Product Description

In the aftermath of Judgment Day and the machine takeover, resistance leader John Connor (Christian Bale) must counter Skynet’s plan to terminate mankind. Rallying his underground street fighters for a last, desperate battle, he realizes that to save the future he must rescue his own father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). But the most shocking discovery comes with the arrival of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a mysterious loner from the past who challenges Connor with an impossible choice and leads them both on a brutal journey into the heart of the enemy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2009-12-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Color, Director's Cut, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 117 minutes

Features

• TERMINATOR SALVATION BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)

Amazon.com
Terminator Salvation restores some of the balance of huge freakin' explosions and emotionally compelling plot to the Terminator series. Set entirely after the nuclear assault that left the computer system Skynet in control of the world, Terminator Salvation follows John Connor (Christian Bale) as he grapples with both murderous robots and his superiors in the resistance, who aren’t sure they believe the prophecies that Connor is destined to save humanity. Into the midst of this struggle tumbles Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, who would later star in James Cameron’s Avatar); the last thing he remembers was being executed in prison decades before. Baffled, he falls into company with Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek) and a mute little girl, who soon get captured--but Wright then meets and bonds with Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood, Eight Below), a resistance fighter who remains loyal to the confused Wright even though Connor suspects he’s not what he seems--or what he believes himself to be. Terminator Salvation isn’t the astonishing synthesis of action and feeling that either The Terminator or T2 were; the plot threads are poorly woven and fray completely in the last third of the movie. Despite this, Terminator Salvation has at least two skillfully orchestrated action sequences that will get your heart racing, and Worthington’s beguiling mixture of toughness and vulnerability gives his relationship with Bloodgood a genuine pulse. It’s imperfect, but compared with the hollow carcasses that most action movies (including Terminator 3) turn out to be, it’s worth seeing. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Terminator Salvation Extended cut
The movie was good, a few bad lines, but mostly the editing was really off, they shouldn't have cut the time down to under 2 hours and made it a PG-13 flick. That was a big mistake, that's like making Rambo a G-rated film, it's just not right. Christian Bale is good as John Connor, he gives an alright performance, but he could have done a little better. Anton Yelchin (Young Kyle Reese) did a superb job portraying the young hardened soldier who will eventually go back to protect young Sarah Connor, but not in this film. The movie is good, but due to editing and script changes here and there, caused the movie's poor performance at the box office. It's still a good film to watch, it gives us a fresh new look at the world post Judgment Day. It's NO James Cameron film by a long shot, but still decent with good action. Just don't expect to follow the plot as it has it's ups and downs by the different writers that wrote the screenplay. Expect a future blu-ray/dvd Terminator Salvation: Extended Cut (I don't know what they will call it) to contain most of the deleted scenes 30-40 mins worth with the original ending and an alternate storyline to debut sometime in late 2010. It's an alternate version of the film, much like Donner's Superman II cut. This only has 3 mins added, with Moon Bloodgood's breasts and a couple of F-Bombs in this sad director's cut.

Entertaining with sloppy editing and storyline
After watching this 4th of the Terminator series, it is clear to me that James Cameron was the key reason behind the Terminator series's success. McG, the director of this film, seems to be gifted in action sequences but rather poor in editing.

Everyone knows that very few films will ever measure up to the first two Terminator films. The 2nd Terminator (Judgement Day) still ranks as one of the greatest action movies of all time and the 1st Terminator does not rank too far behind. This is an entertaining film which will unfortunately forever be compared to the first 2 films. This film falls short of the first two.

The best portion of this film are the action sequences. The Mad Max like thrilling action sequences are breathtaking. This Terminator film brings back much of the old school special effects using real stuntman (not CGI) to perform very dangerous yet entertaining stunts.

The film suffers from a noticeably bad editing. The sequences do not flow well in many scenes. For example, the scenary between the Blair Williams and the thugs are shown abruptly right after Marcus Wright and Blair developes a romantic chemistry. The scene which a human prisoner is shot by a T-600 is best described as choppy. You will notice more than few sequences in which few hours of filming seemed to have been condensed into few seconds.

The storyline is also very choppy as well. It appears Dr. Serena Kogan's role has been changed many times. That's too bad since I think Serena's role could have been a pivtol and a fascinating one. Perhaps Marcus Wright's original role has been altered more than a few times. The storyline is not entirely coherent.

Moon Bloodgood, who plays Blair Williams, was the most convincing actor. Sam Worthington has proven himself to be a bonifide action star. And Christian Bale has done nothing to derail his action star status.

Perhaps the director McG tried too hard to condense this film into under 2 hours. I think the film would have benefited from another 15-25 minutes and a more consistent storyline.

Lastly, I think this Terminator film does not portray the post Judgement Day human suffering well at all. Where are the starving and wretched human existence? Does John Connor's greatness reside primarily in his knowledge of the Skynet and the Terminators?

A worthy addition to the Terminator series....
Some spoilers follow...

I really expected a bad movie considering it was "Charlie's Angels" McG at the helm, but it actually had the same "B" movie feeling the other three had...he could use a little help in the story editing department (the flow was a little clunky here and there...almost like stuff was missing), but the script seemed solid enough to me. Like most movies these days, I'm sure there is a great deal of footage on the floor so to speak, that could end up being an extended version of this that could possibly clarify things a bit.

The production was outstanding...this will a great demo disc on BR, especially with the sound design...very layered and intense. The special effects were great and everything from sets to make-up to costumes and photography was a step up from the earlier films, giving it an epic feel. It has a gritty look to the action that suits the setting and story perfectly. The physical action were really well done...again, adding an intense realism to the movie without being over the top. Stand-outs include the sensational "Harvester" chase scene and both times Conner is in a chopper...watch out!

Another surprise here is the choice of Danny Elfman, and his score sounds quite good...a little too reminiscent of his work on Marky Mark's Ape flick maybe, but it still works none the less....he gives the music a more traditional orchestral sound opposed to the over-use of synthesizers that many action films rely on these days. It was cool to hear Fidel's main motif pop in once in a while at just the right times. There's an interesting recurring motif for the Marcus character that reminds me of Ron Grainer's work on "The Omega Man", further adding to that cool `70's apocalyptic vibe that parts of this movie has.

Now the cast...as mentioned by many other reviews, this is definitely Sam Worthington's show...the story invests a lot of time in Marcus' journey through the film an it helps that Worthington does a really good job with his physical performance (especially with those little nods to Arnold's "stillness" along the way) and he comes across well acting-wise too. I found his struggle with what he really was provided the most poignant moments in the movie...a man trapped in a new existence as a Terminator, fighting to stay connected with his flawed humanity and looking for some kind of redemption for his own past and ending up providing a "salvation" for the resistance and it's new leader....cool stuff and an interesting twist on the whole "Terminator" story.

Bale was almost a supporting actor in this thing...he was competent, but not outstanding. Again, his role could have been sabotaged by the script and the editing as much as anything... Compared to Marcus, Bale's John Conner seemed a little one-note with his performance throughout the film. Could be considered the nature of his character here but... There were some cool moments with him though, like when he pops on that GnR tune before capturing the MotoTerminator that brought back memories of the Connor character's motorbike stunts in T2. I also liked that it was pretty clear that not everyone in the resistance (most notably the higher-ups) though he was "all that", but the grunts in the trenches did...gave him an everyman appeal that was pretty cool.

Another show-stealer was Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese...this young man is proving to be quite the chameleon as an actor this summer, first in "Star Trek" as the precocious boy-genius Chekov and now here he is almost literally channeling Michael Biehn (right down to talking through clenched teeth) as the young resistance fighter Reese.

Both of the female characters are a little short-shifted here, but both Howard and Bloodgood do a good job in the brief scenes they have.

Like the recent "Star Trek" picture, this one had a lot of visual nods (and some obvious lines) to the earlier films, from the cool opening credits looking similar to the ones the first film to a lot of physical gags from other movies as well, especially with Marcus. The action sequences were well-staged and packed some punch. And yes, the Arnold cameo featured some excellent work from ILM...very well integrated both visually and in the story....very cool. The ending? Well, I'll just leave it at...I like what the film presented way better than the "leaked" one....yeah, maybe it seemed a little sappy to some, but I though it fit well.

The main thing that really shines though in this movie for me is that it really looks like an effort by folks that really cared about the Terminator saga and wanted to do a great job. As with any of these "franchise" movies, there are always fans who disagree with the approach taken with the film or story elements or casting choices or whatever. But it works great for me...I hope this movie finds a big, receptive audience on DVD and Blu-Ray...

But...if this ends up being the end of the line for the Terminator saga (and the slowing domestic BO suggests it might be)...it's a good one, but I'm game for more...