The Movie

The Terminator films, for me, hold much of the same, primal, appeal as Godzilla flicks: they show us evil creations of the imagination causing mass destruction. Every once in a while you'll come across a moment of good storytelling in these franchises, but what these films do best is feed our baser desires to watch cool things destroy things. In that, Terminator Salvation excels. In other areas ... not so much.

We follow two main characters, the franchise's mythological John Connor (Christian Bale) and the newcomer Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a man who in 2003 was executed for the murder of his brother and a cop but who gives his body to science and is revived in the time of this film, 2018. Connor, who most will know, is the leader of the human resistance against the machines, which, viewing humankind as a threat to their existence, have all but wiped out the race. The world is a perpetual battleground in which the robots and humans try to destroy each other in order to survive. In this film, the resistance has found what they believe is the key to defeating the machines, but Connor has a task even more important: finding and protecting a civilian named Kyle Reese. Why is this more important than defeating the machines? This gets knotty, so pay attention. Reese, in the future, goes back in time to the 1980s to protect Sarah Connor from a Terminator (this all takes place in the first film) and ultimately fathers her child, John Connor, who becomes the leader of the resistance against the machines in the future, which is why the terminator was sent to kill Sarah Connor in the first place. (This already doesn't really make sense, I know.) The logic (for lack of a better term) goes that if the machines now destroy Reese, as they are trying to do, he will never father John Connor, who will then never exist to lead the resistance (I guess he'll vanish like people in Back to the Future photographs or something), and the humans, lacking such a great leader, will fall. While all this is going on, Wright is somehow revived, learns what is going on in the world, and seeks out Connor to join the resistance.

Strong special effects, particularly robot-related ones, have always been the hallmark of the Terminator franchise. Coming after a fairly mediocre third entry of the series, Terminator Salvation is not technically revolutionary like the first two installments were, but it far surpasses them on an absolute basis. Never before in a Terminator movie have we seen so many robots (in non-flesh-wrapped form, no less), and never have we seen such cool robots. Along with the generic terminators we all know of, this film also has motorcycle robots, serpentine robots, and, best of all, giant robots that look like bastard children of the Transformers franchise. The designs of these things are just plain awesome, everything looking purely evil and behaving with startling ferocity. The filmmakers then take these designs and use them to their fullest extent with action sequences so involved, fast-paced, and big as to best be described as operatic.

So, virtually everything related to the special effects works great. Unfortunately, the script also feels like it was assigned to the special effects department. Take Wright's back story, for instance. We learn of his crimes, but never once do they play a part in his character, except for one moment when a song reminds him of his past, so he turns the stereo off. We never gain any insight whatsoever into why he did what he did, nor do we get any clues as to why he now has good intentions. I don't know why his past is even introduced into the story at all, other than for the practical purpose of needing someone executed at an age of prime physical condition.

I wish the problems stopped there. There is also a portion of the film that goes Blade Runner on us and has basically no thematic outcome. When one character is revealed to be a terminator (unbeknownst to himself), questions naturally arise of what constitutes humanity and who should be granted it. However, this does not come up until about two-thirds of the way into the film, and it is addressed only sporadically for the remainder of the movie. It is abandoned and returned to periodically like someone checking on a pet out of obligation for an out-of-town neighbor; you get the feeling that the writers don't really care about the implications involved in the matter. It's a twist for the sake of a twist.

This has been a strange review. Though I overall like this movie and would recommend it, I have pointed out roughly as many flaws as merits. To make things even odder, there are more problems than those listed, but I stopped because I would like someday to finish writing this. The reason for this discrepancy is the fact that these flaws don't matter all that much if you know what you're getting into. Plausibility, after all, has never been one of the franchise's strong points. A time-travel-centric plot that is about to collapse on itself is immaterial when it exists within a film whose sole purpose is to provide a good time, and Terminator Salvation provides that well. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for all things post-apocalyptic. If nothing else, this Terminator movie gives us something we have all wanted to see ever since that brief scene of the future in Terminator 2: Judgment Day: the future wasteland in which terminators and humankind are perpetually at war. There are those of us for whom that is quite enough.

This Terminator Salvation Blu-ray contains the theatrical cut of the film as well as the director's cut, which contains roughly three minutes of mostly inconsequential additional footage.

Click here for our full review of Terminator Salvation.

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The Extras

• Director's Cut
• Maximum Movie Mode
• Focus Points
• The Moto-Terminator
• BD-Live
• Digital Copy

As mentioned above, this release contains both the theatrical and director's cuts of the film. The director's cut includes a whopping three minutes of extra material, most notably the Blair Williams topless scene (which isn't nearly as cool as it sounds). Needless to say, the director's cut is not significantly different than the theatrical version.

Instead of a traditional commentary track, this release has the super-cool Maximum Movie Mode commentary (which, if knowledge serves me correctly, is only the second Blu-ray to come with this feature, the first being the director's cut of Watchmen). Maximum Movie Mode (available only on the theatrical cut) blends picture-in-picture commentary and behind-the-scenes footage with pull-backs to the director pausing the film and pointing out specific details. The information here is often interesting. McG points out two or three special effects shortcomings, but most often his commentary is focused on the underlying philosophies of many of the scenes. Even though the film is lacking story-wise, it's obvious that McG had a clear idea of what he wanted in its constituent moments. Perhaps the best part of it all, though, is his detailed description of a shocking alternate ending that he and the writers had considered.

"Focus Points" is a set of eleven short clips focused on various visual effects. It's your usual behind-the-scenes special effects stuff made especially cool by the nature of their subject matter.

"Reforging the Future" and "The Moto-Terminator" are slightly longer, fifteen- to twenty-minute featurettes on, respectively, the overall feel of the film and the motorcycle Terminators. Some cool stuff here, like the "Focus Points" bits, but nothing amazing.

The Warner BD-Live feature allows you to schedule BD-Live screenings of the film as well as record your own commentary track, as you can do for other Warner Home Video Blu-rays. (Note: if you buy this Blu-ray this first week and register in time, you can also view and take part in a BD-Live Q&A screening with McG himself on December 5.)

Video/Audio

Picture-wise, there's not a lot to say about this Blu-ray. It looks probably as good as it could look, but there's so much dirt, rain, erosion, and darkness in Terminator Salvation that a high-def picture just doesn't add a whole lot. The moments that are clean, such as close-ups of (non-dirt-covered) actors' faces reveal the picture to be about as clear as any Blu-ray, but, needless to say, there aren't many of these moments.

If there was a parallel universe in which sound effects somehow did not exist, they would have to come into existence purely for this movie, which makes some of the best and most chilling use of sound I can remember hearing. This disc conveys that sound well. Occasionally the dynamic range can be a bit narrow (everything's just supposed to be loud), but there's no denying that this is a wall-shaker.

Packaging/Menus

The discs come packaged in a standard Blu-ray case, two on each side of a disc page and one on the inside of the back cover. Slipped over the case is a textured, iridescent cardboard cover. One disc contains the theatrical cut and special features, another contains the director's cut, and the third is solely for the digital copy.

Each of the two main discs is prefaced by previews, as many releases are, but you have to skip each preview individually (you can't just go straight to the menu). That's the only complaint, though. The rest of it is Blu-ray-standard with menu options on the fly.

Conclusion

Terminator Salvation has a lot of good things about it, but it has far too many problems to be good overall. However, despite being a mediocre film, it can still be enjoyable on a more primal level. In this release, the extras are average, and the fidelity is high. If you haven't seen the movie, it'd be best to rent it before buying. If you know you like it, this Blu-ray is definitely recommended over the DVD, which, despite high-quality sight and sound, contains no special features whatsoever and no director's cut.