lament at a chance lost.

McG shouldn't direct another of these, and why the Catwoman hacks got to write ANOTHER Terminator film boggles my mind.

But considering the box office results, this should be their swansong.

Hopefully, it won't be the same for the franchise itself.

Oh, Anton Yelchin is on a role. Kicked ass as Chekov, and now as Kyle Reese.

 

Really? He had two memorable scenes (voice recognition with the accent and his whiz-kid transporter skills, though that's completely out of character), and for both of them he was laying on the accent so thick I was literally annoyed in the theatre. His T4 role is by far the better one.

 

I agree that Reese was the better of the two, but I very much dug his Chekov nonetheless.

Really.

 

Some comments in response to those made before:

* Regarding the alternate ending with swapping Marcus and John Connor, it would have good in that it would have been a real shocker, but if they had done it the producers would have painted themselves into a corner when the conclusion of the series (if they get that far) comes and Kyle Reese goes back in time. I mean, if it's not actually John Connor sending Kyle back, but Marcus, that would have destroyed the whole tragedy of the thing, wouldn't it? Although I did see enough hints of an interesting Reese-Marcus relationship in this movie that it could have had potential, but if they really want to tell the whole story, they're better off not killing Connor. Let's just hope Bale loosens up in the sequels!

I agree with the fans who disliked HBC being the one controlling SkyNet; her actual role in T4 as an avatar of SkyNet was almost passable. I hope in the future they actually do develop Skynet as a character. If they do, I'd like to see an AI villain that isn't just a cold human being (Agent Smith, the Architect, the Borg Queen?). Make it something really alien: intelligent, but with completely inhuman responses. We've got Terminators out the wazoo to blow up for the action component, but the man versus machine struggle is ultimately Connor v. SkyNet. I want to see that chess match, somehow.

T2 did good with the 'robot learning to be human' theme, but Arnold, God bless him, could only sell it so much. "I'm sorry John, I'm sorry." As an actual actor in Worthington playing the machine appreciating what it is to be human, he did a much better than the guv. I do think on the other side, Edward Furlough did a better job showing how likewise a person could learn to love a machine/AI better than Blair, but it was close. Maybe the cut scenes would make a difference.

 

A strong Above Aberage for me... B+ equivalent.

I had heard to many bad things about the film, but I thought it was pretty good. (lowered expectations?)

It was at least much better than the T3 Yawn-fest, at least.

My major issue with the film is the last 10 to 15 minutes, where is seems like Skynet just gives up and lets everyone go for some bizarre reason. (Is the single T-800 the only Terminator on duty?) Oh and the improptu heart transplant at the end in a field hospital was a bit weird to, although it was a good ending for Worthington's character.

Pluses:
+ Sam Worthington (Marcus)... Liked him and his character a lot. He carries the movie.
+ Moon Bloodgood (Blair)... same as above (these two should have had even more of the movie)
+ Neat action sequences

Minuses:
- Bryce Dallas Howard (Kate) - so pretty to look at but so useless in the film. A lot of her scenes must have been cut, including any mention of her characters obvious pregnancy.
- Skynet...
- That Marcus'es nature was not just hinted at until the shocking reveal, instead of being obvious in every ad (and in the movie)

 

That makes sense... I was wondering why there seemed to be apparent human figures observing the collected humans at Skynet in one scene, from behind a high up window. So I was almost expecting that there were humans working with Skynet.

 

Oh I could make this movie a thousand times better and more entertaining with a deeper meaning to it all.

 

WOW! You are so damn specific!

 

Apparently I'm in the minority regarding the original ending, where John Connor would have died, and Marcus had taken his place. I thought that was a terrible idea from the moment I first heard of it, and I'm very glad they decided to drop it.

 

Actually the question I kept asking myself: why do these Terminators waste so much goddamn time smacking humans around and throwing them against walls, when they could EASILY snap their necks and be done with them in the first couple seconds??

I know it's an action movie thing you're just supposed to overlook, but I don't remember it being NEARLY this blatant in the other three movies (in the others you knew if you got anywhere close to the first T-800 or the T-1000, you were probably fucked). Yet there were so many instances in this one of that happening that it got to be downright ridiculous.