**CAUTION: SPOILERS**
TheHawk talked me into doing a review, so here goes. I’m gonna do this in 2 parts. The first will be done for the casual movie-goer who doesn’t know much background on the film other than watching the previous films once or twice—if at all, and the second will be for the hardcore fans.
Ok, so I went to see this movie twice now (and counting…) and for starters I can honestly say that doing so made a huge difference. I also allowed some time between seeing the movie and writing a review so that I could let my thoughts settle and to try to make sure that my opinion wasn’t a biased one. For those who have read my opinions on Terminator stuff in the past, you know that I’m not a Terminator apologist who follows blindly and enjoys anything they put out, regardless of its quality or if it makes sense. And yes, I HATED "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," not only because it was too cheesy and basically a watered-down version of the first two films, but also because there were several contradictions in the film which created fatal flaws to the series, and actually wiped out the potential for any of the films to even be possible. I’ll also say that "The Terminator" was absolutely brilliant to me (and was clearly influenced by the X-Men story “Days of Future Past"), and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is my all-time favorite movie. So for those who haven’t read anything I’ve ever posted before, you now have a little background on me and know a little of where I’m coming from with this.
As far as the casual fan/movie goer goes, I’ll say that if you know little of the series and are just looking to see a good action flick, this definitely gives you that. I somewhat wish that this was my first exposure to the "Terminator" series because if I were to watch this first I would definitely be sucked in, and if I were to watch the first movie and then the second from there I would be even more pleased with both of those films as well as this one. For starters, there isn’t a dull moment in this movie. It is just non-stop from start to finish. And not meaning non-stop action, but there aren’t any points where you can take a breather. You are basically drawn in from the opening scene and you don’t get a second to take your mind off the movie until the credits roll.
As for the action… there is more than its fair share. And it’s not overwhelming action, either. There’s actually not that much chaos in the action scenes, which is often a problem in movies where there are huge battles, making it easy to lose your concentration on the film. They did a good job focusing on the significant aspects of the fight scenes. The CGI is great, but if you’re like me then you’d prefer even more puppets and almost zero CGI-ed Terminators—but the majority of the Terminators are actually puppets and machines, in its defense.
As for one computer-generated image in particular, there is a scene which will undoubtedly be an all-time classic "Terminator" moment: when a fresh-off-the-press T-800 comes through a door to battle John Connor in Skynet’s facility, the camera pans up from its feet to its head with the trademark Terminator “dun-dun, dun, dun-dun” playing, we see that a CGI-ed Arnold Schwarzennegger’s face and head (created from unused footage from the first film) has been put onto the body of Roland Kickinger, fellow Austrian and "See Arnold Run" star in the made-for-TV movie about the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life. To me, this scene could not have been done more perfectly. While watching the first time, I was anxious to see how they’d incorporate the top-secret Arnold cameo. While watching the second time, I couldn’t wait to see the scene again as it was on my mind the entire time. This scene will likely be the definitive scene that comes to mind in the future when we look back on this movie. John Connor, face to face with the same model who tried to kill his mother, who successfully killed his father, who protected him as a child and who now looks to terminate him. Classic.
As for the rest of the CGI, the HKs (Hunter-Killers) and Transports were great and the CGI seemed very smooth, the Mototerminators also seemed as though they were actually there, and the Harverster reminded me of something which Michael Bay would have created in "Transformers." I can’t say anything bad about this aspect of the film.
The casting was also great. There are those who say that Sam Worthington stole the show as Marcus Wright, a hybrid human/cyborg infiltration unit. To me, I disagree—ONLY because I think that both he and Bale performed their roles to the highest possible level and therefore I can’t say that one was better or worse than the other. Anton Yelchin was perfectly cast as a teenage Kyle Reese. He really did convey the feel that he held the same morals and beliefs as the Kyle Reese we all knew from 1984 did. And then there was Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams. Gorgeous, hot and bad-ass. She definitely fills the void of an ass-kicking female left by Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Don’t get me wrong—she doesn’t replace Linda/Sarah, but you can love Corvettes and Harley-Davidsons, you don’t have to love only one or the other.
Ok, that brings me to the end of the casual fan/movie-goers section. If you want a good, non-stop action flick that sucks you in from the opening scene and keeps you hooked ‘til the credits roll then this is definitely one for you. While making "T2," James Cameron said that a sequel, if done well, shouldn’t require the audience to see the previous movie to be able to understand it and enjoy it, and this movie definitely holds true to Cameron’s opinion on the concept. Oh, and it’s a must to see at the theater, too.
NOW, as for the hardcore fans…
Where to begin…? I guess I’ll start off with the shout-outs to the die-hard fans. There were plenty of those and these were definitely one of the best aspects of the movie—mainly because they seemed to connect it to the first 2 films where "T3" seemed like its own entity. Some highlights were Arnold being CGI-ed onto a T-800 (obviously), John’s “I’ll be back” line, Kyle’s first “come with me if you want to live,” John having the photo of Sarah which he gives Kyle in the future, Linda Hamilton’s (as Sarah Connor) narration on some tapes to John, John walking down the hall which Kyle walks down in his dream/flashback scene in "T1," John getting the scar which we see on his face at the beginning of "T2," GN’R’s “You Could Be Mine” being used by John to trap a Mototerminator, the Cyberdyne Systems logo at the top of Marcus Wright’s waiver… I’m sure I forgot one or two but the fact is that McG went out of his way to give us, the hardcore fans, these—things definitely to be excited about.
Ok, now to the setting. This is one area where I felt they did an EXCELLENT job. They without-a-doubt successfully created the future which I have been imagining for about 25 years now. If you read "Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes, the official movie prequel," you also saw this world described as they made it here. The scenery was great. The mood was there. The camps were almost a picture taken directly from my mind. The T-600s were as Kyle described them in "T1"—easy to spot, “not too bright” and slow (although I believe in that quote he was referring to the HKs, but you get the point). There were many questions answered without actually specifically saying, such as how the Resistance was so organized and what kind of equipment they had access to, etc. All in all, this was the future that Kyle told Sarah that he had come from.
One thing I enjoyed was that there wasn’t too much time wasted focusing on any one supporting character. There wasn’t much (or really any, actually) character development of Barnes, Blair or Kate, among others. Personally, though, I don’t care about their characters, or at least any more than they went into. It would have been unnecessary character development which would have taken attention away from the important aspects of the story.
We did see some new developments to the Skynet story with the debut of Marcus’s character and Dr. Serena Kogan’s character as it related to her role later in the film. While I’ll admit that there could be a fatal flaw hiding somewhere in there if I think about it long enough, at least there aren’t any glaring and blatantly obvious ones like "T3" had to the point that they made the movie unwatchable. I personally liked Marcus, but he didn’t exactly coincide with the current technology that Skynet supposedly has, although you could make the argument that he was developed but just not mass-produced. There is also another theory I have which suggests that maybe he is from the future. MAYBE. True, his body was seen in Skynet’s silo at the beginning of the film, but it could still be argued that he was sent there from the future already. I am looking forward to getting my hands on the DVD, not only to watch the deleted/alternate scenes, but to also be able to pause the movie and read the articles which Marcus reads on the screen at Skynet. I will say, though, that one of the highlights to me was that while they did introduce some new concepts, they didn’t do it in a way that went into too much detail. Doing it this way is definitely a plus because with time travel and a super-intelligent computer system involved, the slightest flaw in the story-telling could easily be found and therefore the less we know, the more believeable the story is and the less-likely it is to contradict itself (see "T3").
**Side note: there is much question as to why Skynet didn’t just kill Kyle while it had the chance when he is captured and by doing so, wipe out John’s existence. The solution is simple: Skynet knows that John MUST send Kyle to 1984 because Kyle’s existence there is essential to Skynet’s creation. Without Kyle going to 1984, Skynet can never exist since he and Sarah lead the T-800 to a factory where Sarah kills it… which just-so happens to be Cyberdyne Systems and this is how Cyberdyne gets its hands on the technology which is eventually used to create both Skynet and the Terminators. MAYBE McG’s original idea of having John die and having Marcus take John’s flesh and replace him applies here because if Skynet can replace John and still have him send Kyle back in time at the right date then it will have defeated John in their present (our future) while ensuring its creation in the past.**
All in all, if you’re a die-hard fan, you should be pleased with this. If you can understand the concept of time travel (or at least, the concept as it is told in this series), then it should make perfect sense to you. I’ll admit that my immediate reaction after seeing the midnight premier on Thursday morning was disappointment. This was a biased opinion because when I saw the movie and it wasn’t EXACTLY the way I thought it should have been, then disappointment was inevitable. But after taking some time to reflect and to see it for what it is, I began to appreciate it more and more. Then after seeing it for a second time Saturday night and being able to watch it, knowing what to expect, I definitely enjoyed it and it is becoming one of my personal favorites. They did a great job in not only honoring the works of the first two films, but also working around the disaster which "Terminator 3" created by making almost no reference to it at all. I can’t stress enough to the hardcore fans that if you weren’t pleased the first time, take some time to reflect and to see it for what it is—a different part of the story and a different time and world than the previous films—and then see it again, knowing what to expect and seeing that they probably did the best possible job which they could have of bringing us a new sequel to the "Terminator" series.
**UPDATE**
There were a couple things that I either didn't touch on the first time around or that I felt weren't quite emphasized enough.
First off, I wanted to give fair warning to the hardcore fans that at first watch, this movie doesn't have the same feel as the first two movies do. The music, which to me was just as important in the first two films as Arnold, Linda Hamilton, Eddie Furlong, Michael Biehn and Robert Patrick were, was not the same. When I think back on the first two films I can directly associate specific parts of the soundtrack with specific scenes. Now, if you are able to watch the movie knowing ahead of time that the movie has a different feel, it may help you to see it for what it is. Try not to ask yourself if it is better, equal to, or worse than the first two films, but instead watch it for what it is and try to enjoy it. If you compare it to the other movies the whole time (like I did my first viewing) it will ruin the movie for you.
The next thing I wanted to revisit was the setting. We usually only talk about things because they catch our attention in either an extremely positive or extremely negative way. However, sometimes things are so perfect that our minds don't even give them a second thought. This, to me, sums up the setting and scenery. There were two settings in particular that really impressed me and really helped to paint the picture when I think back on the film. One of these scenes has Marcus walking through the desert. Now what was a very simple effect to create actually did a great job of helping to illustrate the world in the year 2018, and the effect was Marcus looking down at the ground to see that below the desert sand actually lies the highway. It makes us realize that without humans upkeeping it, the roads, as well as the humans' existance, were just being washed away with the time. I saw that as a pretty good metaphor.
Another set that needed to be discussed was Skynet's facility. It didn't even occur to me until just a few moments ago that they nailed it EXACTLY the way I have imagined it since the first time I saw the first film. Every single aspect. Watch it again (or for the first time) and just try to notice what an excellent job they did to create that set. I can't stress enough how well that was done, as well as all of the other sets and sceneries. This was a pretty underrated aspect to the film, and yet the scenery was probably one of the main reasons as to why the film is as good as it is.