{"id":10858,"date":"2025-01-28T15:26:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10858"},"modified":"2025-01-28T15:26:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:26:51","slug":"terminator-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/28\/terminator-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"Terminator Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Terminator Salvation <\/strong>(2009)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense scenes of sci-fi action and violence, some disturbing images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: McG\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Danny Elfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Shane Hurlbut\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 21, 2009 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jane Alexander, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Ironside, Ivan G\u2019Vera, Jadagrace.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $125.3M (US)\/$371.3M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I am of the opinion that the only Terminator movies that matter are the first two. The first one put James Cameron on the map and made a star of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The second was a blockbuster hit in which Cameron revolutionized the art of special effects. There was nowhere to go but down after that as we saw in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, a decent but unexceptional three-quel that almost looks like a sci-fi-action classic compared to Terminator Salvation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The short version is this: Terminator Salvation<\/strong> is a convoluted mess. That much is obvious given that it\u2019s directed by McG, the guy behind two of the Charlie\u2019s Angels movies and This Means War. The only thing he gets right is setting it mostly in the future where the war against the machines is in full swing. Now that I think about it, he gets one other thing right. He replaced Nick Stahl with Christian Bale as John Connor, the leader of the Resistance. He\u2019s a much better casting choice than personality-free Stahl. That\u2019s about it. The rest of the fourth entry in the series is crap.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Terminator Salvation <\/strong>opens in 2003 where Dr. Serena Kogan (Carter, Alice in Wonderland) is trying to convince death row inmate Marcus Wright (Worthington, Avatar) to donate his body to science after his execution by lethal injection. He agrees on the condition that she lets him kiss her. Cut to the year 2018 where John Connor (Bale, The Dark Knight) is leading an attack on a Skynet base. He discovers plans for a new kind of Terminator, one that incorporates the use of human tissue. That’s right, cyborgs. After a nuclear explosion wipes out his entire unit, John emerges as one of two survivors. The other is Marcus who starts heading towards Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0John returns to Resistance headquarters (located in a submarine) and tells the leader General Ashdown (Ironside, Total Recall) of his discovery. The General has news of his own. A radio frequency believed to be capable of shutting down Skynet has been discovered and a plan to launch an offensive against the Skynet base in San Francisco in four days time is in motion. This is in response to an intercepted “kill list” that has John Connor’s name on it. He’s second to a teenager named Kyle Reese (Yelchin, Star Trek) who, as we all know, will play an important role in the fight against the machines.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Marcus encounters Reese in the company of a mute child named Star (Jadagrace) on his way to L.A. They\u2019re not together long; Reese and the kid are snatched up by Skynet and taken to the San Francisco facility for extermination. He\u2019s ultimately led to Connor by a downed pilot (Bloodgood, Faster) he saves after her plane is shot down. That\u2019s when his secret finally comes out. Let\u2019s all say it together. MARCUS IS A TERMINATOR! It\u2019s news to him. All this time, he believed he was human. Needless to say, Connor and his followers don\u2019t trust him (or \u201cit\u201d as they call him). For all they know, he\u2019s there to kill their leader.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As I sit here and read over what I\u2019ve written so far, I\u2019m wondering if I should go back and edit it down. [DRAMATIC PAUSE] Okay, I\u2019ve thought it over and I\u2019m going to leave it as is. Terminator Salvation<\/strong> is a hot mess; it only makes sense for my review to be one too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 We all knew that somebody would eventually make a Terminator movie set in the post-apocalyptic world. Much to my surprise, it\u2019s not as bleak-looking as I expected. In fact, the world looks pretty good for a place that was supposedly destroyed 15 years earlier. That\u2019s just one of many missteps made by McG who basically flushes the series down the toilet with this inferior installment. The action scenes are overedited to the point of confusion. I realize that\u2019s par for the course for most action movies these days, but it\u2019s insulting to Cameron who created some of the best action set-pieces ever captured on film- e.g. the police station attack in the first movie, the truck chase in the second. He gave you a sense of geography, movement and position. McG does none of that. I\u2019d be impressed if I wasn\u2019t so disheartened.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the acting, I can say only one word, wow. Notice I didn\u2019t capitalize it or use an exclamation point. That should tell you how I feel about this aspect of Terminator Salvation<\/strong>. McG did right by the character of John Connor by casting Bale. He\u2019s believable as a hardened, war-scarred soldier who still has a measure of humanity despite all the inhumanity around him. BTW, it was on the set of this movie that Bale has his infamous, profane-laden meltdown (\u201cGOOD FOR YOOOUUUU!!!!\u201d). It\u2019s on YouTube; you should give it a listen. It\u2019s better than anything in the actual movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Worthington is no substitute for Schwarzenegger. He\u2019s barely an actor. He\u2019s terrible in Terminator Salvation<\/strong>. He has no screen presence. He\u2019s just there and that\u2019s it. Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) is totally and completely miscast as Kate, John\u2019s wife and second-in-command. She makes no impression whatsoever in a role originally intended for Charlotte Gainsbourg who had to drop out at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict. That\u2019s too bad, she would have been a great replacement for Claire Danes who played the role in T3. The late Yelchin does okay as Reese, but he\u2019s no Michael Biehn. Ironside is criminally underused.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The effects in Terminator Salvation<\/strong> are anything but special. There\u2019s nothing innovative or ground-breaking. It makes me wonder what the producers spent the $200M budget on. It’s kind of strange watching a PG-13-rated Terminator film. These movies are known for the amount of violence in them. It\u2019s still pretty violent, but it\u2019s noticeably toned down. It’s also a little strange watching a Terminator movie without Schwarzenegger even though he makes sort of a cameo near the end of the movie. You’ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s the bottom line. Terminator Salvation<\/strong> is the weakest entry in the series. It\u2019s loud, convoluted and confusing. To its credit, it\u2019s not a lazy movie. It tries, but keeps falling on its ass due to a lackluster screenplay and poor direction. It is a major disappointment.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terminator Salvation (2009)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense scenes of sci-fi action and violence, some disturbing images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: McG\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Danny Elfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Shane Hurlbut\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 21, 2009 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-sci-fi-fantasy","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Terminator-Salvation-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10917,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10858\/revisions\/10917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}