Terminator Salvation

[Shogunn2517]

Okay, I just saw this.  Thought it was kind of wierd it coming out today, but since it did and I wasn't working, thought I'd give it a peak.  I'm a little surprised there hasn't been much talk about this.  I'm sure feelings towards this reboot are not consistent, but because it was Terminator, and Terminator gives me warm and fuzzy nolostolgic feelings, I had to see it, despite what Rotten Tomatoes was saying.

And I'm glad I did.

Spoiler

First of all, I believe a major part of the reason why the film has received bad reviews is because it's not only a departure from the previous Terminator movies, but a different movie than some expected to be altogether.  Unlike the previous three, this wasn't a suspensed thriller with a robotic killer chasing after humans with protector to fight with them.  Well, not entirely.  So it wasn't in the mold that people expect from a Terminator film.  This also wasn't a typical action/adventure film either, but more along the lines of a war film quite frankly.  So the movie threw audiences a curveball for sure.  Unfortunately though, they also relied on the other movies in the series as well.  Despite the reviews, I understood what I was looking at, accepted that it was a different movie, a different series almost and enjoyed it.  I read the reviews prior to seeing it and had an idea that I wasn't getting Gladiator or Saving Private Ryan.

But for those interested, here's a recap:  It started off with a flashback scene featuring the "actual" main character of this film, Marcus Wright, and told his backstory.  It then went to 2018 and a military operation against Skynet with John Conner, which ended up with him being a sole survivor of a tactical nuclear attack.  He would return to address the Resistance "high command", which was mobile by submarine, but back at the site of Conner's operation, Marcus Wright emerges naked and with no idea where he is.  While he eventually walks back to what was Los Angles, Connor is given an experimental weapon by the resistance that is said to be able to end the war, a radio signal that demobilizes machines.  It seems to work fine and dandy, but is told that they are going to use it in an offensive before Skynet targets him and a civilian named Kyle Reece.  Back over in L.A., Marcus encounters a teenage Kyle Reece and a five year old he takes care of.  They hear a radio message from Conner telling them how to disable T-600s and that they are part of the resistance.  Unfortunately, Marcus and Kyle(and a bunch of others) are attacked by a huge mech looking thing that's grabbing humans and stuffing them in a transporter.  Kyle and the five year old are captured before resistance air force can stop them.  Marcus tries to save them, but he fails and meets up with one of the pilots from the fighters named Blair.  Blair takes Marcus back to Conner's base, but they don't quite make it because Marcus walks over a mine(field) that only attacks machines and though they thought he was human, they find out otherwise.  Marcus is then held captive with everyone suspecting he's there to kill them, but Blair who pulls off an failed escape attempt by the two.  Though they are tracked down, Conner allows Marcus to escape to go to Skynet to find Reece who is being held and to signal him once he's found.  Unfortunately the Resistance command is still planning to go ahead with their radio signal attack.  Conner convinces other resistance fighters to hold of their attack while Marcus infiltrated Skynet to disable theri defenses.  They did, he did and Conner was able to enter and release human prisoners looking for Reece and instead he finds the OH frell cheer-out-loud moment of the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, circa 1983 who proceeds to toss Conner around.  Marcus interfaces with Skynet and learns what happened to him and that he was made to be a prototype infiltrator with human organs and machine parts.  He learns that the radio signal which was supposed to disable the machines was used to track down the high command of the Resistance and little they knew, a Hunter/Killer hunted and then killed them.  He declines his alliegance to Skynet and goes to save Conner and Reece(who was found and escapes(with his five year old).  Together, Conner and Marcus were able to defeat the T-800, model 101, but Conner was stabbed through the heart.  Just as Marcus helps him escape, he triggers a switch that had linked a bunch of battery/reactors from the terminators to destroy Skynet.  Back at the base, everyone's upset that Conner's gonna die because of his heart injury, but Marcus agrees to allow his heart to be transplanted into Conner and saves him to live and fight another day.  The end.

Again, overall I liked the movie.  The focus of the movie wasn't on Conner as much as it was other characters like Marcus and Reece.  The times it did focus on Conner and the Resistance, it followed the path of a war movie.  The Resistance was semi-organized.  They had a air force.  They had several organized units(one of which was Conner's Tech-Com unit) and factions.  They had a organized higher-archy that issued orders from a submarine.  They weren't disorganized de-armored using truckbeds shooting laserbeams from them.  The movie was pretty much told through the perspective of Marcus.  The exposition and explanation of the setting was done with Marcus acting in place of the audience who was learning what the audience should know.  But there was several moments that seemed contrived and heavy-handed with certain themes, but it didn't stop the film from being entertaining, which it was.  There was lots of action.  Lots of cool moments.  There were good performances by Yelsin and Worthington and Bale did pretty well as you should expect.  Bryce Dallas Howard was fairly unassuming as was Common.  But outside of that, it did well to keep the audience entertained and had some really good moments.

Overall, I say it was a good, a good summer movie.  It won't win any Oscars, but it will definitely gross a lot of money.

[GogglesPizanno]

I actually was looking forward to it, as I like the idea of a new direction. The old Send robot back in time to kill john connor was completely tired. Im one of the few people that likes the 3rd one and thinks the second one has not aged that well (form a story standpoint).

Plus I love post apocalyptic stuff. That said. I was disappointed. It has moments that are cool, and technically it is really well done,  but as  whole it felt really disjointed. I had read that the original drafts of the screenplay had John Connor as a small secondary character and once Christian Bale came on they beefed the role up... and the movie feels that way. Its like these two seperate storylines that got jammed together but didn't quite work. Plus I never really felt any real emotional connection to the film. It was very much like a C grade Sci Fi Channel movie (only with worse dialogue) that somehow got an A grade budget, and spent it all on special effects and none on story or characters. It should have been a straight up end of the world people vs machines action movie, but it tries to be overly complicated and reference the other movies to much and just kinida trips over itself (especially in the second half).

SPOILER ABOUT THE CHANGED ENDING:

Spoiler

OK the changed ending really bugged me. They took a really good and interesting ending and changed it because it got leaked and fans got upset about it. So the orignal ending had John Connor actually dying and the Marcus terminator taking over his identity and leading the resistance. That was a ballsy and much more complex way to go with the series. But instead we get another "Thumbs up"/"I now know why you cry" stupid sappy ending.

Blah.

[Sevenforce]

SPOILER ABOUT THE CHANGED ENDING:

Spoiler

OK the changed ending really bugged me. They took a really good and interesting ending and changed it because it got leaked and fans got upset about it. So the orignal ending had John Connor actually dying and the Marcus terminator taking over his identity and leading the resistance. That was a ballsy and much more complex way to go with the series. But instead we get another "Thumbs up"/"I now know why you cry" stupid sappy ending.

Blah.

Dammit all to hell, I was hoping that wouldn't happen. The original ending would have been SO much better, especially with the over-arching philosophy of the franchise (What is human? Could a robot be human? etc. etc.). It also would have been much better for sequels...interesting dynamic it would have been.

In all honesty...I would have loved to have seen this movie with only one or two mentions of John Connor, with everything focusing on Marcus, as it would have then been a nice lead in to 'reveal' Connor in the next movie, with the final one having the two finally meet. Then there would be much more time to focus on the 'humanity' side.

...Excuse me, my fanboy is showing

I'm still gonna see it, but I'm not happy about that change at all -_- Maybe it will all come out on DVD edition?

[marhawkman]

I don't get it. did the Marcus terminator actually have a need for his heart? I'm sure it's an integral part of keeping his organic shell working, but unless i'm mistaken he doesn't need that to function.

[detourne_me]

I thought it was a kickbutt popcorn movie that worked well within the franchise.  A lot of respect for T2 shown here. i loved it.
Also it looks like transformers and gijoe are gonna have something to prove as both concepts (robots and soldiers) are covered extremely well in this movie.

[GogglesPizanno]

Also it looks like transformers and gijoe are gonna have something to prove ...

Like perhaps not sucking??

[TheMarvell]

I liked it. Overall, it was probably the weakest of the franchise, but it was pretty entertaining, and I liked it better than Wolverine, but not as much as Star Trek.

[Silver Shocker]

I liked it too. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I found it's biggest failing was that I didn't really care that much about any of the characters, no doubt due to the lack of character development, which made the movie a little boring to me in places, but I still enjoyed it. But I had been looking forward to a Terminator movie that took place in the future during the war, so it had that in its favor for me.

[Reepicheep]

I saw it today.

I liked it.

[Star]

A few token Hollywood things (the little girl, the naturally smoking hot fighter pilot, the post-apocalyptic rapist hillbillies, the love story subplot) annoyed me.

[marhawkman]

what? Female Fighter pilots always have rock-hard bodies. (or close too it) It's just part of the job. This "hazard" of the job greatly increases the odds of them being hot.

[Conduit]

I liked this movie.  It wasn't a great movie, but it was a very entertaining two hours.  The special effects were amazing, the story was decent, and there was some good acting all around.  Still, parts of it feel like they had a lot of stuff cut out, and suffered for it.  Hopefully there will be a director's cut DVD at some point.

Spoiler

I was fine with the ending.  I liked Marcus, but this was a good end for him, and it fit nicely with all the references to his heart.  If I hadn't heard about the changed ending, I would have been sure that those were intentional foreshadowing.  The original ending would have been a shocking twist, but it would kind of negate the point of the last three movies.  What was the point of protecting John Connor if someone else led the Resistance to victory?

I don't get it. did the Marcus terminator actually have a need for his heart? I'm sure it's an integral part of keeping his organic shell working, but unless i'm mistaken he doesn't need that to function.

One of his organic parts was his brain (or half of it, anyway), which definitely requires a constant supply of oxygenated blood.  He obviously needed an organic brain to function (or at the very least, keep his memories and personality), otherwise Skynet would have removed it.

[marhawkman]

Oh... so he's kinda like the human terminators from Sarah Connor Chronicles.

[Sevenforce]

There were human terminators on Sarah Connor Chronicles? Do you mean their 'rubber skin' versions of the T-600?

Closest I know of of a 'human' terminator, which Marcus seems to be a better-designed prototype of, are the I-950's.

...Shush. I like being a Termi-nerd

I liked the movie...but so much felt 'off'. I dunno, maybe being a fan coloured the movie. I could see it being a GOOD movie, but I couldn't see it being a good TERMINATOR movie. Like how they explained the scar though, and I still say the original ending would have been better

[marhawkman]

Well, yes. The I-950 is what I was thinking of. The I-950 is mostly human with a few cybernetic parts added. But their organic parts have been enhanced to perform at a superhuman level.

Honestly I think the I-950 was a superior design. It didn't suffer from having such immense weight. But, it isn't quite as durable.

[thalaw2]

Finally saw this.  Not bad.  I likey!!!  It had some really awesome moments and the script was good...lots of references to he older movies made for some good laughs. 

Spoiler

Arnold never looked better.  LOL!  gotta love Hollywood.

[marhawkman]

Arnold? what Arnold? :p

Hehe....

[steamteck]

I liked it. Overall, it was probably the weakest of the franchise, but it was pretty entertaining, and I liked it better than Wolverine, but not as much as Star Trek.

I enjoyed it but definitely not as much as Star Trek or even Wolverine, which is apparently going to be another one like Daredevil for me that everyone yells was awful but I liked.

It was a war movie rather than the normal terminator stuff. Which wasn't as fun for me. I enjoyed some of Sarah Connor's first season episodes more actually. It  also suffered from no personalized main bad guy just the machines a little for me. I seemed to have  gotten more from most of the performances than a lot of others  but still didn't love it. The fight with the T800 I did enjoy as the best action bit.

[UnfluffyBunny]

to be honest... by the end I was bored, it was cheesy, it was predictable, and I was more interested in it ending so I could go pee than seeing what happened.