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Terminator Salvation (2009)

Director: McG

Time Out rating

Average user rating

65 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

There’s a chase scene half way through ‘Terminator Salvation’ that rivals anything in the series. A breathlessly paced, pulse-pounding desert escape, it lasts about five minutes and single-handedly earns the movie an extra star as sleek robotic motorcycles pursue our heroes, who are fleeing in an armour-plated pickup.

But stretching interminably on either side of this set piece is an ideas wasteland more barren than any of the blasted post-apocalyptic landscapes in the movie. ‘Terminator Salvation’ isn’t the gritty, futuristic blitzkrieg for which fans of the first two films have been salivating. It isn’t even the slick, entertaining Hollywood blockbuster most were realistically expecting. It is a shambolic, deafening, intelligence-insulting mess, a crushing failure on almost all counts.

It’s the year 2018. Christian Bale (whose on-set ballistics seem even more laughable in context) plays John Connor, self-prophesied leader of the human resistance against Skynet, the machine which rules the planet following a nuclear apocalypse. Sam Worthington plays Marcus Wright, a former Death Row inmate who harbours a dark secret.

The plot comes straight from the ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool if…’ school of screenwriting: scenes and incidents slam into one another with no logical context or motivation. The characters are neutral: Bale growls and frowns, Worthington frowns and pouts, while other grime-spattered actors wander on screen, look perplexed, and are quickly forgotten. For kids under 14, or extremely undemanding adults, ‘Terminator Salvation’ might just pass muster as a temporary, forgettable Friday night distraction. But for fans of the first two movies, this is a disappointment of ‘Phantom Menace’ proportions.

Author: Tom Huddleston 2009-06-02 12:00:29

Time Out London Issue 2024, June 3 - 10, 2009

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User reviews of this film

phil said...

Posted on Jun 03 2009 23:23 Ive just got in from watching it and....... well mixed emotions really, its an awsome summer blockbuster, and i feel it does follow the story pretty good really. Plus the film is still set years before we see the battle in t2. It feels like its the start of the war. If anything skynet is a bit of a pussy in the film, i thought really that it would have better defence capability, but wont say to much incase you have not seen it yet. Is a good peice in the terminator series, id have to say yes. Theres sertain things that make it feel like its following the story properly i.e. John conner has to prove himself and is not yet the all mighty leader of the resistence that we know him to be, this is quite good because why would he be at first, yes they all listen and believe he may be what he claims but there would be higher army officials still alive so i feel they got it spot on there, The problem is with a franchise like terminator will they get it spot on, no, theres just to many people that would say something else should happen here, and they should do that there. As a whole i look forward to seeing what happens next, sending people back maybe? I just hope it isnt rushed and the story will please. All in all id have to recommend it. it wont please everyone but i dont think you can!

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reanimated said...

Posted on Jun 03 2009 17:55 I went in having read Time Out's review with zero expectations and thoroughly enjoyed it as a result! If you go in hoping for a film like the first two movies then you will probably be disappointed but if you go in expecting nothing and viewing it as a spin off from the original series then you may enjoy it too

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mac8 said...

Posted on Jun 03 2009 16:02 Just came back from pictures and it is a good movie to watch in cinema. You are not going for the plot because it;s Termiantor ;) Good FX and machines.it is worth to see it.

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terminated said...

Posted on May 21 2009 09:50 I came away after watching this last night really feeling disappointed. Such a let down after a lot of hype. After the shambles of T3 I really wanted this to be something special but it crashed and burned just as badly as the machines in the film. In terms of Bale i actually wish they'd left in his verbal assault on the film's DoP, instead all we got was more of his gravelly batman voice - boring. Go and see it at the cinema though, it can stand as a 2009 big action movie with all the explosions one could want, but as a Terminator film its let us down...

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PHIL said...

Posted on May 19 2009 17:55 i cant wait for this film. long since the first time that i watched t2 that i have craved for the film to be set in the post-apocalyptic world of judgment day, will it be any good? Well thats left to be seen but being a massive fan then i hope it will be all that it looks.

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