Terminator Salvation

Well this review I'm going to separate into "What impressed me" and "What certainly did not"

WHAT WAS IMPRESSIVE:

The Landscape and Atmosphere:

In previous Terminator films we have only had brief (yet awesome, bar T3) glimpses of the post-nuclear war. This time we see things in 2018 in the daylight. Everything is just awesome, the look is just perfect, if there is one thing McG is good at, it's that he has great team of concept artists, his vision of post-nuclear landscape was just brilliant. I can imagine the land become more and more like the war we see in T1 and 2 in sequels.

The Special Effects:

For the first time CGI was used properly, and the physical props were great: The machines looked like they had been through war, they weren't shiny like in previous instalments, it looked like these machines had seen war. The renditioning of the original T-800 101 model was just awesome to see, and for the first time the CG T-800 felt organic, unlike the horrid CGI T-850's in T3.

The Terminator Designs:

I loved the design of the T-600, 700 and of course the 800 series, the HK's as well as the concept of Marcus Wright, even the glimpse at the psychotic shot circuit’s from T3 made me smile slightly. These were all awesome designs: I've always wondered what the T-600s looked like, all these designs exceeded my expectations.

The Script:

Ok now on paper this script wasn't as bad as it could have been: The was at least no cheap jokes like Arnie putting on the Elton John glasses, I enjoyed the general storyline. It wasn't a bad storyline. It's a welcome addition to the backstory of the future war. There were some nice references to Kyle's speach to Sarah in T1, and it didn't utterly dissapoint. I do have some complaints, but that will wait until I get to part 2.

The Character of Marcus Wright:

If there was anything salvageable about the characterisation it was the character of Marcus Wright: he at least had some qualities that you gave a shit about, and at least you were interested in him. This Terminator I was impressed with, and it was interesting that he was a proto-type for the T-800's, and it didn't seem forced, it seemed logical what the machines would do, and the experimentation continued on humans that were captured.

Small Nods to the Fans:

There were little nods here and there that I thought were quite cool, and imaginative, one such thing comes at the end when John Connor gets his scar on his eye: I felt it was an imaginative touch, and something I wasn't expecting.

The End Fight Scene:

Despite lacking suspense, the fight was pretty cool I can't deny that. There was one suspenseful part that came with the fight, and I thought it was executed well. Bravo.

Ok now we move on to

PARTS THAT WERE REALLY REALLY CRAP:

The Terminator Designs:

Despite having some awesome Terminator Designs I felt there were some Terminator Designs which made me angry: The first were those motorcycle Terminators. They lacked so much imagination it was unreal, the whole chase scene with tehm in angered me beyond the point of enjoying any scene that they were seen in. McG you suck for choosing this concept design.
Another design that I was disappointed in was the harvesters. The harvesters are part of the mytho, and I'm not saying that they shouldn’t have been in the film; but the design of the harvester's just lacked imagination, it felt like it was a rejected decepticon design. It just made my heart fall heavy.

The Script:

Ok despite the script on paper being ok, did anyone test this out by reading it out loud? The dialogue wasn't god damn awful, but it certainly wasn't organic, or thought provoking in any sense of the matter. The story was so unintelligent, but to be honest what action film is now-a-days? The action scenes for most part was utterly predictable, and despite trying to make this part of the Terminator trilogy there were too many action scenes, and ones which just felt too safe. I never for a moment felt like the characters were in danger. take the car chase in The Terminator: The chase didn't seem too scripted, you were kept on your toes the whole time, and you felt that Kyle and Sarah were in danger the whole time: This time you didn't feel any real danger. Another factor for me was the child safe lack of blood. Forgive me for looking back of the history of 12-As but isn't a 12-A allowed to be like a 15: It just warns parents that this shouldn't be suitable for those below 12? Therefore shouldn’t at least a bit of gore be allowed? Even T3 had a guy with an arm through his chest! I'm not complaining about the lack of swearing, but with the blood and gore combined with action sequences that had the PS3 in mind I really can't say much.
The script should have been re-written to have more organic dialogue, better characterisation and fewer, but better crafted action sequences, and at least some sort of violence which had an impact. Like it's T3 this had the spit shine of Hollywood all over it (not to say that Terminator isn't a Hollywood movie franchise).

The Characters:

The Characterisation in this script was awful, I didn't give a shit about any of the characters, there was nothing to make me give a shit about. The only characters I felt slight connection to was the young Kyle Reece and Marcus Wright. John Connor was bordering on Keanu Reeves, and everyone else was just a 2D character.

The Acting:

Ok we have some good actors here, but none of them seemed to be putting any effort into things. Yet again the only actors that seemed to be doing their job was Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin. Everyone else seemed pretty stock and didn't evoke any connection with you. Despite all my other complaints this was the largest disappointment.

The Music Score

Like most of the storyline and characters, I couldn't give a crap about the music score. The music was average at best, and didn't really contain the original theme tune. It would have been great to get some 80s synth or a remix of the music used in the future scenes of The Terminator. You know the fast paced synth? That would have been awesome. Instead we get very little, and very drab sound design. Something passable, but nothing that gives this movie individuality, or even anything similar with the original two. I really felt that I could add at least another half a star to this film if there was a strong soundtrack, the only good part was the fact that john Connor still listens to the same music as he di when he was a kid; that made me smile.

ALL IN ALL

Ok so Terminator Salvation was better than I thought it was going to be, it's certainly surpassed T3, but it fell nowhere near the great T1 and T2; which stand out fine on their own. But thinking about it: Nothing can, no matter how anyone could try you can't reach that standard again, it may not even be possible with James Cameron taking the reigns again. T1 and T2 are unbeatable, I'm not sure if comparing this film to T1 and 2 is fair, how can you reach perfection again? Then again I do think it is fair to criticise this movie, it could have been so much better, but I feel that I still welcome it as an addition to the series. I don't think it's as bad as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'd certainly swap T3 with T4 as a third movie if I had the chance.

On one last final final note (seriously) I know A T5 will be on it's way. I really hope that James Cameron can have some sort of creative input, like be the casting director, or the script writer, or even produce the movie, or if God exists: Direct the next film, take some creative control. His baby needs him, and if T5 wants to win some disillusioned fans and critics the Terminator series needs Jim more than any other film right now. Just someone who can have some control, can tell people where they are going wrong, bring some human drama, some thought evoking philosophy, and some heart stopping action. Maybe then T5 wont just be another possible 3.5 star film only slightly surpassing the last by half a point. I have accepted the inevitable: A storm is coming. Let's hope it's one we can really enjoy.

This film is Terminated with three battered severed T-800 skulls out of 5 shiny ones.