10 Reasons You’re Wrong About Terminator Salvation

1. Unsuccessful Movies Are Not Necessarily Bad Movies

Publicising The Expendables 2 in 2012, Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked if he€™d consider reprising his signature role in a fifth Terminator film. €œA well-made Terminator,€ he replied. €œThe last one was awful.€ He later added: €œIt tried hard, not that they didn€™t try, the acting and everything. It missed the boat.€

His comments perhaps reflected the fact that, despite turning down a cameo role, he still appears in Salvation courtesy of the special effects artists who scanned his likeness from the earlier films. Contrast that with the largesse he enjoyed on Rise Of The Machines, where his contract guaranteed him 20% of the gross receipts, $1.5 million for private jets and round-the-clock limousines on top of his $29.25 million fee, and you quite possibly get a better insight into what motivated his remark.

There are no good or bad films in Hollywood, just profitable and unprofitable pictures, and because Salvation underperformed, it became a €œfailure€, a pariah that every subsequent sequel/reboot will be forced to ignore. Terminator Genisys will distance itself from the movie just as Gareth Edwards€™s Godzilla avoided Roland Emmerich€™s version, so expect a sleek new film with jokes and more than a touch of déjà vu.

Is that good or bad? Depends on your personal taste.

Do you think Terminator Salvation deserves another chance? Let us know in the comments below.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'