In the aftermath of Judgment Day and the machine takeover, resistance leader John Connor (Christian Bale) must counter Skynet’s plan to terminate mankind. Rallying his underground street fighters for a last, desperate battle, he realizes that to save the future he must rescue his own father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). But the most shocking discovery comes with the arrival of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a mysterious loner from the past who challenges Connor with an impossible choice and leads them both on a brutal journey into the heart of the enemy.
Terminator Salvation restores some of the balance of huge freakin' explosions and emotionally compelling plot to the Terminator series. Set entirely after the nuclear assault that left the computer system Skynet in control of the world, Terminator Salvation follows John Connor (Christian Bale) as he grapples with both murderous robots and his superiors in the resistance, who aren’t sure they believe the prophecies that Connor is destined to save humanity. Into the midst of this struggle tumbles Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, who would later star in James Cameron’s Avatar); the last thing he remembers was being executed in prison decades before. Baffled, he falls into company with Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek) and a mute little girl, who soon get captured--but Wright then meets and bonds with Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood, Eight Below), a resistance fighter who remains loyal to the confused Wright even though Connor suspects he’s not what he seems--or what he believes himself to be. Terminator Salvation isn’t the astonishing synthesis of action and feeling that either The Terminator or T2 were; the plot threads are poorly woven and fray completely in the last third of the movie. Despite this, Terminator Salvation has at least two skillfully orchestrated action sequences that will get your heart racing, and Worthington’s beguiling mixture of toughness and vulnerability gives his relationship with Bloodgood a genuine pulse. It’s imperfect, but compared with the hollow carcasses that most action movies (including Terminator 3) turn out to be, it’s worth seeing. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Terminator Salvation Extended cut
The movie was good, a few bad lines, but mostly the editing was really off, they shouldn't have cut the time down to under 2 hours and made it a PG-13 flick. That was a big mistake, that's like making Rambo a G-rated film, it's just not right. Christian Bale is good as John Connor, he gives an alright performance, but he could have done a little better. Anton Yelchin (Young Kyle Reese) did a superb job portraying the young hardened soldier who will eventually go back to protect young Sarah Connor, but not in this film. The movie is good, but due to editing and script changes here and there, caused the movie's poor performance at the box office. It's still a good film to watch, it gives us a fresh new look at the world post Judgment Day. It's NO James Cameron film by a long shot, but still decent with good action. Just don't expect to follow the plot as it has it's ups and downs by the different writers that wrote the screenplay. Expect a future blu-ray/dvd Terminator Salvation: Extended Cut (I don't know what they will call it) to contain most of the deleted scenes 30-40 mins worth with the original ending and an alternate storyline to debut sometime in late 2010. It's an alternate version of the film, much like Donner's Superman II cut. This only has 3 mins added, with Moon Bloodgood's breasts and a couple of F-Bombs in this sad director's cut.
Director's Cut Differences
The director's cut runs approximately 3 minutes longer, and inserts a few new scenes, but no major plot points. This is NOT the major unrated cut that McG has referred to in past interviews, where he suggested that 30-40 minutes of additional footage would be added. We'll probably see that in a future edition.
Here are the major differences between the theatrical version and the director's cut (spoilers follow).
1) In the opening action scene, when John Connor is leading his unit into the flooded underground Skynet base, a T-1 terminator (nice touch from T3) suddenly appears behind them. His men destroy it before it can do any damage. I'm glad this scene was cut; it inadvertently breaks the tension too quickly.
2) When John pulls his little "frogman stunt", he is seated before the Resistance Command generals, and General Ashdown (Michael Ironside) berates John. Ashdown says, "I don't believe in prophecy, not when one can re-write the future", pulls out his gun and points it at John's head. I liked this scene, because it illustrates John's present and minor role in the Resistance, especially with Command being skeptical of his "predictions".
3) Blair Williams/Moon Bloodgood's topless scene; really just a side shot as she washes herself in the rain in a non-sexual manner.
4) Marcus/Blair Williams/redneck fight; the action is a little longer, and a little more brutal. Marcus stabs one of the attackers with a screwdriver, and we see the impact, as well as the victim painfully removing the screwdriver. Also, Marcus uses another one of the attackers as a human shield against another's shotgun blast.
5) Marcus/Blair Williams campfire scene is slightly longer.
6) Captured humans at Skynet; when one of the prisoners attempts an escape and is shot, we see the bullet impacts.
7) John Connor's speech to fellow Resistance members to not obey Ashdown's orders to attack is extended with a few sentences about his mother. (Is this where Christian Bale had his stage lights tantrum?)
8) Marcus/T-800 fight scene is slightly longer, show Marcus getting pummeled.
I would like to add that I enjoyed Terminator 4; much better than the campy T3, and just a shade under T2. The action was definitely there, and McG included a lot of thoughtful touches from the past movies, e.g. photograph of Sarah Connor, the origin of John's scars, John's love for Guns N'Roses, Sarah Connor's taped voice recordings (actually Linda Hamilton's voice), use of and of course the Arnold cameo. Who can say no to Michael Ironside? What I didn't like was Blair Williams' geisha makeup which she wore during air combat. It made no sense, and was probably one of the deleted portions. Bryce Dallas Howard was believable as Kate Connor, but her screen time was too short. Hopefully, a future cut will show more of their relationship.
Some have said that Christian Bale's performance was wooden, or that John Connor's role was overshadowed by Sam Worthington's role as Marcus Wright. I disagree, Bale played Connor as he should have been; grizzled, scarred, gruff. Given that we know so much already about the future and John's role from prior Terminator movies, it makes sense to have another character portray the center role. I also liked the idea of the audience first seeing John as a minor Tech-Com officer, steadily rising through the ranks and gaining influence.
I did have one concern about the movies; how come the Arnold T-800 didn't die when John Connor shot the molten steel onto its head? Turns out there's a perfectly scientific explanation (McG consulted a metallurgist).
Here's McG's answer: "There are different characteristics of molten steels, and that was an earlier steel process after it had been separated from the coke. We went over this with a metallurgist, discussing which metals burn at which degrees. And also, if it had stayed on [the T-800], perhaps it would've melted him, but it was frozen quickly enough by the [liquid nitrogen]. Plus, we make the transition from the molten metal to the cooling property so quickly -- as a function of the T-800 being on [John] Connor -- that it wouldn't have had time to melt the existing titanium exoskeleton in time."
In conclusion, if you're a diehard Terminator fan, go ahead and pick up this version. Otherwise, wait for the (hopefully) longer extended cut.
Entertaining with sloppy editing and storyline
After watching this 4th of the Terminator series, it is clear to me that James Cameron was the key reason behind the Terminator series's success. McG, the director of this film, seems to be gifted in action sequences but rather poor in editing.
Everyone knows that very few films will ever measure up to the first two Terminator films. The 2nd Terminator (Judgement Day) still ranks as one of the greatest action movies of all time and the 1st Terminator does not rank too far behind. This is an entertaining film which will unfortunately forever be compared to the first 2 films. This film falls short of the first two.
The best portion of this film are the action sequences. The Mad Max like thrilling action sequences are breathtaking. This Terminator film brings back much of the old school special effects using real stuntman (not CGI) to perform very dangerous yet entertaining stunts.
The film suffers from a noticeably bad editing. The sequences do not flow well in many scenes. For example, the scenary between the Blair Williams and the thugs are shown abruptly right after Marcus Wright and Blair developes a romantic chemistry. The scene which a human prisoner is shot by a T-600 is best described as choppy. You will notice more than few sequences in which few hours of filming seemed to have been condensed into few seconds.
The storyline is also very choppy as well. It appears Dr. Serena Kogan's role has been changed many times. That's too bad since I think Serena's role could have been a pivtol and a fascinating one. Perhaps Marcus Wright's original role has been altered more than a few times. The storyline is not entirely coherent.
Moon Bloodgood, who plays Blair Williams, was the most convincing actor. Sam Worthington has proven himself to be a bonifide action star. And Christian Bale has done nothing to derail his action star status.
Perhaps the director McG tried too hard to condense this film into under 2 hours. I think the film would have benefited from another 15-25 minutes and a more consistent storyline.
Lastly, I think this Terminator film does not portray the post Judgement Day human suffering well at all. Where are the starving and wretched human existence? Does John Connor's greatness reside primarily in his knowledge of the Skynet and the Terminators?
Buy Terminator Salvation (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray] at Amazon.com
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