Terminator Salvation review
Beware of spoilers for Terminator Salvation.
"Some of us were kept alive... to work... loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah, your unborn son."
The quote spoken above by Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese, the magic and depth of the quote, doesn't exist in Terminator Salvation. Bypassing everything else I'm about to write in this review, I need to express in the opening of this article, how disappointed I am in that there is no magic, inspiration or epic feeling with the acting, story and dialog in Terminator 4. T4 is a typical summer action movie, although most are better than this, the film doesn't even come close to the story that James Cameron set up in the first two films. Nobody expected T4 to match up in quality with the earlier Cameron films, but this is ridiculous. Granted there are some things I like about this picture, I would have honestly rather watched the season 2 (series finale) of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on the big screen - different, yes, but at least I was pumped up in the end. When Terminator Salvation ended, the only thing that came across my mind was "so, when is the movie going to start" and "WTF was that shit!" among other thoughts.
Like how most people feel, James Cameron revered me with The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Both are among my favorite science fiction/action films of all time - somewhere in my top 20 list but I've never tried to place them. I remember when Terminator 2 came out in theaters all those years ago - my brother saw it. When he came home he somehow talked my mother into letting me see the film, I was nine at the time. The thing that stands out most from seeing it in the theater was the opening war, specifically when the T-800 steps on the skull after Sarah Connor's monologue. That being an early memory from the Terminator franchise, the thing that stands out the most, isn't a bad thing when it comes to movie memories. I saw T2 before I ever knew there was a T1 but since then I've must have seen both films and uncountable amount of times. Since both of these films are amazing cinematic stories, would it surprise anyone to know that I was excited about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines? Sadly, we know how that turned out. Although an alright action film, it was an insult to James Cameron's vision. At least, however, Terminator 4 is a better film than Terminator 3.
Terminator Salvation is the movie, in concept, that everyone has been waiting for - the war against the machines. Those moments in the Cameron films that spent a short time showing us the condition of our world and the struggle against the machines will never be forgotten by fans and movie watchers alike. Those moments are imprinted into our genes and it's un-American not to remember them with reverence. Now finally, a filmmaker brought us the war we always wanted to see with one of today's best actors playing John Connor, the leader of the human resistance... a filmmaker only known as McG.
"Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind." [Warner Bros] From a script by the two morons who wrote Terminator 3, Catwoman and the upcoming xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and rewrites from Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) McG directs Christian Bale as John Connor in Terminator Salvation. T4 also stars the upcoming action star Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright who ironically is the star of James Cameron's new film Avatar, Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, Common (WTF!) as Barnes, with Michael Ironside as General Ashdown and Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Serena Kogan.
When it was announced that the Charlie's Angels director was going to direct the future war in the Terminator franchise, everyone laughed but was also angry and McG knew it. He still went on to make the film, obviously, but nobody held any confidence in the director and for good reason. During the last several months, with the promotion of the film beginning - trailers, photos, etc., movie fans from all over began saying that this movie looked pretty damn incredible. I'll even admit the things we saw looked cool - I love the trailer that featured the Nine Inch Nails song The Day The Whole World Went Away. It's a pretty great trailer. I began to think that maybe I was wrong about McG and that maybe he actually was able to bring a satisfying movie from someone other than James Cameron, yet I was still skeptical. I made the promise that upon seeing the film, if it was very good, I'd apologize to McG in my review for all the doubt and angry things I've said about him. Other than some cool visual and design styles, sorry McG - you blew it dude. Terminator Salvation sucks. I might be a little to hard on McG - Let me put it this way; his direction of the action, the visual experience etc isn't that bad, it's just everything thing else that's utterly awful. He kind of pulls a Michael Bay and directs a fun action flick, but can't find a way to direct a story and plot. In short, you can probably enjoy T4 a lot more with no sound.
What disturbs me about that is the fact that the writers from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines were hired again to write Terminator Salvation. Didn't McG and the studio know that nobody likes that movie? Sure they can say that because Jonathan Nolan came aboard to rewrite the script T4 turned out to be a better film and they're probably right, but when working from an already awful script (which it was, even Bale said that) a writer can do only so much. They would have been better off having Nolan make a film script from scratch with no influence from any other writer. What could have been doesn't matter at this point because what we got is what we got and what we got is really bad dialog that is so frustrating to hear, now that it's starting to sink in, it really gets me angry. The whole time, I was waiting to hear some kind of inspiration speech from John Connor, a speech that would make me want to follow him into battle, but it never came. It almost did towards the end of the film, before the climax, when Connor asked the resistance to hold off on their attack so he can infiltrated Skynet but there was no chills and no excitement. Then there is the scene when, let's say Skynet, tells Marcus what the deal is - the only way I can explain it is that it's possibly the most cliche exposition I've ever heard and seen in a movie. Again, that's all from terrible dialog that seemed to have been written by a child on crack.
What's worse is that the plot doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The plot and story is so choppy and unintelligent that it's really funny yet unbearable at times. To sum up the entire story for T4 in one word: Random. Almost everything in this movie is simply random from the overall plot to the simple call backs to the earlier films as if McG only put those call backs just so his movie can be associated with Cameron's films. For example; Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor might be cool for the long time Terminator fan but all she did was re-recite her lines from the end of T1 and did another quick scene in which she tells John she loves him, all on tape. Concept, cool - effect, wasted! I smiled for a second then realized that having Linda Hamilton do a voice over was a completely wasted opportunity. As for other plot points that disgusted me - what's the deal with Common? First of all, rappers should not be actors, something that we all know. Second, again, why the random plot point about Barnes' brother? It's a completely unnecessary plot point and it doesn't build depth for the character which is something they probably tried to do with that character, however, it doesn't happen from two frigging lines. It's a waste of time and it was a waste of a character. Don't worry, Barnes isn't the only character that sucked ass - most of them sucked! Kate Connor was useless and is only there to looked worried and concerned. Blair Williams could have been the best character but was wasted on bad dialog and bad story telling. General Ashdown seemed more incompetent than an actual military General probably is - just because Connor is supposed to become General and leader doesn't mean that any other leader should be portrayed as a moron. Sadly, John Connor isn't as inspiring as I hoped he'd be and that's probably the most frustrating character development within this entire film. And what the hell was the little kid supposed to be doing in the film except handing convenient objects to the lead characters? For Christ sake, the kid was such an unnecessary role!
Notice how I didn't mention performances, that's because I'm not going to blame any actor (except Common) for the pathetic material they had to work with. It's like World Series Champions were given tooth picks to bat with. If this script was bad, I can only imagine what the script looked like before Jonathan Nolan came on board to do rewrites.
The ending of the film most of all is stupid. Without giving too much away - one character sacrifices his life for another but it makes no sense why he'd do it. Let me make it more clear, his reasoning to others is completely unconvincing yet everyone accepts it like... "oh shit, that's a good idea, he's right". Nobody says anything like "No, you can't" or whatever - we're only given the character saying something stupid like "everybody deserves a second chance". I understand that they were trying to talk about the human heart and human spirit in the closing but it's told in such an unsatisfying way because of the poor script.
There is honestly so much more I could complain about but this review is going way longer than I intended it to be.
Believe it or not, there are actually some things I liked about T4 that I think are worth mentioning and I'll try to keep it to one paragraph. The style, design and visual effects of this future world is fantastic. Despite McG's lack in story telling qualities he does redeem himself in style - make no mistake, Terminator Salvation LOOKS awesome. I like how he tried to go practical (real) with most of the effects instead of the full George Lucas technique of all CGI. The best effect in Terminator 4 is by far the created cameo of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800. Without a doubt, and done the best, McG reminds us that the T-800 is a total bad ass. The whole theater gets giddy with excitement when we see the Schwarzenegger glare (which you can see HERE *spoiler photo*). The unstoppable nature of the original Terminator still exists and although the new comer T-600 is bad ass, the T-800 will forever be The Terminator. As for a couple of character mentions - I like Sam Worthington's character although, again, he's supplied with bad material. At first I was against Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese but after seeing this, I like him. He's way better than the guy who played Reese in the TV show but I think it's safe to say that nobody is better than Michael Biehn. Last, I really like Moon Bloodgood's character Blair - she has so much potential to be something awesome but, how many more times I could say it, she was given such awful material, she only could do so much. Also, I want to mention that Danny Elfman's score for this film is excellent and is so far the best overall score I've heard this year, however, I'm extremely disappointed that the Terminator theme isn't in this film AT ALL! WTF kind of shit is that! Having the opening cords which were also in the trailer doesn't count for shit - I'm talking about the theme. The music that breaks the heart knowing that the world is destroyed. (LISTEN HERE)
Terminator Salvation attempts to keep the franchise vibrant and although it achieves that in a summer action crowd sense, for us long time Terminator fans - this movie is totally unsatisfying and very disappointing. It would be an interesting conversation to see what is more disappointing - T4 or Indiana Jones 4. With great style, special and visual effects Terminator Salvation tells us a pointless uninspired story and yet still manages to be way better than T3 (doesn't say much for T3). Given a good script and story, I might actually be ok with McG directing a sequel ONLY because his style is fantastic. I hope that if a sequel is greenlit, they fire the writers from this film and hire completely new writers or just stick with Jonathan Nolan to pen the entire screenplay. NO MORE CATWOMAN WRITERS!! On second thought, screw McG - fire his ass and find someone who's established and respected.
I think now that it is all said and done the best score I can give this film is a 5 out of 10. The five points earned is for style and a core of characters (mostly) that could potentially have been great. The five points lost is for one of the worst screenplays in a big budget summer movie I've ever experienced. I can say, however, if your part of the crowd that doesn't care about depth and richness in story, only the spectacle of explosions and cool visuals, you'll probably enjoy T4.
They say there is "no fate but what we make" - when you hire the worst screenwriters in the business, your fucking asking for fate to take a big giant shit on you.
-Phil
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One note I really need to say very emphatically because I think it needs to be said — “First of all, rappers should not be actors, something that we all know.”
This is not true, and we all most certainly do *not* know this. Will Smith started his life as a rapper, and was always happy returning to it, and he is, I believe, an Oscar winner now. Ice-T is a rapper and many people think of him as a *remarkable* actor on Law and Order. Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones did a *remarkable* job as Blade in Blade The Series and many Blade fans tend to think of him more fondly than they do Wesley Snipes, who despite starting the role, never seemed as enthusiastically inside the role as Kirk did during the series.
Common did not do a bad job acting the crap role he was given. His lines were not flat, he was not dull. He just had a bad character, but I believed he was that character, and that’s the definition of good acting. Sure, there are rappers that became rather bad actors (Ice Cube comes to mind really), but your statement is, imho, not good.
You got me on that Soran. Funny - I don’t even think of Will Smith as a musician. He’s been doing films for so long I totally forgot about his music. I forgot about Ice T especially since I don’t watch Law and Order and also, I didn’t watch Blade the series because without Snipes I wasn’t interested. I did see Jones on another short lived show… I can’t remember the name but he was a solider in Iraq. It was a cool show.
Instead of all rappers suck as actors, I’ll concede and say most rappers suck as actors.
With the talk about Smith, I suddenly want to watch I, Robot.
I think the movie suffered most because the focus was too wide. The resistance world wide. If it hadn’t been a save the world type mission, and consisted of three or four main characters and five or six red shirts it could have been a very tight movie.
All I wanted from the movie was cool visuals and I got that, but not as much as I wanted. I didn’t feel cheated out of my eight bucks. I’ll rent the unrated version when it comes around.
Will Smith was hardly a rapper more like a popstar who had taken acting courses. Besides he’s as one dimensional as they get. As for the few rappers that are acceptable its mostly due to them playing some street type tough guy, which doesn’t count that much. Rappers do suck and should stay away from movies like Terminator.
As for Terminator, it has ended with Judgment Day, people need to deal with it. I’m so glad to see Night at the Museum slay this cheap-ass Terminator flick at the box office. So much for their fucking PG-13 rating, dick heads.
just so everyone know….will smith was NEVER a rapper. ice cube on the other hand was. theres a big diferrence. peace out yo!
“…no mistake, Terminator Salvation LOOKS awesome.”
I disagree with this. T4 may have had a gritty look, but it wasn’t a look consistant with what T1 and T2 showed us.
The short sequences depicting the future in T1 and T2 are truly terrifying. No CGI or expensive fight choreography was needed to produce this effect. The remnants of mankind are shown living like rats under the eye of gigantic chrome predators. The future, as Cameron depicted it, was a permanently-midnight nuclear winter. The human race lived in holes beneath the uncollected remains of the dead. Man was one step away from extinction.
And those scenes were depicting 2029, supposedly the year humanity won the war!
T4 brought sunshine into this nightmare. The future is no longer the horror Cameron hinted at. As T4 shows, the future is a place where the resistance can fly A-10s, Hueys, and Ospreys at will. Its a future without nuclear winter; its bright and sunny or rainy when the script calls for it. Its a future without starvation or ugly people. Its a future with preteen freedom fighters besting terminators. Its a silly place full of low-iq humanoid robots seemingly borrowed from the Transformers series. Not only is mankind not “on the way out” in T4, it’s on equal terms with Skynet.
What a tremendous opportunity T4 blew; the chance to see humankind reach its low point and turn the tide. It was a chance to see Connor teach a dying people that fighting wasn’t hopeless. Red Dawn, as low budget and bad acted as it was, generated this feeling. T4, with its millions and millions of dollars of special effects, could not.
I’m not going to get into the “face” the film put on Skynet other than to ask this: When will directors learn that fear is inversly proportional to antagonist screentime?
If only moviemakers invested in scripts as they do in CGI…
@YoungGeorgeLucas
You’ve taken what I’ve said out of context.
I totally agree with what you had to say about the style but what I was referring to was the style alone in THIS film. I wasn’t trying to compare it to T1 or T2 which I personally think is the better, more kick ass style.
Let’s be honest, no way can this film in any shape or form can be compared to the Cameron films. That’s basically why you can’t even try.
But again, I agree with your statement.
wow, Christian Bale is good that new guy, Same Worthington, was great… in fact he pretty much stole the show
I am going to wait for the dvd, as I believe that only T1 was true to the franchise, if one film franchises are possible (haha).
I suspect you are ‘dead on balls accurate’ with this review as well.
Will Smith not a rapper?? He started his career as a rapper and has continued to produce music, as in rap to this day. Men in Black - theme was rap - artist was Will Smith. Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme was rap - Will Smith funnily enough was the artist once again. Just Google it … Will Smith is both an actor and a rapper. Geesh!!! Who didn’t know that!! Man some people are stoopid!!!
I agree with this review and with YoungGeorgeLucas. since T4 takes place in the year 2018 and cameroon’s future
is in 2029 its ok they look different, but T4 looks too different.
(try this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7nq-r7QWW0 )
anyway, the DVD version of T4 will be 40 minutes longer and filled with john connor character development, so it should be better.
“how disappointed I am in that there is no magic, inspiration or epic feeling with the acting, story and dialog in Terminator 4.”
Phil, I’ve been reading your site + reviews for a while now, too say the least, I enjoy them very much. But after watching T4 and reading your review I am thrilled to announce here how much I agree with you.
Simply put, you’ve read my mind.
To answer your question at the end “Which is more disappointing- T4 or Indiana Jones 4?” Although they were both an insult to movie’s goers’ intelligence, I have to go with T4 because the plot revealed absolutely no character development and it adds nothing new to the franchise. Ultimately, Salvation sucked, its existence is to milk our cash, and that’s the only thing done right about this movie.
Thanks Leon! Thanks for agreeing with me
I hope to hear from you more often.
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