The Terminator Thread: T1, Judgement Day, Rise of the Machines, Salvation & Sarah Connor Chronicles

I had the opposite experience of 2ndQuest. I saw it the first time on Thursday with very low expectations, and found it surprisingly entertaining, if you just go with the flow. Mainly because the action turned out pretty well, and McG didn't subject us to the horrible trend of shaky-cam and rapid-fire editing, where a shot doesn't linger for longer than two seconds during the action. And the story, while deeply flawed, is still 10x more engaging than the awful mess that is "Wolverine".

However, second viewing doesn't hold up so well to me. The bad sticks out as really bad. The action is still entertaining but obviously isn't fresh this time, and doesn't feel nearly as abundant as it did on the first viewing.

Still, it's nowhere near as bad as many are making it out to be, and neither is T3, for that matter.

On a side note, I can't believe people found Bryce Dallas Howard to be anything other than downright horrible in this.

 

If you liked T4,I highly recommend Reign Of Fire, which is a very underrated movie in my opinion, worth renting on DVD

Starring
Matthew McConaughey
Christian Bale
Izabella Scorupco
Gerard Butler

It's like Bale verses Dragons instead of killer robots.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=reignoffire.htm

 

"Reign of Fire" always struck me as a particularly original idea that...with a bit of tweaking, could have been GREAT...

As it was, it was a pretty entertaining little B movie with a surprisingly against type McConaughey (I believe his career was at a low point here) stealing the show. I supported the heck out of it because X-Files alum Rob Bowman was directing

 

Its just kinda odd that 3 and 4 are not as Dark and creepy like the other two movies are. Sarah connor had dreams in both movies man they really gave me nightmares as a kid and sometimes they still do. Where is James cameron when you need him?

 

Arnold's kids think Salvation is best Terminator.
lol poor Arnie...

 

I'm surprised that nobody's posted this yet.

The so-called "alternate" ending sounds more like a prank to me. What studio would have greenlit that?

 

I thought T4 was a descent movie. It was cool to finally see the machine war, first hand. However, to be honest, it was just a pale shadow compared to the TV show, and having this following up after season 2 just made the movie seem that much weaker. Still, worth one viewing.

 

Where is Cameron when you need him? Busy in New Zealand filming Avatar.

 

I actually really like that ending. But yeah, I don't know why the studio would sign off on that. Way too risky.

 

I heartily dislike that alternate, bleak-as-night ending, and I'm glad they talked Bale out of it. The T movies always end with a sense of hope for the future, that despite the odds that are stacking against the protagonists, the storm that is building, somehow humanity will prevail.

If Connor's mortal exterior was put on the Marcus Terminator, and then he shot everyone in the room, that would not be a hopeful, hurray-for-humanity ending. Very un-Terminator.

 

it would be such a shocking end, no one would expect it

 

One other thing I found disappointing about this movie is that there wasnt even one full scale battle between the humans and the machines. It would have been really cool if they had pushed the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN homage further and had an apocalyptic version of the D Day invasion at Normandy with a lot of graphic violence. God, I still wish Terminator 3 had never been made so that Cameron could have come back to do these movies set in the future. This is why Im glad Lucas has financial and therefore artistic control over SW. Whether or not you like it, its always cool to always get the creator's vision, for better or for worse.

By the way, even though this movie was mediocre, it has inspired me to re-aquaint myself with the first two movies directed by Cameron. I had a falling out with the franchise as a whole because the time paradox with Reese concieving John Connor drove me insane. However, my fascination with nuclear warfare has pushed me back towards these movies. As Im sure a lot of you know, there are about 846 versions of the T2 dvd. I was wondering if you guys could inform me on which is the best one. I appreciate it.

 

I don't know about technical elements (picture/audio transfer quality), but for my money you should track down the old Ultimate Edition 2-disc set. The first disc has three versions of the movie
1- Theatrical Version
2- Special Edition (my personal favorite, assembled by Cameron but not technically a "Director's Cut" because Cameron stands by the theatrical version)
3- Extended Version* (includes most of the same scenes as added in the SE, as well as a few that weren't - including the much maligned 'happy future' alternate ending.
In addition to the usual trailers and making-of bonus features, Disc 2 includes a featurette on the making of T2:3D, the film/show at Universal Studios.

One feature missing from the Ultimate Edition set is a commentary by James Cameron and William Wisher that's only available on the Extreme Edition set that was released when T3 hit theatres.

Also, if you've already made the upgrade to Blu-Ray, I believe there's a set that comes with all the special features from the DVDs.

*Extended Version is only accessible by using your DVD remote to input the code 8 2 9 9 7 (as in 8/29/97, the date of Judgment Day)

 

Just saw it on Friday (I`m in the UK so it was only just released this last week) - I`d read wildly differing reviews so I decided to go in not expecting anything. I have to say, I was pretty impressed! Ok, it wasn`t on par with 1 or 2, but it WAS a vast improvement on 3....the cameo towards the end, combined with the original score playing at that point, was just AWESOME! One thing that annoyed me about the film was Bale himself - I really wish they`d cast someone else to play Connor, I just found his performance pretty cold and lifeless. On the other hand the actor who played Marcus was amazing, I thought - almost as good was the guy who played the young Kyle Reece - I found myself warming to them in a way I never did to Bale`s character. Seeing the different types of terminator was pretty thrilling too, I thought the T-600s were pretty impressive! One little nod to the third film I liked was the inclusion of the very basic terminators we saw at the end of that film.

Does anyone know if they`ll be going ahead with their plans to create a new trilogy? I`d love it if they did, amybe with another director next time? Abrams or Nolan would be my pick if they did.

 

^ ^ ^ I agree with all of that, except that I doubt Nolan or Abrams are realistic candidates to do a fifth Terminator movie. I wouldn't mind seeing a post-JD trilogy play out as directed by McG; I think he did a fine job here and would only improve as he continues to document the war against the machines.

 

What I like about the film is that it basically sets up the more large scale land battles between the Resistance and the T-800's since they were being built at the end of the movie. I'm curious to see how certain events play out in future movies: Kyle Reese being sent back, the bad T-800, the two good T-800's, the T-1000, the T-X, and I look forward to seeing how they explain how time travel is developed as well as the switch-over from regular ammunition to plasma weapons. There's a lot of potential to show some really interesting things, and I think Salvation was a nice set-up for the more interesting events of the future war.

My only concern is Christian Bale. He's one of my favorite actors and I hope he returns for future sequels for continuity purposes, but his performance was very one-dimensional in the film. I learned nothing new about John Conner other than he apparently smoked for a number of years and has a bad temper. Bale did have a number of nicely done scenes in the film, like during the final battle at Skynet, but otherwise John Conner left me cold.

 

I think Ellison might be God, since she's basically come into Hollywood with a ton of money and thrown it at filmmakers of high class. Within the next two years the credits she'll be attached to will be immense, if even half the films live up to their promise.

As such, I hope she gets a filmmaker with a real singular, artistic vision onto this franchise, who can perhaps write and direct.

 

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