Terminator: Salvation

I was a Terminator fan when i was 10, and i loved T2. Then the T3 movie came out and i was very disapointed as they tried to play on T2 too much as opposed to create a new iconic story. T4 has tried to create a new branch of the Terminator franchise and does quite well. Dont expect the same 'feel' as the originals, but it creates a 'new future' for John Connor to face. Bale plays it in a very grumpy way, not the leader we have been shown in past guises.

Pros... There is one moment when i have never experienced a Cinema simaltaniously gasp/shout/cheer... i wont say what it was, but it was brilliant, if not a little OTT.

Cons... Not a follow on, but a new Terminator model, one exceptionally cheesy bit that made everyone groan and wish that they had been present during filming to say "No, your not doinf that, that is stupid, everyone will hate it"

Overall, its alright, not groundbreaking, but a lot better than 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' series.

"If you are listening to this, you are the resistance"

(Radio Freedom)

As rule of thumb the fourth movie is usually one too many in film franchises, Alien Resurrection, The Phantom Menace and, of course, Jaws 4: The Revenge, all you need to know on that score! The horse should have been well and truly flogged in the trilogy to avoid the fourth film temptation. But when there's money to be made and the chance to spin some video games and merchandize off another one then integrity is hurled out of the window, why I feared the worse for T4, the unwelcome prequel to probably the greatest action trilogy there has ever been a good way to spoil that tag for me.

The original Terminator film wasn't the greatest action movie ever made but it certainly made Arnie. When he got the script for it he told his agent he would have to cancel his appearance at the 1983 Mr Universe competition because he had to do this "shi**y robot movie". How wrong he was. But he was up for T2, the superb sequel, quite simply the best science-fiction action movie ever made for me, not aged by one single day since its 1991 release. Terminator 3: Judgement Day, was purely about Schwarzenegger raising enough money to run for governor of California though, the only option left to appease his giant ego (you have to be born in America to be president), but still an enjoyable movie. I was in a cinema in Texas for the premier and the whole crowd stood and cheered when Arnie materialised behind the truck. But was T4 one step too far as the film goes off on a new tangent like George Lucas

did with Star Wars and JJ Abrahams has the new Star Trek franchise, the latter now on film eleven, easily beating the Police Academy movies for the most number of Hollywood sequels. I hear they are currently dusting down Steve Guttenberg for film eight! They belted out the first five of those movies in just five years. Let's hope the Terminator franchise doesn't end up in Moscow on vacation. -The Cast-

Christian Bale ... John Connor

Sam Worthington ... Marcus Wright

Moon Bloodgood ... Blair Williams

Helena Bonham Carter ... Dr. Serena Kogan

Anton Yelchin ... Kyle Reese

Jadagrace ... Star

Bryce Dallas Howard ... Kate Connor

Common ... Barnes

Jane Alexander ... Virginia

Michael Ironside ... General Ashdown

-The Plot-

Its 2018, two decades after Skynet and the machines raged thermo nuclear war on the humans, people surplus to requirements to the droids. But mans resistance was strong after the holocaust, enough for the machines to send back a Cyberdyne System Mode 101, a T800 Terminator (Arnie) in 2029 to kill Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the soon to be world leader of the resistance John Connor. But as you know they failed, the next two attempts also coming to grief. But this time they are going after Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), the man they think fathers John Connor in the future.

It's the early stage of the human fight back and Conner (Christian Bale) has just botched a raid on a communications facility, losing his team. On the mission he discovers that the machines have upgraded the familiar T600 cyborgs and creating the T800, as yet unseen by the resistance. Whatever it is its near production and this facility has something to do with it.

But we have a new hero in town, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), he escaping from one of the machines facilities, long enough incarcerated to be oblivious to what has been going on since the war on the surface, but soon hitting the ground running against the formidable enemy. When he rescues two kids from the cyborgs in a derelict Los Angeles one of them happens to be Reece, so the machines soon on their tale. But even Wright can't protect the kid from Skynet and they are soon separated, both oblivious to each other significance in the story at this point. When Conner calls in an air attack the resistance's star pilot Star (Jadagrace) is shot down, she now running into Wright and his disarming protective manner and great fighting skills, a welcome addition to the resistance. But first they have to make it back to headquarters as the current resistance leader, General Ashdown ( Michael Ironside), hiding in his submarine command centre, is about to order the attack on Skynet Central with their new secret weapon, SW radio signals that could knock out the machines for good. But there's a problem...

-The Conclusion-

As there is time travel paradoxes involved here there is licence to take liberties with the plot, so the storyline not baring close inspection, alternate universes and black holes no doubt covering the bases. Anything is possible with this franchise. The twist here is the terminators are preset with the targets so need to send them back in time, the hunted coming to the lair. An Arnie look-alike does briefly appear to give the film and franchise some sort of continuity and familiar catch phrases from the first three movies have also been carried forward in time to chunk out the characters. His wife in the film, Kate Conner (Bryce Dallas Howard) is also pregnant, presumably for the next lot of paradoxes.

There are the ubiquitous video games sequences here, like I said, this the type of movie now budgeted to sell the video game off the back of it. With the news that the recent release of Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare has out sold nearly every movie this year they have no choice but to cash in on that through the movies construction. You can feel the video game of the film being pushed in nearly every scene.

This is a real mix of previous Sci-Fi classics, everything from Aliens to Blade Runner, Transformers to War of the Worlds in its DNA, a movie as commercial as they come. But saying that it's far better than you hope, a decent first half-hour getting your hopes up that this won't get too detached from the original trilogy, the familiar heart beat pounding metallic soundtrack building that expectation and pulling you into the guts of the movie. Money has been spent on it and everyone's up for it, respecting the franchises revered heritage. Admittedly there's an open-ended feeble finale and as forced as the Empire Strikes back but that aside I reckon you will quite enjoy it. The film has no real expectations and for me that is why it delivered, gravel voiced Christian Bale also solid in that action hero lead role. And with that foreboding soundtrack and a well paced tempo and narrative it retains enough of the Terminator genealogy for the boys to get a kick out of it. But, alas, it is the fourth best of the four. Still worth a rent though.

I had been looking forward to seeing Terminator Salvation for quite a few months now. Having seen my brother open the DVD as a Christmas present, I was keen to stick it on, and watch it!

The movie started off well, lots of action and special effects. However, it became apparent fairly early on in the movie that the story line was inconsistent and pretty weak. The plot line was actually quite terrible. In fact, by the end of the movie it felt to me like I had just watched a pretty poor "episode", and not a Hollywood blockbuster!

The acting was ok, and if it wasn't for the action and special effects, I would have probably given up on it. Was a shame really as I was expecting big things from this movie.

Terminator: Salvation - The story and acting was good but there were a lot of flause in the film. The new machines were intresting. but the film was ruined when john had a fight with the T-800, from the previous 3 films if a human had had a hand to hand fight with a terminator they would be dead in seconds. John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris did'nt do much reseach in to this film. first thing they should have done is found at least some source of basic strategy. instead they had sky net (the most INTELLIGENT millatery computer based system of all time) sending their army around like mindless animals. it seemed more of a futureistic zombie film than a sci-fi hollywood classic. the special effects were amazing. besides from the major flause i would say this is a pritty good film.

I love Terminator. I love Terminator 2. Terminator 3...well we can gloss over that and put it in a box with Aliens 3, Batman and Robin et al.

Terminator: Salvation could have been great. It could have been the apocalyptic visions of Sarah Connor come alive. But it didn't. Visually all is well. The budget seems to have been spent on sweeping aerial camera shots and they are impressive. Cinematography has come a long way from James Cameron experimenting with steady cams but that doesn't mean you forego a decent storyline for action. The film is very dark and Christian Bale must have gotten some throat lozenges for that voice of his is better than in Batman but at times you strain to understand what he's saying. The exchange he has with control after the spectacular helicopter scene is just...well...odd. To be honest he shows little emotion other than slightly angry and this doesn't help when the film is resting on what should be the pivotal relationship between him and his father played by Anton Yelchin who is rather good and perhaps the only saving grace. The film lacks heart with an ensemble of characters that seem to be just there for the hell of it. Why have Bryce Dallas Howard in the film? Her character is underused and any emotion that could have been portrayed between John and Kate is lost. Maybe she'll be better used in the next instalment. The character Star has been lifted directly from Aliens (Newt with less character and no back story) and again feels superfluous to the film's narrative.

For the most part I spent my time in the cinema recognising scenes from other films (Hunt for Red October, Aliens and Terminator amongst others) and grimacing at the terrible inclusion of catch phrases with "I'll be back", "Come with me if you want to live" being thrown about as if no-one will realise that this film is the fourth part of the Terminator series. It is cringe worthy. The terminators are poor, the T-800 seems to have forgotten that it has knowledge of human anatomy that makes it a killing machine and the 'bike' terminators can easily be ridden even though they have no steering or brake system.

So McG tips for the next film; stronger story, stronger acting and most of all stronger terminators. I'd only recommend to those who didn't like the first two films.

I saw the new terminator: salvation film on Monday, now I realize that the last film I reviewed also stared Christian Bale. But it's just coincidence, these were the last two press shows I've been to see - I'm not some kind of super fan.

Anyway on to the film, which I want to get out of the way as quickly as possible so I can deal with the real issue here I have to say it was very impressive. Not the kind of movie that's going to sweep the board at the Oscars (though the visual effects and soundtrack must be in with a shot) - but non-stop well shot fun, It feels like a real 'blockbuster'. If you have seen the other terminator movies you already know the basic story here (and If you haven't seen them, you have my genuine pity). So, on top of the opportunity to finally get a proper look at the future war, which is nice for anyone who's interested in the 'terminator universe' it's also got explosions, giant robots, explosions, normal sized robots more explosions but the icing on the cake is Arnie.

I'd already heard that the gubernator's 'likeness' was going to be in the film, but I had no Idea they could pull off this kind of thing It was like he'd just popped out of the same mould as the T-800 from the first terminator movie back in 1984! This ability to digitally insert actors into films is nothing new; back in 1994 'the Crow' had scenes with Brandon Lee's face digitally composited into some scenes after he carked it while filming. But this is different, not some blurry, half-hidden-in-shadow stuff. It's really him, even though you know it actually isn't. It's worth the price of entry for this spectacle alone.

But the thing that has me really exited is the possibilities this presents for the future, you could pick a dream team of dead film stars, Charlie Chaplin versus Bruce Lee! Then again, Schwarzenegger probably has a far more limited range of facial expressions than your average Hollywood type, so maybe he just lends himself to it more easily.

Summing up, great film thumbs up from me - and I defy anyone not to be impressed with this latest bit of cinematic trickery.