Terminator Salvation....

[Mr John]

The reviews are in, I'm getting a "polished turd" vibe off this one. Great action/FX, no substance/acting/plot...


Shame, I fecking love Terminator.

[Liingus]

here's how i see it
it's supposed to be the actual war between man and machine
i don't want a plot
just carnage

[Mr John]

If you're expecting T1/T2 - esque future wars scenes, wait for T5.

[The Rambam]

Watched this last night, actually liked it. A lot.

[Hank]

I viewed this film 2 days ago. It was enjoyable. Most post-apocalyptica automatically gets a pass from me.

[touchy feely]

i really can't stand the latest 'lets make our movie as annoyingly loud as possible' trend in action movies these days

but this was strangely enjoyable, moreso than T3

[Mr John]

At least, opinions I trust.


Thanks fellas.

[touchy feely]

[Busta]

Most post-apocalyptica automatically gets a pass from me.

This is why I think i'll love it..

[Mr John]

I'm surrounded by assholes!!!!

[Busta]

I'm surrounded by assholes!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJw14F3yurY

[Grotocult]

Garbage.

[Busta]

No way! Julian Lennon had some sweet songs!

[Rado]

I'll be seeing this next week!

[Mr John]

Saw it.
- Terrible dialogue
- Great action and FX though

It tries really hard to impress you and you sense that. The plot and its twist make no sense. Entire scenes are completely illogical (mostly Skynet/HB-C scenes) and gaping plot holes left wide open.

The film is not post apocalyptic enough. I wasn't chilled by the thought of a holocaust, it just seems to be a "given" here. And there is bizarrely old "tech" on the human side. We know good tech wins wars these days, they humans should be pwn3d. I haven't seen Battlefield Earth, but from what I know of it from clips and hearsay, this film runs right up that films arse.

Overall though it's ok. It's a watchable dumb action sci fi. It doesn't do the "Terminator" tag any favours and chases Cameron's first two like a sycophantic puppy, but it does impress with action.

The FX are top ranking cinematic action, the plot and script is straight to-video fodder.


Yeah, video. It feels that dated sometimes!

[The Rambam]

Entire scenes are completely illogical (mostly Skynet/HB-C scenes) and gaping plot holes left wide open.

Skynet's behaviour has been illogical in all the films. When children become self-aware, they don't turn into homicidal douchebags.

[ReverseEngineer]

hee hee

[ReverseEngineer]

nobody?
do I have to cut & paste the whole text?

[Miss Yvonne]

I saw that the other day. I think I said, "heehee"

[Mr John]

Was the purpose of the link to demonstate that the Onion is still not as funny as it used to be?

[touchy feely]

Was the purpose of the link to demonstate that the Onion is still not as funny as it used to be?

ill say it wasnt their best effort, but to say onion 'is not as funny as it used to be' is completely and utterly preposterous

[Peeping Tom]

that bit when arnie comes out was fing shit.. laughable infact
did they plan to have connor killed by his childhood hero or was it meant to be coincidence?
the good terminator struggled to keep his australian accent hidden half the time although i thought he stole the movie, the love story with him was shit too. Ripping off the T2 ending as well was shit "hey remember when he freezes him, and melts him lets do that again wicked"

[Mr John]

that bit when arnie comes out was fing shit.. laughable infact
did they plan to have connor killed by his childhood hero or was it meant to be coincidence?
the good terminator struggled to keep his australian accent hidden half the time although i thought he stole the movie, the love story with him was shit too. Ripping off the T2 ending as well was shit "hey remember when he freezes him, and melts him lets do that again wicked"

Spoilers ahoy!
Fuck it.

- I thought the Arnie cameo was alright, if inevitable. I would have preferred him to appear in T5 (because you know this is a new trilogy).
- Yeah, the opening scene exposed Worthington's inability to hide his accent, why not just leave it in? US is a multicultural society after all.
- And that scene was SO BADLY DONE.
- Opening title sequence was poor.
- "Score by Danny Elfman" eeeugh.
- Christian Bale's gruff voice and near sub-human behaviour AND spilling out the names and events of T1 and T2 when face to face with Marcus! Effing moron!
- How the fuck did Skynet know about Reese?
- If it sends Terminators back to kill Connor in the past, but knows about Reese, why not kill him when he was captured?!?
- If Skynet can synchronise with Marcus' robo-chip, why did he and the unneccessary monitor screen version of Helena Bonham Carter have a long chat about the "plot"?
- How the fuck did Skynet know about Reese? Or Connor for that matter? Especially seeing as it had a plan to wipe out Resistance HQ.
- Why does Skynet go the Bond villain route of explaining what it does? It's a fucking computer, that is a waste of time! Was it programmed with bravado arrogance and egomania? A system that decides to wipe out an entire race is hardly going to stop to explain "why" is it?
- Why do the humans have visible bases/settlements? The base surrouned by landlines? Skynet has fucking missiles! Or were they deep underground?
- Everyone's very good looking after a nuclear war. And they have a lot of accessories. I didn't believe this was post-apocalyptic at all. The building collapsing in LA? Not enough dust.
- Marcus never questions his amazing abilities and indestructable nature. Duh.
- Connor still has his mum's tapes, surely he'd have lost them in Judgement day fire, he had nothing on him at the end of T3.

Oh god, there is so much to dispute...

[Mr John]

I have to post again, sorry, I'm editing like crazy.

This film should have introduced the Terminators and the survivors. Early T-models, HKs, whatever the fuck else Skynet manages to cobble together to kill remaining humans, after the nuclear fire stops burning. Give them a backstory, because no one has ever explained how Skynet started using human doppelgangers to kill people.

- There should have been a quiet period, post Judgement Day, for survivors and Skynet alike to regroup, show the war developing, the humans wondering What the fuck happened to their lives and Connor emerging from his bunker to explain it all.

- Connor should be regarded suspiciously, perhaps accused of being the guy who started it all, then the story could have dealt with him redeeming himself and saving large amounts of survivors, starting the resistance, regrouping armed forces and getting human foes to work together across the world as Skynet builds a robot army. It could even try alternative forms of mass warfare, biological perhaps, but that could fail, hence the use of Termininators.

THEN we have T5, further ahead into the war, Skynet designs the T-800, suddenly the resistance is being infiltrated, then we could have had the Marcus story. Expand more on Skynet, what it does, why it does it, use the Salvation script, bring in Kyle Reese etc.

Then shift to T6, 2029, war escalating, frickin' plasma lasers everywhere, Skynet throwing out new Terminators all the time, resistance tech improved (probably by salvaging Skynet tech) cats and dogs, living together, humans bust open a Skynet base, find the time machine shit, there's a deus ex - a "paradox clock" or something running, which spells out when the timeline synchronises and changes are made to the timeline, a log of the T-800's mission, so Connor asks for a volunteer to chase it back to 1984 and save his mother. Naturally, Reese goes, the timeline clock stops, then restarts - they find the log of the T-1000 too, have a drama capturing and reprogramming a T-800 to go back and stop THAT timeline excursion then set about capturing the tech for themselves.

- You can add another time excursion after Connor is killed by an Arnie T-888, with his wife sending that machine back to stop the T-X if you care about T3 as well, but other than that telling of the original story, from the future POV, T6 can be a tale of rebuilding humanity, a forewarning to users of AI.

Or something.

[Rado]

Now tell us the things you didn't like about it

I really liked it. Sam Worthington was great.
There were a shitload of T2 references which i liked. Although when Connor hacked into that doorway, he should have said "Eaaasy money"