10 Reasons You’re Wrong About Terminator Salvation

10. It Dared To Be Different

terminator salvation sam worthington
Columbia Pictures

On paper, it sounds like the summer€™s most desperate cash-in: a sequel with no returning cast members, a heavily rewritten script credited to the duo behind Catwoman and a director whose biggest hit, a flashy revamp of a TV show, was nearly a decade ago. Then the opening credits roll, and it becomes clear that Terminator Salvation has ambitions beyond being just another sequel.

From Danny Elfman€™s adaptation of Brad Fiedel€™s theme to the introduction of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), you can feel it €“ the movie wants to be different. It would€™ve been easy to pick up where Rise Of The Machines left off and show John Connor adapting to life in post-apocalypse Los Angeles before the arrival of two Terminators €“ one good, one bad, you know the drill by now €“ leads to the usual running gun battles. Too easy, in fact, because we€™ve seen that film three times already.

Instead, McG departs from the Cameron formula and gives us a futuristic war movie that takes visual cues from Alfonso Cuaron€™s Children Of Men and at no time reminds us we€™re watching a film from the director of Charlie€™s Angels. That€™s an achievement in itself.

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.'