This post is full of major spoilers, read at your own risk.
So I just got back from seeing this flick, and I have to admit - it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It was impressive in many ways, and I thought it really tied everything together well while also providing a bit of fan service to followers of the series like myself. The casting was brilliant, including the likes of Michael Ironside as the resistance commander, and of course the gruff, nearly unintelligible voice of Batman makes an appearance as Christian Bale assumes the role of resistance leader John Connor. I feel like nearly all of the parts were well cast, the only real disappointment in this area was that Common didn't have more screen time.
The action was fast and furious...pardon the pun, but this is one aspect of the film that kind of bugged me. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were downright incredible, but at times I felt like the director was playing to the adolescent male XTREEEEMMME crowd with over the top stunts and ridiculous chase scenes. Some of the terminator motorcycle stuff could have been cut out completely and I think the film would have been better for it, but oh well. For the most part the action scenes were very well done.
As a fan of the Terminator series since the first film in the early 1980's, I think that Salvation did the series justice and most importantly sets the stage for even more Terminator movies in the hopefully near future. Since I'm tired of writing sentences, here are some bullet points of things I liked and disliked about the movie:
Things that were the shit:
- Special Effects - possibly some of the best I've seen in film to date
- Sound - perfect in every way, guns and explosions sound real and are ear-piercingly loud
- Costumes - someone spent a lot of time creating costumes for the characters in this film, and it shows. Excellent.
- Casting - as I said above, utterly brilliant.
- Story - Fantastic. Lots of tie-ins to the previous two Terminator movies, including gems like showing how John Connor got his scar and the origins of the first cybernetic Terminator.
- The appearance of quasi-Arnold in his nude T800 glory.
- I think the Guns n Roses song from T2: Judgment Day made a reappearance in Salvation, although I haven't seen T2 in awhile so I can't be sure.
Things that were bullshit:
- "Xtreme" stunts that seemed more suited to the next The Fast and The Furious sequel than a Terminator flick.
- Forced lines from past movies "Come with me if you want to live" and such that just made me roll my eyes and really ruined the immersion factor.
- Some parts of the story seemed awfully obvious...like the fact that Marcus Wright turns out to be a Terminator. They really buried the lead with this one.
- The PG-13 rating. This movie should have been R through and through...I wanted to see Terminators ripping bodies apart and smashing heads, not just tossing dudes around into random walls and what not.
That's about it. 5/5 Stars, I will be seeing this in theaters again soon, probably later today.
Log in to comment