You can't even give a thumbs up or down?
I enjoyed it.
Ok NX....its the afternoon now....time for your review!
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.
