Terminator Salvation
Short review. It sucks.
OK, the longer review.
It’s probably not as bad as you heard. (Of course this is from a guy who initially thought Crystal Skull wasn’t as bad as everyone said. Then I saw it a second time…) To be honest until about halfway through the film I thought it was mediocre but passable. The main lead is quite good. But the direction never manages to engage you. When we got home the first Terminator was on. What James Cameron was able to do with basically no budget was remarkable. He really was able to create some amazing tension and engrossing characters.
The errors MCG makes are legion. For one the plot just doesn’t really work. The script is frankly a mess. One gets the impression that initially John Conner was going to be a minor character until they managed to snag Christian Bale. Then they had to beef up that part of the story. But Bale is horribly miscast and is basically aping his Batman role, gravely voice included. It doesn’t work here.
I really think they had this one idea for an action scene (which, in the middle, works quite well and is the most impressive part of the film). They then just through a bunch of other scenes in without really thinking of characterization.
The action scenes at the end are ridiculous and the final scene, which I won’t spoil, is so stupid people in the audience were gasping. It was funny. At the end one person started clapping and a slew of people yelled out, “did you see the same movie I did?”
It’s too bad. I was initially worried given the director. Then the trailers looked pretty awesome. Of course I kept in mind that the trailers for Phantom Menace looked amazing too. Then I saw that film….
Posted on May 25, 2009, in Reviews. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
arandomjohn
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
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MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
I’m kinda glad everyone hates it, because it confirms my world view: I like stuff most people don’t.
I really, really liked it. Even with Christian Bale’s poor performance and the cheesy, laugh-out-loud ending. (Or maybe because of…) And I think you left out the part about the whole thing being sooooo predictable.
Then again, I wasn’t expecting much. Terminator 3 was horrible. (Action movies in general bore me.)
This makes me think I’m going to be bored stiff with Star Trek.
Clark,
What did you expect from McG? Something vastly better than Charlie’s Angels?
James Cameron’s The Terminator worked so marvelously because the action sets fit the story and were phenomenal. Particularly that first scene when Arnie, Linda and Michael first all meet at the night club with the song “You’ve got me running” blasting in the background. The tension couldn’t be more palpable.
McG is just not capable enough to create that kind of tension. Cameron showed that he could keep it up in a sequel, so it’s not a question of the sequels, but the “talent” behind the scenes. It is one reason why I’ve not bothered with any of the Terminator sequels after T2. Plus, didn’t they fairly well close off that “closed circle” in T2?
Susan, give Star Trek a chance. Allison and I both loved it. Allison maybe loved it even more than I did, and she almost always gets bored during action movies (especially car chases or gunfights without dialogue).
Star Trek is truly one of those something-for-everyone summer blockbusters.
Saw the movie with my 17 year old son. It was clearly targeted more towards him but it was every bit as good as the original. None of them were all that great of a story but lots of mindless shooting and explosions. Expecting more would be silly. I was much younger then and that helped. If you want to think while you watch go see Angels and Demons.
If I were to see Angels & Demons, the only things I would be able to think while I watch would be
“What is with Tom Hanks’ hair?”
“That’s terrible physics!”
“That’s nonsensical history!”
etc.
I thought Terminator Salvation was OK. I didn’t hate it (tho we were all laughing at the terrible ending)…it was fine.
And, I think i am in the minority here: I really liked Terminator 3.