Official Terminator Thread

[CYMBOL]

Originally Posted by JamesKurtovich

I loved this movie. Very fun and more entertaining than Star Trek.

Why do you have to drag Star Trek into this?!

[Sith]

I love the Terminator series, watch all 3 movies this weekend getting ready for this, saw it last night....This movie was horrible, no story at all, except for him looking for Mr. Reece for 130 minutes....Sound was incredible though, this will be the perfect movie to piss your neighbors off....I may rent it and put it on and then just leave my house if my neighbors need to get regulated..

[JamesKurtovich]

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

Why do you have to drag Star Trek into this?!

Haha, sorry, I was just making a comparison to the last flick I saw at the theaters.

[mpstjohn]

Originally Posted by Sith

I love the Terminator series, watch all 3 movies this weekend getting ready for this, saw it last night....This movie was horrible, no story at all, except for him looking for Mr. Reece for 130 minutes....Sound was incredible though, this will be the perfect movie to piss your neighbors off....I may rent it and put it on and then just leave my house if my neighbors need to get regulated..

On the contrary, I felt, if anything they were trying to cram too much story as demonstrated by the lengthy explanation given to Marcus at the end of the film. There's the story of Kyle (looking for John), Marcus (contemplating over what Skynet has done to him) and John (looking to save Kyle Reese and the people Skynet has captured), not to mention the plot involving the signal the resistance finds that can deactivate the machines.

Looking back T3 was little more than a repeat of the second film. A new model of terminator is sent back to terminate John Connor and a good Terminator is sent back to protect him.

Here, the notion that the murder of Kyle Reese destroys John at least offers a reinvention of what Cameron did with the first two films rather than simply repeating it.

[CYMBOL]

Originally Posted by DVDave

Beautiful post. I agree with everything except the minor detail that Kyle does tell Sarah about Skynet taking human prisoners. "We were put into camps for orderly disposal."

Yeah, I agree - great post by Kent.

I think the problem with the time-travel consistencies is that each new director has "their" story they want to tell, and so they used the time-travel device to simply bend the story to the movie they want to make.

Time Travel is tricky enough without several hands in the storytelling pot.

[GGX]

Originally Posted by JamesKurtovich

I loved this movie. Very fun and more entertaining than Star Trek.

lol not even close. I'll take the new Star Trek.

And this is coming from a guy thats always been a huge fan of the Terminator series thats never gotten into Star Trek.

[DeadDog]

Just saw this last night. This is the first time I've looked in this thread though as I didn't want anything spoiled for me so I'm posting without really reading anything .

That said, I really enjoyed this movie. As other's have done I watched the first 3 this past week in anticipation of the new one. I personally found no issues with the "weak" story that critics seem to have an problem with. Especially after watching the first three I felt like there really isn't anything left to explain, it's just time to fight. I know the backstory (terminators, skynet, etc. etc.) and was just ready to see the war in full effect. On that level I think Terminator Salvation suceeded extremely well.

Great addition to the franchise in my opinion.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by JamesKurtovich

I loved this movie. Very fun and more entertaining than Star Trek.

i'll second that
just got back from seeing it again,
star trek was freaking awesome but i enjoyed this movie more

[CYMBOL]

Originally Posted by Diesel

i'll second that
just got back from seeing it again,
star trek was freaking awesome but i enjoyed this movie more

I liked Star Trek better - my time travel movie is better than yours!

Btw, just kidding everyone - let's not turn this thread into comparing ST and TS. . . Hmmmm, coincidence they have reversed initials. . . . yes, yes it is. . .

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

I liked Star Trek better - my time travel movie is better than yours!

[PH3AR]

Just saw today and was a good movie that i WILL be buying on blu, and i was fine with PG-13 rating

overall rating...

4/5

[Elvis]

Originally Posted by GGX

lol not even close. I'll take the new Star Trek.

And this is coming from a guy thats always been a huge fan of the Terminator series thats never gotten into Star Trek.

The New Star Trek is not Star Trek......not really.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Elvis

The New Star Trek is not Star Trek......not really.

that's probably why i enjoyed it then

[jk1138]

Although I think ST is the movie to beat this sumer, T4 is Amazing! I enjoyed every minute of the story and do not care if no one else liked it or not, it was great!

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by DVDave

There's just too many plot contradictions. Reese says "Connor sent me to intercept and they blew the whole place. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him and me."

Then T2 happens and you got Uncle Bob and the T-1000 come through. Then they postpone JD by destroying the CPU from the first T-800 and Miles Dyson dies so the "No-fate but what we make" ending happens and the future is not set, end of story, right?

Wrong.

T3 happens and another terminator, a T-850 happens along with the TX-1 and we find out JD was only prolonged because it was always destined to happen anyway. By sending terminators back Skynet was only creating its own temporal paradox that would not directly affect the outcome of its present timeline, only to try to steer the course onto into an alternate branch of time. But it would seem that these events were always supposed to happen in the "main" timeline and will happen as they were always supposed to. "It's all part of the plan."

There was a Star Trek TNG episode about a temporal paradox where the Enterprise kept getting destroyed over and over again and somehow they kept reliving this same loop of time and suddenly developed a sense of deja vu that they had been through it all before. So they devised a plan to leave clues for themselves on their next pass through the temporal loop (which is hlarious because from their point of view it should only happen once) and they finally figure out how to break the paradox and avert the Enterprise disaster.

though, this is all assuming kyle was correct and they did in fact blow the lab
the blowing of the lab could have been unsuccessful, thus the sending back of Uncle Bob/T-850 and the T-1000/T-X


if kyle was infact incorrect, there goes everything we though we thought we knew


thinking and discussing the series all this time these last few days, i REALLY hope the 6th movie has something that absolutely turns something we thought we knew on its head and makes us go "HOLY SH**!!!" (as long as its something good, not something incredibly stupid) and makes us look at something in a different way than we have been all this time

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by DVDave

Or there was another lab. No matter what the time travel paradox is going to have to be addressed hopefully in the next film. They have to address the issue of how Skynet knew Reese was the father or at least explain why he was so imprtant to be number 1 on Skynet's list. These unresolved plot threads are driving me crazy though.

well the results of him being wrong about the destruction of the lab and there being another lab would be virtually the same

it would still prove that what we thought we knew about the time lab was wrong, just in a different manner

[cj-kent]

Originally Posted by DVDave

There's just too many plot contradictions. Reese says "Connor sent me to intercept and they blew the whole place. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him and me."

Then T2 happens and you got Uncle Bob and the T-1000 come through. Then they postpone JD by destroying the CPU from the first T-800 and Miles Dyson dies so the "No-fate but what we make" ending happens and the future is not set, end of story, right?

Wrong.

T3 happens and another terminator, a T-850 happens along with the TX-1 and we find out JD was only prolonged because it was always destined to happen anyway. By sending terminators back Skynet was only creating its own temporal paradox that would not directly affect the outcome of its present timeline, only to try to steer the course onto into an alternate branch of time. But it would seem that these events were always supposed to happen in the "main" timeline and will happen as they were always supposed to. "It's all part of the plan."

There was a Star Trek TNG episode about a temporal paradox where the Enterprise kept getting destroyed over and over again and somehow they kept reliving this same loop of time and suddenly developed a sense of deja vu that they had been through it all before. So they devised a plan to leave clues for themselves on their next pass through the temporal loop (which is hlarious because from their point of view it should only happen once) and they finally figure out how to break the paradox and avert the Enterprise disaster.

I loved that episode of TNG! I've never seen a movie that used time travel in it that was completely consistent. They all mess up somewhere, mostly because if real time travel took place it would create an infinite and unpredictable amount of changes and problems with the timeline.

[cj-kent]

Originally Posted by DVDave

Beautiful post. I agree with everything except the minor detail that Kyle does tell Sarah about Skynet taking human prisoners. "We were put into camps for orderly disposal."

Yeah. I just stuck that in there to poke fun at the whole thing.

[cj-kent]

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

Yeah, I agree - great post by Kent.

I think the problem with the time-travel consistencies is that each new director has "their" story they want to tell, and so they used the time-travel device to simply bend the story to the movie they want to make.

Time Travel is tricky enough without several hands in the storytelling pot.

Well said. Good point.

[GreenScar]

Originally Posted by DigitalfreakNYC

I hated it. Absolute cheese. The music. The lighting. The whole moment was stupid. Plus he looks like a video game.

No he did not. He looked very life like. I paid close attention to it the second time around. Probably the best CG face ever made in any film.

Originally Posted by SPH

My wife and me liked it. It had plenty of action and the story was pretty good. It opened doors to how they can get their hands on t 800 and reprogram him. The only shot in the film that I was annoyed with was the motorcycle terminator being slung off the end of a cable smashing that plane thing, that was cheesy. Overall i would give it an 7.75 out of 10. I will definitely add this to my blu collection when it becomes available.

Also paid attention to this (and a lot of the other gripes in the thread here) and the Hunter Killer isn't destroyed by the Mobile Terminator when it hits. In fact the explosion is actually the destruction of the Mobile Terminator. The HK looses altitude for a minute then reappears.

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

Yes, there is no time to explore deeper relationships and ideas in war films. Good thing we never got to know the characters in Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, etc. etc.

This was not a war film. It was an action movie - with little story behind it that did very little to advance the franchise. We learned almost nothing from this film.

And, I felt some things were just plain stupid.

• Why send ONE lone Arnold model to take care of John?
  The T-800 was in the cell marked for Reese. The tracking device John was using led him straight to him. There was minimal security in SkyNet HQ because they felt there was not threat.
• They had Reese - but had no better security then a locked door?
  They obviously thought it impossible that there could be an infiltration at SkyNet.
• Where were all the other Terminators during the jailbreak?
  In production. I imagine that at this time the T-600's were no longer being produced and they were in the process of Manufacturing the T-800's. It's very possible that the one that was waiting for John was the first.
• If Marcus is such a great infiltrator and could get that close to both Reese and Conner - why not assasinate them right then?
  Because his Human self was stronger than his Machine self. While watching it again I paid close attention to Marcus and the things he said/did. It's interesting that when he first meets Reese the first thing he does is: "I'm heading North. There's someone I need to find." He has some basic programming telling/suggesting (most likely) to head to SkyNet to uplink. Everything that happens from then on is Marcus following his human intution. His whole goal once Reese get's captured is to rescue him. "if anyone can help, it's John Connor" It's not until he's synced at SkyNet that Skynet is aware of everything he's done.
• Are we actually supposed to believe that Skynet orchestrated that whole scenario - Marcus, through wild circumstances, ended up saving Reese, who ended up being caught, and Marcus met a pilot who had ejected, gets taken to their camp after a mine gets him, the lady helps him out, John lets him go, and he gives John the key to get in Skynet - REALLY???? Skynet planned all those random events???
  No. See above. Terrible writing. A fun movie for effects and sound - but that story just did nothing for me.

This franchise derserved some better writers.

A inserted some answers in bold.

Originally Posted by dvdvision

Finally saw it, I think the biggest problem is that the characters don't have room to breathe, because each scene is expedited. Those idiots who made McG cut the movie ruined the commercial prospectives of the film. At 2H20, it probably would have been much better. Still enjoyed it, but will look forward to an hopefully expanded version on blu ray. This theatrical cut doesn't deliver the promises to the max.

You may have something there. There were definitely some jarring cuts here and there where you knew a scene should have been there. When will the studios learn and allow the entire movie to be released?

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

I had thought of that too - that Marcus went that way because Reese was there - but if Skynet knew where Reese was - why not just go get him? Or, simply kill him when they did finally catch him? The machines had their #1 target and did nothing?! Why wait for John Conner to show up? Kill Reese and Conner doesn't matter anymore.
Like I said, the more I think about all the dominoes that had to fall in exactly the right place for Marcus to complete his mission, the more I find it all a bit ludicrous.
I'll still go see any sequel to see where they are heading with this story, but for me, the first movie really missed the mark as far as the characters are concerned.
Also, Skynet was simply not menacing to me.

I have an interesting theory here. When they showed Reese through the Terminator's eyes, it never said Terminate. It always said Terminate for John Connor though. Maybe the "kill list" with Reese being number one was never a kill list at all. Maybe it was a list of importance. When the t-600 came to Reese's cell it collected him and was in the process of putting him on a table that looked kind of like a CAT-Scan machine. There was a glimpse of another human moments before on one of these tables (it was a member of the resistance that actually looked a lot like the guy that Marcus stole his clothes from in the beginning). I think this machine was to make t-800's out of the people "scanned in". I'm thinking the plan of SkyNet all along is to make a Reese Terminator. Just think about the possibilities they would develop.

Originally Posted by cj-kent

All of the weaknesses of the story that have been mentioned are valid and are certainly worth noting. However, the biggest thing that bugged me about this film was the inconsistency with which they treat the timeline.

THE TIME-TRAVEL CONUNDRUM

Very well put