Product Description
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Terminator Salvation (Blu-ray)
In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film
franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as
John Connor, the man ed to lead the human resistance against
Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was
raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of
Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is
of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been
sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet
prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an
odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynets operations,
where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible
annihilation of mankind.
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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
On the Blu-ray disc
The director's cut is a mere three minutes longer than the
theatrical cut. Many of these additions are just a few seconds of
extra violence (e.g., a thrust into a body then pulled
out), but there are a few more-substantial sequences: A longer
conversation in Resistance Command Headquarters; a brief topless
scene by Moon Bloodgood when her Blair Williams character and Sam
Worthington's Marcus return to her base (reminiscent of Kelly
McGillis and Harrison Ford in Witness); an extended conversation
between those two characters afterward (Blair: "You can focus on
what you've lost or you can fight for what's left"); and a longer
radio address by John Connor in which he mentions his mother.
Even though it's not all that different, it should be the
preferred way to watch the movie.
The big extra feature, Maximum Movie Mode, is only on disc 2's
original theatrical cut. In front of two large TV screens,
director McG introduces the movie then makes periodic appearances
to discuss key concepts. Interspersed along the way are various
pop-ups with the Terminator mythology timeline,
picture-in-picture with cast and crew interviews and
behind-the-scenes footage, and stills galleries. You can also,
when prompted, exit out of the movie to watch any of 11 Focus
Points, which are two- to three-minute featurettes. Conveniently,
you can also access these from the main menu. Two other features
are watchable separate from Maximum Movie Mode: "Reforging the
Future" (19 minutes), discussing the new film's take on the
Terminator legacy, and "The Moto-Terminator" (8:33), focusing on
the motorcycle-like robots. --David Horiuchi