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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

[7.50/10] Terminator Salvation (2009)


Terminator Salvation (2009)

Short review: The film does what it can to salvage the pieces of Jonathan Mostow's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines", and for the most part, it does so valiantly. Wiping the camp and the ridiculousness of its predecessor away, "Terminator Salvation" settles post opening credits right into the gritty and dystopic nature of the first two films, only amped up considerably. The purely visual McG and his crew make it crystal clear that the future is bleak, dark and depressing. Props to the production design and art direction of this movie for creating such a believable and realistic post-nuclear world that is so bleak, barren. The various models of Terminators in "Salvation" are bigger, meaner and more bad-ass than ever before and the explosions only get bigger as the movie rolls on. Probably the film's only truly main issue is the plot itself: it just isn't that significant. Save for showing John Connor and Kyle Reese in the constantly foreshadowed future to give an idea of their characters in the setting. Really the film feels as if it's just trotting along to entertain rather than tell anything. There are a number of action scenes that come up every so often and these are the highlight of this highly entertaining sci-fi action flick.

Overall summary: From impressive special effects to very good camera shots and enough adrenaline to keep the viewer's eyes glued to the screen, "Terminator Salvation" manages to succeed very well in the action and entertainment aspect.


  • My Rating: 7.50/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 32% (5.0/10)
  • IMDb: 7.0/10

6 comments:

DEZMOND said...

The thing I liked in this movie is the fact it didn't have an overly complex plot, because sometimes such movies just get too weird and to self-centred. But I do agree that they could've put some more spice into the whole story.

For some reason the whole movie looked a bit old fashioned to me, as if it was designed in the 90's. And I don't mean visually.

The best part of the movie is, without a doubt, Sam Worthington. I predicted two years ago that he will be a huge star and he is well on his way to prove me right :)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

I loved the grim atmosphere of T4, but you might be right - it feels like an old-fashioned movie. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing though. :)
Christina Bale is one of my favorite actors - I predicted he's going to have a huge access, after I watched him in American Psycho, but in T4 he got outshined by Sam Worthington! Sam was great!

DEZMOND said...

I've predicted Bale would be a super star when he did EMPIRE OF THE SUN (and he was just a little kid then) so I beat you in this one :PPPP

He was amazing in THE MACHINIST (bad movie, amazing role), EQUILIBRIUM (great movie, great role)....

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Well, I haven't seen Empire of the Sun, but I think this is not his strongest performance, because he shined and became popular 10 years later. :)
Well, I thought The Machinist was great! I loved the movie and loved Bale's performance! Equilibrium is amazing futuristic action flick, though everybody compared it with The Matrix!

DEZMOND said...

I'm one of those who compare MATRIX to EQUILIBRIUM and not EQUILIBRIUM to MATRIX :))

I liked E more than M, because it didn't have all that overexaggerated philosophy nonsense, and was more straight to the point :)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Well, I thought The Matrix was a revolution in the sci-fi genre and I respect and LOVE the movie! :) Equilibrium was for sure inspired by The Matrix .. you can't deny that :P