I went to see Terminator: Salvation this weekend and can pretty much sum it up with “Transformers meets The Road Warrior.” The effects are great and the movie is entertaining enough to justify an $8 ticket, just don’t expect anything more than that.
***SPOILER ALERT*** The rest of the review is after the jump
Here are a few questions I have about plot details. Why does Skynet headquarters/terminator factory only have a few robots available to fight John Connor, who was lured there by Skynet in the first place? And why do they program terminators to shoot anything and everything EXCEPT John Connor, for whom they always revert to boxing and wrestling? Why do all machines in the future have little access panels that can be pried open with a pocket knife? Why are two-wheeled robots built so that a person can ride them? Why did Skynet keep Kyle Reese alive when John Connor would have come anyway and killing Reese would have assured victory for the machines? How does a rag-tag rebel alliance have an air force? The submarine I could understand, but a bunch of airplanes with airfield(s)? Why do the rebels carry pistols when they don’t do anything to the machines? Why didn’t the rebels use their signal jammer on the new terminator model when he was escaping? Chances are that it wouldn’t have worked because the whole signal jamming thing was a Skynet charade, but they would have learned that it didn’t work and avoided… blah, blah, blah
There were two other major things that bothered me, the first being Christian Bale’s speech to the rebels pleading for them to delay the invasion of SkyNet headquarters ordered by rebel commanders. He didn’t offer any explanation whatsoever why bombing in the morning would be better, he just chastised those that would blindly do what their leaders asked (which they had been doing for years, and which had been keeping them alive and giving the group strength) Why didn’t he say something along the lines of, “You have to trust and believe in me. We have to wait until morning.” Instead it was “You are more than machines. Human beings don’t have blind faith in their leaders.” (or something like that) It was a pivotal scene in the movie that came off as cheesy and completely illogical. (Please tell me this wasn’t when Christian Bale went on his tirade)
The other major thing that bothered me was the heavy-handedly-hammered-home human heart theme. These moments were so awkward they felt like commercial breaks. “This movie brought to you by the human heart – it is our strength and our weakness and that which separates us from the machines. And now, back to you regularly scheduled action movie.”
On a positive note, that was a pretty cool helicopter crash scene at the beginning! I haven’t been that dizzy in a theater since Blair Witch Project.
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Wonderful movie, best of the summer IMHO…. loved every minute of it!
One thing that nagged me and still does:
Why does Skynet want John Connor? At the time of the movie, he’s just some field commander, not even in charge of the revolution (and the other commanders want him out of it entirely). So how in the world does this computer decide that he is The One and that Kyle is his dad? And decide it in time to design an entirely new terminator to lure him into their trap? (And would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids).
I’m guessing Skynet subscribed to Netflix On Demand or something and watched the first movie, but c’mon.
glad to see you are getting so much positive play from reddit and stumble!
Nuclear fallout kills gingivitis and plaque, doyee.
Really, there were a lot of points where I just fell in and out of the movie. It seemed more like it was a dream about Terminator than an actual Terminator movie.
One of the best bits were when they were outside, and Connor’s heart is going – the little MASH unit where they’re going to do open heart surgery…. and there’s camo netting on it. Yeah, the Terminators use infared. How’s that camo netting working out for you?
With all the nuclear blasts going on, before and during the movie – everyone seemed very well fed, and had great hair. I don’t know about you – but I was thinking this should have been more like Cormack McCarthy’s The ROAD – but with killer robots taking out the handful of people left. It should have been a lot darker – nuclear winter darker… with the bonus of invincible robots coming after you.
And they had some blindingly white teefs.
yes, yes, and yes. agreed. with everything.
i went into it trying to not have high expectations but dam bruce wayne as john connor it was a little hard not to.
i was also hoping to see some dope liquid metal t1000 type ish but i guess that wasnt invented yet in 2018. and was also wondering when batman when off on his tirade too