Terminator Salvation was one of my most anticipated films of the year. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype for myself and many other Terminator fans, let alone the critics who tore it apart in the plethora of negative reviews found online and in print everywhere.
While the movie is still just opening in many of the foreign markets, its financial performance in theaters is a clear disappointment for director McG and the studio. I wonder if they’re still considering forming a trilogy out of it…
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The movie opened on May 21st in North America to bring in around $42.5 million, significantly less than its monthly competitors in Star Trek, Up and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. A big factor in this is the fact that it opened on the date as Night of the Museum 2 which devoured the family segment of the moviegoers that weekend and ended up being the number one film, beating out the fourth Terminator installment.
That being said, I’m sure the awful reviews of the film didn’t help it much either. On Rotten Tomatoes, Terminator Salvation is sitting at 34% and as of today, Terminator Salvation has only brought in around $120 million worldwide while its production budget was $200. It’ll still bring in more with its foreign releases but its near done in its key markets with new films opening every week taking the viewers away.
For instance, this weekend we had Up and Drag Me to Hell open to fantastic reviews and positive fan reception and next weekend we have a pair of new comedies, so I can’t see many people going to see T4 now with all the other options and Star Trek still traveling at warp speed.
Is the moral of the story that Terminator needs Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead? Many fans thought that leading up to Salvation and it seems the Studio now thinks that too with their most recent act of desperation to bring in more fans to see the flick. The latest TV spot for the movie reveals one of the surprise treats of the movie that wasn’t really a big surprise for those following updates for the movie online. That surprise is a cameo by Arnold, digitally added to the classic T-800 unit for a short scene in the film.
I guess its no longer a spoiler anymore since it is in the TV commercials – Check it out for yourself:
Don’t be fooled by this – What you see in the trailer is pretty much all the screen time he gets in the movie.
It’s too bad this film wasn’t better. It looked polished and finished unlike Wolverine but there was so little to it and none of the interesting plots were explored. Instead, a bunch of set pieces and action sequences were just thrown together with big special effects and references here and there to try and tie it in with the prior films.
If there’s another one, I hope we get a big improvement.
Can Christian Bale truly sell a movie on his own like Arnold could? What do you think of the TV spot showing off Arnold and the idea of another Terminator movie?
Sources: Box Office Mojo, Trailer Addict
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91 Comments
OMG you guys. For people claiming to be fans, you sure sound more like enemies of the film, always trying to shoot it full of holes. This movie was a totally awesome kickass thrill ride. Seriously you couldn’t figure out these “plot holes” as you call them your selves. It was pretty obvious to me as it was to quite a few others on this page. This is a story about the most intelligent AI in existence that has the ability to travel through time and you can’t figure out for instance how they would know about Kyle. When Connor sent Kyle through to protect Sara, Skynet would most likely know that. I figure they could send that info back to whenever they wanted pretty easily. But does it really matter?!? Movies are for entertainment! Just watch it and have fun for heavens sake. Forget about pointless little details like that. A T800 getting dropped into a vat of molten metal compared to having some spilled on it…Duh. But again, it’s just a movie, it doesn’t have to always make perfect sense or at least you don’t always have to know the reason behind everything. I get so tired of hearing “but they didn’t explain every frickin little detail to me!” and “Whe wouldn’t skynet do this or that!” Geez. If you want that kind of reasoning, then why didn’t skynet just send 200 T800’s back to the bar where arnold first found her after he failed so that Kyle wouldn’t have had a chance to protect her? I’ll tell you why….because first of all it wasn’t in the script! and second of all that would have made the movie about 3 minutes long and then you’d be complaining, “Why didn’t they make the movie longer?!?…..Whaaaaaaaaa!” So seriously if you can’t go watch these movies while maintaining a ounce of common sense, then stay home and watch sponge bob of something. I love Screenrant for it’s info on movies but you complaining commenters…..I mean Geez!
Terminator and Terminator 2 had some plot holes but it made up for those with good writing.
Terminator Salvation has bad writing and bad character development. It was a crappy film…
If you need more reasons, check out the Terminator spoiler comment page.
The Voice It’s better than Transformers simply because Transformers is a horrible film. The acting in Salvation is better the plot is better there is more emotion and depth. Transformers was a really dumb film and I mean that there was no intelligence behind it. The only two things redeemable about Transformers were great CGI and Megan Fox is nice eye candy. Seriously the story was terrible and the film was so dumbed down that it almost made you feel like you were losing IQ points just watching it. It was an incredibly shallow film.
Sorry Joshi, but I don’t buy it. Wheater you got what you expected or not a crappy film is still a crappy film and that’s exactly what Transformers was.
It’s sad to see all the Bale hating. I’m willing to bet had this exact same movie come out before The Dark Knight he’d be getting praised for his performance. People tend to start hating someone once they get real big and all the negative press over the incident with his mom and the explosion he had on set didn’t help either. He was easily the best performance of the movie and did a fantastic job. The comparison to his Batman voice is idiotic. Anyone who thinks he sounds like Batman in Salvation really needs to bust out their Dark Knight dvd. It’s a much tamer voice not only lower in volume, but far far far less gravely it’s not even close not even when he yells in Salvation.
blame the productors or McG(if he had the director cut) to have cut every Connor scene .
You can see how a movie of 2H20 becomes 1H50! i loved the movie (not great but a good war/action movie),the story is different( i don’t want another movie with Terminator again saving John Connor against another Terminator)and it’s really better than Wolverine!
it’s not boring!the action are great!
for me,Worthington doesn’t steal the show because Marcus is the real star of the movie(you see less Connor)and there is no miscast about Connor,Bale plays him as a soldier with a bad temper!
the productors had been able to keep the first end(Connor dies and becomes a Terminator using Marcus body)
They must star John Connor,less action and more script!
@Wickamaco
For the record, I’m one of the few who actually does like this film and didn’t notice the plot holes until after I’d thought about it a bit (well, apart from the “why don’t they just get Sam Worthington to kill everyone” thing). Fact is, movies with Time Travel will always have huge plot holes (well… usually), the ones in Salvation just seemed to be a little bigger is all. Really, I liked the film.
@Daniel F
Transformers is by no means a great film, but seriously, to each their own, I honestly don’t think it’s “crappy”, to me it’s as solid entertainment as Salvation. I’m simply saying, when you have high expectations for a film and then are disappointed, that’s usually worse than having low expectations and being somewhat pleasantly surprised.
End of the day, I have Transformers on DVD and will still watch it every now and then. Will I do that with Salvation? Yes. Yes I will.
I also agree with you about the Bale hating, his character was written as one note so he played him as one note, not really his fault. And I’d have preferred that Bales Batman voice was more like his Conner voice to be honest.
I agree about the Batman voice it would sound better if it was more like the Conner voice, but the problem is his Connor voice simply sounded like a slightly Rugged Bruce Wayne voice. The thing about the Batman voice is that it is vastly different from Bruce Wayne and that’s the point for him to sound nothing like Bruce so people can’t just hear him and go oh that’s Bruce Wayne.
I guess we will have to disagree on Transformers since I thought it was the worst major blockbuster film in the last 2 years possibly longer. It was made with zero intelligence behind it. It really was just simply a dumbed down film. There were no stand out performances as far as acting goes I mean the only really good thing about it were the special effects and I can’t think of much that is less important to me in a movie than the effects.
@ wickamaco
To say terminator has a better story and plot than transformers is a statement you came up with because you’re just hating. Terminator did not have much of a story at all but I still liked it. There was really no plot at all. The point of the movie was john finding reece and finding out about new machines – nothing else. Now that I think about it, transformers did have a better story.
I’m sorry that was directed at Daniel f not wickamaco.
@Daniel F
The thing is, I agree with everything you just said about Transformers, the only thing it had going for it was the special effects and the action. The acting was, for the most part sub par or otherwise terrible (I’m looking at you Turturro and Voight), there was no intelligence surrounding it, it was a horribly dumb movie.
But sometimes, that’s exactly why I go to the cinema. To be entertained with nothing more than dumb action and special effects. I know it’s sad, I know that in this day and age people should want more from their cinema and I do, but just because I love eating Gourmet meals doesn’t mean I won’t scarf down some fast food pizza every now and then and enjoy it. That’s likely one of the reasons I’m one of very few who actually loved Speed Racer. If I want more from my movies, I’ll watch something with a little more substance in it, but I don’t thing Terminator Salvation was it. And I still like Terminator Salvation.
And what would salvation be without sfx? Lol
@ wickamaco
The site is called Screen Rant. Do you understand those words?
The voice if you liked Transformers more fine, but to seriously try to claim it had a better story than … Well just about any movie in existence isn’t a matter of a opinion it’s simply wrong. The Transformers story was terrible if you like that fine whatever, but it wasn’t good it was hardly even there. That movie wasn’t even about story it was about watching the next explosion and the next over elaborate transformation.
Joshi Terminator certainly wasn’t cinematic gold. It wasn’t the best of cinema intelligence or depth. However it was a fairly smart movie that carried some weight. I guess that’s where we differ though I can’t enjoy a movie that’s only purpose is to show off explosions and CGI. I need a little more intelligence in a film than that.
@Daniel
For someone who can’t stand a movie that “dumbs everything down” do you have anything intelligent to say? All you can say is that I’m wrong? That takes a lot of brain power.
I’m debating against a movie I like but I’ll roll with it. Please tell me what was so intelligent about the salvation story line. Can’t wait to hear this.
It doesn’t need Arnold it needs Cameron!
ok i gotta say i did enjoy the movie, althought the were problems with it overall like the story, editing and moon bloodgood (sillyname) she aint a good actress at all n shudnt of been in it. plus the cgi Arnie didnt look at all like the 1984 Arnold, looked too computerised, if they dont have the technology to make that 20 or so seconds look real then they shudnt of put him in it! im a big big terminator fan n love the first 2 films. i do feel slightly disappointed but kinda expected wot i got. i do want a sequal but i think they mite need to consider new writers n maybe a new director sorry to say!
Bale and his stupid Batman voice sucked in this film. He showed nothing of John Connor. Too many holes in this movie. I am very disappointed as a loyal Terminator fan.
I’ve seen the movie twice and I enjoyed it both times. I do not agree with some of the reviews that say Bales performance was boring. I think he played Conner with the exact depth that you need in a man trying to lead people in a war. I am sick to death of everyone saying he was over shadowed by Worthington. He was supposed to be the back bone of the story, the glue holds all the other pieces in place. It takes a good and humble actor to see that his is not the only focus of the film. He played the role with strength, confidence and drive. What more can you ask from a man who is supposed to be playing a leader. I think both Bale and Worthington did great jobs fleshing out their characters and I’d go watch it again with friends anytime.
@ shaw78, (unfortunately) have seen the film twice as well and I noticed even more things wrong with it the second time.
(Concerning the actors voices)
The dialect is all over the place. There’s even a line where Worthington sounds like Arnold Swarzenegger. Another where his Australian accent comes through.
Bale did a fine job under Mcg’s direction like that’s saying much. However let’s not forget its Mcg that should have told Bale to talk with intensity but loose the batman rasp.
So if Bale talks in a raspy voice it’s gonna be called the Batman rasp? So he can never again have even a hint of raspyness in any part he ever does again for the rest of his life or he is just using the Batman voice? Seriously the voices had very little in common and the comparison is reaching the point of annoyance. So what about the actors who talk in their normal voice in 6 different films? Should they start using raspy voices now because they are just using the voice from their most successful film over and over again?
The Voice as far as your question goes. There is the over all plot of it being based on the Terminator franchise which asks a lot of intelligence questions about our advancements and it depicts a frightening future that seems more real and possible every day minus the time travel. It deals with destiny and asks a lot of questions about destiny and what we are to become and how much of an effect on our lives do we really have. Salvation asks questions like what makes someone human? What makes someone good? How much is one man willing to sacrifice for the fate of all man kind?
That’s just a touch of the intellegence. I really hope you don’t ask me how it’s more emotional than Transformers because that doesn’t even deserve a response. Considering some people complained that this was to emotional at times. No one ever made that complaint about Transformers because there was zero emotion in it.
Sadly most people who enjoyed transformers can openly admit that it was about watching things blow up and that they like that. Most people who enjoyed it know that it wasn’t a very deep movie, but they still liked it. You are actually thinking there was more to it than CGI and things going boom. It’s a movie with nice explosions over elaborate transformation CGI and Robots from outer space that turn in to cars.
Transformers versus Terminator 4
Problems with Transformers
Poorly shot action scenes: Bumblebee Barricade & Prime Megatron fight. The shaky cam, zoomed in close ups, 1 second quick cut ADD editing, some action scenes are random and lifeless poorly edited with continuity errors they don’t help move the story. Bays trademark style makes the action scenes are pandering and obnoxious like one big jerk off session. The hole movie looks feels and sounds like a 2 hour and 20 min commercial.
The scenes with the army or navy mobilizing is exactly like a commercial sound and cinematography. Same goes for GM car commercial low sweeping camera angles the over dramatic music score playing on continous loop through out the whole movie and cinematography that screams commercial/ music video. Bay’s trademark movie making style makes his movie look and sound exactly the same. Lifeless dumb lowest common denominator meaningless explosion rock ballad
The comedy and ad lib overacting is so heavy it makes me feel dumb just by watching the movie. Masturbation jokes, peeing, farting, hide and seek robots, sassy black people racism, “Say hello to my MAMMY” Oh MAMMY don’t be that way”"Grandma drink your prune juice” “Stay off the carpent!” Black people scream like idiots. Then there is running from section seven through the glass door”. “My Bad”, “Whats up lil bitches”" Left cheek left cheek left cheek!”‘.More terrible dialogue… the phone operator conversation, Shia Screaming NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo anything agent Simmons says something “Criminals ARE HOT!” “Touch my bush I’ll kick your ass!” ect .ect the hole movie.
Story and plot are horrible. The all spark is a massive MacGuffin. It does everthing from killing the main bad guy to healing bad guys (Frenzy) but it can’t heal Bumblbee’s voice. It creates new bad guys it can shrink for convince what ever the dumb plot needs it do next. There is no STORY LOGIC in the movie. Nothing happens with any natural flow or progression it’s just random events that jump from place to place with out driving the story naturally. No emotional investment at all. Events only happen because that what the director and script call for.
The reason or logic between two different events are never fleshed out to the audience. Leave you with the feeling of just going through the motions of an empty story. Transformers can get their head cut off (Frenzy), still be alive grow legs and transform into other things Barricade gets damaged and heals by the end of the movie Bumble voice was damaged in battle(how ever long ago) and it never heals. While other Transformers get torn in half and die instantly…
Well I’m out of time.
I have more complaints about Transformers and the second movie. Like how the overly complex ( 50,000 different moving parts) made the Transformers to complicated and expensive to give them a lot of screen time. or villian show up at the end of the movie O Prime shows up 70 min into the movie The Decepticon rarely talk and when they do its Cybertronian no character development. but I have to go…
I know what ABOUT Terminator 4.. it has a lot of problems but not as many as Transformers. The list is long but not that long and I have payed attention to all aspects of T4. The main problem was the script rewrite for Bale it didn’t flow with the original script and cause the heart or emotinal core of the film to fade along with the ending being leaked on the net. Anyway most of all T4 didn’t treat me like an idiot. Transformers is supposed to appeal to all ages not just 4 year olds.
Why did this turn into a Transformers vs Terminator commentary anyway?
You guys talk so much crap about Transformers that I almost think it’s becoming a central focus of your lives.
@hardon collider
Would love to see you direct a movie. See how well you do. Btw, bay doesn’t write the script. You might want to remember that when you get into directing. They have writers for that kind of thing.
@daniel
I never said transformers was emotional. Not sure where you got that.
You didn’t answer my question about salvation. I didn’t ask you about the terminator franchise. I know what the franchise is about. I asked you what great story did salvation have? Hmmm
I did answer your questions about Salvation. First of all what the franchise is about is a big part of Salvation as well. You can’t just dismiss it because it’s a part of the entire franchise. So your saying if it asks questions and eals with certain topics that the franchise has a whole deals with than it doesn’t count? Salvation personally deals with all the same issues. Second of all I specifically mentioned Salvation and what it does specifically. Maybe you missed it when I said :
Salvation asks questions like
Those were specific to Salvation.
Daniel, can Bale even talk normal anymore ?
I need proof of voice,,,
@ Daniel F: Thank you I couldn’t have said it better myself.
@790: Yes he can talk in a normal voice and the raspy voice is part of his normal voice. When he’s showing anger this is the voice that comes out. He exaggerated it for BMB and TDK so that the was a distinction between Batman and Bruce Wayne. Also Terminator is taking place in a post apocalyptic world, if you want to go the route that the air quality sucks then so will your throat. But whatever he didn’t rasp through the entire film only during the fight scenes and few scenes were he was showing anger. I think people need to get the hell over this voice shit and focus on the overall acting which was spot on with the character he was playing. Which was not over the top but strong and determined.
He’s talked normal in plenty of movies. Terminator is one movie just one movie that he had a slight rasp in his voice not even comparable to TDK, but either way it’s a single movie.
Kevin Conroy (from the original animated series) had the best Batman/Bruce Wayne voice distinction. They sounded different, yet both are clear and easy to understand.
I agree with you, Ken J, about Kevin Conroy. In my opinion, Batman: The Animated Series is the best in almost every way, compared to all the other Batman attempts, old and new.
In that series, Wayne used his “ordinary voice” as Batman and used his fake, happy-go-lucky voice when he was Bruce Wayne. This way makes more sense.
I saw “T4″ yesterday afternoon, and I must admit that I’m having trouble understanding why people disliked it so much. Many of the flubs in logic that have been discussed are NOT flubs–they are explained, inferred, or understood at various points in the film. For example, the mototerminator that John Connor tripwired should have sensed the rope and avoided it, right? No. Connor, very specifically, turned a stereo on high volume playing rock music to distract the cycle. The three previous films have established the fact terminators are exceedingly single-minded in pursuit of prey. THAT is the only way humans ever get the upper hand…off-the-cuff adaptability. The fact that the cycle was traveling extremely fast simply made Connor’s trap all the more effective, as the terminator could not stop in time. Now, a quick note on the seemingly more significant problems of John and Kyle NOT being killed the moment Skynet captured or trapped each.
First, how did Skynet know about Reese in the first place? Some have suggested the whole “temporal memory” possibility (the history of the previous films is “remembered” by the current incarnation of Skynet). That’s the way. At no point in this film does Skynet ever specifically seem to know the familial connection between Connor and Reese. As shown in the first film, however, Reese clearly is in Connor’s inner circle, thus significant to the cause and worthy of termination, even in this “earlier” timeline (before Reese has become so important). Second, why didn’t both die immediately when captured or trapped? The three previous movies have ALSO established Skynet’s sentience…and its need to protect itself from humanity’s perceived threat. Why is it such a stretch in this MOVIE world to imagine that Skynet, a thinking, plotting, (one might even say) cunning being would also feel (yes, FEEL) a sense of satisfaction at tricking the Resistance, a la “Return of the Jedi” (the Emperor’s revealing dialogue with Luke about the trap set to destroy the Rebellion)? This is a classic climax moment: When all seems lost, what will the hero(es) do? Marcus Wright gets the reveal and makes his decision. This brings me to my final note.
Wasn’t this film supposed to be about the legendary John Connor leading the human Resistance to defeat the evil machines and NOT mostly about an ancillary character, named Marcus Wright? I submit to you that it IS. Connor’s radio broadcasts reach Marcus and Kyle leading them, eventually, to him. Connor’s status and legend inspire both of them at various points throughout the movie. Marcus gives his heart, in fact, to John to keep the legend alive and moving forward. Remember that John Connor is now the de facto leader of the Resistance, since the higher-ups were all killed on the submarine. This film shows his origin as the leader, while celebrating the time travel twisting of the previous films. While the salvation of the film’s title is Wright’s, the film is definitely Connor’s.
@Andrew
Sorry, but while I did like the film, your explanation for why Skynet was after Reese and why they didn’t kill Reese and Conner straight away doesn’t hold with me.
Temporal memory makes no kind of sense at all. For the machines to be able to know that Reese was Conner’s father, unless John has been running around telling them, someone from the past would have to go back to the future to tell them, either Reese, or the original Terminator. Since they both died, as did T2’s terminator, and since Reese was an agent of the future and thus there would have been no record of him in the past, there was no way for them to know that Reese was Connor’s father, and if there was, it wasn’t clearly explained anywhere.
As for the Machines having Feelings, that would mean they were developing a consciousness beyond that of a logical machine. Which, for me requires a deeper suspension of dis-belief. And the thing about suspending dis-belief for a film is that you should really only be asked to do so to a certain degree. I can believe that robots are now sentien and have waged war on Humans… I can’t believe that those same killing machines have decided to become sadistic for no real reason other than an inherent sense of enjoyment that machines shouldn’t be capable of, thus making them less than efficient killers.
Again, I’d like to re-iterate, I enjoyed this film, I really did, when the DVD comes out I’ll be buying it and watching it on my High-Def TV because dammit, it’ll look cool. But it does have logic problems.
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