Comments on: TERMINATOR SALVATION [2009] review

By: Jason Collin

Jason Collin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:53:29 +0000

I totally agree. The brief glimpses of the future in T1 and T2 were tantalizing teases that looked super cool and showed a unique world. The world in TS was just a generic apocalypse world. You never saw day light in the future in T1 and T2 and I think TS should have kept it that way.

I really wonder, in the CGI era, is it possible to make a good sci-fi action film? Was The Matrix the last one?

By: mimi

mimi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:50:50 +0000

The movie was freaking horrible!! what happened to the story, dark, non human side of the terminator, the seens out of future in T1 and T2 looked much better, no intensity, not cool looking T’s, what happened with music.. just.. such a disappointment. I knew it was not gonna be Cameron quality but this movie is junk, the is no point made, the only thing we know is that they gonna come out with T5, no thanks..

By: SK

SK — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:29:44 +0000

You liked T3? It was universally acknowledged as junk, they completely ignored it in Terminator Salvation with the vain hope that it would pass into movie trash history never to be spoken of again. T2 was the greatest movie ever made. Your positive review of TS is now moot due to your view of T3. When are they going to make a good sci-fi that doesn’t treat the audience like idiots – “Sync Complete”…ohhh yeeea like my ipod……duhhhh – Bring on Avatar (hopefully).

By: MJG

MJG — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:57:27 +0000

Well, got to say I heartily disagree with you here Jason. I went into the movie with very low expectations, but expecting to at least enjoy some hacking action. What I got instead rather blew me away.

I very much enjoyed it. You say no story, but it had basically the same story of all the other Terminator movies- a chase movie with save John Connor as the main quest, with the added sub-quest of save Kyle Rees. It introduced a new kind of Terminator, as all the movies before have done, and set a Terminator against his own programming, as both 2 and 3 did- giving us a lovely self-sacrificing swan-song similar to both 2 and 3.

Christian Bale’s character I felt was given depth by the weight of the past. It was less what he did, but the burden we know is upon him. Listening to old tapes of his mother’s voice, speaking to the resistance over the wireless. And of course, his battles with the new Terminator, and what he says.

But the brilliant thing, he wasn’t really the main character. The main character was the new guy, and I thought he was excellent. ‘Sync complete’, love it.

The cameo- I totally didn’t expect it, and it drew an involuntary yelp of glee from me when he appeared.

As for no good action scenes- I thought all the action scenes were genius. From the very beginning as we follow tight on him through a helicopter getting nuclear blasted, to the escape from the gas station, right to the mano a mano stuff by the end. Some of the camera-work was without a doubt innovative. CG I thought was seamless. I hardly even stopped to think- ‘wow that looks real’ because it DID look real, not the quasi-real that normally draws such comments.

And the tones- it was sepia, no doubt. But I like that. It’s a washed out dust-bowl of a post-apocalyptic world. I loved all the stuff in ruins, as might be expected.

But maybe this is no surprise. Did you like movie 3? I really enjoyed that one too, much to my surprise.