In a few hours, I am heading out to catch the new Terminator Salvation, which is set in 2018, after Judgment Day. Not expecting a lot other than action galore, lots of things blowing up, and more stuff blowing up. Lets hope the expectations are met.
I am taking my middle schooler and a few of his friends. I suspect it will make me father of the year, or at least the month. Will report back later tonight.
Just got back from the theater, and I absolutely loved this movie. It was so much better than I ever thought it would be. A lot of plot and story development, again, more than I expected.
The film was true to the story and had some great lines for Terminator fans (unlike Star Trek, I don't think this was really aimed for the general audience as much as it was aimed at people who knew the story, but even then, it provided satisfaction...
Loved Kyle Reece's line -- "come with me if you want to live," and Connor's "I'll be back." And the audio tapes of Sarah Connnor (with Linda Hamilton's voice) was awesome, as well as the Arnold cameo (even though it was just computer-generated).
My only criticism, in terms of a plot hole is minor
When Marcus finds out what he really is, he is told that he is the first time Skynet has ever succeeded at the task of getting John Connor -- yet, Skynet could not possibly know that, as the T-800s had not really gone into operation yet, nor had they sent the Arnold T-800 back to kill Sarah Connor for the first time....
That said, who care's, it was a helluva lot of fun!
Go see this film. Terminator fans will not be disappointed. Brings the franchise back to the movie roots, in a film on the same level as T2. Remember folks, until the movie had been out for a few weeks, please use spoiler tags when revealing or discussing anything that would spoil the experience for the general audience. Hasta la vista, baby.
It was OK, I wouldn't go into it with hopes too high (so that they can be exceeded, or you will be less likely to be disappointed), especially after seeing a very good Star Trek reboot. I would have liked it a lot less I think if I hadn't read the Timothy Zahn official prequel novel first.
It was OK, I wouldn't go into it with hopes too high (so that they can be exceeded, or you will be less likely to be disappointed), especially after seeing a very good Star Trek reboot. I would have liked it a lot less I think if I hadn't read the Timothy Zahn official prequel novel first.
What didn't you like about it? I read the prequel novel too, but actually didn't think it did a lot for me, except to provide some context for Kyle and Star.
Some minor spoilers follow, tried not to outright ruin anything...
- Sam Worthington stole the movie, I am not sure Bale can carry 2 more movies himself... this is not Batman. It's a shame Worthington can't continue on as part of the resistance in the next movies though who knows maybe they'll figure something out. The next movie will be set in 'present day' 2011, so they'll be able to introduce a few guest stars to bring in and help in this department.
- It was edited poorly. At one point it faded to black unnecessarily and my wife said 'is it time for a commercial?' Other transitions were abrupt and some scenes were clearly adjusted to avoid an R rating... like the fight at Skynet... one Terminator ramming a block into the other... and instead we see it in the background while Connor is doing piddly stuff. In T2 we saw the action, not the side acts. Some very poor effects at some points too, and switching between the real thing and the FX was sometimes kinda lame... especially with the A10s... and some of the helicopter shots... very bad. Wolverine-level poor effects.
- A lot of story issues... they never even introduce Star, she's just kinda there. Hey all these dead people up on the surface, and a heavily armed transport moving away.... let me hop in a weak ass helicopter and do.... something? Also on multiple occasions, what happened to Nukes = EMPs? Flying over a nuclear explosion in a helicopter... at least the first time he was already on his way to the ground. The injury Connor receives is completely stupid and should not have happened.
- re: the ending:
So instead of leaving the incapacitied Marcus and the regaining-strength terminator down to die in the nuke he's going to set off, he saves Marcus (first tries by punching his metal ribcage... someone in the audience of 20 laughed when he did that... twice), and as a result received a nearly fatal injury, only to have Marcus sacrifice himself to save him.
..........wtf.
I'd have rather had the original 'leaked' ending that reportedly caused it to be re-written.... Connor essentially becomes a Terminator at the end of the movie to save his own life... instead he gets part of a Terminator in him.
It was an OK movie, but didn't come close to matching the hype for me. The book set me up knowing how rough Kate and John have had it, and introduced me to Kyle and Star. It let us know about the complexity of some of the tactics Skynet uses, and that they aren't a omnipotent force as the story tells us of them salvaging from downed Terminators and details the construction of things like staging areas.
Bryce Dallas Howard was pretty bad in this too, but the only thing I've ever seen her do well is open her eyes wide, which she seems to do at least once in every movie she's in. I even have a thing for redheads, it just didn't work for me in this movie. Playing a pregnant woman she didn't come across as the Kate Connor I got to know in the books, and that set me up for disappointment.
Worth repeating - Sam Worthington stole the movie.
I see where you are coming with those issues. I found the Kate character/actress to be unexciting and just there.
I did think the Star character's development - or lack thereof - was strange. If I had not read the prequel I would not have had a clue about who she was or why she was there.
What did you think about my quibble about
the fact that skynet told marcus that he was the first one to have succeeded in getting Connor... considering that it seems like they have not YET developed the time-travel capabilities.
Seemed like an oversight on the writer's part, but also seemed to be a big hole.
But because I didn't have high expectations, I still liked the film.
I think there's a paradox they just didn't explain with technology from the future existing in this timeline, that's the only way Skynet would have known that Kyle is Connor's father. To this Skynet, he was their first attempt to capture/kill Connor, and they were so confident he had succeeded even though they hadn't sent in the new T-800 after him yet. I am hoping with the extended scenes we'll have on the DVD that we see a vault at Skynet with some relic of the future.
I'm not really sure though, that is a funky situation for sure.
I think there's a paradox they just didn't explain with technology from the future existing in this timeline, that's the only way Skynet would have known that Kyle is Connor's father. To this Skynet, he was their first attempt to capture/kill Connor, and they were so confident he had succeeded even though they hadn't sent in the new T-800 after him yet. I am hoping with the extended scenes we'll have on the DVD that we see a vault at Skynet with some relic of the future.
I'm not really sure though, that is a funky situation for sure.
Yeah, it just doesn't make sense. We know Kyle does not go back until he is older. The only explanation is that after failing numerous times, Skynet sent a terminator BACK to 2018 to tell Skynet that they needed to go after Kyle. Around and round....
His legendary status is still in it's infancy, him seeing people dead, climbing into the chopper, and getting far away from the nuke was much more stupid.
In the prequel book, he isn't even a full participant in the official resistance, instead he just has his people (Barnes, Blaire - 1 of 2 A-10 pilots, Kate, others) and he's waging war against the machines
Just seemed to be a lot of loud explosions , guns , car chases, helicopters , planes, blah ,blah, blah,... I saw very little story or plot development at all. I think the tv series was headed to a more interesting plot than this movie. OF course the tv show is canceled now. I was disappointed in this movie. "Star Trek" was much better than this one. Even the "Night of the Museum" was better than this movie to me. Looks like the "Museum" movie even made more money this weekend than "Terminator" did .
I've not heard anything good about this movie either but the official movie fan magazine that's out sure paints one hell of a picture about it. It sounds like the movie was thrown together and produced to make Bale look good instead of actually having a story line ( I've still not heard the end about how this movie doesnt have a story line ) and that it doesnt follow the original story hardly at all.
I agree Sam Worthington stole the movie. I liked the look and action in the movie but thought the story was weak. It was pretty cool to see the bridge blown up that I rode my Harley across this weekend.
I agree Sam Worthington stole the movie. I liked the look and action in the movie but thought the story was weak. It was pretty cool to see the bridge blown up that I rode my Harley across this weekend.
More than any other series, the Terminator series are not just more of the same sequels. Each, including the TV series, is a different take on the over-all theme in a different time period, and point in John Conner's life.
This one left me cold. The first hour just plodded. Pointless shoot em ups. Then this battle where they attack the big Skynet HQ. Umm, if they could do that any time they wanted, why didn't they attack it previously? And I agree with what everybody has pointed out about fighting computer guided weapons and nukes with conventional helicopters and even jet fighters.
And they never explained what Skynet wanted with all of the people it was capturing.
And then the smarmy "take my heart" ending. Stupid.
With a little modification in the plot (and no more sequals) this could have been the "final battle" referenced in the first movie, wrapping everything up with everybody getting killed but destroying Skynet, ending with the time travel.
More than any other series, the Terminator series are not just more of the same sequels. Each, including the TV series, is a different take on the over-all theme in a different time period, and point in John Conner's life.
This one left me cold. The first hour just plodded. Pointless shoot em ups. Then this battle where they attack the big Skynet HQ. Umm, if they could do that any time they wanted, why didn't they attack it previously? And I agree with what everybody has pointed out about fighting computer guided weapons and nukes with conventional helicopters and even jet fighters.
And they never explained what Skynet wanted with all of the people it was capturing.
And then the smarmy "take my heart" ending. Stupid.
With a little modification in the plot (and no more sequals) this could have been the "final battle" referenced in the first movie, wrapping everything up with everybody getting killed but destroying Skynet, ending with the time travel.
Thank you. That was the movie I thought I was going to see -bringing us full circle to the beginning , where we started in Terminator 1. This movie was nothing but a lot of loud explosions with very little plot development that added to the original Terminator mythology. I was sadly disappointed in this movie and the heart transplant in an open field with no drugs to fight rejection , was just stupid.
i enjoyed the movie for the current special effects. and the familiar cgi figure during the end (he def does look like that now). the christian bale tantrum would have been good if it was added to the movie besides that it was a good vegitative movie to watch. i was so used to seeing sarrah connors on the fox series it was hard to reflect to the real sarah conors from the movies. all in all i would say b+
Will report back later tonight.
Hasta la vista, baby.
