Terminator: Salvation Discuss/Grade <Spoilers>

[Captain Craig]

nice touch with John' face scar, it's the only thing that has been consistant with terminator, lol

That was a nice nod and is one of the only ties to T2 when we see the scar in a flashback scene near the beginning.

Also, were there any scenes after the credits rolled? I didn't stay to find out.

I stayed till the end credits at my advance sneak and no there were not any scenes in or at the end of the credits. Of course Marvel kept the Nick Fury clip off of the Iron Man advance screeners so perhaps someone who saw it Thur can add if that is still true.

I have to say I was a bit surprised that Kate Connor had such a small role, and that her obvious pregnancy was never mentioned.

McG has said the studio ordered him to make 30min of cuts to speed the action and pacing of the movie. He says there is plot and exposition in there he felt was relevant despite it slowing the pace down. I have to believe some acknowlegement of Kate's pregnancy is in some of those minutes. I also now see why the Moon Bloodgood nude scene is likely more important. She must have made love to Marcus thus strengthing her desire to help him once he is caught.

- I was kinda hoping that the molten metal John poured on the T-Whatever would turn out to be the stuff used to make the T-1000s. In fact, for about a second or two, I thought it was the liquid metal getting up.

The T-1000 will be visited in the next film.

Spoiler: One of the proposed scenes

Will involve John Connor encountering a research scientist working on the formula for the T-1000's intellimetal. They're trying to arrange for Robert Patrick to cameo as the Doctor.

I read that before and my thought was: Why at any point in the Future War does Skynet need human scientists?

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

Awesome movie. As I had hoped, this summer is turning into a cinematic feast

 

[Tim]

I voted "average." The movie exceeded (low) expectations and kept me more entertained than Star Trek. The plot was weak, but the twist with Skynet's trick and Marcus's sacrifice were welcome surprises--much more so than planetary genocide.

Worthington and Yelchin gave what I thought were the best performances--and the latter without an annoyingly grating Russian accent.

 

[Lynn Minmay]

Below average.

McG was a horrible choice to introduce the war between the humans and Skynet. There weren't any memorable moments that I'll be talking about with friends ten years from now. I also seemed like Bale was stuck with his Dark Knight voice for the entire movie. Where's the range?

 

[Sephiroth]

Cpt. Craig, John had the scar in T3 as well

 

[nx1701g]

The T-1000 will be visited in the next film.

Spoiler: One of the proposed scenes

Will involve John Connor encountering a research scientist working on the formula for the T-1000's intellimetal. They're trying to arrange for Robert Patrick to cameo as the Doctor.

I read that before and my thought was: Why at any point in the Future War does Skynet need human scientists?

We have seen in other Terminator media - TSCC - that Skynet has humans that work on its behalf in the future. But it goes back to the proposed plot for the next film, which is currently being scripted.

 

[TrekGuide.com]

I just saw "Terminator 4" and thought it was a good continuation of the series.

Though I was disappointed that there was no time travel, and nothing important really happened, but it was like "The Empire Strikes Back" -- it was just the middle movie in a series, so it had no real resolution. ...

I think Christian Bale made a fine Batman, which seems to fit his personality. But in this movie, he would have been better cast as a Terminator, since he has the personality of a robot. In past movies, John Connor seemed more like a smart aleck, and Bale seems to take himself way too seriously.

This movie tied nicely into the continuity of the previous three movies, though I thought the giant "Transformers"-style robots were a little over-the-top.

I agree that the revelation about Marcus was spoiled by the trailers. I wonder who made that decision.

 

[Cky]

I thought it was okay, but Im going to say what I said in a thread before.

This film takes itself too seriously! I mean, Bale is always walking around with his grumpy face on, and McG has just forgotten about the heart of Terminator.

 

[Michael Chris]

I loved it. I thought the script could have used a little more focus, but it was still good. And the direction superb.

 

[Checkmate]

The T-1000 will be visited in the next film.

Spoiler: One of the proposed scenes

Will involve John Connor encountering a research scientist working on the formula for the T-1000's intellimetal. They're trying to arrange for Robert Patrick to cameo as the Doctor.

I read that before and my thought was: Why at any point in the Future War does Skynet need human scientists?

We have seen in other Terminator media - TSCC - that Skynet has humans that work on its behalf in the future. But it goes back to the proposed plot for the next film, which is currently being scripted.

More importantly, why Robert Patrick? The T-1000 mimicked a cop he ran into in T2; that cop was Robert Patrick. Why on earth would he have been the scientist that created it???

 

[Captain Craig]

I read that before and my thought was: Why at any point in the Future War does Skynet need human scientists?

We have seen in other Terminator media - TSCC - that Skynet has humans that work on its behalf in the future. But it goes back to the proposed plot for the next film, which is currently being scripted.

More importantly, why Robert Patrick? The T-1000 mimicked a cop he ran into in T2; that cop was Robert Patrick. Why on earth would he have been the scientist that created it???

I do believe the T-1000's default appearance was 'Robert Patrick'. The cop inspecting the disturbance was not 'Robert Patrick'. NX or another, clarification please?

...and McG has just forgotten about the heart of Terminator.

Please explain what you believe to be the 'heart of Terminator', cause seeing as how the movie concludes I can't tell if your making a pun or what?

 

[Michael Chris]

More importantly, why Robert Patrick? The T-1000 mimicked a cop he ran into in T2; that cop was Robert Patrick. Why on earth would he have been the scientist that created it???

No, the cop he ran into was NOT Robert Patrick.

 

[QuasarVM]

I didn't go in with high expectations. My only hope was that it was better than Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation managed that. The movie was highly entertaining but it didn't have much substance to it.

Substance smudgetance.

I keep reading this crap about Star Trek and now, T4.

I ask you...how much "substance" was in the original Terminator?

These are just fun summer movies.

And I got a newsflash for you -- VERY rarely has Hollywood ever produced anything that was as "substantial" as a book. Let's seeee...2001, 2010, Blade Runner...arguably, Silent Running...these are science fiction films with "substance". But as you can see, these are RARE.

Going into a summer movie expecting some kind of intellectual epiphany is just absurd.

If you want substance stay at home and turn on FoxNews (it's free too!), go watch The English Patient or pick up a good, classic novel and read it.

Personally, I would rather drop the pretentious pursuit of "substance" and just go enjoy some escapist entertainment for two hours.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

I read that before and my thought was: Why at any point in the Future War does Skynet need human scientists?

We have seen in other Terminator media - TSCC - that Skynet has humans that work on its behalf in the future. But it goes back to the proposed plot for the next film, which is currently being scripted.

More importantly, why Robert Patrick? The T-1000 mimicked a cop he ran into in T2; that cop was Robert Patrick. Why on earth would he have been the scientist that created it???

If you remember, at the beginning of T2, the T-1000 time-traveled naked and appeared in a dark, LA alley with the appearance of Robert Patrick already. He then killed the cop and changed his outer metallic-skin to look like a uniform.

 

[QuasarVM]

I thought it was okay, but Im going to say what I said in a thread before.

This film takes itself too seriously! I mean, Bale is always walking around with his grumpy face on, and McG has just forgotten about the heart of Terminator.

Well DUH! It's a post-apocalyptic world where machines are trying to kill you almost every waking minute! Either that, or I would think radiation sickness/exposure would also be a problem.

Aside from the pretentious "no substance" comments, this is another ridiculous criticism of this movie.

Personally, I don't want to see the Terminator films become Gil Gerard's Buck Rogers in the 25th Century!

What, would you like for John Connor to have a cute robot sidekick and comedy relief?

That would be HORRIBLE!!!

It's a serious situation and I would think these characters WOULD be taking it seriously.

PS: There was no time travel in this movie, BECAUSE IT HADN'T BEEN INVENTED YET!!! Good grief, give them a chance to develop these stories!

 

[Admiral2]

Gotta say Average.

I didn't see anything really impressive until the fight at Skynet headquarters. Up till then, with the motorterminators falling out of the giant robot and the HK's falling out of the prison transport, all I could think was, "Geez, if McG wanted to do Transformers, why didn't he ask Michael Bay?"

And enough with the furners playing Americans, okay? At least till you can find somebody good at it. Christian bale has to always sound like either Bruce Wayne or batman to keep his American accent in check, Sam Worthington's slipped back into Australian about five or six times, and Helena Bonham Carter just either sucks or blows speaking American English, whichever your preference.

 

[Dick Whitman]

On Bryce Dallas Howard's role-

Early versions of the script had Marcus as the central character. With a much smaller role for John Conner. Setting him up for more screen time in the sequel as the leader of the Resistance. All of which changed when Christan Bale was cast in the role.

While John's scenes were increased Kate's limited presence seems to be a hold over from that earlier incarnation.

 

[DarKush]

On Bryce Dallas Howard's role-

Early versions of the script had Marcus as the central character. With a much smaller role for John Conner. Setting him up for more screen time in the sequel as the leader of the Resistance. All of which changed when Christan Bale was cast in the role.

While John's scenes were increased Kate's limited presence seems to be a hold over from that earlier incarnation.

I had read something similar about Connor not being the main character in an earlier version of the story. But despite the screentime Bale got, the writers didn't do a good job making Connor the main character anyway. It still very much felt like Marcus's story, with a beginning (of sorts), a middle, and an ending. I think they should've stuck with the original idea of keeping Marcus the main character, and maybe just cast Worthington as Connor and Bale as Marcus if Bale to give him the appropriate amount of screentime befitting his star status.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Apparently they offered Bale the Marcus role but he turned it down. Instead he opted to play John Connor.

 

[Captain Craig]

Friday estimates are in and T:S is in a battle with NATM it seems. Salvation pulled in an estimated $14.8m for 2nd place. Bringing its total to $28.2m since opening Thursday. WOM will play big on these over the weekend and thru Monday it seems.

It should be pointed out that BOTH are performing in the low end of studio predictions at this point. They are either cancelling each other out, people are busy elsewhere or some are listening to critics on both which have fared poorly with critics. I find the latter to be the least plausible. Why?

The B.O. has/is on a faster pace than prior years. Been breaking records each month. People went to other critic drummed movies(Blart,Taken,F&F,Wolverine) and made them hits. I think the explanation for poor Memorial Day Weekend attendance to date lies elsewhere.