uuuuggghhhh. i don't know guys. some of you will probably skip this review the moment you see that i said 60%...and i don't blame you at all for it...but we all have to agree, this one was at least a little better than the third. it was far from great, most of what i've put for this movie is negative stuff. but i enjoyed it when it comes to the action and the particular things they were trying to attempt with the plot...and at the same time, not.
Visual Effects: I thought they were nice. or more to say, they were what they were suppose to be. they made the battles good, the terminators were great. and it was believable to me.
Sound Effects: it's not really my place to say it they were good or bad, but i thought they were interesting as far as the general effects for the terminators with the humming or whatever is the basic effect they would use for a terminator of any kind that is moving in some way.
Design: this is partly were the movie was particularity good. because with it being the future an everything, they used this movie to introduce pretty much most of the major terminator units from skynet. you have the T-600's T-700's, Motor-Terminator, HK's, whatever those terminator in the water were, the carrier ship that can reinforce itself with HK's, i can just go on. altogether, the design was great in terms of preparing for the events of the future with other things than terminators from Skynet.
Editing: Not very good. although i think it's possibly because they didn't give the editor some of the shots needed to make a few things make sense, or so that he wouldn't have to do what he did in some counts. i mean you have say, a part where a skynet scout is chasing Marcus, Star and Kyle, (they are driving a jeep during this chase) and there's a point were Kyle tells Marcus to drive while kyle tries to kick the scout. now basically the best you can know about that is from hearing Kyle say that, and you just realizes it happened in the next shot. now you are not really going to know that because so much is going on in the chase that you are not really going to pay attention to what anyone is shouting out right way. i realized this after watching the movie about three or more times (give a take) per times i borrowed the movie from the library. which means that with the kind of memory i have, i have this film memorized like all of my favorite Disney movies from Dumbo to Atlantis. and it's pretty much through that that i know this flaw and one or two other editing flaws. and now one is going to know that since most of you would likely only care to see this film only once. plus there also is a shot in one scene that the editor actually used twice. same place and probably at the same amount of time. so yeah.
Acting:
Sam Worthington/Marcus Wright: 2009 was a nice year for Worthington to be noticed a little more often than not in the show biz when it came to this movie & Avatar. But there wasn't that much for him to do for this one unlike Avatar. he really just had to do what was expected for the character and that was it. which, sure, it makes sense because his character played only a fair role in the events of the franchise despite being one of the main characters in the series. but still.
Anton Yelchin/Kyle Reese: same thing here. i think Yelchin just did what he was suppose to do for his character and that's all there is to is about it.
Bryce Dallas Howard/Kate Connor: now, sure, there wasn't much they could probably put for Kate Connor with the particular plot and the fact that she is pregnant during the film. but that's still kind of a drag that whether you liked her or not during the last film, you can still agree that it's ridiculous what they did concerning her for this film after just introducing her in T3.
Christian Bale/John Connor: *sigh* i don't get it. i just don't get it. i mean sure, it makes sense that John Connor would be a bit for serious after 14 years of fighting after T3...but you just have to dislike how Bale made him expressionless and a just plain over-serious. i mean it's kind cool if you are like watching the trailer or something like that for this film, but...no is my answer. i mean clearly 2009 was the year were after that pretty much everyone would believe the Christian Bale was going the right way to become the next Keanu Reeves. so yeah.
Plot: i saved plot for last because there is so much to say about it. it's basically about a man who was an executed con before judgement day who is resurrected 14 years later and become the main key that A) causes the creation of the T-800s to occur 10 years before they were originally created, and B)was the main cause for John Connor to find Kyle Reese during the war so that the rest of the events of the future as we know so far can come together.
Now part of the idea in having the film focus more on sam worthington's character a little more than John Connor is a decent smart step as far as taking this different than it was before from past Terminator movies. but part of how it is so takes a few things out of place. such as the fact that again, the T-800s (the normal terminators) were created early, some of the things that happen during Kyle Reese's capture, there's some others that i've forgotten about but still. and there are a few plot holes in the movie. 1) when John fights that T-800 and pours hot mettle on it, it stays as it it when it would actually melt like the T-1000 and the T-800 from the second movie. 2) during the end of the movie, Skynet uses Marcus as a way of him temporarily take down Skynet's defenses in order to lure John Connor into the Skynet base so they can kill him while he tries to rescue Kyle. question is, if they know what John and Marcus are up to, why didn't Skynet bring it's defenses back up the moment John Connor is in the base. they seriously left the killing to just one T-800 (who almost succeeded) where they could've brought everything Skynet has and boom, no more John Connor.
The future of the Terminator Franchise: unknown to this day but it's currently very fragile. the latest that's been hear is that one company is trying to make a 3D animated reboot even thought they do not have the rights. and it also was just announced on Feb 6th, 2011 that Universal studios is considering a fifth movie with the script being written by Chris Morgan. But here's some of the big things we need to consider about trying to go further with this franchise: it's going to be a tricky road story-wise for them to pick up were they left off with this movie. we have to consider telling Kyle & John's time together before Kyle goes to the past, maybe something about the T-800 from the second movie, get to the point where John gets killed, and then finish the story from there...and in the process, they have to eventually bring John and Kate's children in the picture, and bring in the WAR!!!! all there was was mere skirmishes in this movie. and like in the past, they leave some misadventures tot he fates of some major point in the war. i mean it was a misadventure here in this film that lead to the destruction of the main Skynet base or "Skynet Central" as it is called. this is a lot they have to do in order to finish the franchise the best they can (or choose to if you think about it). and i'm not going to hide it, even if they succeed, it'll take a miracle to make any future movies any better than the last two. All I can honestly say is that whatever they do, i hope they can manage to make the movies they need to finish the story for good and they end it...well. I just hope for that for this franchise rather than it being left as a lost cause...which it may me regardless, but forgive me if you totally disagree with me when I say that through it all, they will finally close the book, nothing more.
So this is my review for Terminator Salvation. it had a lot of bad stuff, but i for one enjoyed it for the fair part even though i've added mostly negative things about it in this review. It wasn't great but I think it was certainly better than T3.
