Terminator Salvation; A Hardcore Review

SO, we FINALLY get the future Terminator movie we've all been salivating like Pavlovian dogs for. And I gotta say, I had my doubts about this working as a movie. Especially since Christian "I always overact as Batman" Bale was on board as John Connor. And a lot of people, some that I know were put off by number three and this flick since James Cameron had nothing to do with either of them. But they were what they were. I have to say, I was thinking this whole movie was gonna be a feature length film of the future flashes we saw in Terminator, of Kyle Reese blasting Terminator ass. I dug that this movie was kind of a mind fuck. I mean we get John Connor desperately seeking teenage Kyle Reese so he can preserve his own existence. But think, there might not have been a resistance without Kyle going into 1984 and fucking Sarah Connor. Although there had to be a resistance in order to send Reese back in the first place. See? A mind fuck. This movie was part philosophical and part sci-fi action flick. I feel it fit nicely into the Terminator mythos. I mean Terminator could be as deep as Star Wars given the possible alternate futures and outcomes from fucking with the space time continuum. People would think that given the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day there wouldn't have been a future where the machines actually rose to power. But with Terminator: Rise of the Machines if showed that fate cannot be changed. Things that are supposed to happen cannot be stopped. Now I'm not talking real life here, just the mythology of Terminator Salvation and beyond. The whole near future was fucking awesome. No plasma rifles, no pulse weapons, except those used by the machines. And what would really be the point of the machines using most of those weapons when humans are fragile enough that projectile weaponry could easily dispose of those pesky harbingers of DNA. I loved seeing the T-800's in action. Watching them methodically pace through the wasteland of civilization and mow down remaining humans with mini guns was fantastic. Not in a genocidal sense, but think about this. The very first time we saw a T-800 it was back in 1984 and technology for accomplishing the stop motion animation needed was limited. Face it, it looked really jerky. But seeing these CGI and some of them not CGI rendered T-800's in their full glory was fucking amazing. I nearly jizzed my pants when I saw the "Arnold" T-800 emerge from the processor. Damn, Roland Kickinger looked like Arnold didn't he? And then the action scene following that showed the degradation process of the Arnold Terminator was phenomenal.
Young Kyle Reese was outstandingly played by Anton Yelchin. He had the look of a young Michael Biehn. The casting was great for this movie too. I mean Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor looked just like Claire Danes from Rise of the Machines. I loved how they worked in the continuity of the massive scar on John Connor's face from the future scenes in Judgment Day as well.
Now let's get to the part where I thought this movie was going to fail dramatically, the whole Marcus Wright Terminator thinking and believing he was human. From the previews, I never got why they would do such a thing. But it made perfect fucking sense for the story. And when Blair Williams said he had such a strong heartbeat, I was totally mixed up. Terminators are only living tissue over metal endo skeletons. They don't have internal organs. But the Marcus Wright Terminator did. and it made the story make sense. Even if the ending made it sappy and really reaching. It worked. Although, if John Connor had been killed it still would have worked, as with the revelation in Rise of the Machines, where the T-800 who was sent back was under orders from Kate and not John. Plus the whole portion where the Arnold T-800 shows up, I feel they should have and really needed John to react more nostalgically than he seemed to. Although maybe I need to watch it again to spot those subtleties.
The story, flowed and was gut wrenching at times. The characterization, was spot on. The special effects and make up were amazing. The visual effects, stunning and phenomenal. Remember kids, special effects are all the physical and tangible things done on set, while the visual effects are all done post production in a computer.
This film, which I had my doubts about, was astounding and spun nicely from the mythos we grew up with from 1984. Ironically it was showed up in 1984. Does anyone think that was coincidence. Now for the grade... stems from a little ECW pay per view from 2000 called Anarchy Rulz. It was the precursor match to the vaunted Cyrus versus Joel Gertner wrestle-fest. Gertner was surrounded by Cyrus, EZ Money, Elektra and Chris Hamrick and Julio Dinero, also known as Hot Commodity. Cyrus said he would fight Gertner IF he was able to take out EZ Money first. To which Highway to Hell starts blaring over the PA system, and out comes Commissioner Little Spike Dudley. Spike pointed out that he was the match maker. He also backed up Cyrus by saying his match with Joel would happen if EZ Money was defeated. However, Spike threw a swerve at Cyrus. He said Gertner wouldn't be the one fighting EZ Money. And then he shouted, "HIS NAME IS KID............." And out came former ECW World Television Champion, Kid Kash. Kash and Money went back and forth, with fucking insane high spots that would kill guys like Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles. Chris Hamrick even hit a massive leg drop off of Money's shoulders. To counter the triple team against Kid Kash, out came The Sandman, who caned a bunch of people and then drank some beers. Kash would not stay down. Nope, Kid Kash, as Joey Styles would coin, was money when he was set to be super bombed off the top rope, and countered that into a top rope hurricanrana for the ONE TWO THREE!