quietearth [Celluloid 05.21.09] post apocalyptic movie review scifi action



Year: 2009
Directors: McG
Writers: John Brancato & Michael Ferris
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 6 out of 10

I am John Connor, I am the resistance, I am humanity's savior. I woke up out of this myopic gun metal hued dream and then the movie started. F***! I want to go back, to hold on to that vision I had before I watched the film. The one of the sprawling epic which would transcend the franchise. But alas, it's done with now, and for all its good and its bad, it really doesn't matter what I write here. You're still going to go see it. It's Terminator, it's post apocalyptic, it will continue..


I saw someone say it was at least better then T3, and I think the implication was that T3 was the worst of the franchise. I disagree, it was my favorite and still is. The ballsy ending of the globe blanketed by mushrooms clouds and a quiet beginning spoken into a microphone was exhilarating and I was expecting that to continue. But it didn't.

The film's drawn, boring, uninteresting.. a simple plot setup for a simple film. As reported long ago, John Connor is not the main character, it's someone with a bit part in the timeline but who puts a shroud over the entire flick. However, he was at least enjoyable during the first half of the film, the enigma that he is. We get to see him escape the harshness of the desert for the ruins of the city where he meets more key characters fighting with only their wits. There's more people alive and we meet some of them, but not all are part of the new allied human purpose.



Pocketed throughout this is bits of Connor and his team, first going on a mission where, like many missions, he's the only survivor. Then conducting research and experiments, all the while displaying complete confidence almost to the point of brashness. Bale was good and none of the acting faltered, but I wanted to see more of him. They're trying to destroy skynet and have a plan, but Connor's not in charge of the resistance although everyone listens to him. He's the prophet heard the entire world over, and after shortwave mass he retreats in privacy to listen to tapes of his mother telling him about the future.

His wife is there, mysteriously transformed from a vet into a full blown doctor. Skynet is performing experiments on humans, kidnapping and herding them like cattle. Resistance command is somewhere safe. It's all here, it's just not well written and is walking an increasingly fine line with time travel.



The major problems were the simple storyline which intersected with some serious plot problems which I'm not giving up, and a feeling at many points as if this were going to end up like Timecrimes with a serious paradox problem. Then there was the couple instances of bad green screen use and seriously poor cgi. What was the budget on this thing? At points, it almost had the same production values as Vincenzo Natali's CYPHER!

Is McG forgiven? Not by a long shot. Is it worth seeing? Of course. Just lower your expectations.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

Oh noes!

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I stopped reading when you said Terminator 3 was your favorite. I'm sure a lot of other people will, too.

sonaboy (2 years ago) Reply

T3 lulz.
next.

Michael (2 years ago) Reply

"I stopped reading when you said Terminator 3 was your favorite. I'm sure a lot of other people will, too."

lol me too.

LouGehrig (2 years ago) Reply

T3 the best? Certain opinions simply can't be accounted for. Was Godfather 3 the best one also?

agentorange (2 years ago) Reply

Wow, lots of T3 haters in the room. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was my favorite but take away the BAD self-parodying humor - which btw started in T2 ("Bad to the Bone" anyone?) - and you're left with a decent action flick worthy of the franchise.

I also agree that the ending of T3 is a jaw-dropper.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

hahaha you thought T3 was the best?!?!?1 hahahahahahahahahahahahahah your opinion is now null and void. And what do you need to forgive McG for? Did you expect Charlie's Angels to be good?

pn2501 (2 years ago) Reply

oh i keep hearing everywhere to lower my expectations about this movie, and the trailer's made me get a tiny bit excited, but true I'm going to watch it.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

yeah,yeah the ending of T3 was shocking and unconventional. it still doesn't make up for the 90 minutes of bullshit that precedes it.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

T3 was simply watchable...
T2 was the best. Do NOT deny the truth!

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I loved T3 too even if not my favourite. Why you people are so stupid ???? Your posts are ridiculous...beeeehhhhhh bunch of sheep it's pathetic !!! Just watch the movie make you're own opinion instead of cryin'''

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

"Do NOT deny the truth!"

What truth are you talking about ??? Your truth ??? General opinion truth ???? Are you God himself ??? I want answers about meaning of life please while you're here ;) !!!!!

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

"bunch of sheep it's pathetic"
We're sheep because we disagree with you?
Your grammar is pathetic. The only person "cryin" here is you.

fannyslacks (2 years ago) Reply

i saw it last night.. it really was very weak. it seemed like they used the first draft of script that should of had about three more drafts, and been written by someone else.. there were a few good shots, but for the most part, it blew. blew hard.

Cyclops76 (2 years ago) Reply

Come on...T3 is one of the worst sci-fi movies I've seen, I'd go so far as to say that the only good T movie was the first one...can't wait for Salvation and the promise of decent sequels

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

If this movie sucks,or is even mediocre, McG will not only be responsible for the charlie's angels abortions, he will be the man who killed the Terminator franchise. Shortly after that he'll be falling back on his psychology degree. In Hell.

JackCrow (2 years ago) Reply

I'm so not watching it, it was the case I saw this all mentioned trough the trailers, and the meme of how many helicopters in the trailers the more the fail proves to be the truth.

King Lebron James (2 years ago) Reply

Looking very forward to T4. Bale is a strong lead whose intensity fits John Connor perfectly. He should be able to carry the series in Arnold's absence.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

Got to hand it to T3 for the fire truck chase. Outstanding.

soma (2 years ago) Reply

NOOOOOOOOO

projectcyclops (2 years ago) Reply

Thanks for the heads-up man, McG has always seemed about as competent as his name suggests. Think I'll miss this mess and save my £'s.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

Just got back from T4 and I really liked it!
Very faithful to T1 and T2 and at the same time not trying to copy them like T3. and yes "MCG" just sounds dumb...but he did a good job.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I knew he would mess it up. I just knew it.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I don't wish to jump on the bandwagon here but.... As others have said, if you loved the awful, poorly executed plot behind T3, then you are not best placed to comment on the plot of T4! Just think for a minute, if you were given the task of coming up with an idea for how the world ends, showing the carnage and destruction that Skynet visits upon humanity, would you really have gone with what they did with T3? I seriously doubt it..

agentorange (2 years ago) Reply

I'm seeing it this weekend and, oddly, the poor reviews are making me even more excited. What is going on in this movie that's giving people this overwhelming negative reaction? I'm too intrigued not to find out.

I've been reading that one thing it is is a fairy decent action flick. Those who've seen it, it is this true? Was it at least a heart-stopping action blockbuster?

Cyberhal (2 years ago) Reply

yeah me too, it has to be seen, i just hope it's good. I've always liked Bale.

Christopher Burke (2 years ago) Reply

Just to sound TRULY nutty, give 'Terminators', Asylum Movie's take on this genre, a try. Now I know the average reaction to the word 'Asylum' is 'Those guys suck footballs thru straws', but 'Terminators is SO far above the rest of their other movies it's VERY impressive. It's more true to the concept than T3 (the Terminator's just a killing machine who can't stop because nobody knows how to turn him off!) he's chillingly believable, the action's good and the few special effects are very well used - they're up to the standard of TV series like Numb3rs which, considering the movie's budget, is impressive. I haven't seen the new Terminator movie yet, but I was VERY impressed by this so-called 'mockbuster'. Give it a shot!
ulrichburke

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

my god...the first one was truly only the one worth seeing.

ZOMBIE4PETA (2 years ago) Reply

atleast THE ROAD is coming out this year. Maybe alls not lost.

agentorange (2 years ago) Reply

Is T4 really better than T3?

http://io9.com/5271146/is-terminator-4-really-better-than-terminator-3-a-road-test-comparison

Sunolet (2 years ago) Reply

it wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either it may have lacked in some places but just watching a CGI Arnold beat the crap out of bale made everything worth it

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

To the person above: the meaning of life is 42

entizari (2 years ago) Reply

my only reaction possible to T4 was "meh"

it barely has any emotional content to it, and there's no intensity or suspense to the film. I wasn't expecting a great film, but...
T4 was just a generic action film set in the Terminator universe, peppered with distractingly bad references to the previous films.
Bale's perfectly cast, but he's given nothing to do but play the brooding action hero. It was interesting to see things placed on a larger scale, and having Michael Ironside in a film is always a plus (even if he got less than a page of dialogue).
but everything about the film was completely forgettable. it's such a lost opportunity, just as the TV series was (same producers likely don't make this a coincidence - both played it safe), though I actually enjoyed season one of the Sarah Connor Chronicles far more than T4.
waste of two hours. truly.

Stephen Wood (2 years ago) Reply

McG more like Mcfool. What a terrible film, I didn't have to pay to see it, and I felt ripped off.
Only the special effects were worthy of any mention, the acting, casting, writing and edit were TERRIBLE.

trogen (2 years ago) Reply

after reading comments... had to add mine:
I didnt like T3 at all, it was aimed at children.
Saying that, Im not surprised at QEs comments. After reading some of his other reviews. Its got to the stage where if QE likes it, I dont. If he doesn’t, I love it. Just different opinion i guess...
T4 was fantastic, it has so much to offer the viewer, it extends the story and is full of action, new robots, set in an impeccable PA world. Bale as Conor, while he was very 1D was perfect for the plot.
The one thing I must say is that the Blu Ray version enhances the viewing enjoyment tenfold. If you watch this movie, make sure its in HD as I was blown away and is probably the best I have seen on a blu ray disc to date. And ive seen a lot!

udo kier (2 years ago) Reply

People, you should go and watch some Godard.

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