Terminator Salvation has been the biggest let down of this summer’s blockbuster season. Wolverine wasn’t great either but at least my hopes weren’t set that high for it. I went into Salvation thinking it was going to be the rebirth of a franchise that I so desperately wanted to see come back to life. Instead it was an example of what happens when a movie fails on multiple fronts; it was as if the stars aligned in favor of making this movie terrible. With that said, let’s take a look at what made this movie so terrible. There are spoilers in this, however I’m probably doing you a favor by letting you know what they are so you don’t dish out any money to find out what they are.
9. The Score
When a score is done right it can really propel a movie, it makes you feel as if the movie could not live without those melodies behind it (The Dark Knight, Terminator 2). When a score is done wrong or is lacking in some manner, it feels like that friend that came over uninvited and you can’t wait for them to leave (Iron Man). Danny Elfman’s score unfortunately falls in the latter category. It seems so uninspired and phoned in. I’m not saying that they should have reused the sound track from Terminator 2, but I also didn’t hear much work go into this movie either. Remember, this is the same guy who scored Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Bettlejuice and Spider-Man.
8. Moon Bloodgood didn’t show her assets
Typically I don’t care anymore when an actress takes her top off in a movie, I’m under the “been there, done that” mentality. However by the time we reach the scene where she is supposed to take her shirt off, I was dying for something, anything to breathe some life into this movie and the only thing I could think of at that moment to do that would be a gratuitous display of breasts.
7. Did you really have to show how John Connor gets his scar?
The moment John Connor gets scratched in the face by the T-800 is bittersweet. At first my reaction was nostalgic – remembering that intro scene to Terminator 2 when John Connor brings the binoculars down to reveal a rugged and scarred face (by the way, whatever happened to that actor?) – then I realized what McG had done: filled in an obvious gap that didn’t need to be pointed out. I felt as if McG was sitting right next to me tapping me on the shoulder trying to gain my attention at how subtle and brilliant he was.
6. Where are the damn laser guns?
If anybody has made it easy to follow his movies it is James Cameron. The first ten minutes of Terminator 2 showed the post-apocalyptic world, it’s almost like a cheat sheet. And EVERYBODY is shooting lasers at each other, so why in McG’s vision of this post-Judgement Day world is everybody still using bullets?
Pages: 1 2
Tags: Christian Bale, Danny Elfman, James Cameron, McG, Moon Bloodgood, Sam Worthington, Terminator
