Terminator Salvation (warning spoilers)

[Leon the Professional]

I notice that there aren't many posts in this section, and I'm a big movie watcher. Oh, this ended up being WAY longer than I intended, but I like to really go into movie reviews.

Short version: 7/10, probably worth seeing once.

Long version:

First, a quick recap over my view on each movie, and the series as a whole. The series is a mixed bag. The first movie was awesome, almost like a slasher flick, something I never realized until someone else pointed it out to me. The stop-motion of the original Terminator robot, the dark feel, the villain which never seemed to die, no matter what you threw at him. And it was just an awesome concept in general. An amazing movie, absolutely perfect for the mid-80s.

Terminator 2 is without doubt one of my all time favorite sequels of ANY movie series, period. Despite coming out 7 years after the original, in 1991, it honestly completely shattered my expectations. The action was fantastic, the new T-1000 Terminator was badass and actually frightening because he had such huge advantages over the T-800 Arnold Terminator. Not only that, but picking Robert Patrick was a great choice, and the CG done on his character was really unheard of, at the time. Speaking of the T-800, the fact that the originally evil Terminator is now in the movie as the hero is a pretty cool plot twist. Each major character in the movie (save the T-1000) goes through some sort of development, even the T-800 Terminator, despite being a machine. It's just...AWESOME.

T3...eh. It was just a copy of T2 in my opinion. Another advanced Terminator coming back in time to kill John Connor, but this time it takes place in 2003 and Skynet comes into play. The action was really cool IMO, but that's all there was to it. James Cameron directed the first two movies, but this one was the total opposite (directed by Jonathan Mostow). In each of the first two Terminator movies, the theme was that we can shape the future ourselves. But T3 said "nope, not really" since Judgment Day occurs anyway. It's just so inconsistent with the other two that I really don't like to call it an actual Terminator movie. It simply doesn't fit in the series.

But, speaking of "fitting in", that's an issue with the series as a whole. There's a lot of inconsistencies. Each movie is very different from any other Terminator movie. T1 was a straight up 80s movie, with an awesome concept, some good action, but also some horror/slasher qualities to it. T2 kept that up, but it focused so much more on the characters than T1. The overall production quality was much better, and being made 7 years after the original, it's very different. T3, as mentioned, doesn't belong in this series. Everything about the plot has either already been done in other Terminator movies, or it goes against the recurring themes of the series. It doesn't fit.

So, you can't have a lot of expectations going into Terminator Salvation (I'm calling it T4 for short). Each movie has been so different from the others, and this new one is set up in a VERY different environment, so you just have to accept the general plot line and keep your mind open.

The movie itself was fairly enjoyable for the most part. Good cinematography, great acting, good CG effects, and an interesting plot with decent execution, generally speaking. The feel of the movie is very rough, giving a good depiction that this is a post-apocalyptic world of humans vs. machines. The ending leaves the series open to more movies, and I believe Christian Bale signed on for 3 movies total as John Connor, and I would be all for it really. But, this movie is kind of goofy in certain lights. The movie doesn't really focus on John Connor and the Resistance as much as I wanted it to. It focuses on another character, Marcus Wright, who really does a fantastic job in his role. Wright's story is very intriguing, and his dual role as a human AND a machine is pretty cool IMO, and I'm glad the movie spent so much time going into his character. But, the movie isn't long enough to capture Wright's story AND the story of Connor and the Resistance. I think the movie really needed another 20 minutes+ of focus on Connor, but that's putting it near the 2h30m mark, and most people aren't going to sit in theaters that long unless they KNOW the movie's going to be good. Maybe a Special Edition on DVD would have bonus scenes to make the movie more complete, but IMO the movie is simply lacking as it is.

Additionally, the movie doesn't really focus on Kate Connor hardly at all. She's just a background character for the most part, with barely any lines, and she's presented in a very weird way. The movie shows that Kate is pregnant, but never once is it mentioned in any way, shape, or form. If more movies were made, her character would have a much greater role IMO, but it seems like they put her in this movie just as a teaser, as a reason to continue the story with another movie. LAME.

The other characters are OK, nothing great. But the Terminators (the T-600s I believe?) were pretty cool in this movie. They're bulkier than the T-800 we know, and their actions are very reminiscent of the previous movies. Kind of cool, but also kind of overdone. Anyway, as you may or may not know already, Marcus Wright is a Terminator in human disguise, but he doesn't know it initially and that is very cool. He discovers this during the movie, and some plot twists occur related to this. His fight at the end with the T-800 Arnold Terminator (good job on the CG effect) was pretty cool in my opinion, but let me go into this for a minute. First of all, a Terminator with Arnold's face, but no voice, is just weird. I know it really wouldn't have worked so well if they tried to implement it, but that just makes this scene awkward. Plus, at one point Marcus Wright pours what appears to be molten iron (NOTE: what killed the T-1000 and T-800 in T2), but it doesn't kill this T-800. Why??? No explanation, the T-800 just gets up and keeps fighting. That just doesn't make any sense. It's a cool fight scene with some fun action, but it seriously makes you scratch your head and say "wait...what?"

But the ending, well it's weird. Spoilers ahead, you've been warned.



The original ending was that, since the T-800 stabbed Connor and damaged his heart, Connor ended up dying at the end. This ending was better in my opinion, as Marcus Wright made the ultimate sacrifice to save Connor, which presents some interesting plot dimensions. But it just seems...so predictable and almost haphazardly put together. It's a very awkward ending to a movie that doesn't really live up to the expectations I had. Enjoyable, but it seems like it was rushed and things could have been considered more thoroughly to check for consistency and fluency. Still enjoyable, but I think this movie merits some conclusion to the story, and I would be very interested if they decided to continue making a couple more Terminator movies.

[Shagaroo]

Just saw the movie today. My opinion, you were a little more generous towards the movie than it deserved. I agree that it felt rushed and as if the entire story was not told. The ending was hokey and predictable. The entire submarine storyline was pretty absurd. It felt as if they just wanted Michael Ironside in the movie so they made up some ridiculous story for him to make a cameo.

Really, even though it was a visually appealing film, to me, it was so far removed from the nightmares Kyle Reese had in T1 it was distracting. We were shown darkened skies and battles being waged over piles of human skeletons in T1. In T4, it was blue skies and fields of grass. The entire Star character was pretty hokey as well. It only served to show the "human" side of Marcus. That could have been done without that part of the storyline and not made it feel so hokey.