The Alien vs Predator of the Terminator series.
Added 11/18/2009
A few good ideas that were just terribly, terribly executed.
The reverse time traveler. I enjoyed that idea. Sam Worthington, con on death row is executed, but before dying signs his life away to Cyberdyne systems, wakes up in the future, and spends it trying to piece together what happened. Cool.
Beyond that...what the heck?
The first two movies (the REAL terminator movies) had this ever present mood to them. Mass human genocide was coming and there was nothing that they could do about it. People were going to die and it was just...really, depressing and threatening and remained this heavy presence just over the horizon.
But with Salvation...the apocalypse comes and...it's no big deal. Apparently much of the military managed to survive (chain of command included)John Connor is just a cog in the system who spouts gibberish over the radio, and... his father from the future is a fun loving, happy go lucky rogue...
None of which connects to the previous movies very well.
There is no emotional connection in this movie. The characters are just...boring. They're cardboard cut outs of people, people created to serve a purpose, but never given a chance to ever seem like real people. Hot American Indian chick, plot device to show Sam Worthington's character's humanity, and predictably help him out of a tight spot. John Connor (Christan Bale), auto distrusts all machines which makes no sense given the previous movies. And we can't even go into all of the stupid mistakes that he makes for someone that was trained as a soldier and should know what the terminators are capable of. Bryce Howard playing John Connor's wife... Why does John Connor need a wife? Why does his wife play no conceivable purpose in the story whatsoever other than being there?
And could someone please tell me why Common was even in the movie other than he wanted to be? He must have something like 2 lines.
I think it's a steaming pile of crap. But I'll admit people have disagreed with me.
If you ignore the previous movies and take it as a stand alone. It's okay...maybe. I just feel that the studios have done to terminator what they did with the Aliens franchise. The good writer/director leaves and then the studios go right ahead and f- it up.
If you liked Alien vs Predator (all 5 of you) than you might enjoy this movie. The rest stay away...stay far away.
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full price, fair price
Added 11/16/2009
I want to pay full price for this movie. Do I have any options? Why is the price always falling? Full price does not seem so unreasonable.
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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DVD is dead?
Added 11/10/2009
I really don't see the need for Blu-Ray. It's not like a different form of media like DVD was to VHS. Both DVD and Blu-Ray are digital. The difference? Blu-Ray can hold more data. Who cares? My DVDs look great with my upscaling DVD player (using HDMI), so I don't really see the point for Blu-Ray.
Now, I really wanted to buy the Director's Cut DVD of this film, but it will only be on Blu-Ray. Does the studio think I'm going to buy a Blu-Ray player just for 'Terminator Salvation?' LOL no. I didn't even do that for 'The Dark Knight.'
So, all the studio is doing is losing money by forcing me to have to download the Director's Cut, rather than purchase the DVD (which I wanted to do, since I have all of the other 'Terminator' films). So, it looks like they'll be losing a lot of money with this stupid stunt of theirs. People who don't have Blu-Ray aren't going to buy a player just for a movie like this, so this was a bad idea. Instead, people who want to see the Director's Cut are just going to find alternative methods to do so, which will completely cut the studio out of the profit.
Good going.
12 out of 13 people found this helpful.
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Not Suspenseful + Not engaging and exiciting as Terminator 2
Added 11/8/2009
- The special effects are not as exciting as Terminator 2.
- There's no suspense in this movie. Terminator 2 is suspenseful from the beginning till the end.
- There are a lot of actions but they're not engaging as those of Terminator 2 either.
- It was supposed to be touching at the end when someone scarified to give his heart to another person but I was not moved. I don't know it's because of bad directing or acting. It might be both.
1 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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DVD gets hosed again!!!
Added 11/7/2009
Blu-ray gets a 2 disc director's cut while dvd gets only a pos single disc with only the theatrical cut. Getting tired of having some studios try to shove blu ray down my throat by withholding all good special features and added footage. DVD is still the top selling format. Wish they'd just give us the quality of discs we used to get.
18 out of 21 people found this helpful.
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If you love the Terminator franchise...well, you'd HAVE to love it to endure this mess. The first two flicks were awesome, of course. The third? Not so much. T4? The downward spiral continues. Huge budget, talented actors and great story material are all majestically pissed away. The Charlie's Angels films were light and fun but McG needed to introduce a bunch of peripheral characters that would have been fine in another film but who cares? I didn't and that was the problem. Bryce Howard gets to walk around with big eyes. Christian Bale gets to play in some over-the-top effects sequences. Sam Worthington and Moon Bloodgood(sp?) get to have a romance and why do we need this or care? All of these people are extremely talented and again, the effects? More or less spectacular. But I found myself apathetic. In the earlier films you found a stake in the characters and cared. With T4 I felt like I was watching a play by Max Fisher. Well done but just not the real deal.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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This is what happens when...
Added 11/15/2009
You put a director who doesn't know how to handle the mythology correctly and allows the primary actor to direct from behind his back. His even mentioned that there was over FORTY minutes cut from the movie!
I find it hilarious that the "Director's Cut" only adds in a pathetic THREE minutes into the movie, what happened to the other Thirty-Seven minutes? You know why its a "R" rated release now? Inside those three minutes, you will see a actors.. wait for it... Breast!
Instant Rate R!.....
I didn't like it when I watched it in the theaters. Something there that seemed to nag at me when I walked out at the ending, and I certainly don't like it even more when I found out what was happening behind the scenes to bloat this movie into the 200 Million dollar turkey it turned into! James Cameron spent close to 120 million ('80s/'90s bucks!) to make T2 -which was an Rated R movie no less!- and made a summer blockbuster. Mgee-whiz dumped something equivalent and laid a rotten egg because he couldn't control an actor.
Typical hollyweird in action.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Lighten up folks, it's a popcorn flick
Added 11/13/2009
I stopped reading the reviews after a while as I was getting tennis neck. I remember the same reactions to T3 - the purists hated it and the non-fans didn't get it.
This is a popcorn movie. Check your brain at the door. It doesn't make good use of the Terminator franchise for sure but complaining about what could have been is pointless. If you are a sci-fi or T fan this is a worthy bookend just for the visuals. If you are not very familiar with the T franchise this movie tries to stand on its own with a little narration. Ironically this movie doesn't actually advance the Terminator mythology at all since it tries too much to stand by itself.
In all cases I think there is something for everyone as long as you remember: this isn't an art film.
Woulda coulda shoulda - doesn't matter. It is done, this is probably the last movie since the Terminator rights are on the auction block now. Make peace with it. I liked it for what it was - didn't hate it for what it wasn't.
It's a glass half full thing... ;-)
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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