A lot of people slagged off Terminator 3 as inconsequential action fluff. Those same people now seem to be championing the McG directed Terminator: Salvation as the saviour of the franchise. I know which film I'd rather watch again, and it wouldn't be the McG-minator.
First off, Christian Bale. So good as Batman; watchable in almost everything else he shows up for; here, he doesn't so much phone in his performance as get someone else to phone it in for him. It doesn't help that after the opening set piece, Bale's John Connor is off-screen for most of the next hour while Mr. Chekov (playing a young Kyle Reese) and the Cyborginator take up the slack. Well, it doesn't help Bale - we, the viewer actually benefit from his absence as both Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington make far more interesting, sympathetic characters than Bale's one note JC. I never thought I'd find myself writing this, but what this film really needs is an Arnie (not just a CGI cameo), and Christian Bale (incredibly) just ain't no substitute. Say what you like about the Austrian Oak, but he brought a tongue-in-cheek humour (sometimes unintentionally) to the previous films that's sorely missing from this arid explosion-fest.
The action sequences are occasionally thrilling, though nothing to match either T2 or T3, but it soon becomes painfully clear that T4 is suffering from the same 12A safeness that hampered the last Die Hard flick and Wolverine. These movies just shouldn't be aimed at 12 year-olds (and under); the need to chase the almighty box office dollar puts a muzzle on the Terminator in the same way it sheathed Logan's claws and cleaned up John McClane's potty mouth. If all our blockbusters are now being firmly pitched at children, what's left for us adults to enjoy?
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7 rants and reactions:
Your last paragraph says it all. Let's have drama and action with a bit of bite for God's sake! As for appeasing the kiddie market I'm sure the film studios could release a kid's version on DVD (along with the extended version, the director's cut, the director's other cut, the restored version and the musical) as a way of boosting their already humungous sales.
I absolutely HATED this movie, I refused to even blog about it myself. I love the first two and the third is cheap video fodder...yet still better than T4 (not the C4 weekend shows for idiots).
The title music alone pissed me off, mishandling a reworking of the theme then accenting it with a clanging beat right at the end. I wouldn't have recognised any of this as by Danny Elfaman and I despaired when i saw McG's name flashed up, obviously having forgotten his involement.
The storytelling was so bad that I thought "There's Chekov!" but then realised I'd been watching him for 20 minutes already! Then I realised the events just washed over me (probably as the palette and characters were so drained of colour)I didn't care about any of the characters (except maybe Marcus Wright). I have yet to see anything where Bale is remotely relatable (his most likable role was as a psycho killer!). The dialogue was terrible but the biggest flaws were the lapses in logic...
For all the shoutouts to the first two films, how can they show a scene where John Connor listens to tapes from his mum and gets angry because there was never any mention of robotic Terminators in them...despite being raised by his mum to fight them and having met two himself in T2 and T3??!!
Utter utter rubbish...
I heard that it was quite boring, which is a real achievement when it's a film about robots driving mankind to extinction.
Then again, Nu Galactica managed it too...
Huge plot holes, the worst dialog and a really poor soundtrack do not equal a Terminator movie. Even T3 managed to get some of it right and that movie was bloody awful.
The Sarah Connor recordings were also really flat compared to the original performance.
I did however like the T800 appearance but of course by that stage I didn't really care.
Christian Bale is so far up himself he should wipe his over-priced botty with his toothbrush!
I keep reading that Christian Bale ddiddn't want to do this film - nobody likes it - he's not right for the part - so WHY DID THEY DO IT?????
Yeah well I for one enjoyed the movie and thought it was a good addition to the Terminator movies (bar T3), so ner! :-p
Thought Bale was suitably mean and moody (and rather easy on the eye), nice use of music and cliches, a satisfying ending of sorts too.
If I was expecting a mindless action fest, I'll go to see Transformers (which I probably will go to see anyway).
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