Terminator Salvation

Let me start by saying this: I am not a Terminator fan. I’ve seen the first three movies, and was a sufficient age for the third one to see it in theatres and be moderately entertained. I know Skynet and John Connor when I hear them and can place them appropriately in the fandom. That’s as much my general SciFi geekness as anything though.

Terminator Salvation was a movie. I have a hard time of saying whether it was ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Things happened, stuff blew up, people were terminated – it was a movie. It had no redeeming social value whatsoever, but I did enjoy it for the most part. Way more than I did Angels and Demons *ptew* which I was actually looking forward to and can’t say without spitting now, it was that bad.

Terminator Salavation was simply kind of there. I do think that had I not gone to the midnight showing I would have liked it significantly less. The 80% male crowd I was with was rowdy and loving it. They kind of made the movie for me.

To start, was anyone surprised that Marcus ended up being a Terminator? They showed it in the trailers for Cthuhlu’s sake! It was so obviously spoiled for everyone that I’m not even going to hide it behind white text. I am more than willing to suspend disbelief - I’m very good at it, it’s what makes SciFi and Fantasy so much fun for me. I would have been honestly surprised when the big reveal came, complete with a soundtrack that said ‘Hey look, he’s not what you thought!’. It would have been cool. Instead, the audience yawned and impatiently tapped their toes while waiting for the movie to progress. Bugger you sideways trailer/preview people, it would have been the only awesome thing in the movie.

Note: I was totally spoiled for a facet of Helena Bonham Carter’s character, which in the end never turned up. In fact, I’m curious as to how much of her story was cut. It seemed like there was a whole other thing going on that we only saw hints of. Moving on…

The movie itself was super cool in the effects department and I like how the post-apocalyptic world under Skynet turned out. Although, my toaster could have found the remaining human encampments, they were that well hidden. Also, did anyone else think it was weird that Connor was practically pimping his mother out from the future?

The main thing, and the only reason I would see the movie again, was this: Arnold Schwarzeneggar. The CGI cameo of Ahnold was rockin’ awesome. The whole theatre cheered. Seeing the connection from this origin movie to the original Terminator was a nice touch that actually redeemed the movie a great deal.

All in all, if someone had it on I’d watch it, but I wouldn’t spend money on it. Even for you Christian Bale.

Also: go read this.