jordanthomas_2009-346-914758
Terminator Salvation (2009) ReviewIt's a prequel/reboot of the Terminator franchise starring Christian Bale as John Connor. Bale is great in the role and gives more commitment than the previous actor who played him in T3. Anton Yelchin is a perfect casting choice for the young Kyle Reese and the film would have been a lot better if it focused on his story. Sam Worthington plays a hybrid human/cyborg and he does his best to carry the film but his character isn't really that interesting. It is a good technical achievement in terms of visual and practical effects. The cinematography has a bleak post-apocalyptic look it. It takes the franchise into exciting new directions but it's squandered by dull one dimensional characters and often lazy writing. The ending feels rushed with a poorly rendered CGI cameo of Arnold that looks like it was taken straight out of PlayStation 2 video game. It isn't terrible it's actually quite enjoyable throughout and has some nice ideas but it's just full of flaws and a few too many plot-holes.
TheGDfather
I have seen a lot of reviews on here, more than I usually read. And it is way too many 1's. This movie is no where near a one rating. I've been watching a lot of movies since I was a little kid. From cheesy 80's flicks, to straight to TV. This is no where near a 1. This movie sits at a 7 for me. Would have got an 8 but I'm super hard on the female acting in these new generation of movies.This movie by now is 9 years old so nothing would be giving it away. But with that said Linda Hamilton in the first one was 19 years old. And she can act. Which is why 7 or 8 years later in Terminator 2 her acting was polished the movie was even better. It is not a secret if the female character can act you are going to have a good movie. The female acting in this movie was decent which is why it got a 7 from me.But I can see why people gave this a one. The first Terminators were scary. The machine just kept going. You also had the awesome 80's music, along with the clothes. I mean seriously Sarah O conner was riding an 80's scoter and listening to head phones. And going to the club. Just a lot of vintage stuff in that movie which brought it back to the 80's. The 90's was even better in T2, crazy hair cuts, dirt bikes and the graphics in that at the time were unique. But they did try to incorporate some of the old ideas. John Conner goes "come with me if you want to live", the motor cycle scene still is exciting as it was almost 30 years ago. The naked terminator. Normally during these remakes I get bored or fall asleep. It was action through the whole movie. I don't know if it was christian bale. Or who it was. But I felt entertained. If people came here looking at this review thinking they are get a play by play of the movie. I'm not doing that with this one. You have to watch and please don't listen to these negative reviews. They want to live in the past on something that has already been done. Once again don't try to watch this thinking this is going to be like the fist 2. It is not. Its just going to be great acting and simply a plot that action. Nothing over the top where its mind blowing. Expecting this movie to be like the first 1 where they were on to something new, and the second one where they had some super special effects is asking too much. It was well written movie. And its great to have all the Terminators. Cause I do.
bowmanblue
Ever since Kyle Reece explained to Sarah Connor what the future would look like when the machines ruled the Earth, Terminator fans have been desperate to see more of those dark, gritty, laser-filled scenes that James Cameron dropped into the first two movies. Now, we finally get to see a whole movie showing us what the future world would look like. And it basically looks about as much as James Cameron's original vision as Christian Bale looks like Edward Furlong, not bothering to retain either the look or feel of what has gone before.'Terminator: Salvation' is the film that fans asked for, but didn't ask for the way they got it. While it was made, the Terminator himself was busy running the state of California, so couldn't really reprise his role (and don't get me started on any CGI work used to correct this – it really isn't up to the 'Rogue One' standards we're now used to). However, that's not so bad, as the story isn't just about the indestructible machine of metal, but also the Connor family, so most people were relieved that a decent actor like Christian Bale was going to be playing John Connor. Unfortunately, the film takes the weird route not to follow him, instead choosing to be mainly about Sam Worthington's character – a death-row inmate who somehow wakes up in the future and also helps trash a cyborg or two. I won't spoil too much of Worthington's character, especially as the trailer basically did that for me. However, I will say that this film would have been a damn sight better if it simply omitted his character completely. I'm not having a go at the actor. He did all he could with what he was given. It's just people weren't going to watch this film based on ANY new character – they wanted to see more of the old ones (even if they had been recast!).I could pick out various personal annoyances that I had with this film – the helicopter pilot who wears sunglasses at night, the silent child who's used as a plot device to show how caring our central characters are, or the fact that the end battle completely rips off T2 beat for beat. All of these I could have overlooked if it wasn't for the fact that 'Salvation' completely ignores various plot points that have been clearly stated in previous films. Maybe those not so 'up# on Terminator lore won't notice, but for me I found myself asking too many questions as to why things were happening this way. I know you could say that timelines got changed here and there so things are now different in the future, but, in my opinion, that's just lazy writing and a cop out.There were at least a couple of stand-outs, namely Ashton Yelchen's excellent take on how Michael Biehn portrayed Reece, Skynet City looking pretty cool and the nod to T" by playing Guns and Roses again. However, this film was almost damned before it was released as much of the publicity surrounding it was directed at Christian Bale's bizarre outburst on set at a fellow crew member.I guess that 'Terminator: Salvation' isn't as bad as I'm making out. It's an okay sci-fi/action film. However, because it has the Terminator name attached we – the fans – are just hoping for more than we got. And, if you're interested, you may want to Google it's alternate ending, as it is much darker and interesting than what we got.
