After a midnight screening of Terminator: Salvation, biskeeee, dariane, and catmanabat wanted to share their thoughts. ‘Cause all the reviews about it were WRONG.
Biskeeee’s Observations:
1. Sam Worthington was really fun to watch, I would daresay even more than Christian Bale. From the first scene his Marcus filled me with fear and fascination. Sam’s conflicted Marcus added some unpredictability, tension, and kickass-ness. Worthington’s physicality surpasses Bale’s and makes for an exciting matchup against human and machine alike.
2. Moon Bloodgood was fun to watch too, adding some believable emotion as Blair to the typical hot tough girl / damsel role. Letting the audience see Blair’s vulnerable side was refreshing. But running around the battle zone letting her hair fly about? There’s bullets flying and machine arms grabbing everywhere - put on a dang helmet or tie the hair back!
3. Worthington and Bloodgood’s roles add a human dynamic and mitigate against what could have otherwise been a cold Matrix: Revolutions style CG fragfest.
4. I’m excited to see more of Anton Yelchin. This is his 2nd summer blockbuster this year (he played Pavel Chekov in the new Star Trek) and his youth works to his advantage playing the teenage Kyle Reese.
5. During the roaming / suspenseful desert scenes, was anyone reminded of Resident Evil: Apocalypse? Maybe it was just me.
6. I like how they made Ahh-nold look for his cameo role. Old-school all the way.
Dariane’s observations:
It was action-packed. The CG and explosions were incredible—they could give Michael Bay a run for his money. It was cheesy. I laughed in some parts that probably weren’t intended to be funny. But given the action movie cliches and 100% American Cheddar…
It was entertaining. I seriously don’t know what those critics were thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
The action-sequences were beautiful. And by ‘beautiful,’ I mean insanulously explosive and exciting. A lot of the shots and frames were like Cloverfield (hand-held style) plus Children of Men (extended shots). The film’s directorial inspirations were very obvious.
Casting? McG definitely knows how to cast the hot girls. Bryce Dallas Howard and Moon Bloodgood were quite the eye candy for the testosterone-filled audience at the midnight screening. Seriously, I think the male-to-female ratio in the theater was 10:1. Anyway, those chicks in the film were hott.
Of course the handful of girls in the audience got to see Sam Worthington shirtless.
Christian Bale gave an underimpressive performance next to Sam Worthington. Maybe it was because Worthington’s character (as Marcus Wright) had more internal conflict. Whatever it was, Sam Worthington was an engaging performer. Don’t get me wrong, Christian Bale wasn’t BAD, he just wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.
Now if you wanna talk about a great performer, Anton Yelchin is quite the up-and-coming actor of the year. It really feels like he’s everywhere, being in both Star Trek and Terminator Salvation this summer. But as a truly talented actor, it’s hard to get tired seeing him on the screen. Unlike Christian Bale.
Other thoughts about the film:
- Bakersfield was mentioned a few times. Represent! :p
- Arnold’s cameo was pretty freakin’ cool.
- Did James Cameron see it? I wonder what he thinks.
- If this film gets good word-of-mouth, it might have made ratings for ‘Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’ go up for the next season. Too bad it got cancelled.
- I guess it’s refreshing to see Helena Bonham Carter in a film that is NOT directed by Tim Burton, nor where she has crazy outrageous hair.
Dariane’s verdict: Popped. I don’t care what those critics say.
Little did the other Kettle kids know, but catmanabat was also in attendance at a midnight showing of Terminator Salvation. Great minds think alike… but they don’t review entirely alike so check this out:
Cat’s observations:
I went with a majority-female group to see this and didn’t even notice the gender ratio. So I’m glad to represent for the film femmes who bask in action as well.
Last I read on Rotten Tomatoes, this movie got a 38%. I don’t agree with that at all, because I definitely found myself enthralled by the action sequences and yeah— caring what happens to characters. That’s what a movie is supposed to do right? I have seen much worse action flicks, where the storyline gets completely obliterated by effects and choreographed fight scenes (i.e. Matrix sequels, like Biskeeee said). In stark contrast, I think Terminator Salvation actually had a decent balance.
Biggest gripe— and this is where I definitely differ from other Popcorn kids— is the relationship between Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) and Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington). I didn’t see that pairing developed in any way where I could honestly believe she cared enough about him to risk her life for him so early on in the film.
Despite that, the story revolving around Marcus was my favorite part and turned out to be far more interesting than what’s going on with John Connor. I look forward to the future installments and seeing what they have in store for John Connor, but for Salvation, Christian Bale took a back seat to Sam Worthington’s character.
That said, the best relationship to me was between Marcus, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and Star (Jadagrace). It mostly got lost in the shuffle of the main storylines, but I loved seeing them combine strength, scruffiness and cleverness to fight together.
Some other points I want to make:
- Can someone at least mention the baby Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard) was clearly carrying? I know we’re in the middle of saving humanity, but this was a loss opportunity to address something about the human condition and/or leverage viewer sympathy. Okay, fine, back to the explosions…
- Goes without saying, I think, that the special effects and fight sequences were amazing. As a kid, I was impressed watching theTerminator films just for the machines’ ability to melt and reform— so it’s crazy to me how far we’ve come since then.
- I know I’m not the only one who saw the Governator grace the screen in the buff and wondered if that’s what he looks like when he tries to balance our state budget. And is that why it’s not getting done properly? Hmm..
- Don’t hype up Common and give his role as Barnes no important presence.
- Someone give Christian Bale a cough drop
- I thought the ending was super cheesy, and reminded me of this Korean music video. Hey, McG could be into K-Pop, right.
Cat’s verdict: It did what it was supposed to. It wasn’t cinematic perfection, but I got my money’s worth and was decently entertained. I’ll say it popped.
