Terminator: Salvation Discuss/Grade <Spoilers>

I really enjoyed this movie waaaaay more than Star Trek....the story, acting and FX were far superior.

 

Which movie are you referring to?

 

"Terminator Salvation" over "Star Trek" (2009)

 

Exactly. The first two Terminators may look like just a really well-executed action movies on the surface, but they're driven from beginning to end by complex and three-dimensional characters. T2 in particular had a lot going on with this really interesting dynamic between mother and son, where there were all kinds of conflicted feelings and emotions as they struggled to deal with each other amid all the crazy shit happening around them.

It's the kind of believable and well-drawn relationship you don't often see in action movies, and was a big reason why T2 works as well as it does.

 

Must suck to be named after a dish that consists of a bunch of random crap and oats stuffed in a pig intestine.

 

Ah, so you mean you actually have no counterargument?

 

Agreed. Linda Hamiton was the heart and soul of Terminator. I thought that T3 would have benefitted from her appearance, even if it was only a five minute extended cameo.

 

I you liked T4, I am sure you would like this very underrated movie that stars

Matthew McConaughey
Christian Bale
Izabella Scorupco
Gerard Butler

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=reignoffire.htm

It's like Bale versus Dragons instead of the terminators.

 

If you can get past the "only one male, feed on ash" bits, Reign of Fire is a superiour movie to T4.

 

Agreed, I dug RoF.

 

You edit out the rest of my statement so you can try to nitpick the slight differences. I said send two back and you want to differentiate it as one human/one 'nator.
Then you, and apparently others, think the nuance of Sarah going after Myles is this great piece of character exposition. She's trying to do what the whole series is about. CHANGE THE FUTURE. WOW, she adds a third avenue beyond killing A Connor by going after Dyson.
The third movie continues this third leg by having Captain Brewster as a target instead of Dyson this time. Again the Connors are now 2nd targets.

This ideal that T2 is some Citizen Kane of Sci-Fi. The concept that T2 is this Lawrence of Arabia of Apocolyptic Human/Robot struggle makes me wonder about some of that tastes you folks have.

Then to read that out of spite or sincerity(not sure which cause sarcasm doesn't translate well in text) you think Reign of Fire is good? Better than T4?

Credibility blown.

I know this next thought will get edited out cause it won't help ones cause when responding yet I'll say it anyway so I can say I said it.
I LIKE T2. It is a great film. What gets me is when you people act like its the end all of not only the Terminator films but sci-fi seemingly in general.

T4, good film and a worthy entry in the series. Can't wait for the DC on DVD to see those edited 30min.

 

CHUD.com has a very fascinating article about Terminator Salvation, discussing in some detail how the script radically changed during production.

I liked the movie overall, but I would have liked to see more of the original script. (Basically Christian Bale was originally cast as Marcus, and the whole movie was going to center around Marcus journey with Reese, not meeting John Connor until the very end...)

A very interesting read, no matter what you thought of the movie.

 

My counter argument is in my signature.

 

Saw the movie yesterday...
I really wanted to like the Terminator: Salvation because I liked the T1 and T2 and because I think Christian Bale is a great actor. I was looking forward to see him as John Connor.

What I got to see instead were endless explosions without any meaning, and a plot that got lost pretty fast.
Yes, it's a summer action flick about killer robots so I went into it expecting 'splosions and stuff. But without a good story it got boring fast.

But what really riles me is that T:S easily could have been a much better, deeper movie.
There's John Connor who knows that he's needed but has to convince the current leaders of the resistance of his knowledge and capability.
Then there's Marcus Wright who acts human and believes that he's human but in fact *isn't*.
Despite their differences and the initial mistrust both have to work together to find out Skynet's plans for Marcus and to rescue the teenager who will be John Connor's father.
John Connor's monologue at the end hints at what this movie was supposed to be about:
Humanity ("What is it that makes us human?").
But somehow the director either forgot about it (in favour of more explosions) or the really important scenes were cut out (in favour of more explosions).

I thought I was the only one who felt like this movie was a complete failure but when we left the theater many of the people I saw looked like someone had just kicked their puppy.

So because of what the movie could have been I rated it "You are Terminated (poor)".

 

Yep, I agree. Though I think knowing the locations and going, "how did they get from Albuquerque to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in two seconds?" Was a little distracting..

 

Because of all the bombing going on, parts of the Earth collapsed in on itself, making the globe a little smaller.

What?

 

Man, reading that link it sounds like the movie we didn't get would've been far, far, superior if "McG" wasn't a great-big idiot hack.

 

Average. The twist about Marcus wasn't properly hidden in the film, let alone the trailers. The acting was sound all around, but most of the characters, including John Connor, were little more than cyphers. I hope their development ended up on the cutting room floor and will be restored on DVD.

It's a little weird that the war has been going on for so long since Judgment Day (I'm assuming the movie tracks with T3 and that Judgment Day happened pretty soon after Marcus was executed in 2003), but I can deal with that.

Elfman's music was entirely forgettable. I don't know why it is has been so hard for the composers to bring back the original theme in the past two sequels. It's iconic, and would have fit perfectly in a few places.

And Skynet not killing Reese immediately doesn't make any sense. Even if they wanted to preserve Marcus' cover, they could have killed Reese after they took him. But, no, they hold onto him long enough for John to rescue him. Silly.

And, you know what, I would have preferred the original, darker ending, with a tweak. Have John Connor be killed, and Marcus adapt his skin so he looks like Connor and still leads the resistance to victory. But, alas, Connor is able to survive by some twist of dumb luck (or, some twist of dumb Skynet). Hopefully Christian Bale will be better used in the sequels.

Average (could be above average if the character development is added on DVD).

 

Speaks. Much.