See, this was my problem with the movie. If I wanted to see Arnold as a terminator, I would’ve watched the first one. One of the best parts of T2 was the weird father/son relationship between John and the machine originally created to kill him. The third one felt like bring someone back to play their identical twin.
I excuse myself from all discussion of Salvation because I am incompetent to evaluate it, having fallen asleep during it. Same thing with whatever that third Matrix movie was.
One additional thought about time travel. The past has to be changable otherwise there’s no movie: Skynet sends the terminator back in time. Kyle Reece and the resistance say “meh. He can’t change anything.” Two somewhat comic hours of the terminator always just missing Sarah and John Conner over the next 40 years.
But here’s what’s wrong with T3 and T:Salvation:
No James Cameron - Cameron tells what are basically love stories set against a huge special effects extravaganza. T1 is the story of Kyle and Sarah. T2 is about a son reconciling with his mother and finding a father figure in the form of the terminator. It’s also about Sarah regaining her humanity, having been driven somewhat mad by her knowledge of the future.
By comparison, T2 and TS are disjointed excuses to film robots fighting. T3 is basically another T-800 dragging a whining John Connor around. I have no idea why John Connor and Kate Brewster should fall in love, other than Arnold tells us so. At least that’s consistant in the next film as Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard have like zero chemistry.
No Brad Fidel haunting score. The score for the later two films just lacked the mood and atmosphere of the original.
Thousand pound robots should not toss each other like ragdolls. I get that they are strong. But unless they are made out of aluminum, they shouldn’t get tossed a hundred feet like they were launched out of a cannon.
Adult John Connor is a douche.
Terminator Salvation is just two hours of explosions and shoehorned T1 and T2 references. Sam Worthington’s character had no point.
Both T3 and TS suffer from the fact that they are following up 2 of what have widely been regarded as a couple of the greatest movies ever made. An they are making the mistake of trying to outdo them with more and bigger explosions and chases. The opening 5 minutes of T2 are better than the last two films combined.
No Sarah Connor, wimpy, charisma-free, wit-free, incompetent John Connor, OK but mostly dull love interest, forgettable baddie, Arnie taking the self-referential comedy just a little too far, dull music, dull cinematography except for the CGI set-pieces, and all of this might still have been bearable except that it was a sequel to two brilliant and much-loved films.
Though I am actually considering giving it a go again just for the action sequences. Those were quite good.
I liked it well enough. Salvation was a disaster.
Terminators 1 & 2 were both good films. Good writing, good directing (both Cameron btw), good story, good editing, good cinematography. Terminator 3 comes off as a cynical Hollywood cash-in on the franchise. It doesn’t rise above your standard sci-fi action movie like the first two did. It has no heart. It has no soul.
When I watched Terminator 3 in the theatre, there were several occasions where the computer graphics stuck out like a sore thumb. For instance, I remember at one point Arnie gets thrown into a tombstone and I thought the tombstone looked about as realistic as one of those coily snakes from Q*Bert.
I didn’t hate it, and there were parts that I liked. I did like the casting for John Connor, and the meeting of his future wife, and the pre-skynet robots. But
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They killed Sarah Conner. Offscreen. From cancer.
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They completely shit on the previous movie’s “no fate but what you make”. Within the context of this movie alone, the trick the Dad played on them, making them think they could destroy the skynet computer when really he was sending them to a shelter was pretty cool and an interesting twist, and watching the nukes fall was also fun. But within the context of the previous two movies, it was the equivalent of Alien3 when they reversed the triumphs of the previous film by killing off Newt and the love interest guy.
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The new “half and half” Terminator was a step backwards from the previous movie’s Terminator.
Not at all. Previous Terminator models had to come back naked and scrounge for weapons, settling for inferior predecessors of the phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range (“Hey, just what ya see pal!”). The T-X was able to bring weapons from the future and the ability to disguise as any human she sampled. She could also remote control any sufficiently advanced machinery (everything from cars to other Terminators) and she is the only Terminator to actually accomplish at least part of her mission (all the JC lieutenants she gunned down). She is also incredibly tough- after getting cut in half it takes a mini nuclear bomb in her mouth to kill her! She is by far the most advanced and most capable of all the Terminators, despite the fact that she can’t disguise herself as a tiled floor.
Hicks. Also played by James Cameron favorite Michael Biehn.
I will disagree with the shitting on the time / space continuum thing. The whole series is a predestination paradox. Did John Connor send Kyle Reece back in time to save Sarah Connor or because he knew that Kyle Reece was his father? (I mean why is the general of the army giving pictures of his mom to some NCO anyway?) It was the chip / arm of the T-800 that allowed Cyberdyne to start making Skynet. And it’s not like Sarah would have otherwise got herself knocked up and start training her kid to be the warrior of the future. It only made sense that Judgement Day would be inevitable.
But why does Skynet continue using the Cyberdyne models numbers for terminators it designed and created after Judgement Day? Does it want to keep Cyberdyne’s corporate status for tax puposes or something?
Probably just being systematic.
What would you have them be called?
In T-4, meet the most fearsome model yet: Terminator Bob.
Say hello Bob!
“Does not compute.”
Did you ever use Microsoft Bob? I can’t imagine a scarier computer interface. I see that thing pop up on my computer and I’ll be running for a bunker myself.
But Terminator Bob was already in T2…
If they wanted to make a parody of The Terminator, it could have worked. But this half parody half tongue in cheek sequel just dosn;t work for me.
Salvation was pretty good. They made a few changes to the way things were stated as happening, but at least it felt like the first two did.
It’s still trying to carry out its original mission like a good little Cyberdyne employee should; it was told to “eliminate human error,” and has been wholeheartedly plugging away on that project ever since.
That’s my main beef with T3. Terrible casting for John Connor. This is not a guy who will save humanity.
Everybody gives him shit. He was high on horse tranquilizers for the whole movie!
Does not help. At all. And then the fake action-girl being badass. They just swapped the damsel in distress role around and called their characterization a day. It comes off as incredibly stupid.