RANTING TIME: What did You Think of TERMINATOR SALVATION
Comments(40)
- By drvenkman
‘Terminator Salvation’ has been out for a few days now and I’m sure most of you had the opportunity to see the movie. As you know I am not a big fan of what McG did to the franchise. I enjoyed the experience of watching the movie, but it was not the movie that it should have been. Maybe McG and the screenwriters should have watched the first two ‘Terminator’ films before making this fourth one. The future he created is in no way shape or form the same future that James Cameron envisioned, nothing like it at all. Thats the future I wanted to see! I have re-watched the first two terminator films since I saw this Salvation movie and they are much better films. I understand the original can be a bit cheesy, the dialogue is not the best, and the effects are dated, but look at what they had to work with back then! For that time is was ground breaking! It was made 25 years ago, you would think that filmmaking and story telling would have evolved over that time and that they would have wanted to make the best and most accurate portrayal of the terminator future as possible. Well McG didn’t do that. He stood in a corner on the set and let Christian Bale blow some steam.
Now for those of you that have seen ‘Terminator Salvation’ the Future Ends I want to know what you think! I am interested to hear what everyone else has to say about it, let get a discussion going. Weather you loved it, liked, or hated it let us know why. Did I overlook anything? Do you think I am wrong about the movie?
Click Here to Read Mr. Blacks Review
And let the Ranting Begin!
Just saw this movie and it was a huge dissappointment. I thought it would kickstart the whole Terminator series again but truthfully, the movie didn't have any story. It was all style and no substance. One thing I learn from this movie though is that MCG is a bad director. He should go back to making TV commercials or whatever he did before. I think MCG has killed the Terminator franchise.
the movie had its ups and downs but over all the movie was your same summer movie me i loved it arnie cameo was great even if it was cgi it looked the same to me.the first have was not that good but at the end its like MCG
had a flash of genius but MCSHIT!!!! realy did kill the trilogy and they should have had more of the t600!!!!! the harvester was a good add on to skynet but the mototerminators we could have done without dont get me rong i liked them but not alot. marcus wright was a good installment but the ending sucked the best actor was anton yelchin he played a great kyle resse star i did not really understand her role but overall this flim gets a 4
The whole movie looked and felt like a first-person shooter. Big CG-driven action sequences, a color palette that has huge swatches of “dirt” and “grit,” and characters growling out their alpha-maleness that is probably meant to show them as heroic but makes them come off as swaggering pricks. Also, it's 2018 in Los Angeles, just over a decade after nuclear war, and the resistance fighters are fine in rag-tag jackets and no respirators in sight? Clearly, when they were pulling their ideas out of FPS games, they didn’t spare a glance to Fallout 3.
I think the only thing that really disappointed me was the blaring inconsistencies in the script writing. There were just points that made me question what they were doing and the fact that there was sooo much action and sooo little dialogue. It wasn't like a Terminator movie to not have people talking alot but instead have them talk about the action that would ensue and then the action would ensue. THough the sequences were better than Wolverine in some ways it, at times, was too much. If I were epileptic I might have had some seizures or been overly stimulated.
the whole apocalyptic bleakness was no where in sight. i remember reading mcg went to bale to get him on board and produced cormac mccarthy's book the road and how mcg told bale that he wanted to paint that type of atmosphere. so where was it?? from the first two flicks you had that constant urgency that something horrible was just around the corner and you kept waiting for it to happen. in salvation i can say i didnt even care for any of the characters. as said before in some of the previous comments – the dialogue was horrible and i can understand the cliche catch phrases that have carried over from film to film, but at this point they could have put them in a more clever or creative spot than just trying to hammer a square peg into a circle. one of the above comments was that areas of the world were nuked so why werent they wearing hazmat suits? the positives in the movie were some of the cool shots – like being in the helicopter with bale as it spun out of control, the cgi terminator bikes etc. i walked away thinking this movie was just ok, but after a few days my thoughts were that it seemed like someone had left in the middle of making the movie and switched places with some other director from another movie. i believe that mcg is a decent director (better than a lot of others) – i watch supernatural every week and think its a well done tv show – so my only assumption is that the studio executives as usual had more control over every aspect of the film as to the pg-13 rating to the way it was written and shot and mcg had little creative control in keeping aligned with the violent and brutal aspects of the previous movies. hopefully mcg will have more control over the next movie(s) (if there are any more) to satisfy the many that had rooted for this next installment rather than give us amnesia on what the whole terminator franchise was intended to be and possibly become.
I was just talking to my buddy yesterday about how McG should go back to directing commercials and Music videos. He and Brett Ratner should be best friends.
Well, saw it last night with my eleven yr. old son and his best friend and they LOVED it! They actually liked it better than Transformers and my son loves Megan Fox – so I was I bit shocked to hear that. I have to agree with Dr. V though on all points. The script was very poor – Christian Bale could have been anyone – his performance was totally forgettable. I liked the Marcus character – but really "story" was not what this movie was about. I have to admit though that I did enjoy the, how should I say, largeness of it. You know, that BIG SUMMER MOVIE feel you get – (it was kinda like being in a video game) everything seems louder and bigger and somehow u just get lost in that. I also liked Moon Bloodgood – she reminded me of my daughter whose going into the military and just as pretty. Overall it was a fun ride and I enjoyed how much my son loved it – so if you have kids – this is a must see film – or its also a great date movie, if u know what I mean?
Yeah I was never on board with the mototermatators they only reason they threw them in is so John Connor could take one out and use it to drive to save Kyle Reese. Love the Mcshit reference as well.
I agree with you 100%
Oh, this movie was much better than Wolverine but it should have been better than every summer film that is coming out this year. Terminator had huge potential to be a brilliantly conceived sci-fi movie and McG just didn't have what it took.
Good action; however, no heart. Linda Hamilton's v/o was the only thing that moved me at all. I'm starting to believe that James Cameron was right; the story has been told. And the Arnie generated by computer was weak. If this had been a new movie without all the background; maybe it would have been better.
The first two rocked!
Good summer action movie…but that's about it. With all the hype that this got, I was a little disappointed at how the movie ended. Like OrangeRush said, I was kinda hoping for something like The Road, but in the end I think they may have killed the franchise.
I agree with everything you said up to the point where you said McG is a decent director. I will say he is good at the TV shows, commercials and Music Videos buy he cant direct action movies. He just hasn't got it in him. 'We Are Marshall' wasn't a bad film either but it was a drama. He just needs to stick to simple stories. Terminator was too big and too complicated for him.
I'm supposed to be going to go see it in a couple of hours, but after reading all of these rants I'm not sure I want to spend the money…
You make a great point with the kids. they will love it! It was brought up to me in another rant back about a mom who was going to take her kid to see, and how she enjoys watching her kids reaction to the movie, that she can enjoy the movie through the excitement of her kids. I agree with this 100%. My kids aren't old enough to watch it though.
McG had the blue prints of the judgement day future from the first to awesome films to work with and he didn't even utilize it. The whole look and feel of the future was right there!
Yeah, and I admit I provided a lot of that hype. I was just really hoping for a fantasitc Terminator movie. but like John said up at the top… we got Mcshit.
******This rant is full of spoilers so don't read any further if you haven't seen it yet*******
***** and no I didn't really like it****
Just got back from watching it and it was a real disappointment for me. I agree that the effects, the look and feel were very well done, but that is to be expected. That's the "no brainer" part of these kinds of summer blockbusters (I'm looking at you Wolverine claws). The story was very, very cliche. The acting, and dialogue seemed strangely satirical to me. At one point I thought that this could be a Family Guy type send up of the Terminator films, a la Star Wars. The actors heroically did their best with what they had and I feel for them. John Connor as a character was a non-entity. This was a film about Marcus Wright from beginning to end. And hey I get that Marcus saves Moon Bloodgood and all, but one day of companionship and she's willing to betray everyone in the resistance in order to free him. That's when I had my Family Guy moment. "…all I see is a man…" cut to Moon tricking the lone guard into leaving the room as she frees the dangerous freaking terminator! What the hell!?! From my perspective the film up to this point was on a gentle decline and then it took a roller-coaster downhill plunge, and I mean that in a bad way. From then on out I was actually doing the face palm for the rest of the movie. I think the television series that was just canceled was more compelling, better acted and more relevant than what I just watched in the theatre. Hell with Marcus' true nature seemingly up in the air I thought maybe their would be a tie in to the series with the possibility of a second Skynet with a different agenda. But nope, McG just went with the tried and true done a million times before bullshit "Marcus the hero" reveal at the end. I guess Skynet has zero control over its creations…go figure. Other people have pointed out that through it all you just don't give a crap about anything that happens to the characters, and after seeing the film I agree. I don't know if it's 100% his fault, but way to go McG. Thanks for putting the final neck stomp on a beloved franchise.
Slow clapping begins and escalates into a thunderous applause.
Yep you hit it right on the nose. Speaking of not caring about any of the characters, had John Connor died in this movie I wouldn't have cared he was slowly killing the whole franchise anyway throughout the movie. He might as well should have went with his original ending that McG had where John Connor dies and they turn him into a Terminator and then he kills everybody. The fact that Marcus conveniently had a live beating heart to save John Conner at the end was lame.
heres what i wrote on the Terminator Review page:::::
AHA! I just got back from watching it and i feel like adding input:
I honestly liked it and enjoyed it, just in a weird way, like you said. The action was cool but the movie was lacking a lot. It felt very slow. It relied solely on the action to make it a good film. The thing that also irritated me is that there was no shock factor in the movie; there werent any scenes that made me go "WOAH! Did you see?!?! did you see that?!?!" which i enjoy doing when i watch an action movie. It was all just lacking imagination i think. However, I thought the acting was good though, but im also not a critic. =/ You wont leave the film going "Wow! That was amazing!" but youll still leave saying it was a decent movie. Id say its worth seeing it on the big screen.
Not bad. Although i completely agree about the plot line and Sam Worthington's accent was creeping in and out from time to time. Christian Bale's acting wasn't up to what he's really capable of. I just kept on thinking what part of the movie he began to yell at the guy.Aaanold was alright. Cgi would've been better to. All in all great action sequences, weak plot line. See it if you want to be entertained.
p.s there were so many kids in the movie theater. They kept on asking who in the world Kyle Reese is. I died a little inside
Star Trek is still the best movie this year. LOL! Terminator: Salvation – I'll just wait till its comes out on FX or TBS or some shit like that. LOL! LOL! LOL!
The origanil was more of a nuclear waste land but remember in T2 judgement day was delayed.
Your right about the action scenes I didn't even think about that, they were good but nothing wowed me.
I can see a lot of kids going to this movie, Terminator was like a Saturday morning cartoon.
it was ok!
Terminator 3 killed the franchise!!!!!!!!!! Some of you act like this was supposed to be some Shakespearean play. The movie was good, all the Actors were good with the exception of Common. You guys are going into the movie nitpicking at every little thing, Worthington's accent, the fuel for the A10 Warhog, etc; etc. I really don't trust Dr. Venkman ever since he stated the Fast and The furious 4 and Speed Racer were good movies, What a Joke.
it was ok but it should have been amazing it was predictable and i wish the didn't give so much away in the trailer oh well i still liked it though.
ya T3 suked but this movie should have rivied the frachise but just was ok not great.
Come on now BigW. First of all Terminator 3 doesn’t exsist. Secondly If you read me reveiw I didn’t like fast & furious at all. Speed racer was a great adaptation of the cartoon series at the same time it’s no Terminator franchise so it had no expectations to live up to. And if you liked terminator salvation thats cool. Most of the people that have seen of obviously didn’t like it though.
Had this movie come out without the original 2 it would have been huge. Sadly too many people can't get past what they think it should have been.
I personally fucking loved it, it was much better then the last two terminator films. The first terminator will always be first be in my heart though of course. But i think this did do justice to the original movies even as it changed some, you have to remember that James Cameron wasn't behind it and this really is just a fan's view. Also try to remember that the future envisioned in the first two movies was after judgment day when it still took place in 1997, it was postponed til 2007 and thus the machines probably had not taken over as much by this new 2018. Plus, John Conner was a grown adult and more able to fend them off.
Specifically about Salvation I have a few points. One, where the fuck did the Marcus Wright thing come from? SERIOUSLY? Was that why they were rounding up people? So they could create cyborgs? And if they could create such a complex prototype, why did they go back to such an obsolete model of the original terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)? WTF! Y did they never explain that GODDAMNIT! two, I didn't like how every film seemed based around an event (They started with the machines teleporting back and then ends with the destruction of the particular killbot of the film WHICH WORKED!) whereas this started in the middle of some random battle and ended…shit, i don't even remember that last few minutes and I saw it YESTURDAY! *facepalm* anyways that entire thing made the whole thing seem incredibly unrelatable. Three…aw fuck it, good film with major flaws *shrug* what the hell else do you want from Christian Bale and McG?
Sam Worthington stole the show, which isn't hard considering it's Christian Bale *cough*Dark Knight*cough*
P.S.: Thank you so much one and all for refusing to acknowledge that the third movie even exists.
Let me preface this comment by stating that I did overall "enjoy" this movie, in an "Okay, I've seen it now" kind of way. I don't know that I would watch it again, but it was still entertaining enough to keep me watching.
Now for the gripes: T:S should never have been PG-13. I think this movie suffered greatly from this constraint. Secondly, the color palette for the film just didn't do it for me. Though it worked in other post-apocalyptic films (Mad Max, etc.), it just seemed contrived in this instance. It just makes me wonder how much of this failure is due to the studio, and how much it is due to "McG" (I feel stupid calling him that).
As far as the acting went, I thought it was fair. Bale and his Batman voice did become tiresome after a while, but I shrugged it off. I did enjoy Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright as a character, as well as Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese was decent (though he was much better as Chekov in the Star Trek reboot).
Overall, I'd give it 2.5-3 out of 5 stars if I were to tag a rating on it…. a forgettable installment, unfortunately.
I liked it. it's flawed for sure, but it is a rarity now a days to get a movie that isn't. I don't understand the pure hatred for the film that is going around. it didn't spit in the face of fans like x3 or spiderman 3, in fact it represented the source material pretty well. sure the acting was shallow at times, and the ending of the movie should have been thought out better. (it seemed that mcg was kind of stuck with that ending after the studio rejected his original ending) I liked it, and i'll see it again. plus, it had a bunch of nods to the first 3 films that i really liked. pretty good movie over all.
The script looked like it was written by a gaggle of 12 year old fanboys who were just trying to make their own Terminator. Remember all of those awesome quotes from the trailers? THE WHOLE MOVIE IS WRITTEN LIKE THAT. Of course, there was the inevitable "I'll be back", which I can totally accept. It's a Terminator movie, I can accept it. Hell, I was waiting for it. BUT, having every ten to fifteen lines try to end up in the Memorable Quotes section in IMDb is just rediculous.
I have no complaints about the acting, because the actors did as well as they could with what they were given. Except, well, no. I do have complaints. Christian Bale needs to work on his "badass" voice a little more, because he kept slipping. But at least he stayed American sounding the whole time, unlike Sam Worthington, whose Australian accent kept popping out. Helena Bonham Carter was amazingly creepy as the face of Skynet, though.
Then again, McG directed it. And I think he's trying to be Michael Bay Jr. No, seriously.
But, despite all that, the lighting was amazing.
The Bad:
- Umm… Battlestar Galactica, anyone? Yeah, just take away the talent and you have T4.
- Computer-generated Arnold was beyond lame, and just seemed skeevy. Something about watching him man-handle Christian Bale made me feel ten kinds of dirty. Maybe if the Governator hadn't been naked I wouldn't have been quite so grossed out.
- Sam Worthington's character became Australian about an hour into the film.
- Dear Christian Bale, are you serious? Your performance in Terminator 4 was almost as bad as your Batman voice.
- The heart transplant made me gag on the cheesiness. Homicidal cyborg becomes the hero to all. Yay redemption! Cliche FTW!
The Good:
- I guess Star was kinda cute.
Scale of 1-10: I'd give it a 4. Had the potential to be a lot better, but felt like it was completely half-assed.
The movie was awful. Sarah Connor Chronicles series was better, more engaging, and had a more cohesive storyline than the movie.
i've been waiting for someone to mention the BSG'ed ness of it. i personally think that was an improvement and was one of the few things that tied it back to the first movie – even if it was over done *just a tad*.
I loved the movie. They could have left out Michael Ironside completely and Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright character wanted to develop more and was one of the best parts of the movie. The Arnold Terminator wasn't obsolete; it was brand new based on the cybernetic success of Marcus Wright. I would love it if someone would do a T4 Mod for Fallout3. I really think that another 30 minutes of movie could have tied things together better. Obviously Skynet was at a vulnerable point in which the resistance had formed and Skynet had not yet perfected the alloy and power sources used on the more advanced terminators.
As a "Terminator " movie it was bad, as just another movie it was ok.
The story is what was bad and the 2 goofballs who recently bought the franchise are the ones who selected the story. now they are bankrupt and may have to sell the franchise. hopeully whoever buys it will make better movies with better stories, and a beter director.
Bale was awful as john connor , it was a waste of money to have him play the role.
Worthington had the only good role and he did a good job an was the only likable character, the only one I cared for , and then he gives his heart to JC at end? LOL a heart transplant in those conditions?
I didnt like the harvesters or the motorcycle T's, I was expecting to see alot of endos, and some "new" 600 series rubber skinned infiltrators. but instead the 600's were a joke.
the movie is worth seeing once , but not one to rewatch over and over like the others.
even T-3 was better than T-4
T-3 had a awful john connor too which really hurt that movie.
I also think the TV show TSCC was much better than T-4 and wish it was still on tv.
trying to do a post JD movie was a mistake too, better to keep it in present and just show some things n the future as part of the story.