Terminator Salvation: A review
Seeing T4 only made me want to watch the prior three Terminator movies and Sarah Connor Chronicles over again just to get the bitter, dull, metallic taste out of my mouth.
Sigh.
I weep for the future and miss the past. The last episode of SCC (am currently still crying inside), specifically, the last five minutes, was more epic than the whole of T4 was. The trailer for T4 was epic too.
I'm fairly sure that all other reviews have covered the biggest problems with this movie.
Mine?
1. The lack of any real plot. The movie seemed more like a day in the life than any sort of story.
2. This is partly because there was no character development...and in a movie, this translates to no characters.
Essentially, this boils down to a shitty script. In a post-apocalyptic world, everything becomes super awesome if done right. You can have minimal dialogue, but it can rock. This movie had minimal dialogue, but it was plodding, and dull. Oh, and there wasn't actually much of a story. Or characters developing. They simply were. The film simply was. I mean...there was a story--John Connor must stop the machines. And escalation...the stakes got higher. But that's the universe. That's not the story. Terminator = Stop the machines! Making a film involves creating a story to fit the universe. T1: Sarah Connor must survive with the help of Kyle Reese. T2: SC and JC must flee a new Terminator model with *gasp* the help of the original one?!?! T3: JC and Kate are being hunted down by multiple machines on the eve of Judgement Day--they must deal with the fact they cannot stop the end of the world.
T4: Well, we've got to save Kyle and this guy Marcus is a robot and John's at war with the military and we've got to stop the machines. Well, this is news. Any one of these small points of the movie could have been a fully fleshed out story, but wasn't.
I liked parts. A few characters (notably not John Connor) were intriguing; the special effects were excellent.
But right now, all I want to do is watch Linda Hamilton scream and stumble as she runs from the Terminator and transform into badass Sarah Connor. I want to watch the awareness and small bit of peace amongst incredible chaos dawn on Thomas Dekker's face.
What a shame.
The only reason I hope this movie does well is that maybe it could spark a surprise renewal of SCC. But I doubt that will happen.
Sigh.
I weep for the future and miss the past. The last episode of SCC (am currently still crying inside), specifically, the last five minutes, was more epic than the whole of T4 was. The trailer for T4 was epic too.
I'm fairly sure that all other reviews have covered the biggest problems with this movie.
Mine?
1. The lack of any real plot. The movie seemed more like a day in the life than any sort of story.
2. This is partly because there was no character development...and in a movie, this translates to no characters.
Essentially, this boils down to a shitty script. In a post-apocalyptic world, everything becomes super awesome if done right. You can have minimal dialogue, but it can rock. This movie had minimal dialogue, but it was plodding, and dull. Oh, and there wasn't actually much of a story. Or characters developing. They simply were. The film simply was. I mean...there was a story--John Connor must stop the machines. And escalation...the stakes got higher. But that's the universe. That's not the story. Terminator = Stop the machines! Making a film involves creating a story to fit the universe. T1: Sarah Connor must survive with the help of Kyle Reese. T2: SC and JC must flee a new Terminator model with *gasp* the help of the original one?!?! T3: JC and Kate are being hunted down by multiple machines on the eve of Judgement Day--they must deal with the fact they cannot stop the end of the world.
T4: Well, we've got to save Kyle and this guy Marcus is a robot and John's at war with the military and we've got to stop the machines. Well, this is news. Any one of these small points of the movie could have been a fully fleshed out story, but wasn't.
I liked parts. A few characters (notably not John Connor) were intriguing; the special effects were excellent.
But right now, all I want to do is watch Linda Hamilton scream and stumble as she runs from the Terminator and transform into badass Sarah Connor. I want to watch the awareness and small bit of peace amongst incredible chaos dawn on Thomas Dekker's face.
What a shame.
The only reason I hope this movie does well is that maybe it could spark a surprise renewal of SCC. But I doubt that will happen.