10 Reasons You’re Wrong About Terminator Salvation
7. It Has A More Serious Tone
Rise Of The Machines was the Superman III of the Terminator franchise - the movie that invited everyone to laugh at, rather than with, the main characters. Its crimes are legion, and chief among them is Sergeant Candy.
Though cut from the finished film, the two-minute scene tells you all you need to know about the filmmakers intentions. Ostensibly a Skynet promo video, it opens with Schwarzenegger speaking like a hick (Ah wuz honoured tuh be selected in duh effort tuh save American lives) and when someone says, Im not sure about that accent, another character, who speaks with Arnies voice, says, We can fix it.
Sergeant Candy mightve been at home in Last Action Hero, but, like dressing the T-800 in Elton John sunglasses and allowing him to quip like Roger Moore, it doesnt belong in this franchise. Its too far removed from the cyborg we met in 1984, whose first actions consisted of knocking Bill Paxton unconscious, tearing out Brian Thompsons heart and stealing Brad Reardens clothes. Even the 'kinder, gentler' T-800 in Judgment Day kept the wisecracks to a minimum.
Terminator Salvation, then, is an attempt to get 'back to basics' and re-establish a serious tone. Theres no female Terminator who can increase her cup size at will, and at no point in the movie does Marcus Wright enter a bar on ladies night and steal a male strippers clothes. Thats not funny, just lame.