Man, I came into this movie because it was really hot out and I needed somewhere to go with A/C, and I was morbidly interested in seeing what McG had done with the franchise after reading all the bad reviews. And so help me, I really, REALLY enjoyed this movie. It certainly blew away T3, which came off as a hacky rehash of T2 with a twist ending. Yeah, we knew the action setpieces were gonna be good and loud (and LOUD!), but there’s some pretty damn good acting going on here too. I should note that the trailer is a bit misleading, as Bale’s John Connor is at best second-banana here (reportedly only written into more of a main character after Bale took the role) and the real star of the movie is Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, the Terminator who thinks he’s people. He’s the one who draws the sympathy from the audience and who drives the plot. With John it’s like “Yeah, we know, savior of the human race, yada yada” but Wright is a fresh character with a neat Blade Runner type twist on the Terminator robots. In fact, I really wish that they hadn’t revealed his nature in the trailer or indeed in the first 5 seconds of the movie, because it would have been a really boffo twist to make it a big reveal late in the movie after clearly showing that he was human earlier on.
Anyway, I’d call this one a solid third-best in the series and well worth checking out for a good time at the movies. I did not like the ending, however, I will say that.
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Tags: RAW
Couldn’t agree more. All I’ve read is negative reviews but I really dug this movie, ending and all.
Yeah, I thought this movie got slagged a little unfairly by the critics. It’s no T2 (but then again, I don’t think T2 will be toppled as Best of the Series), but I enjoyed this flick, moreso than I did T3.
I remember reading one critic complain about the lack of color and the darkness in the film. Hello, it’s a post-apocalyptic nuclear winter. I wouldn’t exactly be expecting rainbows and colorful meadows.
Best Summer Blockbuster movie this year so far.
I could not disagree more. It was atrocious. The dialogue was among the worst I’ve heard in big screen blockbusters this year.
“Let me use your body heat for warmth” is straight out of Days of Our Lives … circa 1988.
Awful movie, awful acting outside Worthington (even Bale, who I love, phoned it in), nonsensical ending, and it had NONE of the series’ trademark humor.
This piece of shit took itself (and the franchise) WAY too seriously. I like T3, because at least it acknowledged its own bad lines.
It felt like the intro video to a video game, except I had no start button to skip it.
I know it’s kind of ridiculous to comment on an action movie’s score, but when John Connor and his father met they had a horn section play what was basically a fart noise. I laughed out loud at that.
Shitty CGI on Arnold as well. I’m not a fan of CGI anyway, but Jeez you could practically see the 0s and 1s there.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I can say that Sam Worthington (from my native Australia) has been destined for greater things for some time. Check out a crime / comedy called Gettin’ Square (also with Aussie David Wenham) for an example of what I mean.
He’s also the lead in Cameron’s Avatar, which we will be eventually (!) seeing.
I enjoyed it too, probably because I read the reviews first and was pleasantly surprised. Before the reviews I was hopingfor Dark Knight awesomeness but after them, I was pleased with what we got and agree that Worthington was the story. Looking forward to the next two but fuck off McG and get a real director in.
I 100% agree with Scott…. I was surprisingly satisfied at the end…. was it a true classic like T1/T2… no.. but did it move the franchise forward and deliver an interesting fun film?…. absolutely.
I watched it again online streaming today to make sure it was as a good as I originally though.. and I’d say yes.. this was a solid darn good movie.