Genre - Action/Sci-Fi
Year Released - 2009
Running Time - 130 minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action/violence and language
Directed by McG (Creator of the television series Fastlane - he also directed the Charlie's Angels films and We Are Marshall)
Written by John D Brancato & Michael Ferris (both of whom also wrote Terminator 3, The Game, and The Net)
Cast Includes:
Christian Bale (Equilibrium, American Psycho, Reign of Fire, The Machinist, and of course Batman Begins & The Dark Knight)
Sam Worthington (Rogue and Dirty Deeds - he is also going to be in the upcoming Avatar and next year's re-make of Clash of the Titans)
Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, Lady in the Water, and Spiderman 3)
Moon Bloodgood (Pathfinder)
Anton Yelchin (Charlie Bartlett and this year's Star Trek)
Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, and the latter Harry Potter films)
Michael Ironside (Scanners, Total Recall, Highlander II, and Starship Troopers)
Rating: 3 Skulls
Plot Summary:
All grown up in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor must lead the resistance of humans against the increasingly dominating, militaristic robots. But when Marcus Wright appears, his existence confuses the mission as Connor tries to determine whether Wright has come from the future or the past - and whether he is friend or foe.
I loved the T-600 model
Review:
First, I just have to say that I am a huge Terminator fan and Terminator 2 is one of my favorite movies of all time! With that said, I was not expecting this film to be better than the 2nd one, however I was expecting it to be better than the 3rd one - to be completely honest, I'm not sure that it was - if anything it was on par with the 3rd one. . .
I think that my main issue was with the story - it just seemed weak to me.
With that aside though, the effects were top-notch!
[other than the CGI "Arnold" T-800 that is - I wasn't digging that him at all - why bother?!? While better than the CGI rendition of Patrick Stewart in Wolverine, it still detracted from the film]
Anyone who may doubt McG as the director of this film can lay their worries to rest. For what it's worth, McG definitely pulled the movie off and made it worthwhile to see on the big screen - the apocalyptic world that he envisioned is right on [though I do have a hard time believing the possibility of 2018 being the year it all goes down - I mean, back in 1984, with the year being 2029, it was much more plausible - now, with only 9 years away, not so much] :-)
Here is the 4-minute long expanded trailer:
Jason
Jason
Posts
12 comments:
I feared this would happen.. On par with T3? Wow... Thats like when I went to the theater to see Indy Jones/Krystal Skull, we expected it to be better than Temple of Doom... lol
I'll have to check it out though because I too am a big Terminator fan (Yes, T2 RULES!)
Great write up!
I love the first Terminator, and I love T2 even more. I watched the entire Sarah Connor Chronicles show. But I never got all into part 3, and I haven't been excited for this new flick.
Might just be waiting for the DVD this time around.
I have to say, I pretty much agree with your assessment spot-on. I was expecting to either love or hate this movie, but, really, I ended up feeling middle-of-the-road about it. Like you, I'm a huuuuge Terminator franchise fan. I loved the first one, I loved the second one, and I was totally bummed by the third one (there's a few STUPID things in T3 that still get me rantin' n' ravin' everytime that flick comes up). I went into this fearing a total disaster but praying for a new classic. What I get was neither. As it is, I think Salvation is just "okay." It has its good bits and it has its shitty bits. Not enough shitty bits to make this movie really "bad" perse', but not enough good ones to make it "really good" either. If I had to give it a rating, according to my Bearded Weirdo rating system, I'd probably give it a 2.5 out of 5. Strictly middle-of-the-road. Very disappointing, but not enragingly terrible. There are a couple of things that don't make sense, some cheesy bits, some cliche' bits (including the overall structure and the whole "revelation about Marcus' purpose" scene), and there are some inconsistencies with continuity, too. That was a big problem for me, the continuity issues. On the other hand, there were some really cool action sequences (I loved the scene with Reese & Marcus taking on the Harvester bot, although it got pretty terrible near the end of the motorcycle Terminator bit), and I enjoyed most of the callbacks to the earlier films (although the "I'll be back" and "Come with me if you want to live" moments felt painfully forced). And I liked the Arnold Schwarzenegger pseudo-cameo. I'd heard about that before I saw the movie and I was anticipating it all throughout. When he finally showed up, I was fuckin' thrilled, although I think they were to proud of themselves on their good CGI job in getting the face to look like Arnie, and so they showed it too much, thus ruining the illusion entirely. But... eh, whatever.
Danny Elfman's score, though, was off the fucking hook!!!
I'll put this above Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which I disliked the more I thought about it. But I agree with you on the story: a weak effort with mostly uninteresting characters. I didn't think much of Bale's John Connor or Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright, although I liked Yelchin's Kyle Reese. McG was surprisingly good at directing the action sequences; it seems he knew he had a minor script and had to do all he could to get around it.
The robots are all awesome. They own the film.
From the poster "The Future is Tomorrow," that is a hilarious tagline. I will have to get out and see this one despite the non-stellar reviews.
-Mike
i must be the only person in the world who thinks that terminator 3 was better than the first 2 films put together (even though they were both superb as well), i`m not kiddin`, "terminator 3: rise of the machines" must be the most ludicrously under-rated science fiction movie of all time.
Mike, I actually liked both Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Temple of Doom :-)
I watched T3 again, just the other day, and I still stick with my assessment that both 3 & 4 are the weakest of the series.
Wings, waiting for DVD is probably best - though there are definitely some scenes that are made for the big screen!
William, I 100% completely agree with your comment! :-)
Ryan, the cyborgs definitely own this film, and I agree with your assessment of McG.
I think that I just like the whole 'Terminator sent to kill' aspect of the 1st 3, where we didn't have that in this one - I did however think that Worthington did very well with his character.
Michael, stop back by and let me know your thoughts, afterwards :-)
Snob, I don't even know what to say ;-)
3 had its moments, but in no way did it even begin to compare to either of the first two films! [in my opinion]
Thanks for the comments gentlemen - I apologize for the late response - been busy packing, etc. . .
J
This one really broke my heart. The behind the scenes battles were far more interesting than the movie. The original script was reportedly much better until Bale signed on. It's a decent summer movie, but nothing more. Great review.
Bobby,
Thank you for your comment - it seems that all [of us] who have seen this film share the same consensus - hopefully the 5th film will be an improvement upon this one. . .
J
Does anyone even want to see a fifth film at this point? I think I would rather watch T3 over T:S anyday of the week. At least the story was okay in T3. The story sucked here. At least McG brought the action, which he's always been good at. And Sam Worthington was fantastic as Marcus. Other than that, totally mediocre and disappointing flick.
They should have ended at T2. Now THAT'S a film!
i`ve just watched "terminator: salvation" on a pirate DVD that was filmed in a cinema and even though the picture quality wasn`t exactly BLU-RAY i still thought that it was absolutely magnificent entertainment from first frame to last, i`m sorry but once again i think this film has been ludicrously under-rated and is easily as good as the first 3 movies, by the way i thought the t.v. series was pretty good as well.
Fred - T2 is still one of my most favorite flicks of all time!
Snob - I respect your opinion ;-)
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