Movie Review: Terminator Salvation (2009)
It's really a shame it ended up this boring
Photo: Warner Bros.
Terminator Salvation is a big dull, predictable dud that counts on monotonous action sequences far too often, while making characters and story secondary. As Star Trek proved only two weeks earlier, story isn't always important as long as you create entertaining characters and put them in exciting circumstances. Too bad Terminator Salvation has characters such as Christian Bale growling in his Batman voice, bringing absolutely nothing to a character we are meant to believe is the savior of the world, as he battles mindless CG-animated robots. To top it off, you know there's trouble when the emotional core of the film revolves around a robot and that robot isn't named WALL•E.
Set in 2018, we are introduced to a post-apocalyptic world in which the surviving humans are battling the machine-controlled Skynet and its army of robots. It's like watching a poor man's Matrix Revolutions without any back-story. You would have thought if they were going to rip-off The Matrix they would have at least chosen the better of the three films. As it turns out nothing about this film feels new, including Skynet's Blade Runner-esque skyline and a similar Matrix-style computer code, shown as some sort of computer DNA.
The cast includes Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Common, Bryce Dallas Howard, Helena Bonham Carter and Terry Crews. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Terminator Salvation" is a Warner Bros. release, directed by McG and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.
Christian Bale playing John Connor is a complete letdown. Early on he is barking his lines offering little more than background noise. He softens his tone when dealing with his wife Kate Connor played by Bryce Dallas Howard, whose pregnancy goes unexplained for the entire film making her appearance worthless unless something major is planned for follow-up films.
As Marcus, Worthington does just fine, but the role is so limited to say any acting was done would be a real stretch. The same could really be said for everyone as the script written by John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris is so boring you just hope the next turn in the plot will manage to surprise you until you finally realize it never will.
The troubles with this film are numerous, but it goes beyond the writing and the acting as director McG did absolutely nothing with the money he was given outside of blowing things up. Seriously, there is a tree line explosion so reminiscent of Tropic Thunder it is the first time I have actually laughed at an explosion in an action film. His use of rain and fire places him above Michael Bay on the list of director's enamored by the use of inexplicable explosions and environmental emotional cues. His action set pieces are fantastic until they are ruined by monotony and coincidental happenings. Had they been anywhere near exciting in the first place I might not have minded, but as it stands it is just one more head slapper as you wonder, What were they thinking? *
There are, however, a couple of bright spots, but unfortunately they are all superficial and don't benefit a film unless what they are gussying up is worth the polish. The production design of Terminator Salvation is spectacular. Shane Hurlbut, the cinematographer that suffered the wrath of Christian Bale in the widely heard on-set rant, shot a very good-looking film. Occasionally the world shown on screen reminded me of images painted in Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" as a gray hue was used to dim the post-apocalyptic set in which this boring action film takes place. To build on that, the effects are quite fancy and I enjoyed seeing the evolution of the Terminator machines (including one surprise appearance), but all that is secondary to what should have been a motivating story. The problem is, there wasn't much to go on.
This all begs the question, where does the Terminator franchise go from here? Quite honestly it could go anywhere since all Terminator Salvation does is establish new actors for characters you are already familiar with. Very little is accomplished in this film and once you get to the end you are no better off than you were in the beginning. This is one of those few times I am giving a low grade to a film I don't have any kind of animosity toward as much as I have no interest. Terminator Salvation bored me. After about 20 minutes I was beginning to think, "Uh oh," and when the friend I was with turned to me 10 minutes later and said, "This is awful!" I knew I wasn't the only one wondering what went wrong.
* Something I want to ask McG in conjunction with one of the most egotistical directorial credits I have ever seen.
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seriously????? a D ????? well who am i kidding.
Ah, but is it better or worse than Charlie's Angels?!
Maybe this means we`ll get a Charlie’s Angels 3!!!
Wow why am i seriously not surprised? They gave it to McG as if he ever had the capacity as a director to create another outstanding Terminator movie. Terminator for me ended before the credits of Judgement Day, without James Cameron there is no Terminator.
(to the other posters)
your know the movie hasnt even been released yet, I would say atleast give yourself the chance to watch it before u write it off as crap. I mean in all due respect the movie probably isnt very good, but it is still just brads opinion on just HOW BAD it truly is.
I saw it and gave it 8 out 10.it's not perfect,but it certainly ain't boring!
"To top it off, you know there’s trouble when the emotional core of the film revolves around a robot "
Errr…that is the point.
do you really go to a terminator movie for the story? it's all about cool robots blowing shit up. if McD did that, then it should be fine.
@theRizza:
Nice point made… Terminator has always been about the action rather than the story… Negative reviews wont stop me from watching this one
wait! it's a joke!! D worse than Wolverine! people(journalists) who saw it in France said it's not as good as Star Trek but really better than Wolverine!! and really better than Wolverine! yes,the real star is Marcus Right but the movie is well constructed,every one has a part of cake (except Kate Connor),good stuff of Fx and a very strange end! when i see evey TV spots or trailers,i see good stuff! a good B yes!
To people before me, if you're that disagreeing with a review and care that much just ignore the review, are you that dependant on a yay or nay from a man you've never met?
@Theo: McG already said he was done with the Charlie's Angels franchise, saying he wanted to concentrate more on making sci-fi films.
@EnglishGavz: if you have that much of a problem with people who disagree with a review from a man you’ve never met why did you read it in the first place?
"To top it off, you know there’s trouble when the emotional core of the film revolves around a robot and that robot isn’t named WALL•E." LOL
Terminator 1 and 2 has not always been about all action as some of you claim, they also HAD a story. And a good one at that. I will not go into the theater with the Michael Bay fan's rallying cry of: "It's all about blowing things up, who cares about the story." James Cameron's Terminator films are more than that. Yes, they have an insane amount of action, but he never lost sight of the story for in the end, that's what will endear films to viewers. I'm hoping Terminator Salvation is in the vicinity of the earlier Cameron films.
@Raichu: true that, james cameron movies have both good action and story, micheal bay movies are just mindless action, on top that you have to put up with shia la douche.
Form this week's New Releases I learned that Brad isn't too fond of Enemy at the Gates but does like Spy Game, two movies I would recommend in a heart beat. Regardless of TS reviews, I'm still going to see it.
I'm curious about the directorial credit though. I worked two seasons on a show where each ep ended with an animated 'created by' credit revolving around the world. More egotistical than that?
@ddurden33: I read your comment on Robert Pattinson too, and you called him a douche as well. Are you jealous of successful popular young actors or what? I mean, come on.
what a shock you all get on the bandwagon oh mgg this no substance that, do I need to remind you the first Terminator movie was an 80's action arnie vechile so for the love of all that is holy get off your high horse you small minded tit and as for everyone else go see the movie and make your own minds up instead of listerning to this little tit with a bee in his bonet and for the record no one expected an oscar worthy script just good old robots blowing shit up FUCK YEAH
You know what, I expected this. I really should've seen the signs- there was no real story to be seen in the previews (all they show is shit being blown up anyway), McG hasn't made a good action movie (I kinda dug 'We are Marshall" though, and "Charlie's Angels" is so bad it's good), plus these movies (sequel/prequels) are always unnecessary and stupid (Remember "X-Men Origins" from 3 weeks ago? Really, you guys forgot already?).
Regardless, I'm still going to see it because I've got a hankering for robots and blowing shit up. I can hopefully deal with the complete lack of a good story…hopefully.
Although this pretty much means that "Terminator" won't be one of the highest grossing films of the year then. It'll top out at under $200 million, especially if word-of-mouth is terrible, as I'm expecting it to be.
Hey Brad, just wondering, I don't know if you mentioned this in another article or what, but what are your thoughts on the other entries of the "Terminator" franchise? Did you like number 3, or are you one of those that disregards that the third entry exists?
well the film is getting terrible reviews around the web..it got a D- at filmschoolrejects.com who are citing the same poblems as brad did…
personally i am still going to see it but the terminator franchise ended for me when arnold stop playing the character and when mcg took over it was the final nail in the coffin
@theRizza: I am pretty sure T1&2 had an awesome story, and weren't just robots blowing shit up.
@Angel: the real young hollywood talent that anyone really cares about goes like this, joesph gordon levitt, emile hirsch, ryan gosling, jamie bell, and ben foster atleast when it comes to males, shia and patti are young, but talentless and annoying as hell, now thats the general consensus around. besides i dont appreciate you calling me out, and judging me, only after reading a few lines on a movie website.
reviews are reviews, heck, they even gave angels and demons a C+ because of the last 20 minutes. For real? I dunno, maybe these reviewers aren't just the average Joe. We need reviews from the masses' point of view.
This "it's all about action and explosions, to hell with the story" mantra that many seems to go by nowadays, pretty much tells you all you need to know about the person. Since when did it become criminal to ask that an "action" movie have a decent, structure, and well thought out story? Just because people ask that a "Summer Blockbuster" have a story, it doesn't mean they are asking for some Oscar-Worthy life altering divine story.
@Topy: "We need reviews from the masses' point of view."
That's why film critics came out, bro. The "masses" would then be called "film critics," and your logic would then be circular. So…yeah…
lets hold onto your guns fellas, this is not some ordinary movie you can pass on after a few bad reviews, it deserves the respect for being a truly ground breaking action movie franchise (thanks to james cameron), now i know its not completely loyal to the first 2 movies, but it still bears the same name, so i think it deserves our 9.25, so we can see it for ourselves how good or bad it really is.
The story of TS is just a footnote of the original movies. It has no plot and it doesn't further the saga in any way. It just explains the trivial story-setup events which were referred to in one sentence in the previous movies.
And it has huge plot holes.
@asdf:
Nope, definitely not the point. The cause of humanity has always been the core of the Terminator franchise… NOT the robots. It's the human characterization that made the first two (particularly T2) great movies.
well I just saw this tonight and I would have to think a D rating is a little low compared to other films, I mean this is def better then wolverine, fast and furious, and countless other films with a higher rating. In my opinion this is a great movie to spend your 10 bucks on and I dont think there was anything wrong with it aside from people seeming to want it to be somthing its not.
If your take the movie for what it is and not hope for somthing different you should have a great time.
I was thinking how strange the judging of sequels is. I did not like this film, but I was thinking if this had been the first entry of the franchise, it may of been considered a sci-fi film with interesting ideas, and be much more enjoyable as it is. Look at Knowing, if that film had been a sequel or remake, it would not get the love it did. Star Wars prequels may be considered sci -fi masterpieces had there not been superior films before it. Does anyone get what I am saying?
@chewbaca69:
I gotta agree with u one that one chewbaca, id also like to add how it seems if the sequals/remakes of films try to use more original ideas they can be quite good, a good example would be The Dark Knight, seems there was alot more effort put into it rather then just makeing it a generic sequal where batman stops a bad guy.
@chewbaca69: I get what you're saying, but I disagree. Terminator Salvation is bad no matter how you look at it. The ideas may be looked at more fondly, but the film itself is a failure.
The Star Wars prequels I may give a little more leeway on, but even then, there are aspects such as annoying characters, stunted storytelling and terrible acting that set them back. They may be looked at in a better light, but I definitely don't think they would be considered masterpieces… I also don't think they would have existed without the original trilogy, and certainly not on that budget. Those stories were accepted purely based on the success of the first three films, not on their high caliber of storytelling.
I also wouldn't say Knowing got much love considering its 33% RottenTomatoes rating.
@Brad Brevet: Yeah i just got shut down and have no rebutle haha. But the ideas Knowing presented were looked at fairly fondly right? I thought it was a bad film but presented some cool, somewhat original ideas, even if it was failure for other reasons. Now if Knowing had been a remake of a film that had the same ideas, I would look at it as a complete failure.
Juat saw Terminator Salvation, and I gotta say that it may be a lot of things but it was not boring for sure. I think critics are expecting too much from what are supposed to be mere 'mindless' action movies. Wolverine and T4 were exactly that, and Tranformers will be more of the same, except the action will kick more ass!
i thenk that harry potter is gowing to be a good movie
Terminator Salvation is a very good movie. It is obvious that even without Schwarzenegger the movie can be good. The action scenes are top-notch.