Review of Terminator Salvation (2009) by Thequietgamer — 10 Jan 2016

The first Terminator to take place almost entirely in the legendary future conflict between man and machines. After three movies taking place in the past (present?) that only gave us glimpses into what the future looked like, it's nice to see a movie that actually takes place during that chapter in the war. Even if it isn't how we were told it would look.

It's missing that dark, futuristic vibe the original films portrayed the world of the conflict as having at this point. What we get here is a bunch of brown. It definitely sells the apocalyptic side, but outside of the robots onscreen this doesn't feel very futuristic. To be fair though this does take place before the glimpses in the original films did. John Connor isn't the big leader yet. Still, it just would have been cool to see it portrayed more like the original films. It's a minor quibble, but still one that bugs me.

As far as the plot goes it's pretty solid. It takes cues from the original in it's set up and has plenty of references and tie-ins that definitely show how it's a continuation of the series. A plot hole shows up in the form of Kyle Reese's age. The original movie sowed him meeting John when he was a kid, but here he is a teenager. A pretty big oversight. I suppose you could chalk it up to the crazy amount of time traveling in this series leading to a few changes in the overall timeline, but given how tight the narrative and timeline changes have been handled in the series up until this point, it's pretty obvious this is just a goof up.

The movie is a lot of fun to watch thanks to the great spectacle of the action and a very talented cast. There are plenty of explosions and gunfights to behold (who said excess is always a bad thing?) so it definitely hold it's own in that department. There are a few cool, new Terminators to gawk over.

Despite some goofy moments here and there along with some questionable dialog, the non-explosive parts of the movie are often just as entertaining. Like I said before the movie has a talented cast. They do great work with the material. All that's missing is Arnold Schwarzenegger. We do get a CGI version of him as some fan service, but it's just not the same. It's hard to not miss his presence given how significant it is to the series.

Despite some writing missteps this is a very entertaining film. It doesn't live up to it's predecessors 1-3, but it's a worthy addition to the series even with it's flaws. It's nice to finally see a movie take place during the actual future war. It's just a shame the series didn't continue on from here. Especially with"Genisys" having me worried about the future of the series.

There are Terminator fans out there who will (and are) disappointed with this entry in the series, but I still find it to be a good movie regardless. One that takes place during a time that series has been pointing towards since the first movie. With action this good, a cast this great, and some cool new Terminators on display it's kind of hard for this movie to not be entertaining. Even if it didn't blow me away like the previous one's did.

My total score for the movie is a 7.