Not the best
Added 11/23/2009
The Terminator story line is getting a little long in the tooth. But, if you bought in from the beginning you have to see this latest edition. It could be done so much better, but at least we see the story progress...or regress as the case may be. Any "Terminator" fan has to see this one as well.
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Unless you're a major fan of the series, don't bother wasting your money buying the dvd.
Added 11/22/2009
I saw Terminator: Salvation in theaters and I was extremely disappointed in how the origional story line that James Cameron created, went right down the toilet.
Here are the major issues I have with this movie:
1. In Terminator 2 and even Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Sarah ALWAYS told John to run when he saw a machine. He is too important for the future. What do they have John doing in this movie? They have him on the front lines hunting the machines.
2. Who is the leader of the human resistance? John Conner. Why is he reporting to superiors and taking orders from them? Who fricking knows. John should be giving orders, not taking them and having others report to him.
3. Who is John's father? Kyle Reese. Do the machines know who John's father is? According to the first film, NO. All records were destroyed during the nuclear war, the machines had no clue who Conner's father was, but yet somehow Reese's name ends on the top of a list that the machines are targeting for termination. Then the machines find Reese, but don't terminate him. WTF? If the machines aquired their target, they would have terminated him ASAP, they would not have taken him to the work/slave farm.
4. For those that have see Terminator 3, towards the end John asks the T-800 (Arnold) why he wasn't alive in the future and that his wife sent the T-800 back. The responce was: because of the emotional connection John had with the T-800 model when he was younger (Terminator 2) he infiltrated his base and killed John. Now in Terminator: Salvation John faces the new T-800 model, with a digitally imposed Arnold body. Does John die? No, he lives, but the laws of physics are completely shattered during the fight. John shoots a hole in a basin that has melted metal in it. It's pretty much molten lava. It spills on the T-800 and completely covers it, but the T-800 survives and contines coming after John. Wait a minute, didn't a T-800 and the T-1000 get destroyed in melted metal at the end of Terminator 2? Major screw up there if you ask me. Anyway, back to T4, the T-800 is after John, so he shoots a pipe, it bursts and splaches liquid nitrogen on it. The T-800 is frozen, but not defeated, because it breaks free and continues after Conner. Ok, so let me get this straight, the T-800 is covered in molten lava then frozen very quickly after and it can still move? Highly unlikely. If you know anything about going from extreme heat to extreme cold, especially with metal, it explands, then contracts and becomes brittle. So the T-800 would have been stuck because the joints would not have been able to move and Conner would have had an easy victory by beating the head and destroying the chip.
There are to many continuity issues from the origional James Cameron films that just don't follow into this forth installment. As far as I'm concerned, this forth film doesn't belong in the story line. If they continue with the series, they need to fix the errors they made otherwise, they will just ruin it for me.
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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.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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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.
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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.
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Director's Cut Differences
Added 11/25/2009
The director's cut runs approximately 3 minutes longer, and inserts a few new scenes, but no major plot points. This is NOT the major unrated cut that McG has referred to in past interviews, where he suggested that 30-40 minutes of additional footage would be added. We'll probably see that in a future edition.
Here are the major differences between the theatrical version and the director's cut (spoilers follow).
1) In the opening action scene, when John Connor is leading his unit into the flooded underground Skynet base, a T-1 terminator (nice touch from T3) suddenly appears behind them. His men destroy it before it can do any damage. I'm glad this scene was cut; it inadvertently breaks the tension too quickly.
2) When John pulls his little "frogman stunt", he is seated before the Resistance Command generals, and General Ashdown (Michael Ironside) berates John. Ashdown says, "I don't believe in prophecy, not when one can re-write the future", pulls out his gun and points it at John's head. I liked this scene, because it illustrates John's present and minor role in the Resistance, especially with Command being skeptical of his "predictions".
3) Blair Williams/Moon Bloodgood's topless scene; really just a side shot as she washes herself in the rain in a non-sexual manner.
4) Marcus/Blair Williams/redneck fight; the action is a little longer, and a little more brutal. Marcus stabs one of the attackers with a screwdriver, and we see the impact, as well as the victim painfully removing the screwdriver. Also, Marcus uses another one of the attackers as a human shield against another's shotgun blast.
5) Marcus/Blair Williams campfire scene is slightly longer.
6) Captured humans at Skynet; when one of the prisoners attempts an escape and is shot, we see the bullet impacts.
7) John Connor's speech to fellow Resistance members to not obey Ashdown's orders to attack is extended with a few sentences about his mother. (Is this where Christian Bale had his stage lights tantrum?)
8) Marcus/T-800 fight scene is slightly longer, show Marcus getting pummeled.
I would like to add that I enjoyed Terminator 4; much better than the campy T3, and just a shade under T2. The action was definitely there, and McG included a lot of thoughtful touches from the past movies, e.g. photograph of Sarah Connor, the origin of John's scars, John's love for Guns N'Roses, Sarah Connor's taped voice recordings (actually Linda Hamilton's voice), use of and of course the Arnold cameo. Who can say no to Michael Ironside? What I didn't like was Blair Williams' geisha makeup which she wore during air combat. It made no sense, and was probably one of the deleted portions. Bryce Dallas Howard was believable as Kate Connor, but her screen time was too short. Hopefully, a future cut will show more of their relationship.
Some have said that Christian Bale's performance was wooden, or that John Connor's role was overshadowed by Sam Worthington's role as Marcus Wright. I disagree, Bale played Connor as he should have been; grizzled, scarred, gruff. Given that we know so much already about the future and John's role from prior Terminator movies, it makes sense to have another character portray the center role. I also liked the idea of the audience first seeing John as a minor Tech-Com officer, steadily rising through the ranks and gaining influence.
I did have one concern about the movies; how come the Arnold T-800 didn't die when John Connor shot the molten steel onto its head? Turns out there's a perfectly scientific explanation (McG consulted a metallurgist).
Here's McG's answer: "There are different characteristics of molten steels, and that was an earlier steel process after it had been separated from the coke. We went over this with a metallurgist, discussing which metals burn at which degrees. And also, if it had stayed on [the T-800], perhaps it would've melted him, but it was frozen quickly enough by the [liquid nitrogen]. Plus, we make the transition from the molten metal to the cooling property so quickly -- as a function of the T-800 being on [John] Connor -- that it wouldn't have had time to melt the existing titanium exoskeleton in time."
In conclusion, if you're a diehard Terminator fan, go ahead and pick up this version. Otherwise, wait for the (hopefully) longer extended cut.
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Stick with the original two!
Added 11/23/2009
Please, James Cameron, buy back the rights to Terminator (I hear Halcyon could use the money) and save us all from a continuing slew of mediocre "sequels" and a poorly executed, woefully under-budgeted, and ultimately canceled TV show (T3, this film, and TSCC).
The only good that's come out of the never ending milking of the franchise is the intriguing protector Terminator character of Cameron Phillips (portrayed by Summer Glau) from TV's The Sarah Connor Chronicles, who is smitten with one baffled and equally smitten John Connor (star-crossed lovers, anyone?). That's it... end of story.
Don't get me started on Christian Bale's one-note embodiment of an older John Connor, or the cringe-worthy effort by Nick Stahl in T3, or the equally flat performance of Kristanna Loken as the TX, or the bland Marcus Wright hybrid played by Sam "I look bored with my job" Worthington in Salvation.
If James Cameron or someone of equal vision and skill could make an entertaining, intelligent, and timely sci-fi/action/adventure epic around a 20-something Cameron (again played by Summer) and a 20-something John Connor and make it an official T3 (ignoring Rise of the Machines and Salvation completely) I'd give this theoretical sequel a chance. Heck, I'd even love Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick and even Linda Hamilton and Micheal Biehn to come back for more fun (you have time travel and alternate time lines, JD being pushed back even farther into the future, and a non-Cyberdyne Skynet-like entity evolving differently this time around, at your disposal, so anything is possible... even if the original cast is showing its age-- like us all). Get the band back together!
Until then... stick with watching the classics The Terminator and T2: The Extended Cut. Don't waste your time or your money on this flick.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Terrible flick!
Added 11/20/2009
This movie sucks! The only reason I gave it 2 stars is because of the great special effects. Extremely bad acting, HELLO......Christian Bale, need I say more? Extremely stupid ending too! My God, who approved this script? They should be castrated!And who ever thought Bale would be good as John Connor? He sucks in everything else, but I had high hopes for this movie and just like everything else with him in it, it blows. If you just have to see it to complete the series, rent it from red box so you only waste a buck. If you suffer from insomnia, it is better for you than sleeping pills.
0 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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