Terminator Salvation (2009)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

McG

Writers (WGA):

John D. Brancato (written by) &
Michael Ferris (written by)

Release Date:

21 May 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The End Begins

Plot:

After Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by John Connor struggles to keep the machines from finishing the job.

Plot Keywords:

Future | Machine | Death Row | Army | Character Repeating Someone Else's Dialogue

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Christian Bale	...	John Connor
Sam Worthington	...	Marcus Wright
Moon Bloodgood	...	Blair Williams
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Dr. Serena Kogan
Anton Yelchin	...	Kyle Reese
Jadagrace	...	Star (as Jadagrace berry)
Bryce Dallas Howard	...	Kate Connor
Common	...	Barnes
Jane Alexander	...	Virginia
Michael Ironside	...	General Ashdown
Ivan G'Vera	...	General Losenko
Chris Browning	...	Morrison
Dorian Nkono	...	David
Beth Bailey	...	Lisa
Victor J. Ho	...	Mark (as Victor Ho)

Also Known As:

Project Angel (USA) (fake working title)
T4: Salvation (USA) (promotional abbreviation)
Terminator 4 (USA) (working title)
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (USA) (working title)
Terminator salvation - L'inizio della fine (Italy)
Terminator: Die Erlösung (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.; Rated R for some violence and brief nudity. (director's cut)

Runtime:

115 min | 118 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA | Germany | UK | Italy

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #45308) | Finland:K-15 | UK:12A | South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG | Hong Kong:IIB | Norway:15 | Ireland:12A | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Iceland:12 | Brazil:14 | Sweden:15 | Japan:G | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Mexico:B | India:UA | Taiwan:PG-12 | USA:R (certificate #45600) (director's cut) | Australia:M | UK:12 (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque Studios - 5650 University Boulevard SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Halcyon Company, The

Trivia:

Christian Bale is one of seven actors to play John Connor. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the adult John Connor was played by Michael Edwards, the teenage John Connor was played by Edward Furlong and the infant John Connor (who appeared during Sarah Connor's dream sequence of the nuclear attack) was played by Dalton Abbott. Nick Stahl played the fourth John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Thomas Dekker currently plays John Connor in the TV series, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008), with John DeVito playing a younger John in a flashback.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final scenes after Marcus smashes the display screen, he exits the control room, In the background is gunfire-marked paneling. During the next scene, the Terminator has Kyle on a table being put into a machine. The gun fight takes places and the currently unmarked paneling gets shot up. It is clear that the marks created from the gun fight are the same as the marks behind Marcus from the earlier scene. The plot locations are supposedly different, so the scenery was obviously reused but gunfight scene must have taken place before the scene with Marcus. As no fighting had taken place near the control room, the paneling behind Marcus should have been unscathed.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
John Connor: [to Marcus] You and me, we've been at war since before either of us even existed. You tried killing my mother, Sarah Connor. You killed my father, Kyle Reese. You will not kill me!

Movie Connections:

Spin off from "Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series" (2009)

Soundtrack:

You Could Be Mine

This was actually a decent film!

Enough with the copycat comments! Everybody is so keen to criticize this film, while completely ignoring its good parts. Was there some plot weirdness? Well, yeah, we are talking humans winning versus machines here. But most of it was decent.

In this film you get to see more machine types, more character ambivalence (do you even remember the first Terminator? it was machine fascism!), more hints to the previous movies and, most of all, hints of the direction of the Terminator concept. I don't want to spoil it for you, but you must be blind not to see it is a good thing.

Other good things in this movie: Moon Bloodgood, the Oh-girl; Michael Ironside, just as fun as ever, even if having some scenes. And there is Sam Worthington, who is actually the main character and more like Help from BSG, but twice as cool, NOT Christian Bale aka John Connor.

I am surprised to see that both Terminator the series and the new Terminator are bringing some modernism to the old age concept of machine war. They are obviously not without flaw, but considering the alternatives and, even more, my expectations, I would say that saying this film was bad must be just some fashionable thing to say right now.

Bottom line: I liked it!