Just listening now. Whist the visualist in me loves Salvation, but I know it's crap. Three I think is visually very mundane, but I actually really liked parts of the script. I liked how it ended & I really liked how they were willing to take chances with the future war storyline, particularly John's fate.

Just. Marginally. I re-watch Salvation far more than 3 just to marvel at the art direction, cinematography (even if we are done professionally), ILMs work etc, etc. It's gorgeous to look at - the world building is the best Terminator has ever had. The action is superbly directed. There is no doubt in my mind the McG really really wanted to make a good film in tribute to the first two. But the script sucks far more than I think Three's does (which I've not see in a bit).

Three has tonal issues of course. And the Sarah Connor issue is handled poorly. But I think the overall story holds up much better than Salvation. John is believable, flawed and a bit crap. I like that. Bale is too self-confident - I think he's playing the John Connor his legend says he is rather than the John of 2 & 3 who is more of a right-place, right-time, chancer who by a million to one chance had the skills & experience to end up as the leader of the resistance.

And as I've said I like the Skynet network-not-supercomputer reveal, the death of John in the future timeline (which I really think takes balls in a franchise like that), and I really like the inevitability of the futurewar, that it can only be postponed, altered.

Salvation, truly outstanding visuals aside, is a ham-fisted mess of a narrative. Marcus Wright makes literally no sense in Terminatorworld. That he's completely perfect human replica at this point in the timeline, and that he doesn't just explode when John Connor is 3 feet away from him I'll never understand. And Helena Bonham Carter's 'character' too was a big mistake.

Prior to seeing it when I came across Wright's endoskeleton in an early Wired article (they originally had the model names under the images, but stripped those off after a few hours) I assumed that Wright was a more advanced Termie form the future, and that was at least an interesting, and a way to combine the La Jette/12 Monkeys narrative structure of the earlier films, even if I didn't know what they were gonna do with it.

So I watch Salvation much more coz I'm a sucker for pretty pictures, but deep down I know (read: IMHO) that 3 is a better contribution tot he Terminator Cannon.

Heh. Guys.

You seem to think Arnold made himself "fit" for this film?

One word: "Lola". (Though they weren't called that at the time... yet.... the digital arnold sixpack was kinda the blueprint work for what later become Lola)

/Z

Be careful, or I might do just that! Not to mention Brad Pitts (in)ability to look 17 again without the help of the very same people*...

/Z

(* = they actually showed me their Benjamin Button work while it was in progress. It's a looooooooooooooooot of manual tweakery.... holy sh%t)

Last edited by MasterZap (2010-06-21 14:31:09)

Goddamn you! I had this great comeback for that, except I read Swayze instead of Stewart.

Last edited by Tomahawk (2010-06-21 21:42:32)

Best bit of this is the end. Not because it's when the credits roll and you can go home, but because it's 'ha ha you humans lose'.

As you guys say, that's a very Outer Limits style ending, and I'm a huge fan of that series.

My problem with this is the same as that of T2, it's the same old premise again, only this time it doesn't really succeed in upping the stakes so comes across as a loosely tied together series of action sequences that were left on the cutting room floor of both prior movies. The tension's all gone. I don't really think the TX is superior to the T1000, and I've seen the Arnie model beat that one, so what's the serious challenge? Getting to Skynet before it becomes self-aware?

You have to wonder how Skynet knows so much, do they watch the movies as well? Like, how does Skynet know that Connor has feelings towards the Arnie model?

I'm gonna be really torn during the Salvation episode

Finally had a reason to watch this thing and i'm surprised by how much i liked it. The 'stunts' are awesome. Can we still call them that when there's so much CG involved? Stuntpeople must hate CG. I know Nick Stahl from Carnivàle so it was nice to see him.

The simple white on black titles means no-one wanted to spend another cent on this movie. And yeah some of those locations look like they belong in '60s Star Trek.

Heh, i can't believe you guys had to think about whether Claire Danes is good looking or not, what kind of supermodels do you usually go out with? While you're debating that i'll be over here in a 3-way with maul2 and Tilda Swinton.

Welcome to the forum. I like you.

Well, you could go in and play with the file to keep it in sync (inserting a second or two where needed), but that can be a pain and they are doing this for free. If I was to make DVDs with DIF audio files it wouldn't be too hard to match audio with video using Garage Band. I do that with Rifftrax, and at least twice have had audio files that kept losing sync and had to delete or add to the soundtrack.

I actually haven't, to be honest, mostly because after a first listen while watching the film I'm more likely to listen to DIF at work or on my evening walk. Visuals would just get in the way there With a Rifftrax you can only listen to those with both the video and the original movie soundtrack.

http://www.downinfront.net/index.php?id=23