Customer Reviews

Terminator Salvation (Full-Screen Edition)

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(88)
3 star:		(61)
2 star:		(46)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

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, and Marcus glances at her briefly.

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 with additional dialogue between the two.

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. I liked this scene, not sure why they cut it. It ties T2 in, and shows the impact of Sarah Connor. (Is this where Christian Bale had his stage lights tantrum?)

8) Marcus/T-800 fight scene is slightly longer, shows Marcus getting pummeled a bit more by the T-800. Also, John tries to revive Marcus an additional time, before collapsing in exhaustion.

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 like 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 her relationship with John.

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 with both counts; 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 protagonist 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.

Additionally, the movie's opening and closing scenes had a poetic touch to it, which I appreciated. Marcus begins the film about to be executed, giving his body to a cybernetic program. The film ends with the same shots of needle plungers being depressed, albeit for a different reason. Marcus leaves the world as a cyborg, but giving his body to a human cause.

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.

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.

The Terminator franchise is an odd beast. Since the original 1984 feature, it has been sold to three (soon to be four) different production companies and two different studios. The only times the plot and dialogue have blended well together were in the first two movies, thanks to the care and writing skill of the younger James Cameron. Since then, the timeline, plot, and characters of Terminator have gone through mutations and minor changes, either to the delight or disappointment of fans (usually the latter). For a franchise that doesn't have millions of fans like Star Trek or even Battlestar Galactica, Terminator still has legs. And Terminator Salvation was a great opportunity to tie some loose ends left over from the last movie and TV series, and reboot the franchise in the hopes of producing a John Connor trilogy.

This film is either the first film of a second trilogy, or an intermediate movie while the future of the franchise goes up for bid in a Hollywood auction in 2010. So how is this movie?

First the bad news. Some of the dialogue, as is the case in too many action films, is poor. I've always believed movie producers should hire more than script doctors. They should hire an experienced screenwriter or playwright to give the dialogue a go-over. The plots are usually okay. But the words coming out of character's mouths can always use an upgrade. Again, I look at Aliens as a model in how smart action movie dialog should be written. At least the dialogue in Terminator Salvation holds together for the first 20 minutes of the 117 minute director's cut.

Slightly less bad news - if the director prefers to be known as 'MCG' (Joseph McGinty Nichol), and whose previous works were the two Charlie's Angels films, you know he's going to spin his wheels and show-off a little bit. And MCG does. But he also proves for the first time that he is capable of assembling top-grade action sequences that are both thrilling and comprehensible (unlike Christopher Nolan, who seemed incapable of directing a good action sequence in The Dark Knight, IMO). MCG seems to have done his homework. His attention to detail setting-up and executing action sequences is similar to the directors he grew-up with (George Lucas, Brian DePalma, John Woo, James Cameron). If I were the executive producer, I would have wanted Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) to direct, or at least a director who didn't give himself a nickname.

And finally, the movie does go off the rails a bit towards the end. The second half of the movie is poor and cliched. Christian Bale gets more screen time in the second half, but the final acts test the boundaries of medical and physical plausibility. Also the second half is weighed-down by b-movie explosions, obvious homages to the first two Terminator movies, and brief tips of the cap to The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Aliens (not so brief with the last movie, as the entire climax seems to replicate Ripley's Rescue). The first half of the film is clearly better than the second half. At least the two halves are bridged by a most impressive (and original) chase and battle sequence in which all the great elements of the film come together beautifully. That sequence is simply crackerjack.

But everything else in the movie I see as good news, in varying amounts. Masio Kassar remained as executive producer (from T2 and T3) and hired as much Terminator talent as he could - namely the editor and an apprentice of Stan Winston's. The casting is fine. The photography, despite being handled by a disliked, unorthodox DP, is excellent, and matches the film's bleak theme and outlook. The sound design is close to brilliant, with the machines sounding radically different from the previous three movies to awesome effect. Danny Elfman's restrained score stays off the soundtrack during most action sequences, allowing the jet engines and explosions to speak for themselves. Art direction and costumes are all first-rate. Special effects are almost all top-notch, with the exception of a few cheap explosions and some of the aircraft shots.

Some plot weaknesses and poor dialogue aside, this is a wonderfully bleak movie. Mankind is almost doomed. The machines are smarter and sometimes more brutal than the previous films. The machines are not always consistent in their speed (hey they have to take their time to aim at our heroes), but they are always quick to destroy human vehicles before humans, and that is a very welcome bit of smart military strategy on their part. And some humans are fairly brutal as well.

It's tough for a studio to have a bleak movie as its summer tent pole, but that's what Terminator Salvation was to Warner, which struck box office gold a year earlier with The Dark Knight. Terminator Salvation failed to crack the # 1 spot in its opening weekend. But it will be remembered for being the best Terminator feature in 18 years, and that is saying quite a lot.

I agree with previous posts! I am so tired of them trying to shove Blue Ray down everyone's throats by forcing them to purchase BR instead of DVDs because they are not putting extras, or alternate versions, or even second discs with the DVD versions anymore. I don't own a Blue Ray player and I'm not buying one just so I can watch extras (however the extras are half the reason I buy a movie a lot of times). I'll keep buying regular old DVD's if they have the FULL PACKAGE or I won't buy any at all and wait until they release it with all the extras. It's crap.

I'm in the entertainment industry and I want to see the storyboards, the preproduction, the special effects, hear the commentary, etc. Every time a new wave of movies are released there's less and less on the DVD and they're putting it on TWO blue ray discs (which defeats the purpose of blue ray anyway - it's supposed to hold more and they're putting the same mount of content on 2 blue rays as they did on 2 DVDs). They're just trying to get as much money out of people as they can. It's CRAP.

Overall I enjoyed this movie, but am not happy about the DVD vs. Blue Ray release. Might as well stop making DVD's altogether if you want us to buy Blue Ray so badly.

I thought Salvation was decent, and I was definitely considering purchasing it when it arrives on DVD...well, not anymore. The DVD version is only coming with the theatrical cut while the Blu-ray is coming with that AND the director's cut. Why? DVD is far from being a dead format. I know the studios and such are trying to promote Blu-ray and whatnot, but there are plenty of other ways to do this. Until the director's cut is available on DVD, no purchase from me.

I dont care what naysayers or even critics who get paid to criticize the film, this IS a worthy sequel. Sure it aint the same without Arnold being there throughout the movie but ever since watching flashbacks of the future war in the previous installments, id say it was about time that someone made a film that shows what happens next after judgement day happend. If you watch closely, you would notice more than one homage to the first two films. From seeing the ruins of observation area where the first terminator arrived in T1, Marcus showing Reese how to handle a shotgun by tying a string to it which Reese did in T1 to help hide his gun in his trenchcoat, to a similar chase scene with a truck & the motor-terminators lookin like the first chace scene in T2, and even John Connor playin ( You Could Be Mine)
by Gun's N Roses to lower a motor-terminator into a trap etc. Anton Yelchin really impressed me as a young Kyle Reese throughout the film just as Sam Worthington played a great cyborg who later finds out he's a pawn to eliminate mankind. Christian Bale pulled off John Connor well himself. As for Moon Bloodgood, Common, & Bryce Dallas Howard i would say it was unfair to discredit them when they didnt get that much screen time. But anyways, if you're a true terminator fan you will enjoy this film. Especially the climax that leaves you wondering what awaits John connor in further battles. Keep in mind that the film takes place in the early years of the war and if you still dont like it, stick to the Terminator: TSCC tv series instead if thats more your taste.

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?

This movie was sub-par. It was just called Terminator to sell tickets. I didn't enjoy more than half of this movie. It was OK. But the other three where so much better. For those of you who scoffed at T3, I think after you saw this one you where probably more grateful for T3 than you had been. Let's hope, since they did take in a little bit of a profit, if you factor in the worldwide total, let's hope the next one is better. Let's hope they get better writers and a better director and a better soundtrack. I'd hate to see the Terminator franchise meet its own Judgement Day.

I think my favorite part about this movie wasn't the movie itself but Christian Bale's on set tirade.

I give this movie a 3/10. Sorry...
It grows on you a little but, mostly it disappoints.

Some spoilers follow...

I really expected a bad movie considering it was "Charlie's Angels" McG at the helm, but it actually had the same "B" movie feeling the other three had...he could use a little help in the story editing department (the flow was a little clunky here and there...almost like stuff was missing), but the script seemed solid enough to me. Like most movies these days, I'm sure there is a great deal of footage on the floor so to speak, that could end up being an extended version of this that could possibly clarify things a bit.

The production was outstanding...this will a great demo disc on BR, especially with the sound design...very layered and intense. The special effects were great and everything from sets to make-up to costumes and photography was a step up from the earlier films, giving it an epic feel. It has a gritty look to the action that suits the setting and story perfectly. The physical action were really well done...again, adding an intense realism to the movie without being over the top. Stand-outs include the sensational "Harvester" chase scene and both times Conner is in a chopper...watch out!

Another surprise here is the choice of Danny Elfman, and his score sounds quite good...a little too reminiscent of his work on Marky Mark's Ape flick maybe, but it still works none the less....he gives the music a more traditional orchestral sound opposed to the over-use of synthesizers that many action films rely on these days. It was cool to hear Fidel's main motif pop in once in a while at just the right times. There's an interesting recurring motif for the Marcus character that reminds me of Ron Grainer's work on "The Omega Man", further adding to that cool `70's apocalyptic vibe that parts of this movie has.

Now the cast...as mentioned by many other reviews, this is definitely Sam Worthington's show...the story invests a lot of time in Marcus' journey through the film an it helps that Worthington does a really good job with his physical performance (especially with those little nods to Arnold's "stillness" along the way) and he comes across well acting-wise too. I found his struggle with what he really was provided the most poignant moments in the movie...a man trapped in a new existence as a Terminator, fighting to stay connected with his flawed humanity and looking for some kind of redemption for his own past and ending up providing a "salvation" for the resistance and it's new leader....cool stuff and an interesting twist on the whole "Terminator" story.

Bale was almost a supporting actor in this thing...he was competent, but not outstanding. Again, his role could have been sabotaged by the script and the editing as much as anything... Compared to Marcus, Bale's John Conner seemed a little one-note with his performance throughout the film. Could be considered the nature of his character here but... There were some cool moments with him though, like when he pops on that GnR tune before capturing the MotoTerminator that brought back memories of the Connor character's motorbike stunts in T2. I also liked that it was pretty clear that not everyone in the resistance (most notably the higher-ups) though he was "all that", but the grunts in the trenches did...gave him an everyman appeal that was pretty cool.

Another show-stealer was Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese...this young man is proving to be quite the chameleon as an actor this summer, first in "Star Trek" as the precocious boy-genius Chekov and now here he is almost literally channeling Michael Biehn (right down to talking through clenched teeth) as the young resistance fighter Reese.

Both of the female characters are a little short-shifted here, but both Howard and Bloodgood do a good job in the brief scenes they have.

Like the recent "Star Trek" picture, this one had a lot of visual nods (and some obvious lines) to the earlier films, from the cool opening credits looking similar to the ones the first film to a lot of physical gags from other movies as well, especially with Marcus. The action sequences were well-staged and packed some punch. And yes, the Arnold cameo featured some excellent work from ILM...very well integrated both visually and in the story....very cool. The ending? Well, I'll just leave it at...I like what the film presented way better than the "leaked" one....yeah, maybe it seemed a little sappy to some, but I though it fit well.

The main thing that really shines though in this movie for me is that it really looks like an effort by folks that really cared about the Terminator saga and wanted to do a great job. As with any of these "franchise" movies, there are always fans who disagree with the approach taken with the film or story elements or casting choices or whatever. But it works great for me...I hope this movie finds a big, receptive audience on DVD and Blu-Ray...

But...if this ends up being the end of the line for the Terminator saga (and the slowing domestic BO suggests it might be)...it's a good one, but I'm game for more...

One of the best movies to come out of 2009, Terminator Salvation was exactly what the franchise needed to reinvigorate itself. 2003's Terminator 3 did for this franchise what the Maginot Line did for France in WWII: Nothing. In fact, I'd hazard to guess the Maginot Line was at least a passive failure while Terminator 3 fell more along the lines of "Is there any possible way I can remove my rectum through my mouth?" type of epic failure.

Thankfully, Terminator Salvation rectifies this. While not as action packed as its three predecessors, we are finally introduced to John Connor, whose very existence has been the crux of the Terminator dogma. Exploring the initial structure of the human resistance, and its looming possibility of schism, truly gave one a sense of the scattered and desolate nature of humanity. It also showcases a stage in the ever-changing evolution of Skynet and its slow, rumbling path towards human extinction. Skynet isn't everywhere yet and the resistance, while holding out, still lacks the momentum, and personnel, to truly strike any critical blows against its AI antagonist. This sets up a very well-written story and poses the question "What truly makes us human?"

The Blu-Ray transfer enhances the visual and audio experience and makes this installment a new and worthy torchbearer for the franchise. I would highly recommend this title to anyone.