Wednesday 27 May 2009

TERMINATOR SALVATION results

Last month, I asked people if they would go and see TERMINATOR SALVATION, despite the fact that there is no Arnold Schwarzenegger. At the beginning of the poll, I got a little worried, with everyone saying they wouldn't see it. But soon film lovers overtook Arnie lovers (I admit I am both).

64% of people said they would go and see SALVATION and 36% said they wouldn't. I understand the love of Arnie in a TERMINATOR movie and initially I was dead set against the idea. But then I thought about how different this movie could be - it's set in the future. So the battles, the tone, the flow of the movie will be different. That's why it has the potential to work without Arnie. I say potential...

That's because I recently came across an article all about why TERMINATOR SALVATION is a crap movie. Most people probably know that the original script was centered around Marcus Wright, who - looking at the trailers - appear to be an Infiltrator of sorts. He seems to think he is human when in actual fact, he's a machine. In this original version of the film, John Connor took a back seat and only had a few minutes' screen time.

Then director McG approached Christian Bale, who had his heart set on the role of Connor. And from that moment, the film was changed. Connor was drastically thrown into the movie with no real consequence and Sam Worthington took up the role of Marcus. Here's a segment from the article in question, entitled "What went wrong with Terminator Salvation?" Obviously, there are major spoilers:
Bale's desire to star as John Connor was probably the most fatal blow to the film; it completely distorted the shape of the story as it existed. But the other fatal blow came from the internet. When the original ending of the script leaked [...] people went crazy. On the surface it seemed like a major slap in the face of the franchise, and doubly so on paper.
Read in full

So if you add this to the general poor reception of the film, it looks like it's going to be a complete flop. Hope that hasn't deterred anyone from spending obscene amounts of money on tickets, popcorn and coke. I'm still going to go for one reason - I love THE TERMINATOR and always will. While RISE OF THE MACHINES was an embarrassing mess, JUDGEMENT DAY is one of the best action films ever made.

TERMINATOR SALVATION comes out on 3rd June over here. Until then, take a look at the extended trailer:

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