Sony's "Terminator: Salvation" continued to dominate the international box office over the June 12-14 weekend, grossing $43.4 million from 12,959 runs in 63 markets for an international cume of $164.4 million.
"Terminator" scored $10.7 million in Japan, the biggest opening haul in that country since "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" last year. And it opened to $9 million in China, one of the top openings of all time for a non-Chinese film.
Actioner has grossed $113.9 million in the U.S. for a global cume of $278.5 million.
Hey guys. My apologies for not weighing in on my thoughts on "Terminator Salvation" (much!) earlier - I've been busy with exams as of late (the eternal story ), so haven't visited the KMC for a while. To be honest, though, I think that the wait has been a good thing - it's given me almost 2 months to really digest my T4 "experience".
In short, I liked the film - a lot. I can see from other peoples' comments in this thread that it's gotten a mixed reaction on here at best - but for my money, whilst the film certainly doesn't match up to the high standards of T1 and T2 (though how many movies do ?), it's still a worthy contribution to the franchise, and is probably on a par with the (IMHO) underrated T3. It's got exciting, tense action sequences (such as the escape from the gas station), excellent special effects (all credit to the late, great Stan Winston for his always fantastic designs), and some great acting - whilst Christian Bale sadly doesn't excel as John Connor in the way that I was hoping he would, Anton Yelchin is brilliant as the young Kyle Reese, and certainly doesn't do injustice to Michael Biehn's performance; but the real surprise for me, however, was the superb Sam Worthington as the intriguing Marcus, an actor who I knew absolutely nothing about before, but will certainly keep my eye on in the future. And I loved the "surprise" cameo at the end - brief though it may have been .
On the downside, some of the characters get short-changed bigtime by the story (Kate Connor especially - a remarkable turn of events considering how big a role she played in T3!), and - plot-wise - Skynet's plan didn't really make a whole lot of sense! Most disappointing of all, however, is that "Salvation" doesn't really add anything significant to the "Terminator" storyline in the way that its predecessors did; for that reason above all, it would be a great shame if the story were to end here - something which, given T4's box office and critical reception, is looking more and more likely .
So overall a solid, entertaining, if unremarkable film. Rating: 4/5.
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Ahnold Sez: (From "The Expendables 2"): "My *shoe* is bigger than this cahr!"
Sam Worthington has reportedly claimed that there is some truth to certain criticisms of Terminator Salvation.
The fourth instalment in the sci-fi franchise was met with mostly unfavourable reviews by US film critics upon its cinematic debut in May.
Worthington, who played Marcus Wright in the sequel, said that he could concur with a handful of the assessments, Sci-Fi Wire reports.
He said: "I can nitpick with the best of them, man, and kind of go down the list of things I saw on IMDB where they found holes in it, and go, 'You are f**king right'.
"If there was a big ten-ton robot coming outside that gas station, surely we would f**king hear it. And I missed that."
He added: "So I'm going to be a bit better when I'm looking through my f**king scripts. So it raises my game a bit, because now I feel like an idiot for not saying it to McG, you know?"
The 33-year-old recently expressed an interest in portraying Captain Nemo in McG's remake of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
EXCLUSIVE: James Cameron Speaks For The First Time After Watching 'Terminator Salvation'
"Terminator" is back in the news these days, with the rights to the franchise on the auction block and "Terminator Salvation" director McG saying he's keen to make more series films despite the middling critical and box office reception of his first effort. James Cameron, the man who created this man-vs.-machine world, has gone ahead and made a little news himself.
In what we believe are his first comments after seeing "Terminator Salvation," Cameron sat down with MTV News' Josh Horowitz and discussed his expectations about the film, how it fits into the overall franchise mythology and if there's any chance he'll return to the series now that the rights are on sale to the highest bidder.
"I have seen it, and unfortunately I saw it the wrong way, on cable at the hotel, while I was working, over three nights because I don’t have much time," Cameron said. "It’s better than I thought it was going to be."
Back-handed compliment much?
But Cameron went on to praise McG and his creative team for their efforts while also noting that the movie was missing some essential elements that made the earlier films such classics. "It's actually quite reverential to the mythos of the 'Terminator' world," he said. "I think McG and the writers tried hard to keep reacquainting you with some of those ideas in the story that they were weaving. So actually I thought it was pretty cool. I did feel that it sort of lacked Je ne sais quoi. Although I love Sam [Worthington] in it. "
No surprise there, considering Cameron has made Worthington the star of his 3-D alien love story, "Avatar" (out December 18). And with that film soon behind him, might the director turn his attention back to "Terminator," now that the rights are once again available?
"No, 'Terminator' is way in my rear-view at this point, kind of made my emotional break with it, back when I was finishing 'Titanic,' believe it or not," he said. "A very similar conversation cropped up at that time because the rights were in play at that point.... I was thinking about [a third 'Terminator' film] but I had decided emotionally to be done with it, and it just feels like last millennium stuff for me, at this point. Now it's been a TV show, and two films since, and trying to go back and reshape it like that stuff didn’t exist doesn’t make sense."
Thanks for that, Barand - a fascinating read. I would agree with pretty much everything Cameron said - except for his disappointing - if hardly unexpected - decision not to return to the "Terminator" franchise ; I guess it's just not his baby anymore, is it?
The new issue of Total Film magazine in the UK has a great pull-out section all about James Cameron's career (aptly titled "King Of The World"), and the magazine also asked him what his thoughts were on "T4":
TF: "What did you make of Terminator Salvation?"
JC: "It didn't quite have the emotional power that it should have had. I thought Sam [Worthington] was great, very powerful, and Christian [Bale]... people have criticised him for being one-note but that's part of the character. He was playing a guy who's furiously dedicated to the survival of the human species. Maybe more could have been done with that. In T2 we showed the consequences. It drove Sarah insane".
TF: "Was McG the man for the job?"
JC: "McG's a strong shooter and he honoured the iconic touchstones of the first two movies - almost too much so. I actually felt Salvation is like Aliens, in that it's a fan making a sequel to a movie they loved".
Some similar comments, then, to the ones you posted Barand. I do like the last line, though - I never thought of "Aliens" as some sort of hugely expensive fan-fiction!
And yes, it's hardly surprising that Cameron keeps bigging up Worthington's performance. In fairness, though, he was perhaps the best thing about that film, and they would do wisely to keep him on for "T5" (if it ever gets made!).
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Ahnold Sez: (From "The Expendables 2"): "My *shoe* is bigger than this cahr!"
I too agree with Cameron and yourself, and to continue on...
James Cameron has claimed that Terminator Salvation lacked originality.
The Avatar director, who conceived and helmed the first two instalments in the science fiction series, told UGO that he felt McG's film didn't break new ground.
"Interestingly, I think McG did a good job in the sense... I think he was almost too referential to the mythos of the first and second film. He over-quoted them in a way," Cameron said. "It didn't feel to me to be enough of a reinvention. The thing we did with the second film is that we reinvented the first film completely; spun it on its ass and made the Terminator the good guy, and came up with a whole new concept for a villain, it felt fresh.
"I didn't feel the fourth picture was fresh enough. It also lacked a certain stamp of authenticity because Arnold [Schwarzenegger] wasn't in it. I mean, he was in it briefly, digitally, but that's not the same thing."
However, Cameron praised his Avatar star Sam Worthington's performance in Salvation, calling him "remarkable because, well, I think Sam is remarkable in anything he does".
You say that, Kazenji, but I'm still holding out hope for both Robert Rodriguez' "Predators", and Ridley Scott's Alien prequel.
It's interesting how Cameron has been so vocal about "Salvation" recently, yet said almost nothing about "T3". Maybe it's simply because he wasn't promoting a film of his own back when the latter film came out?
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Ahnold Sez: (From "The Expendables 2"): "My *shoe* is bigger than this cahr!"
Quite possibly. It'll be interesting to know his thoughts on it now after some time has passed (can you believe 6 years ago it was released?!). All I remember at the time was Cameron saying this:
"In one word : Great. There was a small part of me that hoped it wasn't good - but another part of me hope'd it succeeded. And it did. And I'm so glad it did. Jonathon's made a great movie. Arnold's in great form. I really like what he's done with it".
When asked if he had [directed] it, would he have handled it differently he said:
"Yes. That's only natural. I mightn't have structrued it the same, nor may I have ended it the same way - but coming in where he has, such a hard thing to do, and I give Jonathan points for it".
Wasn't sure where to post this but here it shall be...
Linda Hamilton gives an interview promoting her new film; Holy Water. The interview soon turned to talks about the Terminator movies and Linda was asked to recall her fun times in the role of Sarah Connor and her thoughts on both Terminator Salvation and Terminator 3.
I think her comment about "Salvation" is spot-on; despite having a lot of good elements to it, it is, quite simply, "not a James Cameron film".
I did love her unintentionally funny line about her successor to the role of Sarah Connor: "I wish Lena Heady all the best. I mean, the show has now been cancelled, but ..."
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Ahnold Sez: (From "The Expendables 2"): "My *shoe* is bigger than this cahr!"
KMC Community Forums
Jun 21st, 2009 09:26 AM
), so haven't visited the KMC for a while. To be honest, though, I think that the wait has been a good thing - it's given me almost 2 months to really digest my T4 "experience".
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