Movie Review: Terminator Salvation
May 21, 2009
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GREAT REVIEW SEEMS THAT THIS MOVIE IS ONLY WORTH RENTING CAUSE IT DOEN’T EXPLAIN ALOT LIKE WE ALL WERE HOPING FOR! DAMN U JAMES CAMRON! WISH U DIRECTED THIS MOVIE AND NOT SOME 20 SOMETHING DIRECTOR,..WAIT I THINK THIS MOVIE WOULD OF BEEN BETTER IF OUR JAMES DIRECTED IT ^_^
haha first and second to comment and i only signed up a few hours ago! cant wait for more videos all mighty JAMES!
I LOVE BOXES shirts please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is honestly the best review I’ve seen for this movie. I agree completely. Most of the reviews I’ve read made me nervous about seeing the film, but thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.
And about the making of segment in the beginning. I did not see anything of the sort, and I was there long before the previews and the movie started.
Glad to see the review.. I expected everything you said from the review, and didn’t feel any spoilers given the new information you gave.. I think the first 2 were great because they were about the Terminator and not about the victims. The first one was about the victims, but T-100 is the main star. The second one has a great plot, but is mostly intriguing with the battle between the 100 and the 1000. The third one doesn’t seem right with the TX being so destructible, but it just pulls it off. GL on your T3 review.
[...] Original post: Movie Review: Terminator Salvation [...]
Two reviews on the same day!!! That’s is impressive.
Cool glad to see a positive review.
I’m a cybernetic organism.
Thanks for giving us your thoughts, Cinemassacre!
Good even-handed review. I was questioning Bale in the John Connor role just because I always thought Connor would be kind of frail and meek, similar to T2 and T3 – just very charismatic and animated. Glad to hear that Bale pulled it off.
Can’t wait to see it.
GNR ROCKS!
Can you imagine if T1 or T2 was PG-13? Terminator would NOT be the movies they are today if they had to cut out scenes like cutting his arm open or cutting his own eye out, or even the cold blooded killings of the other Sarah Connors, which didnt show much of anything but the way he did it makes it ‘R’, or even the hard core ways he always acquired clothing. Cutting his eye out, I think, were nessessary scenes just to show that the terminator is truely painless and will stop at nothing. Throw on some shades and he’s back in the hunt. And if he’s willing to cut his own eye out what would he do to Sarah.
I think the movie is one to be seen at your leisure. It’s worth seeing on the big screen but it could have been so much better that it’s not worth paying a fortune or dealing with weekend crowds.
I just got the feeling while watching it that it was trying to do too much in as little a time as possible. Things just flowed too fast to.
What James keeps commenting on is correct. T1 and T2 just set the bar so damned high that T3 and now T4 just feel inferior when you think back on the experiences with the first two.
However, I WAS entertained and that’s really the most important thing. The CGI is absolutely flawless and I was thinking about it later, when watching a commercial for it again, that I never once at any moment felt that something in the movie was fake. I even got tense a lot worrying over what was going to happen during various scenes.
James,
With regards to your question about the P-13 rating on action flicks.
You sort of answer your own question, it’s because we’re all desensitized to the violence and how violent something is is subjective.
For example a comedy has the word “cunt” in it. The tools that sit there and run the censorship board sits there and looks at a clipboard and checkboxes the box that says “Is the word ‘cunt’ used in dialogue?”
Then they watch a movie like terminator or transformers and there’s a checkbox that says “Did any human beings kill another human being?” or “Was graphic blood displayed?” and since they’re robots the humans are fighting they checkbox “Nope”
Also it’s because the government would rather children watch stuff that would get them excited to join the army rather than a story about going on a road trip to get laid.
It was rated R at the theater I went to. I remember because my brother wasn’t sure if he wanted to see it, but since he’s 16 the rating kind of made the decision for him. R is great, but I was expecting a PG-13– what gives?
Ehhh, I dunno James, I guess I might have to check it out now that I saw your review. I thought this looked kinda lame and after T3 I kinda lost interest in the series.
T2 is the best one in the series, hands down.
Yeah, I’ll see this one on DVD. It is strange that horror/action movies are PG-13 now, I liked the R-rated movies back in the day, they should still be “R” so kids can have an excuse to sneak into movies like I did years ago…it makes it that much better. Also, Billistic must be a fucking comedian because he says “the government would rather children watch stuff that would get them excited to join the army rather than a story about going on a road trip to get laid.” That is so stupid and hilarious at the same time on so many different levels. I love it. Coming from a vet that would rather overthrow the government than ever vote for a major candidate, that is saying a lot. What a fucking idiot. Oh, by the way James, the review was good.
Waiting for it come out in Brasil… Damn that sucks!!!!!
James great review as always, but i have one complaint. why you didn’t mention that this film suppose to start a new trilogy? like the prequels for star wars, this suppose to be the same. bringing the terminator franchise to a new audience. i would like to ear your thoughts about this.
I loved it. The atmosphere was incredible, in a very dull bleak way. The action was great as well. It might not have been groundbreaking, but it seemed very polished. I wish Conner had more action scenes, but I guess we’ll have an assload of that in the sequels. One other thing, the sounds that the giant terminator made were awesome.
Hey James, I just watched your review and when you said “That really brings my piss to a boil”, it made me realized something: It’s been a long time since you last made a You Know What’s Bullshit video! Do you have any plans for a new one sometime? I love those, they’re the kind of thought that you have when something pisses you off and you’re arguing in your mind about how stupid said thing is; senseless at times, yet so liberating.
Hey James, if its not too much trouble, could you upload this review onto Youtube? I seem to have severe problems with this Video play on Firefox, Safari and Explorer, so it would be extremely awesome if you could
*Video player, don’t you just friking hate typos?
Comedies are rated R instead of PG-13 because of the strong sexual allusions they have, and I agree with that. Watch “The Heartbreak Kid” for an example.
Action and horror movies are only PG-13 because the only contain violence.
Yup, sex is a more mature content than volence; I’m not saying is “worse”, it’s just more mature.
Good review, as always. I’m surprised you’ve been reviewing movies directly after seeing them, as my opinion on the movie sometime changes after it sinks in a little more.
I found Terminator Salvation loud, redundant, and lacking a solid plot. Every actor held their own, and there was a lot of action and a lot of terminators, but it just didn’t do it for me. But, that opinion might change after a second viewing.
I’m in total agreement with the R vs PG-13 thing. Comedies anymore are so focused on being sexually “funny” that you pretty much know what to expect going in. Action movies are losing the gore and violence that makes them good, although I’m sure R ratings were thrown on to anything that had cussing or blood in the same manner as to why the ESRB ratings were established.
I was just listen to Use Your Illusion 2 the other day! Great album!!!
Good review James! I am pretty stoked to see it although I know it won’t be as good as the first 2 Terminator movies.
And I have to agree with Billistic for the most part. People are staring themselves blind on the PG-13 rating. Thanks to gore porn movies like saw and hostel the bar has been raised for R rated movies in horror and action flicks. Hell have them re-evaluate the ratings for the first 2 movies and I am pretty sure that they will rate those PG-13, especially the 2nd one.
And comedies nowadays mostly involve humour involving sex, bodily fluids and all that kind of stuff which is why they are A. so redundant and B. get an R rating.
When you go into a comedy with an R rating you just know you are gonna get a load of poop, pee and sex jokes.
I’m going to see this later today, gonna hold off on your review until then James – but damn it i’m tempted!
Well in Sweden we got the highest rate at age 15. We got 7, 11 and 15. Thats good.
Thank you for another great Review James.
hi, james
don’t forget this scene in your TERMINATOR 3 REVIEW
it’s hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYy0H1wuMYA
You know, I was saying the same thing about the ratings. I thought I was the only one that noticed. But the other posters have a good point.
New You Know What’s Bullshit video? Oh you bet your ass there’s one coming (very soon).
The T3 deleted scene is ridiculous, but funny. It won’t be mentioned in the review though since I focus more on the final version of the film.
cant wait for the geek cards james, im gonna order a damn box and keep them forever untouched and in mint condition!! I LOVE BOXES! its MANDATORY that u make those shirts before some idiot does and u know how the net is! ALSO please review TERMINATOR 2 for SNES! its worth reviewing and also please review the movie BABE 2 pig in the city LMAO!
Greetings from – you won’t believe me – Luxembourg.
Great movie review, James. I’ve been watching all your AVGN videos and they are all fun to watch. In Luxembourg, the movie will come out as a preview on June 1st, 2009, and is watchable for ages 12 or older. The movie rating in Luxembourg, as far as I know, are: All ages admitted, +6, from 12 year old, no one 16 and under admitted, and no one 18 and under admitted. Besides this, the movie will officially come out on June 4, 2009. The french title of the movie (if you’re interested to) is “Terminator Renaissance” and in German “Terminator: Die Erlösung”.
The official trailer can be watched here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcg5t0mT8V4
Besides this, I’m looking forward to your Terminator 2 game rewiew. This is going to be awesome.
I saw this movie yesterday on opening day and I thought it was pretty good. I think it was better than T3, don’t kill me, but no where close to T1 and T2. Kate Brewster didn’t have to be in this movie but Anton Yelchin was good as Kyle Reese but not better than Michael Biene. The Terminator series was awesome. I hope this movie will be a success.
Really interesting bit at the end.
As for horror movies becoming more PG in particular, a little bit of a counter to that is that is I remember children’s movies in the 80’s were a lot of more “adult” then they have been for a while now. Many of them were horror movies in disguise. It seems as if it is just become more acceptable to market horror movies for a younger crowd.
Wasn’t Poltergeist a PG horror movie? Then again times were different, I remember seeing T2 in theaters when I was almost 12, nobody carded me. Things have changed in the post columbine precious snowflake world we live in.
I had a lot of fun watching Terminator Salvation. An overall good action flick. I hope its able to keep the franchise alive and maybe get a couple more movies out of this and maybe see the end of this story.
I think the reason why a lot of critics are hating on this film is because they are trying to compare it to The Dark Knight, but that’s just my opinion.
Hi. I haven’t seen the movie yet but i see on the trailer, when John Connor gets down of the helicopter he fires his gun against a terminator.. but… were those BULLETS? o please somebody please tell me they didn’t screw up the weapons!!! Since terminator 1 (1984) when they showed the future they showed us LASER GUNS!! not bullets. Furthermore, i remember Reese explaining Sarah Connor if he could stop the terminator… he said “With these weapons… i don’t know” WE ALREADY HAD BULLETS AND GREAT MACHINE GUNS back in 1984!!! In the police station they had all kind of BULLETS and now in the “Real” future…. where are the laser guns?????????????? BTW, i loved the terminator 1 gun blasts in the darkness… COME ON!!!!!!
I’m totally going to downl…drive down to the store and buy this when it’s released on DVD/Blu-Ray. Thanks for such an awesome review.
Why can’t other reviewers be so honest and on target? Oh right, because they’re stupid and paid.
Yeah, Transformers looks slick, also. Going to be hard as a Solid Snake to beat those visuals. They must have CGI SLAVE LABOR artists working for them.
Thanks as always, James!
I swear you…ARE…A MACHINE!
@Pae39
You need to recall that this movie takes place several years before the point that we have seen in the previous movies. Obviously the Resistance doesn’t have the ability to make much new Technology, as I assume at some point when Skynet develops the laser weapons along with some time traveling devices is when the Resistance gets a hold of the same technology when they are picking up the scraps at the end of battles, but for all we know it may never get to that point since the Resistance is probably hoping they can stop it from ever getting to that point.
Yeah the whole PG-13 thing these days is ridicules.
i haven’t seen it yet cause i’m from germany, but as a big fan of the 2nd movie, i think T4 only could fail…maybe it’s a bit naive, cause there is no arnold, no furlong, but a batman, who plays j. connor and who drives the batmotobike
. sorry, but i don’t like bale…the terminator saga is story with heart, like you described, and i’m pretty sure that bale is, actually like always, pretty heartless in this one.
michael keaton for T5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CVhWempDgA
PAE39 makes a critical point….I’m feel slightly cheated now. I’ve heard the game Salvation is 4 hours long. Yes, a whopping 1 afternoon of mediocre third-person shooting for a total of $60.00. And yes, they use bullets. My lord…remember all the shit Reese said…good God…the shotgun did virtually nothing to Arnold in that film…
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/terminatorsalvationthefuturebeginstitlepending/index.html
I can say that Reese obviously knew what he was doing in the first movie with the sawed-off shotgun…and the pipe bombs…think about it, the Terminators aren’t invincible, even in the game they take forever to kill with bombs. It’s likely that the lasers were brought in years later to help the Resistance. Reese has experience with firearms, there’s no doubt about that with what he accomplished in Terminator 1.
In short, I’d rethink your case, PAE39.
I really can’t say too much, I grateful you decided not to have any plot spoilers; I guess it comes down to self conflict on whether or not this is worth the $ to see this in theater. I guess in the mean time I’ll wait patiently for your next AVGN review.
I think the major thing is this seems like a sequel to part 3.
Part 1 and 2 flow from each other, but the third in the series reinvented how skynet’s attack, due to it not according after part 2. So I kind of differ from James here in I think part 1 and two are a set while 3, 4, and how ever many they make are another set, despite having Arnold in Rise of the Machines.
Though I will admit I have not seen the new one yet, and I’m not particularity eager, due to the fact that the only thing I really enjoyed in part 3 was watching Kristanna Loken run around in a tight suit.. I probably shouldn’t admit that…
Oh thank you, I thought I was the only one who caught that Guns and Roses song.
Omg that guy evildead818 is retarted becuase he said the movie doesnt exxplain stuff and blamed it on the director. the director doesnt write the godamn movie and dont talk shit about him becuase he is my third cousin by marriage. his nickname is mc G.
Btw i think james could have directed it too, i dont disagree with you on that one becuase james is just beast like that, and i hope that soon he becomes a director like he wants to be. at least i think thats what he wants to be.
Technically if you think about it, James is already a director; okay so most if not all is free for public eye, but that only makes you appreciate his efforts and his passion for creative arts even more. Should James ever go Hollywood frig would that be awesome, I’d have to beg him to get permission to re-vitalize the Evil Dead franchise for if anyone could pull it off I believe James could. *I guess that was off topic, but it never hurts to let him know that we all appreciate his stuff, even should we have opposite opinions.
The R Rating came into existence in 1985. Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were both PG. And parents complained that they didn’t want there kids to be watching stuff like this and wanted them to be R. If you think about it, there’s a big space in between PG and R, and it’s hard to choose which one your gonna place a movie in. There were horror movies that just barely made into the PG category. Anyways since Steven Spielberg was mostly responsibe for this since he not only made Gremlins and Indiana Jones, but Jaws as well. He created the PG-13 rating. And that’s the story.
Went to see this great action flick, just after playing a couple hours of Fallout 3, and the themes, well, matched up beautifully.
This movie most certainly blew away T3 in almost every way possible. For those that have been soured on T3, much like me, take solace, this one is a great restart to what will hopefully be a great trilogy. And when the T-800 enters towards the end, in the FLESH, all I can say is, GOD DAMN! Huge props to the CGI folks.
On the whole PG-13, I think its because at some point (probably cause of school shooting and such or any moment people start complaining about violence in the media) studios became scare of hardcore action movie, while at the same time comedy became more lewd and saying profanity made it way easier to get a R-rating
I hate the whole rating thing all together.
I think I only want to hear James’s reviews on anything.
He’s just too good.
ok i agree with james, but i did’nt like bale saying “I’ll be back” WTF
Alright James, we just need one more review. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!
Hi James,
I seem to have a big problem with the time in this movie. I big time problem
***** POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT *****
When Marcus goes back to Skynet and finally wakes up in his “bed”. He talks to a women (the one from CyberDine) who had cancer. Up till there, thats cool and I like this idea. But its when she talks..thats where it fucks up.
She says that she’s or Skynet has been trying for 44 years. So if we do calculations were in 2018 and if you count 44 years in the past thats in 1974. Isn’t the first movie or even the first encounter in 1984 ?
please could someone explain that to me cause I really don’t understand. If she would say 34 I would understand but 44 ??? nahhh. I hope its a translation error
p.s: I went the see the movie in the french movie (because of my Wife
) and she heard the same thing… 44 years? wtf ?
Good review James I’m planning on seeing this movie sometime this weekend I’ve seen mixed reviews for it but i’m not one to judge a movie based on reviews I’m looking forward to your T3 review
oh and I agree about the whole PG-13 thing that could be a good idea for your “You Kknow What’s Bullshit” series
john connor = keanu reeves
For all those asking for more from James, in either depth of reviews or quantity or reviews he produces, I’d just like to join the chorus and add: James, what we want from you is quite simply blood. Your blood, specifically. Please draw enough to fill a vile for each MAJOR fan and send it to their address for their enjoyment. But make sure not to wait for your life source to regenerate, for we simply cannot wait that long. It has to be done now, or as soon as you’re prepared after making your final arrangements. You must do it as quickly and painfully as possible to truly please us all with as little time as possible for you to recuperate.
Yes, you will die, but it will be worth it. For us, that is. Not for you, you’ll be dead. Also, since it is inevitable that you will pass out long before you are able to send all of your blood in the mail to your largest fans, (of course I’m the…biggest fan of all…or at least weirdest one!) you will have to coerce your friend Mike Matei into drawing every last ounce from your pale, thinning corpse.
Only then can you fully please all your fan base! Only then can you truly be called the Angry Video Game Nerd with your decaying head held high above the mightiest of creatures and men. And we will stand triumphant in your name, with your life force in our hands, because all your blood are belong to us!
James, did you hear that they changed Sam Raimi’s return to horror DRAG ME TO HELL, into a PG-13 film? fuck that!
Honestly I think the reasons ratings change pure and simple is because of money. Society has changed a lot since the days of Friday of the 13th came out and R-rated movies was pretty much slapped on damn near everything. Parents have been more easy going because this generation of parenting have seen a lot of the R-rated stuff and find it approval to watch with their kids. That said, short of porn or movies that cause a public/political debate is bound now to rate as PG-13. I myself have seen a lot of rated – R movies with very few that deserve that as a rating. I may be shunned but I would let my kids watch something as funny as Evil Dead, but would agree that they should never watch Last House on the Left until they are much older. As for Terminator being rated PG-13, unless there is a whole lot of killing human to human with the intent of hatred not just war, I agree with the rating. After all it’s a science fiction flick through and through and not far off from the likes of Batman, which barely anyone complained about its rating.
i would of like if they used the first ending where conner dies but bale sign to be in more movies so they couldnt kill him, the ending would of show that humity has to fight for themselfs
You put it perfectly, it’s a stand alone flick.
I felt that it was a good movie, just not a good Terminator movie. Something seemed to me missing from it, I went to a midnight showing the day before it was released, and left the theater feeling uncertain about whether or not I liked it. I may warm up to it after a couple more viewings… at least it was better than T3.
You should review the ALIENS films next (or soon) they were truly legendary, and I know that plenty of us sci-fi nerds would really appreciate it.
Nice Review.
Speaking of the Terminator, have you ever see The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox? I would love to hear you review the TV series.
Love to see more from you, James!
Have a nice day!
dagavin123,
The director is the one who is responsible for what happens in a motion picture. Things like motivation, exposition, setups, and pay-offs are all his concern. Writers, in most films, have nothing to do with the film after they hand in the script. The director does and can re-write things, leave out explanations or drop things that the writers intended. Directors don’t just put what’s on the page to the screen.
James, I have to say T-Salvation was the worst film I’ve seen in 6 months. Not nessesarily the worst one to come out in 6 months, but the worst one I saw. And it’s definately the worst ‘franchise’ movie since Transformers.
Characters we don’t care about, plot holes galore, bad performances (Bale is hardly mythic here, nor is John Connor mythic – he’s actually kind of a dumbass (two helicopter crashes? Shouldn’t HE be the one to trust a machine after a machine was a stand-in for a father…twice?), and a really bad “reveal” in the ‘talking head’ scene.
I just found it really poorly put together from a story telling standpoint. Yes, the effects looked good and the cinematography was not Micheal Bay-ed to hell, but the movie really wasn’t ABOUT anything. No conflict stood out. It was mostly Christian Bale making the wrong decisions and acting illogically.
“It was a pure concentration of anti-logic”
Good review. but, im confused about one thing. the time travel thing. okay so kyle reese went back in time and met sarah connor and made john connor then died, so then john connor grew up found kyle reese in the end of terminator salvation, so wont kyle reese will eventully have to go back in time.(this is where it get confusing) so just forget about all the characters and dates in the new terminator. lets just say that the date is 2009 and john connor and kyle reese are together, but in 2010 kyle reese is supposed to go back in time and do all the stuff with sarah connor and make john connor and die, then later john connor will find kyle reese and everything just keeps repeating. so they keep fighting the same war over and over again. so i think i have found a flaw in time travel. i know its kinda confusing but it kinda makes sense in a weird sort of way.
YENCH781 said:
“then later john connor will find kyle reese and everything just keeps repeating. so they keep fighting the same war over and over again.”
Classic example of art imitating life, of course!
YENCH781 said:
“im confused about one thing. the time travel thing. okay so kyle reese went back in time and met sarah connor and made john connor then died,”
it’s a science fiction movie the whole the future is not set theme from T2 makes the terminator series flexible and not have to stick to any specific storyline just enjoy this perspective of terminator
Saw the movie today, altogether, it was pretty amazing in my opinion. I agree that it didn’t completely satisfy my craving for action, but the storyline itself is almost flawless, though I was still a bit confused on Kyle Rease. Oh well.
French guy speaking:
The funny thing about the difference between PG13 and R rating is that while France as mostly the same system (except that the age limits are 12, 16 and 18 years and not 13 and 17), Actions fliks like Terminator as well as horror movies have always been “interdit aux moins de 12 ans”, so for us, every action/horror/somehow-violent movie coming from the US since the 80’s have been the local equivalent of PG-13, which makes the whole “let’s blow things up but by the God please no blood we want teenagers to see our movie” seems somewhat ridiculous.
I’ll definitively will check it out.
Oh, typo. “I’ll definitively check out” is better:/
Double typo. Crap. Forget about it..
Movie sequels have been making me extremely mad this summer. First Star Trek destroys the established universe, then Terminator Salvation makes a mockery of the Cameron timeline. Quite honestly, this movie should not have been made. I will admit its got good action but the storyline is what makes this movie suck. Here are some things I picked up on, feel free to chime in.
1. Why does Skynet even know who John Connor is? When the movie stars, he is a foot soldier whose own commander doesn’t want him on the mission and tells him to go topside. You could say Skynet intercepted his transmissions, but those come after he learns he is number two on the hit list.
2. How does Skynet know Kyle Reese is Connor’s father? Sarah never told anyone his name. In T2, Dr. Silverman just refers to him as a soldier from the future. And when the T-1000 searches John on the police database, it says father unknown.
3. If Skynet knows Reese is Connor’s father, why not just toss him off the transport ship to his death? Why capture him?
4. When the Skynet mainframe tells Marcus that he has accomplished what SKynet has failed to do so many times in the past, which is kill John Connor, how does Skynet know it will fail? It hasn’t even sent the Terminators back in time yet. If Skynet knows they will fail, why bother sending them back? Additionally, if Skynet knows Reese is the father, wouldn’t the logical conclusion be to NOT send the first terminator back at all?
The more I think about this movie, the more I think it should have been left alone with James Cameron. This is like someone else continuing on the Star Wars saga, it just doesn’t work. Star Trek sucked, Terminator Salvation sucked, I pray Transformers makes it worthwhile….
I think that The Sarah Connor Chronicles had a way better storyline…
James, I am a big fan of your work but I urge you to read my response to your review. Keep in mind that I completely respect your opinion but as a fellow fan of the original films, I feel you are being too easy on it.
You are correct, the action was great. However, what distinguishes a James Cameron movie is not only its action but Cameron’s ability to create characters and a narrative pace in which characters can grow. He can characterize characters not by simply telling us if they are angry, hurt, smart or dumb, but by putting them in situations in which their actions and their reactions tell us who they are. This movie lacks this kind of character development and pacing. This is not so much because of weak dialogue (although that too is present), but because of too many characters and not enough screen time for anyone.
A staple of the terminator mythology is the battle against an unstoppable force. You may argue that this ideal is present more than ever in this movie which takes place in a world full of machines as opposed to a world with only one machine but I believe that to be its other greatest weakness. There was something very visceral about the battle against a singular unstoppable killing machine in a world where no one believes you and no one is aware of the impending apocalypse. It made us care for the characters, the world and the people they were trying to save. In this movie, there are so many different machines and soldiers that the real horror, fear and connection is completely drowned in a mishmash of metal, explosions and all things alike.
Furthermore, despite how great the action is, I believe there is one fundamental flaw in McG’s directing approach. In some ways, I believe his direction of the Charlie’s Angels movies was superior. The reason behind that is very simple – fundamental editing techniques used to move the narrative. There is little to no foreshadowing or use of suspense in the editing. Machines and attacks come from out of nowhere and there is little time for characters to react. A prime example is the attack by the surveillance terminator at the jeep. Their discourse is interrupted abruptly and without reason and the question of why Marcus wanted to go north and why he ultimately decided to join Reese is not answered. Similarly, when the old woman is grabbed by the harvester, it is simply too abrupt and the audience is robbed of any emotional link to the situation at hand. In short, there is almost no point in the movie when we are truly fearful for the lives of the characters nor are we ever truly in suspense or given true reasons for why action is happening.
I have already said too much but I could go on further. I urge you to reconsider your light review of this movie. This is because the greatest problem with this movie is its title. It is NOT a Terminator film and to connect it at all to Cameron’s work is damaging. It promotes the abuse of previously established canons of work to fuel the monolithic machine that is the Hollywood movie industry. Not only does it tarnish past works but it impedes the creation of new and original ideas.
Thanks for reading this and I hope you agree with me even a little bit.
You have the same opinion that a lot of my friends had, but I thought the movie was terrible.
I’ll admit that the story itself, on paper, wasn’t too bad, but it was done in a very predictable, and very uninteresting way. My friend and I were kinda whispering back and forth to each other during the movie, guessing the lamest possible way a scene could play out, and we couldn’t believe that it was actually what happened. I thought some of the action scenes were kinda cool, but some were, again, ruined by something either cheesy or just very uninteresting. I’d get into it more, but I don’t want to give anything away.
Also, I don’t think Christian Bale ever changed his facial expression during that film. I was expecting Connor to be a more dynamic character – not too over the top, but at least entertaining to watch.
I personaly regret seeing it, but I guess it was still better than T3 in certain ways.
I just got back from watching the movie and i gotta say, Christian Bale lands great parts but he’s like Keanu Reeves in that he’s just ‘there’ and doesnt bring anything to the characters he plays, just a blank face. I thought the movie right from the title screen looked like a Marvel movie which was completely disappointing. Remembering the opening scene from T2 with the flaming playground and the musical score to set the mood for the rest of the movie. It was just the opening credits but it was an emotional scene. It was said before but I agree that the movie didnt take its time to set any moods. T2 had little mood refreshers thrown in there once in awhile to keep it going for you, like Sarahs dreams. Who didnt get chills from seeing that the first time?
But i guess one of my biggest gripes is that it looks nothing like the future we seen in previous movies. Or even like anything, I myself, imagined what the future is like from what we heard from T1 and T2. I wanted to see some T600’s with the rubber skin but i guess they completely bypassed that because the more they tried to stop skynet the faster they progress it seems. “No fate but what we make”, HAH!
I tried to go into the film with low expectations because I usually come out pleasantly suprised when i do, but this time i feel i got what i expected. It felt like a big budget made for TV movie, which might have something to do with the tameness of the PG-13 or the uninteresting character drama between the pilot girl and Marcus. None of the characters showed any emotion and I couldnt relate to any of them. I think the situations between characters were cheap and thrown together and you’ve seen them 100 times in movies or TV dramas before. I could only roll my eyes at the part where Skynet shows their face to Marcus and spills the beans to him. It was a cheap trick to confirm the audience what they already suspected from the beginning and at the same time distanced the movie farther from reality because Skynet shouldnt have gave a shit what Marcus knew.
I could go on forever but i’ll end it there since im getting cut short LOL.
THIS MOVIE WILL BE THE BLACK SHEEP SINCE THERES NO ARNOLD!
For some reason this movie review doesn’t want to play for me and some of the other videos don’t want to either, can anyone help?
I thought it was a great action movie, the whole cinematography and stuff.
Mu fav part was when they show that CG Arnold
I cheered !
Oh yes I did
And Bale did the best Connor yet.
I really like his presence. Its a perfect match with the whole environment of the movie.
Never mind, forget my previous post.
i fixed my viewing issues!
hey james is there any way you can review the game robocop vs terminator, maybe its not a crappy enough game but ive never really seen any pictures or videos of the game play and would like to see it get mentioned in the next nerd video.
@Yench781: Terminator has always had it’s fair share of ontological and predestination paradoxes so I wouldn’t be too suprised
Lately, I’ve been going into movies expecting to be disappointed, particularly if they have a name attached to them that is already held to such a high standard. Plus, I’ve always been interested in seeing a Terminator movie that focused on the bleak future and the war between humans and machines that takes place in it, and I suppose I was worried that if my expectations were too high, I would just be disappointed even more.
However, I thought this was a pretty good movie, for most of the reasons stated in the review, and I agree with it for the most part. The only major problem I had with the movie was that, for some reason, I was expecting it to come full circle. Like, somehow, it would make a real connection with the movies that came before it, but it doesn’t. It does just feel like a stand-alone movie. Even though it has the same characters and everything, they felt like completely new characters. The story itself felt completely new, in a way.
Of course, I just watch these movies for the explosions and the robots, so what the fuck am I bitching about?
I think a lot of people went into this movie thinking “Guh, it’s PG-13, it’s gonna suck because of that” and didn’t really realize that most movies that used to be rated R would probably get a PG-13 in the current market.
I only felt cheated at one moment when I wanted to see at least a little bit of blood splatter, but there was only once in the whole movie that I felt that way.
I hope they pursue the series for one more film and call it quits without showing an end to the war… unfortunately, I don’t think that my idea of what happens in the next film is what’s going to show up in the sequel, especially given the ideas McG is already tossing out in interviews.
“The bullshit man” huh? Is he a new character?
I agree with some of your complaints: A lot of the packaging is really annoying, but I like SOME box sets that do use multipule boxes, for the organization and just becuase its neat to own and look at all the cover art. It’s kind of a collectors thing, like how people put stamps in a book – its just fun to look at and own.
The menus I agree partly with — menus need to be simple and functional – but that doesn’t mean they can’t be well designed and fun to interact with either. They should be very simple and organized though, which I cannot say held true for that transformers DVD.
The AD’s are bullshit though – I mean what’s up with that? When DVD’s first came out you didn’t have that crap, but now it’s everywhere. I’m surprised you didn’t bring this up either: You’ll buy a DVD and replay it YEARS later only to find the same ads for movies that already have come and gone! Literally, they’ll stuff trailers with release dates into DVD’s. “Go see movie X this june!” You’ll be watching years later and it’s just so irrelevant its MEANINGLESS – it doesn’t even advertise anything anymore because the movies done and over with – its just fucking pointless!
GAH!
Oh shit! I just posted my comment for your DVD thing in your Terminator section. SORRY!
I really have to tip my hat to The Terminator being in the movie. Is there really any point to the Arnold T-800 fighting John? Hell no. There’s no point, it serves no real purpose aside from proving that Skynet loves irony. It’s in there purely for the fans. And THAT is a sign that they are still listening to them.
Before getting deeper into T:Salvation, I just want to comment on the T-# series description of each machine. I find it confusing that the Terminator of 1984 which is more advanced than the ones in T:Salvation is T-101, but in T:Salvation, they clearly inferior ones were called T-600s and T-800s. Why would the better ones have a smaller number? Wikipedia (search “terminator (character)”) explains that there are contradictions but it is generally accepted that the T-101 is really T-800 M-101. Confusing isn’t it?
(Quick off-topic: After verifying my facts with the Blu-Ray of T2, let me express my feelings on the T2 chapter menu system – IT SUCKS BALLS! It took me over a minute just to figure out how to use it! WTF!)
******* S P O I L E R A L E R T *********
Now onto my thoughts: T:Salvation was disappointing in almost every way. The only thing I loved about it was that the machines were so intimidating on screen, which is impressive.
Many of the actors did a great job, but Christian Bale as John Conor was not a good choice. This choice was obvious from the Studio’s perspective. “Put Batman in the movie and we can’t lose.” But no. His stoney face and his raspy voice actually screamed Batman to me. He didn’t contribute anything to the movie. It wasn’t John Connor fighting the resistance, it was Christian Bale with a slurry, lispy, raspy speech.
Character development goes out the window with this movie. Marcus seems damaged by something he did. He doesn’t think he deserves a second chance. For WHAT?! What did he do that was so bad that he was sentenced to death. He obviously seems like a good guy, so I very curious at what he did.
If Skynet knew about Marcus, they must’ve surely known about the technology in him, so why not just make more infiltrators like him. He actually believes he’s human. Skynet said he was a perfect infiltrator, so WTF?
When Marcus and Reese were talking to a bunch of people in a gas station, an old lady is suddenly picked off by a giant machine. Woaw there… that machine is so big there is no way they wouldn’t have heard it coming. The movie even shows that the machine makes loud noise just by moving. In other parts of the movie, the characters are able to hide from machines when they hear the noises they make, so it makes impossible that they would be taken by surprise in this scene.
Remember any sports movie. You know how the coach always gives inspirations speeches before the final half or whatever. The same thing happened in this movie except that the speech was so uninspired… I was speechless when they tried to pass that off. The Mighty Ducks probably has a better speech.
Connor gets stabbed through the heart with a thick peice of metal with holes it in and he still manages to live and walk towards the helicopter. BS!
The ending is so pathetic and predicatible. And the little talk about the heart and how humans were different from machines was also cheap. A heart is just a muscle – morso because when they talked about it, it was linked strongly to the physical heart and not the emotional heart. And the difference isn’t a heart, it’s emotion. Geez.
In conclusion, this movie is a pathetic attempt to get our money by reviving an old franchise with a poor script because people will see them no matter what. I loved Terminator 1, T2 was also great, T3 was good, but this one is just awful. There are so many more issues with this movie that I could write an entire paper on this if I had a copy of the movie with me. Seriously, wait for the DVD – you know its gonna come out soon because of the poor economy.
Dear lemaym2003,
It’s unfortunate that you didn’t like Star Trek because I thought it was awesome. But I agree with you on T:Salvation sucking. Here are possible answers to your points.
1. Why does Skynet even know who John Connor is?
A: Skynet has access to records of the past. They can see that there was a Terminator, find out what the scandal was about and take the proper measures. Not only that but he freely broadcasts his opinions into the air which is really stupid. I’m surprised that they used walkie-talkies to talk about military operations throughout the movie.
2. How does Skynet know Kyle Reese is Connor’s father?
A: Skynet knows what happened in the past. Skynet could want to kill Reese for being John Connor’s father because they found out somehow; or Skynet could be killing Reese because he stopped a terminator in the past.
3. If Skynet knows Reese is Connor’s father, why not just toss him off the transport ship to his death? Why capture him?
A: Beats me?
4. When the Skynet mainframe tells Marcus that he has accomplished what SKynet has failed to do so many times in the past, which is kill John Connor, how does Skynet know it will fail? It hasn’t even sent the Terminators back in time yet. If Skynet knows they will fail, why bother sending them back?
A: You are assuming that the events in this timeline had previously happened the same way. If the movies are about one timeline then that means that the future is being rewritten in T:Salvation. Skynet knows they’ve failed previously and are in the position to send a terminator back in time but they have not yet done so in this movie. Skynet no longer has to send back another T-101, but Conner does have to send back his father.
The sequel to T:Salvation is probably going to be about capturing a Skynet base with the time travel machine so that Reese can be sent back in time. Then the Final piece to the Trilogy will be how to get Sarah Connor to fall in love with Reese under normal situations. Unless of course Connor also sends a Terminator back in time as well.
But the timeline was fucked up to begin with. Try to figure this out: Skynet sent a Terminator to kill the mother of the leader of The Resistance that would never have been born if the Terminator was never sent in the first place. If Connor is Reese’s son, then Reese had to have initially made it back in time somehow without Skynet’s influence. However, what would be the point of Skynet creating a time machine if there was no John Connor.
5. I pray Transformers makes it worthwhile…
A: Not likely since it was made by Michael Bay.
@ ChuckNoblet
Ok good answer about the laser guns XD
Terminator: Salvation was a damn good movie a hell lot better than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines which never got a good game anyway I think it kinda falls short of the first two movies.
When i watched it, there was this one thing i wanted to hear throughout the movie, from beginning of the title to the end of the credits, the terminator theme song, it was no where in it except for the beginning of the theme and that’s it. If u count the upbeat song they put in it as the song, go ahead, i don’t lol. Overall, Movie was great, kyle reese could have been less of a wuse, and would have been laughable if the actual Schwarzenegger made an appearance as one of the prisoners lol, one way to explain how they got the original skin for it.
Hmmm… Probably won’t see this because I’m not a fan of the series. Thanks for the review anyway. Also, the more PG-13 the better I think, as long as they don’t dumb it down just to get a lower rating.
The thing you have to realize was Connor isn’t the main character of the movie. We’ve seen Connor’s character arc pretty much already (aside from him becoming the resistance leader at the end of the movie) and when we get to him here, he really doesn’t have anywhere to go as a character. If the movie focused more on him it wouldn’t have been as engaging. The Marcus Wright character and teenage Kyle Reece were the focus, and rightfully so. It would have been a mindless blow em up with just John Connor.
People need to realize Bale did the best with what he had.
for the person who said this was the worst movie they’ve seen in the last 6 months…you obviously didn’t see X-Men Origins…urrgh.
@lemaym2003 Star Trek was amazing. It didn’t destroy any established timeline…its just separate from the old so JJ and friends would have more freedom to make the best franchise possible; either be on board with the new direction, or shut up and watch old DVDs.
There’s a reason McG literally had to BEG Bale to do this movie.
Total fucking FAIL. It made no sense. All the Terminators had to do was kill Kyle Reese, and Bale would have pulled a Marty McFly and poofed away.
They should have casted Bruce Campbell instead…he would have matched the schlock Sci-fi Channel feel of the “film” perfectly.
I’ll never forget seeing “Terminator” when I was 8…my first “R” rated movie!
Hm… horror movies=pg13 and comedy=R?
I think I get it. Violence must be more mild then swearing. Think about it. In a comedy humor is crude and curses are thrown around. In a horror there’s a bunch of blood flying around and limbs being chopped off.
So if horror is less offensive then comedy than that can only mean that we are more comfortable with younger audiences seeing violence then we are with them seeing swearing/crude material.
agreeing with Crystal6, maybe they lower the standers for horror so more kids can watch it, since either 1. are the major audience in movie theater, 2. want to turn kids into killers already to get the economy started (kidding…), 3. turn them into major young adults.
Check out http://thenegativezone.net/wordpress/ for a review of the film
will you do a movie review about critters?
[...] here’s an awesome to the point review…. Movie Review: Terminator Salvation | Cinemassacre Productions [...]
Oh my. I had so many expectations about that movie, and I was sitting in the cinema thinking “When will something interesting happen?”
I know, the new trilogy deals with other aspects than the older ones, but.. I don’t know.. somethings missing. The movie was all about action and killing and this robot attacking the gas station looked like a damn transformer!
What about the fealings, the emotion? The burden, that John Connor has lasting on his shoulders? That was missing, I think and that’s was disappointed me about it. Also were so many logical mistakes..
For example, when he captured the motorcycle – he can impossibly driving it! There was no handle bar and I don’t think that gripping a gaming pad would just do it.
Well, I think that cinema is only entertaining with action scenes and blowing things up and I think, that’s such a pity. Normal watchers who only want to see destruction will be happy, but.. is it really what you want?
Those are my thoughts about the movie.
Greets, Tinwe
I left the cinema feeling robbed of my time and money. While I knew T4 could never be as good as T1, T2 and TSCC, I hoped it would be at least better than T3 – the one that’s so bad me and my friends are not talking about it (think Matrix sequels). Well, guess what – it turned out to be even worse. At least I won’t make the same mistake of foolishly being hyped by trailers again and I won’t go and see T5 and T6, I’ll just wait for a DVD rip. Maybe.
Well, I really enjoyed the film, it was actually my favorite, next to the original.
I have been watching the Terminator franchise since i was just a kid, and i give them all 10/10’s.
thx for the review, James
I think the comment on destruction in a post apocolyptic world hit it the nail right on the head. a good review I’m looking forward to the sequel. I liked seeing Reese who I thought was a great character in the first film.
If anyones interested I’ve written a review in the form of a parody script and hope people find it amusing. Would appreciate any comments.
http://purpleslinky.com/humor/satire/terminator-salvation-first-draft-parody-script/
Wasn’t the whole idea of “Judgement Day” suppose to be John Connor leading the humans to victory over the machines? The movie is more about the cyborg and very little to do with John Connor. I thought it was some very weak glue to hold a franchise together after “T-2″. Worth renting but I was sorry to pay theatre prices to watch it.
I was SOOOOOOOO annoyed that Christan Bale was used to play Conner. FFS!!!!! Why did he do the Batman voice thing? I COULD NOT GET OVER THAT! Great visual effects though. Story sucked. Basically another time paradox that Conner attempts to deal with.
the DVD rating was changed to R but the theatre version PG-13, the fucking changed it
This movie sucked. Christian Bale’s performance was terrible. His John Connor is unlikable and uncharismatic. Who’d give half a fuck about that dork? Let him go die in the depths of Skynet. And Bale’s still using that shitty Batman voice of his, which is the worst Batman voice of all time. The best Batman voice is Kevin Conroy’s, from all those Bruce Timm cartoons. Bale sounds like a slight man with a God-given tenor voice forcing and faking his way into a baritone, but it’s a deeply and irredeemably embarrassing failure. He sounds like a wimp trying to shit a pineapple out of his ass. No wonder the guy’s always throwing bitch fits like a little girl.
Apart from that, the storytelling was poor, and there wasn’t any story to tell to begin with. This was a completely inconsequential film. Ten years from now, anyone else could make T5 with any other cast and nothing in TS need be referenced. Even if McG (and what the fuck kind of name is that for a director?) had reached his $400 million profit point and ensured a T5, even he would have had no need to reference TS. But TS was a financial failure, yes even with its $350 million in box office, so T5 is nothing we have to worry about any time soon.
And what the fuck is this crap about Kate the veterinarian performing a heart transplant in a 2018 post-apocalypse field hospital? The patient may not have died, unfortunately, but the movie sure as hell did.
But at least MacCheese knows how to function like a director – James Cameron forgot how to do that over ten years ago. After that mortifying Oscar acceptance speech about being “King of the WORLD!!” he never directed a film again. No, I’m not counting IMAX documentaries.
Don’t know if someone already said this, but there were PG-13 movies in the 1980s.
He said there weren’t PG-13 ACTION and HORROR movies,like now.I think it’s one of the biggest issues of movies.They are too watered down,just so many kids can see them and buy merchandise and stuff.
I personalty think that the movie was great and in the beginning i was skeptical because i think to make a terminator that in needed Arnold and i was very pleased that they made him the biggest, hardest, and smartest one of them all at the end and that just made the move even more greater.
I’m a not a Terminator fan. Quite frankly, I haven’t really cared, but I went with two of my friends who were really fans of the series, and they almost ended asking for their money back of how awful they thought this movie was. I didn’t had any expectation, so I pretty much forgot most of the movie. I do remember some things, but since I can’t remember much, I think that pretty much tells you this movie isn’t worthy.
I was totally neutral, but this movie didn’t surprise me at all. It made me feel nothing. I just watched there brainless for 2 hours waiting for something interesting to happen, except for a little part of the end, which surprised me, only for a few minutes. The rest? I forgot all about ir.
I think James was too soft with it. That surprised me more than th whole damn movie did.
Now, I have a request: I know James wants to: Please do a review on Mario Bros The Movie. God, that movie sucks ASS!!! For me, it’s almost the worst movie I have seen in my entire life, just like TMNT 3 is for him (well, at least that’s what he said in his review, probably he has seen many other crappy movies since then)
What really pissed me off in Terminator 4 is that the Terminators didn’t even try to kill their targets.
Why do Terminators throw around their targets until they get killed instead. I mean, all it needs to do is crack someone’s had or rip out the heart.
It did have some great scenes and I shit my pants, especially when John is chased after by that split Terminator at the beginning of the movie (reminded me of the ending of the first one but it was a lot faster), that was the part where I hid behind my girlfriend
This is my least favorite of the series, but it’s still okay.