Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Helena Bonham Carter
One of the biggest movie releases on dvd this week is the long awaited Terminator Salvation or T4. I say long awaited, but it has of course already has its run in cinemas before getting its dvd release.
After the horrowshow that was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – i had high hopes that this new version was going to re-invent the franchise and add some well needed style and intelligence.
Chistian Bale is the lead character, John Connor – played by Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
Since the original film, we have now come full circle. We are now in 2018 – after Judgement Day has happened and Skynet is all powerful with the human race in danger of extinction apart from pockets of resistance trying to stand up to the almost indestructible Terminators. John Connor becomes the unofficial leader of the resistance.
We now also meet an unfamiliar character Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington). At the beginning of the film he’s on death row and agrees to donate his body to be used for cyborg research. We then see him again in 2018 when he meets up with Kyle Reese (John Connor’s father, once he gets sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor in the first film). We are unsure if Marcus has become as enemy spy or the only Terminator with emotion.
On the surface – this film looks fantastic. If you look at the other movie releases on dvd this week, this has by far the biggest production budget and it shows. The effects and action sequences are fantastic. The plot is familiar already from the previous films and theres no real surprises in that respect. There is a cameo from a digitally enhanced version of Arnie, which was a nice touch but on the whole – not enough surprises.
I’m sure they were hoping to kick start a whole new series of these films – and they probably will, regardless of how good they are. The die hard fans will love it but it will leave the average viewer a little bit let down.
Writer: John D.Brancato, Michael Ferris]
Director: McG
Buy Terminator Salvation from Play.com
