Hi,
Very solid movie.When I saw the director was McG,I was expecting "Charlie's Angels" silliness. I was wrong. A solid adventure worthy of the Terminator franchise. I would rate it right behind the first one in regards to suspense. As far as action,it without a doubt has all the others beat!! Big Budget summer movie and it shows! The only issue was a major surprise was given away in some of the coming attractions I saw. The acting was solid and the story was simple and kept moving forward. No big "Let's stop here and explain ourselves type scenes". A definite must-see this summer!

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

This film is incredibly bleak and dark, but it gets the job done. The performances are a bit stale but it's a solid flick. I admit I'm rusty on my Terminator canon knowledge--the thing that is most haunting to me is how lifeless and sterile SkyNet's headquarters looks like...all run by computers and whatnot. Scary in a strange way. But very well done. McG deserves credit. While he doesn't grasp the concept of storytelling very well it seems, he was given a decent enough script and a good cast to keep this film afloat.

And the effects are amazing. There are a few scenes that had me breathless.

out of

I caught this over the weekend. I'm still trying to figure out if I liked it or not. I'm a fan of the franchise, so my expectations were pretty high, but I can't help but wonder if Christian Bale ruined the movie. I read somewhere that the original script was supposed to be centered around the 'Marcus' character and not John Connor. Bale was originally cast to play Marcus but demanded that he play Connor and that the script be changed to center around him. And then he played Conner exactly like he plays Batman.
There were part of the movies that felt rushed. The Helena Bonham Carter part at the end comes to mind. And SPOILER ALERT: the part with the governor was completely unnecessary. I understand that the nostalgia aspect, but that was a little much. They had that covered with "John Connor still rides motorcycles and listens to GNR".

Perhaps I'm just picking nits. The effects were stunning, even if the story was lacking.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

i'm not a big fan of the i'm-going-to-reveal-the-entire-plot-to-you-before-i-kill-you-mr. bond sequence in films, but i didn't mind it here. i thought bonham-carter's acting in that scene was a bit lame.

didn't think it was ruined by bale's performance either, but actually even if he thought he was making his character have a bigger impact, the story *was* more about marcus.

some of the references to previous movies were cheesy, but i didn't think the governor was one of them. at least he didn't say anything.

also, is anton yelchin going to have a role in which he's not imitating another character? two in one summer...yeesh.

3.5 stars out of 5? Sorry, I only give it 1.5 stars out of 5 and solely because of the special effects. All in all I thought it was a huge disappointment for the following reasons.

1. Christian Bale's portrayal of John Connor was about as 3 dimensional as a Hannah Barbera cartoon character. It only took me 30 minutes to come to the conclusion that I couldn't give a shit whether he lived or died - hardly what you want the audience to feel for your main protagonist. His performance was flatter than the monochromatic coloring of the sets. By far one of the worst acting jobs of his career.

2. The machines were lack-luster antagonists. It's like the writers forgot that you need to generate a dislike for the bad guys. Instead it seemed they would just rely on the past movies for that without any effort to make you hate the machines. In the earlier films all the terminators had personalities and were clearly brutal, efficient killing machines. In this flick they were all robotic, 99% speechless retards that seemed inept at their primary function of TERMINATING the humans they were fighting.

3. Some of the shit was just silly. I know it's a sci-fi flick but successful sci-fi successfully blends reality with the impossible to make it authentic. Two cases in point - ***SPOILER ALERT*** -- First, the shocking of the “good” terminator with electrical cables to bring him back to life is a stupid and tired Hollywood ploy. Did they recruit a class of 3rd grade boys to come up with that one or just sit in the front row of the equally retarded movie Crank 2: High Voltage? How unoriginal. Second – earlier in the movie they make it clear that such basic medications as antibiotics are hard to come by in the post apocalyptic world, but at the end these survivors are able to perform a freaking heart transplant in a dusty, outdoor operating room(which of course the Terminator and Connor are matches for) and then somehow make a lifetime of advanced immunosuppressive drugs appear out of thin air to keep Connor from rejecting the heart he just received.

4. The biggest reason this movies sucked though was they left Moon Bloodgood’s nude scene on the cutting room floor so they wouldn’t get an R rating! Geeese. If they’re going to make the movie suck, the least they could have done was to keep in the hot chick’s t0pless scene they’d been bragging about weeks earlier.

So my opinion is – don’t waste you’re money. This one will keep until it makes its way to pay-per-view or even HBO.

thanks guys! you saved me money. torrent bin for sure.

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@audioidkid

He wasn't the main protagonist. Marcus was. That was pretty evident, actually, since he was the one that the movie began with. I will agree that Bale's performance left something to be desired but I think he's taking extra flack because of the tirade that was caught on tape and this is the performance we got out of it.



Why do you need to generate a dislike? There is nothing more painful than a writer taking the initiative to "create" a bad guy. Like, let's take a villain and have him kill a baby. We'd really hate him for that! That's such a cop out. These "villains" weren't meant to be "hated". The whole point of SkyNet is to show how soulless the future has become, not how evil. While in T2, Cameron did a masterful job of creating a villain whom you ultimately wanted to see get killed--at least the guy was a villain with dimensions. The terminators here, while they are dimensionless, served the purpose of the theme of the film. If you didn't like that, fine. But give me a break that we need more writers with agendas to shove "evil" down your throats. Makes me sick.



It's stupid and tired, but it's a part of just about every action/adventure movie out there. There's always a deux-ex-machina waiting to happen, and either it works or it doesn't. I hate these things, too, because they are easy-outs--but again, I was kind of expecting it. Not that it's possible to do something like that, but Hollywood always churns out unbelievable predicaments that you can't possibly get out of. Since the whole of the movie worked for me, I didn't nitpick that kind of stuff. Call me a lazy critic if you want.



The only thing that saves you from a snarky remark from me is that you point out that the studio itself was "bragging" about it just before taking it out. I could give a shit about nudity in an action/adventure/sci-fi flick. It wouldn't add anything to the story or anything. If I wanted to see the girl naked, I'd look at her doing naked photo shots for Playboy or something.

I do agree with some of your points, but overall I did enjoy the film. I liked how dark it was, and how ominous SkyNet was, almost like the Nothing in "Neverending Story".

Plus, I think you're undermining the fact that in some ways, Connor himself was an antagonist to Marcus. I think if anything, that could've been strengthened. Maybe that was in the original script and Bale nixed it. But I think that would've been even more interesting if they just completely turned Connor AGAINST his own people because of his own fears of the machine/man.

Overall I still think the film worked.

heh, dude i'm a film snob. you don't know that by now? troll this section a wee bit...

i probably did take you too seriously. it's been a bad week for me. i was getting into it about "the mist" on another forum and it totally took me off my game. i apologize.

anyway, i still don't believe connor was the main character *in this film*, even though he's the central character of the series. in fact: i'd ask, who do you think the main character is in "ferris bueller's day off"? it's not ferris.



No I like action movies where the villain is interesting, but like I said, in this case, that wasn't meant to be the idea. Again, I was ranting.



I usually don't. I think most people here can attest to that. But like I said...you caught me on a bad week, and I am a film snob. I do the same thing about beer sometimes. Snobbery will get you nowhere, but--I mean, what you is is what you is...is. what.



oh no, i am a total asshole. c'mon.

Sorry to hear about your bad week W_Z. I seriously hope things get better for you.

I look foreward to discussing movies with you in the future.

Have a great day!

BTW - I haven't looked around here for it yet, but have you seen the latest Star Trek and what was your take on it?

well the week's about over so i don't think it can get any worse. thank you for the well wishes, good sir.



me too. you did make some very valid points, even though i may disagree. i came down too hard, for sure. was out of line on my part. never meant to take a personal attack on you.



I sorta wrote one on here, it's in the "Star Trek" thread here:

http://score670.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=32376

But my full review's on my web site, which is a bit more well-rounded:

http://thereviewbin.com/star-trek.htm

W_Z, just read your Star Trek Review and I couldn't agree more. In spite of some breeches of logic (how about that new blackhole in our solar system?) and revisionist history (what happened to Kirk's older brother George?) this movie worked, and worked big time.

The fanboys may be screaming that it wasn't entirely faithful to Star Trek dogma but it captured the essence of the characters perfectly and was an enjoyable watch. JJ has set the franchise up perfectly for a long, successful run into the future.

BTW, the thing about Kirk's brother is interesting. They actually filmed with a couple of scenes that had included his brother George and then left them on the cutting room floor and cut the character out completely. Not sure why.

I don't know that either, and i was actually looking forward to their rumblings about using "old kirk" but couldn't keep it in there, but it wouldn't have worked in the narrative arc, i suppose.

but leaving out his brother is a bit perplexing.

i am usually weary on time travel used in movies, but in this case, it's harmless fun. really that's all the movie was meant to be so that's why i enjoyed it so much. thanks for reading my review!

i finally got around to posting my official review on this:

http://thereviewbin.com/terminator-salvation.htm

Finally got around to watching this last night - mainly due to the 'blah' reviews.

I enjoyed it. Sam Worthington did an awesome job imho. Not too familiar with his work.

I also enjoy looking at Moon Bloodgood.



She's got an intriguingly exotic look, I'd like to know better.