 | |
List Price: $35.99 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 36
Released: December 1, 2009 |
| Our Price: $16.98 |
| Used Price: $14.50 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray |
|
Editorial Review:
In the aftermath of Judgment Day and the machine takeover, resistance leader John Connor (Christian Bale) must counter Skynet’s plan to terminate mankind. Rallying his underground street fighters for a last, desperate battle, he realizes that to save the future he must rescue his own father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). But the most shocking discovery comes with the arrival of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a mysterious loner from the past who challenges Connor with an impossible choice and leads them both on a brutal journey into the heart of the enemy.
Description of Terminator Salvation (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]:
Terminator Salvation restores some of the balance of huge freakin' explosions and emotionally compelling plot to the Terminator series. Set entirely after the nuclear assault that left the computer system Skynet in control of the world, Terminator Salvation follows John Connor (Christian Bale) as he grapples with both murderous robots and his superiors in the resistance, who aren't sure they believe the prophecies that Connor is destined to save humanity. Into the midst of this struggle tumbles Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, who would later star in James Cameron's Avatar); the last thing he remembers was being executed in prison decades before. Baffled, he falls into company with Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek) and a mute little girl, who soon get captured--but Wright then meets and bonds with Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood, Eight Below), a resistance fighter who remains loyal to the confused Wright even though Connor suspects he's not what he seems--or what he believes himself to be. Terminator Salvation isn't the astonishing synthesis of action and feeling that either The Terminator or T2 were; the plot threads are poorly woven and fray completely in the last third of the movie. Despite this, Terminator Salvation has at least two skillfully orchestrated action sequences that will get your heart racing, and Worthington’s beguiling mixture of toughness and vulnerability gives his relationship with Bloodgood a genuine pulse. It's imperfect, but compared with the hollow carcasses that most action movies (including Terminator 3) turn out to be, it's worth seeing. --Bret Fetzer
On the Blu-ray disc
The director's cut is a mere three minutes longer than the theatrical cut. Many of these additions are just a few seconds of extra violence (e.g., a knife thrust into a body then pulled out), but there are a few more-substantial sequences: A longer conversation in Resistance Command Headquarters; a brief topless scene by Moon Bloodgood when her Blair Williams character and Sam Worthington's Marcus return to her base (reminiscent of Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford in Witness); an extended conversation between those two characters afterward (Blair: "You can focus on what you've lost or you can fight for what's left"); and a longer radio address by John Connor in which he mentions his mother. Even though it's not all that different, it should be the preferred way to watch the movie.
The big extra feature, Maximum Movie Mode, is only on disc 2's original theatrical cut. In front of two large TV screens, director McG introduces the movie then makes periodic appearances to discuss key concepts. Interspersed along the way are various pop-ups with the Terminator mythology timeline, picture-in-picture with cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, and stills galleries. You can also, when prompted, exit out of the movie to watch any of 11 Focus Points, which are two- to three-minute featurettes. Conveniently, you can also access these from the main menu. Two other features are watchable separate from Maximum Movie Mode: "Reforging the Future" (19 minutes), discussing the new film's take on the Terminator legacy, and "The Moto-Terminator" (8:33), focusing on the motorcycle-like robots. --David Horiuchi
Terminator Salvation (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
This makes up for T3 
2009-12-30 - Finally, something to make up for the fiasco of T3. This was a great film! I almost didn't want to see this movie, but I'm glad I did now, and I wasn't disappointed. Lots of story and action going on here, kept me interested in it from start to finish. Christian Bale has become the go-to actor for franchise films, and this one continues in the tradition of the original, with lots more. And even better, the ending was much better than I would have expected, certainly, with the direction it seemed to be going after it was revealed that one of the heroes of the movie was a Terminator, they worked it out into a satisfying, if poignant, ending. And to top it all off, we even got a little bit of "Arnold" in the movie. Brilliant!
Phenomenal 4th film 
2009-12-29 - Back in 2003 as I was driving with my Mom from seeing Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and we starting with ideas about a possible 4th film. We mentioned it taking place in the future where Humanity was actually at war. That there would be no more Terminators going back in time to help John Conner since the end of T3 showed the beginning of Judgment Day at the end. Low and behold the makers of Terminator Salvation decided to do just that. Taking place in 2018 the film shows an end of world scenario kind of like 28 Days Later, where most of Humanity is dead, or underground fighting and hiding from the Machines. It points to a bleak world where Skynet has enslaved some of the Human Race. Terminator Salvation was a much better improvement than T3: Rise of the Machines. Not that T3 was alwful, but it could have been more darker, less humorous. This film was dark and lined up with T1 and T2 in James Cameron style. I was very surprised by the cameo appearance of you know who if you watch this film. I was surprised not to see the T-1000 or T-X models but I don't know if they have been invented yet in this period of the future, although Skynet mentions "they've sent their best Terminators in time to defeat John Conner and all have failed". This film stayed in storyline with the first 3 films, and has a great cast along with Sam Worthington that kept audiences guessing. You can have a good Terminator film without Arnold or Linda Hamilton. It was great though she lent her voice though and Christiane Bale did a great John Conner. Overall the film is perhaps one of the best sci-fi films of 2009.
Great!
2009-12-29 - This movie is nowhere near bad as people say it is. It isn't even near bad period!
Now some may have had different expectations going into it of what it would be, but that's their own fault. The movie is awesome.
pretty good action...
2009-12-29 - I barely remember the Terminator movies, so the impact was less harmfull on
watching terminator salvation. I was'nt really looking for a continuation of the
franchise, i just wanted to be entertained. And that's what this movie does.
I found the movie had great effects, good sound and some great robots. The
characters in the film were interesting and the acting was decent. I find it
soo weird to see a digitized Arnold near the end...but a must for the movie.
A keeper...good to watch multiple times.
The cup is either half full or half empty...... 
2009-12-29 -
I'm a big Terminator fan. It's one of my most favorite movies of all time. I love T1 and T2. T3 was made for the fans and I loved that too just because it got Arnold back in his old role. When I heard another Terminator movie was going to come out I figured it was either going to be mind blower, or really poorly done. Terminator salvation is somewhere in between those two. It's a mind blower because they adapted a lot of new concepts into the Terminator story arc, but it's poorly done because it doesn't follow the originals too well.
T-Salvation is a "Super" Holly Woodized version of T1 & T2. With all the special effects added in, it kind of took away from the realism of Terminator and made it seem a bit too "Sci-Fi" or just unbelievable. It lacked the element of realism that made T1 & T2 so fantastic. Watching Terminator Salvation made me flashback to watching "War Of The Worlds" or "Transformers" with it's heavy CGI use. It's just action scene after action seen with a shallow story in between.
Aside from the usual focus on John Conner this one mainly centered around Kyle Reese and an unknown Terminator Marcus Wright. I enjoyed the Unknown Terminator more than anyone else in this film. He was the only one that had a "personality" and "story" to add to the film.
The weirdest thing about it all is that it seemed to take John forever to trust and accept the Unknown Terminator as an ally...I only guess he forgot about the last to films T2 and T3 where a Terminator only SAVED HIS LIFE! about a dozen times. I mean common what is this garbage! Did the writers not ever see any of the other films? In this movie John hates Terminators more than they hate themselves. You think after all these years he would realize that the Terminators can be programmed to protect people instead of just killing them... or did he forget what he learned from Arnold?
The bottom line is that what makes this movie such a disappointment is its lack of a developed story, and knowing the series they could have done so much better. It's the future and John is the leader of a "resistance group" and people follow him on command. I must have fell asleep between T3 and Terminator Salvations because I think there's a movie missing. You know the one they made that explains HOW John became the military leader people would follow? How these massive armies came together to fight the machines, and how the machines organized and developed themselves to be such a powerful and dominating force. Terminator Salvation skips all of that and jumps right into the future. The biggest problem there is that the Machines are more advanced than the ones than we encountered in the first 2 movies that were supposed to be from a much more distant future than the one presented in T-Salvation. That's where the story becomes confusing for the audience. It's more futuristic and developed than the T1 and T3 future, but its set further back in the time than those dates.
When you watch Terminator Unknown throughout the movie, you realize that he is out of place, because he more humanistic than the other terminators. This is something that the T-800, and T-1000 who were created at much later dates could not achieve. Apparently Skynet was able to make a highly advanced Terminator that modeled humans perfectly, so much so that it had no problems reaching either of their primary targets "Kyle Reese" and "John Connor" that they spent the first 1-3 movies trying to kill. Even though those terminators where made at a date much later than Terminator Unknown...? That just doesn't make any sense. All it shows me is that the creators of this movie are not followers of the Terminator series. T-Salvation is completely out of place and is pretty much the "Batman & Robin"of the series (yeah the one with George Clooney).
Watching this film you'll appreciate the action sequences, but if your looking for those nostalgic moments that made T-1 and T-2 famous it's not here at all. Pick it up because you want to see a Terminator action film, but don't take it to heart as it has many flaws. For this reviewer the Glass was half empty. Decent film, just not as developed as it should have been and there's no excuse for that. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.
