Terminator Salvation, colon, Really Long Movie Title

[mospeadamacrosstech]

Anybody interested in purchasing the Terminator franchise?

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/02/wil...could-sell-for/

Taksraven

Poor James Cameron. He had to sell the rights for one dollar so he could direct. The things first time directors need to do to get their picture made.

[UN_MARINE]

if i were Cameron, i'd buy the franchise back & invalidate the last 2 movies right away.

[taksraven]

if i were Cameron, i'd buy the franchise back & invalidate the last 2 movies right away.

Personally I had no major problems with Salvation, but if people are displeased I can't see how the series can be salvaged without some sort of "reimagining".

I think its in the same place as the Alien franchise (Jim Cameron involved again, who would have thought), with there being little hope of anything new being produced that will please a majority of fans. (in saying this, I am still sure that there will be new films for both franchises early in the new decade)

Taksraven

[azrael]

Have some tongue-and-cheek:

http://whedonesque.com/comments/22240

[mospeadamacrosstech]

Have some tongue-and-cheek:

http://whedonesque.com/comments/22240

Joss is so damn funny.

[Gaijin]

Joss is boss.

[Hikuro]

So movie is out tuesday, sooner than I had expected, and amazon has it already at 15.99 for bluray and MAN the features look like they're gonna be CRAP

[myk]

Crap movie, crap extras. I'll add this to the growing list of blu-ray movies, like Transformers, that I refuse to buy...

[Graham]

Personally, I don't give a crap about extras (or lack of) on discs. I buy DVDs to watch the movie, not a bunch of other crap. Given the choice, I'll usually buy the disc with the fewest extras.

I bought the Terminator Salvation DVD last week. Bought the cheapest single disc version. And yes, it was just as crap as I remeber it being at the movies.

It's a sad day when I have to admit that I actually enjoyed Transformers Revenge of The Fallen more than Terminator Salvation and actually thought Transformers was the better of the two movies (although that's not saying much).

Graham

[e_jacob77]

HI all,

OK, stupid question is coming..... Duck, hide or run away now! So I bought the 3 disc version blu-ray thinking that the digital copy, would be able to play on a DVD player..... Guessed wrong! Is there ANY way to play this copy on a dvd player? I am currently downloading all the crap so it'll play on my PC if that helps the question.....

I don't own a blu-ray player just yet, ......

[Hikuro]

generally when you buy blu-ray it stays blu-ray, probaby even digital copies as the digital copy is just something you download using a Key it gives you in a sheet of paper or whatever.

[eugimon]

The digital copy is a wmv (for windows) file that you copy to your computer/itouch/whatever from the DVD provided and it requires you register the file online using the key that's provided.

[Black Valkyrie]

FYI Graham since TS is pure crap, I lost interest in TF franchise.

[eugimon]

at least the blu-ray is value priced at 19.99$

[Keith]

The whole digital copy thing is a bunch of back handed B.S. Also, buy a bluray player!

[VFTF1]

I seem to be the only person on Earth who liked this movie...

Sayng that ROTF was better is pretty harsh; though I didn't see ROTF...so I guess I can't compare.

I would like to get this on DVD - and need to get T3 as well.

In a way, T3 is IMO the weakest of the four, and of course the original Terminator is the best. T2 is good - but I dunno... I think that the "Arnold is good guy terminator" motif that runs through 2 and 3 doesn't hold a lot of water.

T4 does a better job with this motif insofar as the main character (ther Terminator) is concerned - he's good, but he's actually bad and doesn't know it - and then he has to make a choice for himself - and then he needs to choose the ultimate good because even a new life doesn't wash away old sins...

You guys are way too harsh on this movie. It was damn good. I think it was just a victim of the bad economy and action movie fatigue.

This movie is kind of like the Mad Max of 2009. Seriously- I don't know about you- but I love watching admitedly "crappy" action movies of bygone decades... T4 was good.

I'm not going to argue the point since it just boils down to me getting all emotional during the film because my (ex?) girlfriend is very sensitive and NEVER watches Sci-Fi AT ALL so all of this was new for her and once she started tearing up, I did too 'cause that's just how I am....

anyways... I'm glad I saw it. Didn't see GI Joe, ROTF, nor did I see Star Trek (regret that last one). Will have some catching up to do with the DVD player me thinks...

But dag - dag dag. So much harshness towards this movie Why?

Pete

[eugimon]

I'll agree it was better than Gi Joe, which was better than RotF... but really, that's not saying a lot.

[Sumdumgai]

My main problems with TS was the depiction of the future compared to what we saw in the first movie and T2 (and to some extent T3 I think?). In the first two movies, the landscape was a bleak burned out ruin filled with crap. In TS the skyscrapers of Los Angeles are still standing, and nothing looks like it suffered the effects of a nuke. Everyone looked too healthy, too clean, and well fed. Everyone's teeth were pearl white. How the hell did the resistance have an entire air-base stocked with transport helicopters, A-10s, and all that kind of stuff that Skynet didn't go after?

While some of the fights "looked cool", they didn't make sense. Why throw John Connor across the room when you could punch into his body and crush some nice meaty organs? Why let your prototype infiltration Terminator rip out the remote control receiver?

How the hell did the harvester sneak up on the gas station? It's not like it's stealthy and quiet. Same goes for the aerial HK.

I liked Christain Bale as John Connor, despite the constant Batman voice. Anton Yelchin impressed me in pulling off a young Kyle Reese. I liked the T-600s, though I wish they showed more of that fake rubber appearance talked about in the first movie.

TS was a step up from T3. But fell woefully short of the first two. Thumbs up for not doing YET ANOTHER present day Terminator film, and taking it into the future war.

[VFTF1]

My main problems with TS was the depiction of the future compared to what we saw in the first movie and T2 (and to some extent T3 I think?). In the first two movies, the landscape was a bleak burned out ruin filled with crap. In TS the skyscrapers of Los Angeles are still standing, and nothing looks like it suffered the effects of a nuke. Everyone looked too healthy, too clean, and well fed. Everyone's teeth were pearl white. How the hell did the resistance have an entire air-base stocked with transport helicopters, A-10s, and all that kind of stuff that Skynet didn't go after?

While some of the fights "looked cool", they didn't make sense. Why throw John Connor across the room when you could punch into his body and crush some nice meaty organs? Why let your prototype infiltration Terminator rip out the remote control receiver?

How the hell did the harvester sneak up on the gas station? It's not like it's stealthy and quiet. Same goes for the aerial HK.

Yeah - all of this bothered me too.

In fact, people in the post nuclear future wore trendier clothing and were generally cleaner than people in LA circa 1984 - if you compare how Kyle Reece and the bum looked to how the "poor starving post-nuclear kids" from TS looked.

And that IS what made this film fall short of the epic masterpiece it COULD HAVE been.

Namely - it was a sanitized, family-friendly post-apocalyptic landscape where the effects of nuclear armagedon were neglible.

And the concentration camp scene - did it make you shiver? Did it make you cringe? No. It made me think "this is the concentration camp film set."

They had all the elements - and the story idea was great - but they so totally dropped the ball in terms of design - in terms of the mood of the future.

It was no where near as awesomely dark and depressing as what we saw from Kyle's dream in T1 or the beginning of T2 when Sarah was narrating.

Agreed.

Pete

[taksraven]

Yeah - all of this bothered me too.

In fact, people in the post nuclear future wore trendier clothing and were generally cleaner than people in LA circa 1984 - if you compare how Kyle Reece and the bum looked to how the "poor starving post-nuclear kids" from TS looked.

And that IS what made this film fall short of the epic masterpiece it COULD HAVE been.

Namely - it was a sanitized, family-friendly post-apocalyptic landscape where the effects of nuclear armagedon were neglible.

And the concentration camp scene - did it make you shiver? Did it make you cringe? No. It made me think "this is the concentration camp film set."

They had all the elements - and the story idea was great - but they so totally dropped the ball in terms of design - in terms of the mood of the future.

It was no where near as awesomely dark and depressing as what we saw from Kyle's dream in T1 or the beginning of T2 when Sarah was narrating.

Agreed.

Pete

The original Terminator film was a masterpiece of relatively low-budget filmmaking. As much as I enjoyed Terminator:Salvation, it was a case of "Here is a shiitload of money, go and splurge it filmmaking".

For some reason, the higher the actual budget of a film, the less work and money goes into things like scripting, etc. And usually the movies suffer for it.

Another good example. The original Matrix film was made for less than half the budget of the sequels. Which one would you rather watch?

Another good example. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Budget 220,000 pounds. Monty Python's Meaning of Life - $9 million budget. Once again, I know which one I would rather watch.

Taksraven

[VFTF1]

Yep. That is true. And of course - the prime candidate for the low budget/good vs high budget/not so good comparisson .... Star Wars.

Now - I really liked the prequels - but it's amazing what they were able to achieve in a New Hope. Although, to be fair, the budget for the prequils went towards revolutionary computer animation - Yoda being probably the best example, but not only. So there is a good excuse for spending lots of money...

But yeah - in Terminator - it was just a case of them having all this money and so everything had to be elaborate and very decorative and somewhere they lost the point.

I mean - the low point for me was just how easily John Connor rescued all those people from a concentration camp, and how ...well...poo..how well fed those people looked!

I mean - they just plucked some extras off Sunset Boulevard, put them in sheets, dirtied them up a little and told them to run around and make some moaning noises. Then, once filming was done - everybody went out for pizza.

Needs work - those scenes.

Nonetheless - I did like the story, and Sam Worthington did a good job I thought - and overall my problem was indeed with some of the visuals mainly and not with the story as such.

Pete

[Warmaker]

Well, a sequel IS in the works for the Terminator franchise. I'm willing to forgive McG if he does the Future War properly.

+ MORE machines. I griped about this alot for TS. How many T-600s did we get to see in any single frame of the movie? The big tank-thingies were extremely rare. The only good thing was that they liked to show off the flying HK's.

+ More of Skynet hunting and eradicating humans. More stuff like in T1, where Reese's flashback of their hideout being infiltrated and attacked by a T-800 who pulled out a BFG.

+ T-800s doing their thing. Either in regular combat models or what they were designed for: Doing infiltrations.

+ Show off that mechanized assault of Skynet. Scores of machines moving in on discovered human concentrations.

+ Machine efficiency: The machines shouldn't be toying with their targets. They kill as quickly and efficiently as possible. Shooting preferably, but if a machine needs to get in close, it shouldn't waste time by tossing the target around or whatever. The Terminators in T1 and T2 (goodguy or not) did NOT f**k around when fighting. As soon as it got it's hand on you, you were DEAD, i.e. your beating heart in it's hand after grabbing you.

+ Less humans running around. I mean, this Future War is set after a nuclear apocalypse, right?

+ Take away the lavish equipment of the Resistance. Enough helos to do a heliborne assault, A-10s regularly flying the skies, scores of Resistance troops, and the Resistance acting without a worry about being detected by Skynet = Me being a Sad Panda.

+ Go ahead and show more of those extermination and labor camps.

+ I would like sum Phased Plasma Rifles, plz.

Simply put, the Resistance and mankind NEED to look and feel desperate. If there's going to be 3 of these newer Terminator movies, then let this 2nd one be the "Empire Strikes Back" where the badguys kick serious tail. Skynet needs to be shown as that clever, efficient, and relentless opponent.

I know I linked to this earlier in the thread but it needs to be brought up. In TS, there was no misery, hunger, desperation shown anywhere in that flick. Not like the first 2 minutes of this

. Edited December 4, 2009 by Warmaker

[bluemax151]

TS is way better than the POS T3 we got before

You can blame 21st century tacticool for all the gucci gear we see in TS. You're going to see 416s and crye precision. It's just the nature of the beast.

In TS defense it does take place before the more futile future period of Terminator we see in T1 and 2 doesn't it?

[VFTF1]

Well - technically there was "misery and hunger" - when Kyle and Star were making grilled kyote. That was SUPPOSED to be the misery and hunger episode.

But seriously - casting F-ed up with star. She's way too cute. She needs to be in a Disney movie. I mean - the girl is just too adorable, or at least the director did nothing to make her less cute and addorable and more poor, radiation stricken, starving and desperate

The radio thing also annoyed me. With all the nuclear radiation - radio couldn't possibly function that well. I mean - nowadays broadband or mobile internet are sometimes slow.

Imagine what infrastructure would be like following a nuclear war? There wouldn't be any. PERIOD.

The problem with this movie is that there seems to have been ZERO research. If McG and his people are too comfortable to even IMAGINE what deprivation and poverty look like - because that's the feeling I got...

you know from what?

Ok - remember the whole "Christian Bale goes ape sh!t at the lighting director" episode on youtube?

To me - you know what that communicated? It communicated that the people on that set were thinking:

"I'm cool because I work in Holywood and I'm making a multi-million dollar action movie."

What I'm getting at ist hat usually when I hear people talk about working on the set of a movie that later turned out to be really good- usually everybody on the set reall gets into the mood and atmosphere of the scenes and the story they are doing.

Here it seems that they were very focused on their professional lives and their status. And it shows in the final movie.

Again - I realy DID like it. And I AM happy to hear there will be more sequels. But yeah - work on it guys.

People should have bad breath, no teeth, pourous skin infections. People should be dropping dead of viruses and lukemia all over the place.

There should be scenes where people starve, finally manage to FIND a living animal, kill it, and end up puking because it was radiation poisoned.

The film should have been a greusome nightmarish view of the future.

Instead it looked like Captain F-cking Power.

THAT was the main problem. I mean - when John Conor was invading Skynet all by himself I was like "this is so Captain Power" - and it was.

Pete

[bluemax151]

Instead it looked like Captain F-cking Power.

THAT was the main problem. I mean - when John Conor was invading Skynet all by himself I was like "this is so Captain Power" - and it was.

Pete

Take that back! Captain Power was f*cking awesome

Probably more hopeless than even Terminator considering they have these super suits and they STILL get killed.

[VFTF1]

Ok ok ...then a different comparisson.

My ex(?) girlfriend (the "?" denotes that I think she still loves me, she call me every day, and we're going out next week, but she had this two month period of seperation...)...

er anyways...

My ex(?) girlfriend NEVER saw Star Wars, NEVER saw ANY of the sci-fi classics...Planet of the Apes - no. Nothing. Zero. She has now watched Alien, Transformers (2007) and Terminator 4 with me. 1 episode of SDFM TV (Pine Salad) and was looking over my shoulder on a train ride from Berlin to Warsaw gawking at Macross:Frontier (the episode where Sheryl is recuperating at Alto's dad's place) - she loved the visuals.

The point - she is a tabula rasa. When we go watch a movie Like T4 we come in there with usually 20 years worth of movies, cartoons and TV shows that deal with these subjects. We're a picky crowd and often times our raw emotions don't come out because our minds are buisy analyzing and comparing.

This is why I love watching my ex(?) girlfriend watch this stuff. She has nothing similar to compare it to. She showed me the movies and tv shows she grew up with - and most of them were about young people living on farms and falling in love. None of it had any context because context was political and you couldn't risk the wrath of the censors by putting in too much context (the socially charged political movies came later - but my ex(?) girlfriend grew up in the 70s which were relatively calm in Poland compared to the revolutionary 80s)...

Anyways - point is - she has never seen these types of American movies, and would never have been introduced to it without me.

So I think her reaction is often spot on in terms of merits and demerits of a film beause it's so pure.

Case in Point:

I will never forget the awesome adventure that was watching Ridley Scott's Alien with her - the first one. She was wet with fearful sweat, clinging to my arm, would actually scream and hide her face at certain times - and honest to gosh didn't get to the end of the movie. She begged me to turn it off at the point when Sigourney Weaver is the only survivor left and is trying to get to the escape pod, and then the Alien is standing there, just on the other side of a narrow corridor - that scene was such a terrifying culmination for my ex(?) girlfriend that she literally hid her head under the covers and told me to turn the movie off. And then she had nightmares.

It was great!

Great because that's exactly how a movie like Alien is SUPPOSED to make you feel.

Now - going into Terminator, I was expecting a lot more desperation. Instead, my girlfriend loved Sam Worthington because "he's hot" and wheeped when Sam gave his heart to save John Connor, and was generally moved by the whole "salvation" plot arc. She also was blown away by the non-stop relentless action. "It's really impressive that it's just so non-stop. Every minute there's something exciting happening."

All true and right - but the movie did not give her pause to consider that there was a nuclear war and that people are suffering. At least - it didn't make her cringe like Alien did.

And really - it SHOULD HAVE.

Pete

[Vepariga]

alot of people drinking the haterade for TS,lol.

Im with VFTF1,I liked and enjoyed Terminator Salvation,sure its not the future we envisioned,but that future from the first film is later in the future,perhaps it started like this?. I liked it,but it didnt do anything for the story,I just viewed it as a action film set in the terminator era.

saying that,i didnt ahte T3 either lol,sure it wasnt that good,it was quite lame,but hell it was enjoyable,the john conner was bit lame,but the ending was great,probably the best part of the film.

we all just have to remember,no new terminator films will ever be as good as T1 and T2.

I guess the only terminator thing i dont like is terminator sarah conner chronicles,even my mum goes rank when i bring it up,saying 'the sarah in that crap show,isnt sarah! shes all skinny and not even hard,shes soft!' I laugh.

[myk]

I liked it,but it didnt do anything for the story,I just viewed it as a action film set in the terminator era.

saying that,i didnt ahte T3 either lol,sure it wasnt that good,it was quite lame,but hell it was enjoyable,the john conner was bit lame,but the ending was great,probably the best part of the film.

Exactly, and that's why we're drinking the haterade by the gallon. The ending in T3 was awesome too, moving and definitive of which T4 had no such moments.

BTW VFTF1 don't let the girls drive you crazy, unlike the one-dimensional women of T4, none of them know what they want and you just have to ride it out and deal with what comes...

[VFTF1]

The ending in T3 was awesome too, moving and definitive of which T4 had no such moments

Ironically - T4 had one such moment - the very beginning - the text - when I read that John Conor was considered by some to be a "false prophet" I was like "OH MY GOD!! THAT'S AN AWESOME IDEA!! THIS MOVIE IS GONNA ROCK!!"

And then...

the theme was just DROPPED.

I mean - the only people who doubted him were the commanders of the resistance movement - but so what? Military commanders aren't called REMF (Real Echelon Mother F*ckers) for nothing. They always have doubts about their field commanders - and the field commanders are always screaming about REMFs who don't get it because they're not on the ground.

You don't actually need to be a time traveling prophet to get no respect from commanding officers.

I was hoping that the movie would be about how John wasn't leader of anything - and how nobody would believe him about anything

But instead he commanded a formidable army and the people who doubted him were a small group of dude in a submarine...

Lots of loose ends I'll agree...

but I STILL like this movie because I love Terminator that much .I can live with it. And hey- it's not as bad as Alien Resurrection was for the Alien franchise. It was tolerable movie...

you just have to ride it out and deal with what comes...

Agreed

Pete

[taksraven]

Ironically - T4 had one such moment - the very beginning - the text - when I read that John Conor was considered by some to be a "false prophet" I was like "OH MY GOD!! THAT'S AN AWESOME IDEA!! THIS MOVIE IS GONNA ROCK!!"

And then...

the theme was just DROPPED.

I mean - the only people who doubted him were the commanders of the resistance movement - but so what? Military commanders aren't called REMF (Real Echelon Mother F*ckers) for nothing. They always have doubts about their field commanders - and the field commanders are always screaming about REMFs who don't get it because they're not on the ground.

You don't actually need to be a time traveling prophet to get no respect from commanding officers.

I was hoping that the movie would be about how John wasn't leader of anything - and how nobody would believe him about anything

But instead he commanded a formidable army and the people who doubted him were a small group of dude in a submarine...

Lots of loose ends I'll agree...

but I STILL like this movie because I love Terminator that much .I can live with it. And hey- it's not as bad as Alien Resurrection was for the Alien franchise. It was tolerable movie...

Agreed

Pete

I never trust my field commanders.

[Uxi]

We all wanted a movie filled with the Future War flashbacks from T1 and T2. What we got was the precursor. Execution and vision are generally lacking and what they did do was trite (I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the "stay the course" BS) but we could still get what we want. I hope.

[anime52k8]

My main problems with TS was the depiction of the future compared to what we saw in the first movie and T2 (and to some extent T3 I think?). In the first two movies, the landscape was a bleak burned out ruin filled with crap. In TS the skyscrapers of Los Angeles are still standing, and nothing looks like it suffered the effects of a nuke. Everyone looked too healthy, too clean, and well fed. Everyone's teeth were pearl white. How the hell did the resistance have an entire air-base stocked with transport helicopters, A-10s, and all that kind of stuff that Skynet didn't go after?

While some of the fights "looked cool", they didn't make sense. Why throw John Connor across the room when you could punch into his body and crush some nice meaty organs? Why let your prototype infiltration Terminator rip out the remote control receiver?

How the hell did the harvester sneak up on the gas station? It's not like it's stealthy and quiet. Same goes for the aerial HK.

because it/they can and explosions and post apocolyptic car chases are COOL so there!

(I finally rented this a couple days ago, I actually wish I had gone to see it. there were lots of explosions and robots, I liked it. Sometimes I don't give a poo about things like plot or logic.)

[myk]

+ Less humans running around. I mean, this Future War is set after a nuclear apocalypse, right?

+ Take away the lavish equipment of the Resistance. Enough helos to do a heliborne assault, A-10s regularly flying the skies, scores of Resistance troops, and the Resistance acting without a worry about being detected by Skynet = Me being a Sad Panda.

Aw shucks, I suppose this means getting rid of the model-quality, exotic looking female pilots with just the right amount of hair, makeup and a skin tight, boob exposing flight suit? I mean, I can see that having a place in a post-apocalyptic setting...

[taksraven]

(I finally rented this a couple days ago, I actually wish I had gone to see it. there were lots of explosions and robots, I liked it. Sometimes I don't give a poo about things like plot or logic.)

Another person who can appreciate that this is really another fun popcorn flick, its not the sort of movie you should think too hard about (and neither was the original)

Taksraven

[VFTF1]

Aw shucks, I suppose this means getting rid of the model-quality, exotic looking female pilots with just the right amount of hair, makeup and a skin tight, boob exposing flight suit? I mean, I can see that having a place in a post-apocalyptic setting...

Strange as this might sound coming from me of all people...I can't.

Heck - Sarah Connor in the first film was just a regular girl, and she was a waitress so she didn't have much money. She certainly wasn't a knock out. Not saying she wasn't hot - but they didn't glitz her up like her room mate; instead they made her quintessentially busy with work and the type of woman who worries about next week's paycheck and not the future of humanity.

The one indication we get about her personal life is the guy who leaves the message on her phone and the fact that he drives a Porsche ("who cares if he has a porsche! It's Friday night for cryin' out loud!")

Actually - that line "it's Friday night for cryin' out loud!" is awesome - because is cements the context that Sarah is functioning in - namely - TOTALLY mundane. I mean - she's not even concerned about the current political situation in her country or the world - she's a waitress. She might be shopping for a nice guy - but clearly this dude has more important things to do than go out with her... She's at this point in life where she's also carefree. Because she's young - it's not the end of the world that she doesn't have a boyfriend yet. She can find one next week...next month...next year...whatever. Now she just wants to go catch a movie.

The juxtaposition of this super-mundane life with what follows is one of the key ingredients that makes Terminator so fantastically awesome.

Meanwhile, in T4.... well - honest to gosh only the story of Sam Worthington's character is interesting... in a way - John Connor is supremely predictable and it's sort of good that the focus wasn't on him totally...

But hmm...

Look - maybe a good way to think about this movie is like Phantom Menace.

When that came out - I remember people were kind of upset - that it was such a kiddie movie with lots of eye candy... But then, viewed in context of the prequil trilogy - it sets up the drama and does a good job.

T4 might be just that.

Alone it's insufficient - but it sets up the drama.

But yeah...they need to work on NOT having porno stars and body builders who all look like they just got back from the fitness club in the movies.

People were way to clean....

That was actually the main problem. I think it was because they kind of tried too hard to go with this "let's make it look like a kewl comic book" thing. I mean - remember Dark Horse Terminator comics? Those were good stories, but jeezus - the Resitence looked exactly like in T4 - big honkin' muscular dudes - one of them had a very well taken care of gotee, and sexy babes with punk hair cuts.

Um -NO!

Kyle Reese went into his underground base and all the people in there looked like refugees from a starving isolated island. Everyone had lice, nobody's hair was clean, and people were crying and moaning all the time.

But I guess I'm repeating myself.

So I'll repeat again that I still liked this film. It was a good action flick and a good sci-fi flick with some major faults that will hopefully be rectified.

Pete