Rate the last movie you watched out of 10

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Terminator 4

A decent film, but one that doesn't hold a candle to the first two. In comparison, T4 is no more than a generic action flick with a sulky actor in the lead role.

The Marcus aspect of the plot was pretty good. The parts involving him were the best in the film. What let the film down were the scenes involving Bale, who failed to capture the character at all and was just a badass fella, the throwing around of humans by lethal killing machines and a horrible ending.

In the first two films, the terminators were deadly. They killed fast and were efficent; as machines should be. In T4, instead of killing people when they get near to them, they throw them against walls over and over. It was pathetic to watch. The hopeless vibe of the future that clips in the first film showed was lost because of how poorly the action was handled in T4.

And as for Bale, the film would've been better without him in it. Marcus would've made for a better main character. Seriously, what did JC have to do in this film other than make radio calls, act angry and, at the end, do the impossible with ease by entering the base of the machines and surviving, alone. A poor performance from him, with him playing a role that wasn't needed for the film to work.

It goes without saying that the ending sucked. I won't say why for spoiler reasons but it was cheesy as hell and, because of the nature of the ending, I lost all desire to see a T5.

I give it between 6-7. 7/10 is probably fair because, until near the end, it was a pretty entertaining film because of Marcus.
 
Terminator Salvation - 6/10

Entertaining movie, with a tone that fits more with the first movie than the last did. I thought the Arnold face graft thing looked great but it was so fleeting I felt a little let down.

One of my main problems was the same as Aion's complaints. Why were the Terminators faffing about so much? This is meant to be the war that nearly wiped out humanity and I only recalled a handfull of humans being killed. They seemed to spend more time throwing people about like ragdolls. Even in Terminator 3 the killings felt more efficient but here it seems their logic was, 'Why kill them right away when you can throw them into pipes for five minutes?'. Great way to remove tension from a film.

I'm not as enthusiastic about the Marcus story as Aion. The story concept had a lot of potential but I felt that the emotional impact wasn't played out enough after the revelation (which thanks to the trailers wasn't any surprise). It seemed like after a few moments of brief shock he was fine until the story warented and because of that I felt it could have been stronger.

As for Bale... well he really didn't get to do much at all and that was the biggest let down of them all for me. Schwarzenegger wasn't in this one and for me he is an anchor for the series so I really wanted a strong presence of John Conner. After all, the machines sent 3 terminators back in time to make sure he wouldn't exist in the future but really the weight of his importance was barely touched on. They should have cut down on some of the sterile action sequences to build on his character more.

Still it was worth a watch. I'm half and half about if I enjoyed this more than T3 because at least T3 had Arnold which automatically makes the entertainment value skyrocket and it did have some memorable action sequences (Skynet Fight, Crane Chase). This... well I can't remember any specifics about the action at all. Pretty uninspiring stuff in that area.
 
Terminator Salvation - 7/10
It feels like the technology show in the new movie has to top the previous one. Humans seemed a lot more equipped and organized than the previous movies made us believe they would be and the ending was predictable after the revelation (possibly because I've read Aion post on it before going there and watching it)
 
Originally, JC was only meant to appear at the end. The original plan was for Bale to play Marcus, but that plan was changed when Bale refused to play any role other than JC. What resulted from this was a butchered film where JC had scenes and dialogue inserted to give Bale time on screen.

If the film had been about Marcus and no-one else, focusing on the smaller picture as he traversed a post-apocalyptic wasteland, not knowing why he was still alive, I think it would've been great. It wouldn't have pleased fans who expected to see JC but I'm pretty damn sure it would've made for a better film than what we ended up seeing.

There were some good Marcus ideas that were discarded as the story was revised over and over. One such change was a fight against a pack of wolves turning into a fight against a group of rapists. The original idea was for him to fight the wolves and, as he fought them, discover how he was faster than them; that he was different than he was before. But, in the end, the scene was changed into a straightforward 'protect female, get pussy as reward' scene. Very meaningful.

There were other problems with the Marcus story, too, most notably Kyle's character. I hated how they gave him lines from T1 in order you show that the skinny brat is the father of JC. Seeing a man hold out a hand to another, far more well-built man and saying "Come with me if you want to live!" didn't quite have the same impact as it did in T1, where a much more impressive looking and sounding version of Kyle said the same line to a damsel in distress.

And, finally, the ending: it was horrible. Whichever way you look at - whether you think Skynet wanted to keep JC alive so not to destroy themselves or that they simply wanted to kill him - it was retarded.
 
Aion said:
Originally, JC was only meant to appear at the end. The original plan was for Bale to play Marcus, but that plan was changed when Bale refused to play any role other than JC.
Click to expand...
I've said on numerous occasions that a story about other people who aren't John Connor would have been fantastic, and they were going to actually do one? Now I'm disappointed. I haven't seen the movie, but I'd love to see some other parts and characters in the Terminator Universe who don't even know John Connor in real life. Just as an icon.
 
Aion said:
This is the guy who ruined T4: http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_audio/020209_ ... anbale.mp3
Click to expand...
Rubbish. The blame is shared among the production team but ultimately falls on McG and given his filmmaking choices I questioned his ability to direct something as iconic as the Terminator franchise in the first place. He didn't prove me wrong. I mean what kind of self respecting director would turn down rebooting the Superman franchise in favour of doing Charlies Angels Full Throttle and actually want to be involved with a remake Revenge of the Nerds?

I agree that If the story focused almost entirely on Marcus it could have been a fantastic movie. As much as I would have preferred to see the continued story about John Conner in the time period when he has most prominence it just was not required for this story. The marketing is what mislead me. There was barely anything about Marcus, they just seemed to go on and on about John Conner so obviously I assumed he'd play a major part.

More time could have been spent developing Marcus who I felt was completely rushed through the motions during the film. With the action lacking originality the movie could have been completely redeemed with some strong character scenes but even those scenes that had potential felt rushed (The chained up scene in particular. After a bit of screaming he seems fine.). If the movie was longer then maybe they could have had their cake and eaten it too by expanding on both JC and Marcus storylines.

I did not buy the female character that met Marcus. At the end of the human race where we are on the losing side of a war that would mean we are completely wiped out she somehow finds the time to make her hair look great! Her performance felt flimsy to start with but she seemed even more out of place given that she always looked like she'd just come back from the salon. I'm not saying that they should have cast somebody less attractive but they could have at least made her look a little more war torn. It took away from the gritty atmosphere they were trying desperately to create.

The final confrontation WAS pretty damn pathetic despite the Arnold CGI looking great in my opinion. Surely some originality could have been thrown in about how they could avoid the T-800's attacks and still have it come across as an unstoppable force. I can buy to an extent how they made it into Skynet but as for that final confrontation it was just lazy and inexcusable.

Maybe the next one will be better but with McG at the helm I doubt it will be. He seems incapable of inserting anything memorable into action sequences and as for character driven moments he seemed to direct his actors in all the wrong ways.
 
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Terminator Salvation, 6/10.

It was by far better than I expected. Christian Bale gave an pretty well-rounded John Connor, given what he had to work with. I didn't expect John Connor to be some random army guy, though. I want John Connor to be this special guy that they built up for years; The Leader of the Resistance. I also dislike how the world has come together - Judgement Day seemingly destroyed government and absolutely everyone except a couple of army guys.

The film felt like it needs to have more exposition to be a real film, as well. Why did John have a pregnant girlfriend? Why doesn't John trust any Terminators now? It didn't feel like a first of a trilogy, more like half of a movie. Connor knew a Terminator for about 8 years of his life, yet doesn't trust this Marcus fellow. Moving on to Marcus, he was quite interesting, but I'm not as invigorated with his story as others are - He's basically a Cylon.

There was no real beginning, middle and end feeling for me. There's nothing more dramatic in the final fight (which, they somehow just flew away from) than a Harvester smashing buildings down in the beginning of the film. I hate the new Terminators, also. Connor like, put something on the bike and rode it, without a seat and no handle-bars. And, they were ugly and kind've took me out of the movie.

Visually, it was what I imagined Judgement Day to be life. Almost unbelievably stylized, but liked the approach.

Also, Chekov was Kyle Reese.
 
Star Trek (a.k.a. Lens Flare; The Motion Picture) - 8/10
Man, I was not expecting to enjoy this movie so much, but the cast was so dead on it was scary and it was throughly entertaining throughout. Sure, the plot was a bit of a mess but I enjoyed myself so much I found myself not really caring.
 
Schindler's List - 10/10

I couldn't be bothered to watch the whole 3 hours in one go so I split it into two parts.
I remember first watching it in History class when I was in year 9, and it still remains one of the best depictions of the war out there.
 
Terminator: Salvation

It's called Terminator salvation because... Sam Worthington ******* SAVED this movie. The token cute mute black girl confirms this movie was toned down for the kids. Since several others members have pretty much ripped this movie apart I'll spare it of any further comments of negativity. I do have to agree on Arnie's CGI look though, I couldn't even tell. But whatever, 6/10. Movie needed more grim dark elements, either way Bale is still my hasbando.

I also find it more and more disturbing/freaky that some kid in the future who is like at least 12 years younger than you IS your father.
 
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Man On Fire (2004) - 5/10

A potentially good revenge movie ruined by the self-consciously cool rapid-fire editing and that it's at least half an hour too long. Taken, while equally implausible, is a much more enjoyable film.
 
The Bank Job - 7.5/10

Much fun and crookedness with Jason Statham. Based on a true story, 1971 audacious tunneling into Bank, much blackmail and secrets. 70's setting was fun, acting a little wooden at times, but all in all, very enjoyable.

That said, I love action/thriller/british gangster films, so I'm not hard to please when it comes to this genre, hehe.
 
The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 6/10.Harmless ,mindless fun for 90 minutes especially when you consider I bought the dvd for 8 euros which is just under £7.The last movie I went to see at the cinema cost me 11 euro's which was Star Trek and that was without anything to eat or drink .Man ,cinema's are getting to be a real rip-off. :x
 
X-men Origins: Wolverine - 8/10

Has some flaws, such as continuity and I didn't like Sabre-tooth on the last few scenes of the movie. I thought it would be good to see Deadpool as well, and it was ok, but it lacked his comedy sense.

All in all it's a pastiche of two of the greatest stories from wolverine - Origins and Weapon X.

Gambit was awesome as well, if not a bit too nice.
 
Quantum of Solace 7.5/10 Not as good as Casino Royale but still a lot better than some of the later moore bond and Brosnan was just way to nice to play the character properly.You can see how the Bourne films have had such a big influence on the bond franchise.
Hancock 6/10 not one of Will Smiths better films .
 
I really enjoyed Hancock, which surprised me because I didn't like the premise and I don't usually like Will Smith :]

I watched The Strangers last night which I thought was excellent. Horror films that are genuinely scary and understated are seemingly rare so it was great to see the suspense and the terror slowly built up. And it really was terrifying, too! The ending was disappointing, sure, and it's claims to being based upon a true story are largely bogus, but I still enjoyed it a lot. 8/10.
 
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