Terminator: Salvation
By: Jamie Shuhyta, 12.4.2009
The Movie Itself:
“I’ll be back” the famous tagline is in use again… well sorta. The three famous words of course come from no other than the gover-nator of California in his title role of The Terminator. This time though the gover-nator is MIA in the franchise that started him into fame and fortune. The latest entry into the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation, instead passes the torch on to a new set of characters as Arnolds role in politics no longer allows him time to act. The addition also is not a reboot, but rather a continuation of the Terminator timeline, in other words this plot surrounds the events after Judgment Day. So the question remains then, can a Terminator movie really be a Terminator movie without Arnold? In a one word answer, yes it can. Today I sit down and review Terminator Salvation on Blu-ray.
Let’s be honest here Terminator 3 sucked hard core, so when news of a new entry into the series came up it definitely didn’t look or seem like it could even remotely fix what the Terminator series had become. Soon after early news spread that Arnold would not be returning (Well not the ‘REAL’ Arnold, more on that later), and that a director, McG (LOL yeah that’s his name), with basically no experience in this genre would be at the helm didn’t help matters in the least. Fan boys cried that the movie shouldn’t be made and well even I had my doubts if such a project would be more harmful than good and if it was just a simple cash grab. Lucky though after this early dismal news some good was announced. How do you save a series without the main star? Well find the hottest actor in the business and cast him… so this is exactly what they did by adding Christian Bale as the legendary John Conner. To add to the cast depth they also enlisted a few other strong actors, namely Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin, Anton actually steals the show go figure. So with a script in place and a cast to boot, Terminator Salvation was a go even if it was ‘Arnold-less’.
In 2009 the project was finished and released to theaters May 21st where it was basically panned left, right, and center by the media, reviewers and even the general public. Opening weekend numbers were also quite low as T4 could only catch about $43 million of the business, and would go on to only gross about $371 million worldwide. This was obviously a very far cry form the HUGE success of Terminator 2. Most hatred came from the lack of ‘Arnold’ and a plot that a lot of people just didn’t care about or just felt was too outlandish.
Terminator Salvation’s plot focuses on a future where humanity has basically been ‘terminated’ by both the events of Judgment Day and the resulting rise of the machines thereafter. The movie opens in 2003 where a Dr Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) who works for Cyberdyne Systems, swings by the local jail to ‘enlist’ the body of a death mate inmate Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington). Basically the program offers his body to science, and in turn leads to one of the early cybernetic programs of a terminator/human combo. The film then moves forward passing the events of Judgment Day and the ass kicking humanity took; time to cue the hero. Enter 2018 and the rise of John Connor (Christian Bale). As the leader of the Resistance John must come to terms with his past in order to lead humanity back from the brink of extinction, hence the “Salvation’. Connor knows what the future will hold, and ultimately knows the new terminator model T-800 is well on its way. His knowledge is soon confirmed as a group of rebels discover a bunker holding Cyberdyne’s newest plans. The bunker is soon destroyed via nuclear bomb only to awaken Marcus who crawls from the rubble.
Marcus has no idea who, what or where he is, it seems Cyberdyne played with him and left him in ‘storage’. Looking for information he heads to L.A. Through a series of scenes the viewer is told that ultimately the Resistance is stuck and hopes that this new info on a special radio transmission may lead to the destruction of Cyberdyne by literally turning them off. A Terminator hit list is also shown that indicates the primary humans Skynet would loooove to well…. terminate. The plot then jumps back to Marcus who makes it to L.A. where he meets a T-600. Having no idea what has happened he soon finds out machines have it out for humans.
Cue our second hero of the day Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). Kyle saves Marcus and explains the events of the past, basically Judgment Day in a nutshell. Hearing Connor’s radio transmission they leave in search of John and his group of loyal soldiers. Along the way they oops run into some machines looking for straggling humans, Kyle gets caught and taken to an imprisonment camp, Marcus gets away. As Marcus continues to search for truth he runs into a downed pilot named Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood), this leads to a 30 second relationship and a lovely post apocalyptic sex scene. Finally Marcus and Blair make it to John’s base, but Marcus hits a land mine and it blows him to shit. Soon the truth is revealed to John, Blair, and the rest of his merry men… Marcus is a hybrid human/cyborg. They turn Marcus back on, though he is chained up. Marcus is completely unaware he is part machine, and completely believes he is human. John of course believes this is a trick, given the events of T1. Blair though, having nailed the machine earlier, sets Marcus free.
John finds out and is pissed, he then sets out to re-capture or destroy Marcus. In the chase John soon gets attacked by a group of Hydro-bots, which Marcus then defeats and ultimately saves John. John, still unsure of Marcus’s true agenda, forms an alliance where Marcus will try to destroy Skynet from the inside since he is part machine and should be able to walk right in. They then test the special signal and find out it does shut down the machines, watch the Hunter-Killer go for a crash landing. With a plan in place the team heads out to destroy Skynet once and for all.
I won’t spoil the ending, as I do truly think it does offer some decent twists and surprises, including…. Arnold is that you!?!? LOL well they tried. The final battles are epic and really really entertaining, so make sure you catch all the action.
So the critics didn’t care much for the movie, but I’ll be honest I really enjoyed it. It definitely isn’t Terminator 1 or 2, but its miles ahead of T3 in my books. People complained it’s just an over blown action movie with little plot and cheesy dialog… common people it’s a FRINGING Terminator movie! This is exactly what you should expect, an easy on the mind ‘Guy’s night out’ kind of movie. As an action movie T4 is great, lots of guns, machines, car chases, epic battles and heroes save the day. If you go into this thinking plot development and character development of Oscar worth of course you won’t find it. Many complain it’s not Terminator without Arnold, and yeah it does feel a bit odd to not have him, but it definitely doesn’t toilet the entire movie completely. Bale, Worthington, and ESPECIALLY Yelchin work well together and keep in a decent character all movie long. Bale is actually the weakest of the bunch which is a bit surprising, maybe Batman took a lot out of him, not to mention the ‘incident’ where he went AWOL (Google Bale explodes if you haven’t heard it yet). If I was to complain about anything in the movie I think it would be the pace of it, it often feels very rushed to get through everything they wanted too. Overall I say ignore critics if you love Terminator/Rambo type movies and give this one a view.
Rating: 8/10
 The Presentation:
Terminator Salvation makes its way to Blu via a 1080p transfer, aspect ratio 2.39:1 and simply put it looks amazing. This is a brand spanking new transfer/movie so we would expect the best from Warner and lucky we get exactly that. I am willing to go as far and clearly state this is basically reference type material for you home theater. Very aspect is EXACTLY what you would want on a Blu disc. Details are ultra defined, you can literally see every edge and spec on both the fore and backgrounds. Especially strong are up close facial details, you can see and count every hair and pore. Contrast is also excellent, large parts of the movie switch between day and night and each time the light to dark color adjustment is just perfect. There is no evidence of any black crushing that I could see. The film is given the post-apocalyptic feel by heavy use of grey scale, so there are not a lot of bright vivid colors. This is obviously intended so you can’t blame that on a bad transfer. Overall this is one of the best video transfers out there, so it easily earns a perfect score.
Audio on Salvation comes via the usual routes, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless, and then French and Spanish via Dolby Digital 5.1. There are also the standard subtitles available in English, French, and Spanish. As with the video Warner spared no resource on making a flat out killer audio track. Again audio is in the reference department and sounds amazing from start to finish. This track is extremely strong, loud and defined, it’s all about giving the listener the ‘in your face’ kind of feel. Battles sound epic as the bass and surround feeling is spot on perfect. There are tons of explosions and booms to rattle both you and your home, neighbors will hate you. Highs and mids are also excellent; you can hear every detail in things like dialog, gun recoil, and bullets as they zip past. The surround 5.1 package is awesome as you can clearly hear every speaker working to immerse you in the center. Again audio is of reference quality and clearly deserves the perfect ranking.
Rating: 10/10 (video 10/10, audio 10/10)
 The Extras:
Terminator Salvation on Blu-ray comes with a decent array of extras via its 3-Disc set. Disc 1 gives you the theatrical copy of the movie, which is what you would have seen if you stopped off at the theater back in May. You also get the original theatrical special features that come as norm on both the Blu and DVD. On Disc 2 you get the Director’s cut of the film, which in all honesty is nothing more than a ‘boob’ that was cut from theaters to keep the ratings below a R. I don’t believe anything else is different. Disc 2 also contains the following BD-Live/BD exclusives:
- Maximum Movie Mode: I really enjoyed this bonus, it’s basically a feature that McG compares and talks about his film via this smart setup. McG stands between screens that compare the actual movie to the behind the scenes stuff, this is an excellent way to depict and compare the two. Everything is discussed from special effects, cast, sets, etc. I really hope more studios/movies go this route as it really showcases the interactivity that can be used. Also included is a time-line that places the whole Terminator series in order from 1975-2032, a stills gallery and storyboard comparisions.
- Focus Points: Shot in HD. More behind the scenes stuff that can be accessed individually. Altogether there are about 10 mini features all about 2-3 minutes in length. They are entitled: Digital Destruction, Enlisting the Air Force, Molten Metal and the Science of Simulation, Building the Gas Station, Creating the VLA Attack, Exploding Serena's Lab in Miniature, Hydro-bots, An Icon Returns, Terminator Factory, Stan Winston Workshop, and Napalm Blast.
- Reforging the Future: Shot in HD, 19 minutes. An in depth look at the Terminator world of the future. Features aspects of the props, designs, crew and of course the machines.
- The Moto-Terminator: Shot in HD, 8:30 minutes. Focuses on the work and design that went into creating the chase scene.
- Digital Copy
Rating: 7/10
Overall:
Overall this is an own, yes I’m going that route. It’s a fun action movie that surpasses T3 in everyway so why not buy it? The plot is cheesy yes and yeah Bale kinda is meh, but overall it is what it is, fun! If you like explosions, killer machines, loved T1-3, I see no reason not to recommend this. The Blu-ray transfer is also very very good, with an excellent clean video and audio component. Both video and audio are basically reference, so you’ll definitely want to have this on the shelf when friends stop by. There is also a good selection of extras, esp those that utilize Blu-ray technology. So forget the critics and pick this up, heck even the cover art is cool and looks great!
Rating: 9/10
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