I grew up watching Terminator. Besides Dirty Dancing, Jaws, & the Goonies, it was one of those movies that I knew by heart. And then 'T2' came around, and joined the list. It took the first one and one-upped it, creating a masterpiece of modern-day science fiction that stands the test of time. (My giant crush on Edward Furlong didn't hurt it in my eyes, either)
And then came 'T3: Rise of whatever' which took my beloved Terminator and made a joke out of it. Horrible casting, ridiculous plot, and a worthless villain (Where's Robert Patrick when you need him?) made this one of the worst movies I've ever seen...and I sat through Battlefield Earth without walking out. My Terminator statue actually cried when T3 came out.
So I was looking forward to Salvation. It can't be as bad as the 3rd one, I told myself. I kept abreast of the news online, cheered when the trailer forst played in theater, and bought my tix to the midnight show in advance.
And, hey, at leat it's not as bad as the 3rd one. As we exited the theater, by brother asked what was up with the movie - it seemed so disjointed. When he learned that many parts were re-written to provide a bigger role for John Connor, it all made sense. BEcause really, (my love for EF aside), the biggest draw has never been John Connor. It's been about humanity batteling the machines, and the fight to retain humanity in the face of technology...a theme that more and more can relate to as our world continues to go digital. So trying to interject him detracts from what would have been the untimate man vs machine showdown - Marcus Wright against himself. And that was the cause of all of my dissatisfaction with the film. The excellent effects and plethora of new terminators couldn't make up for the extremely short run time and feeling that the writers put 2 scripts in a blender and made a disjointed smoothie.
And, seriously, why was JC's wife pregnant? What purpose did that serve?
