Terminator: Salvation

EvaUnit02 on 17/6/2009 at 15:04

Quote Posted by catbarf

On a different note, has anyone here played the old DOS game Skynet?

Wasn't it just an expansion pack for Future Shock?

catbarf on 17/6/2009 at 16:58

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

Wasn't it just an expansion pack for Future Shock?

It turned into a sequel sometime before release.

Scots Taffer on 24/6/2009 at 00:10

I don't know why I don't have a bigger problem with this movie because ostensibly it did a number of huge things wrong, namely:

* Bale was terrible (he obviously couldn't get any character to develop from the script so he dropped into shouty mode and used a near Batman voice to convey EMOTION)
* Kyle Reese was a nothing character that I don't care about and seems eons from the Biehn take on the character (admittedly he has some growing up to do but jesus, is this Anakin mark II)
* By the end of the movie I have no idea what the next one will be about, except uh... the continuing war against the machines!
* By the end of the movie I have no idea what the movie I just watched was about: if Skynet simply wanted John Connor and Kyle Reese dead (and why does it want them dead anyway?) then as soon as Marcus located Kyle and drew in John then it would've sent hundreds of robots to kick their ass, not just one (admittedly awesome) robot and it's still not clear what that would do exactly anyway as the armed resistance would still be out there
* The whole existence, usage and technical aspects of Marcus don't make a lot of sense
* Skynet having an ipod white control room with a Shodan type interface is just beyond stupid
* Motorcycle robots have usb ports? Really?
* There's also the whole, y'know, non-existence of time travel technology yet
* We now get into rough and tumble fist fights with terminators and apparently being punched full force in the face by a few tons of steel doesn't rip your jaw off and cave your face in, you just get a couple of dashing-looking scratches...
* And oh yeah, set off a nuclear explosion 2ft above ground zero. Smart!

Yet somehow, despite all of this - I actually enjoyed it.

There's something at work here that I think is a result of the steady erosion in quality of the Terminator series: T2's pop culture bloat, T3's "talk to the hand" comedy and now T4's lack of coherent plot - these are just robot explosion spectaculars now. They're big boom events and it actually went big boom pretty well for the most part. I enjoyed most of the major action beats and actually chuckled at a few of the intended jokes (though I groaned at "I'll be back" and "Come with me if you want to live", it's devolving into Bond level parody with that shit now). Also, major bonus points for pulling of CG 1984 Arnie that actually looked good.

I actually think McG is going to do something pretty revolutionary here, I think by the end of this series (if it gets made) he'll have created the first prequel sequel reboot (I can see him fist pumping in a room full of execs after saying this) as I can imagine this series ends with Kyle Reese going back through time and then the Terminator never arrives as John Connor and the resistance will have ended the robot threat in the future.

I should probably clarify: I think this is fucking retarded.

It was clear where the PG13 cuts kicked in, for me anyway, and the lack of Moonblood getting naked and having sex with Marcus eliminates a fair chunk of her motive (though to be fair, that whole interaction was very cliché). And where the hell did that big machine gun weilding Terminator waterbot that we saw in one of the trailers or set images early on go?? I was sure that was going to happen right at the start.

Anyway I'm actually keen to see an unrated DVD and reckon that despite its grotesque stupidity in spots, it actually did a decent job of the action and I probably prefer it to T3.

Also, this was the douchiest collection of names I've ever seen in a movie: McG, Moonblood, Common, Jadagrace.

SubJeff on 24/6/2009 at 00:18

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

I have no idea what the movie I just watched was about: if Skynet simply wanted John Connor and Kyle Reese dead (and why does it want them dead anyway?) then as soon as Marcus located Kyle and drew in John then it would've sent hundreds of robots to kick their ass, not just one (admittedly awesome) robot and it's still not clear what that would do exactly anyway as the armed resistance would still be out there...

* There's also the whole, y'know, non-existence of time travel technology yet
* We now get into rough and tumble fist fights with terminators and apparently being punched full force in the face by a few tons of steel doesn't rip your jaw off and cave your face in, you just get a couple of dashing-looking scratches...

If John and Kyle die then Skynet knows that it will win. Or at least its major (future) adversary would be dead. It knows this from the alternate timeline from T1 - a fact that doesn't quite makes sense but hey its fun anyway.

Skynet is probably working on the time travel tech atm.

Does John ever get hit by the T800? Marcus is a Terminator anyway so he'd be fairly ok.

Scots Taffer on 24/6/2009 at 00:24

John gets full on punched in the face by a Terminator.

Also, he walks (albeit with some assistance) out of the factory after being IMPALED.

catbarf on 24/6/2009 at 00:45

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

* By the end of the movie I have no idea what the next one will be about, except uh... the continuing war against the machines!

Is it wrong for a movie to have some sort of closure?

Fafhrd on 24/6/2009 at 01:16

If it's a franchise picture? Yes.

Scots Taffer on 24/6/2009 at 02:16

Quote Posted by catbarf

Is it wrong for a movie to have some sort of closure?

Batman Begins had closure for its story and yet the complete open-endedness of continuing adventures, so for this wannabe franchise I'd say yes.

Sgt_BFG on 24/6/2009 at 03:54

Quote Posted by catbarf

Agreed.

On a different note, has anyone here played the old DOS game Skynet?

Yes, and it was alot more fun compared to T4, fuck was that movie stupid. This may have been brought up but he jumps out of a helicopter and conveniently finds a fucking submarine

Scots Taffer on 24/6/2009 at 03:58

Everyone who thinks that clearly isn't paying attention and to be honest, there are much bigger problems than this. Although I agree that it was a pretty stupid and unnecessary scene which added absolutely nothing except a special effects shot (unless it was supposed to suggest JOHN CONNOR IS REALLY HARDCORE). The chopper had already diverted course to where command was but at the last moment command refused to surface and give away their position, to which Connor tells them to lock on and get him. They were clearly in the area.