| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
T4 is set in the continuity of T3 and thus ignoring the events of TSCC. Viewers were introduced to a apocalyptic world after Judgement Day saw the rise of SkyNet, which in T3 became self-aware and perceived humans as threats. it then created terminators to hunt down humans to kill and/or harvest them for SkyNet's use.
The movie is led by Christian Bale as "John Connor", the one prophesied to lead the human race into victory and bring about the fall of SkyNet. In order to prevent this, SkyNet sent terminators back in time to kill John, or in the first movie, kill her mother. Other characters include Connor's wife from T3, Kate Brewster (or Kate Connor now in T4), a mute girl named Star, a cyborg (second lead) named Marcus Wright, and a very young Kyle Reese.
According to the continuity, Kyle was sent back in time by John to save his mother, Sarah, but was unaware that he was destined to become John's father. Thus in T4, John tried to look for his father because he knows that Kyle is the "key of salvation", for if SkyNet get theirs hands on him, there won't be any John Connor, so on and so forth. That's where marcus came into the picture...
Marcus was in 2003, a convict slated for death row. Before he died, he donated his body to Cyberdine Industries for medical research. But after Judgement Day, Skynet made him a cyborg, a cross between a human and a terminator. He has a conscious, a brain, and a living heart found inside a chunk of metal for a body plastered with human skin. He didn't knew that he actually brought Kyle to Skynet thus he needed John's help to save him.
I don't want to spoil much about the movie, save for the review, but at the movie's end was another open-ending giving us an idea that there's going to be another movie in the works.
My take:
The movie obviously didn't rely too much on special effects to drive the movie. Character development was more emphasized to produce a kind of storytelling relevant yet still entertaining. What's more is that because the movie was rated PG13 (the early films were R rated), it kinda toned down the gore and violence usually seen in the franchise including the TV series. The closest thing it could get was a guy in a submerged helicopter "chopped" to death by a eel-like terminator.
With the question about continuity, somehow it kinda made sense that John was indeed destined to die at the hands by a T-800 (special CG cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger) as predicted in T3. In T4, John was almost unable to make it out alive but because of the sacrifice made by Marcus, John was able to live on longer (because T5 is sure to happen).
I wasn't able to see the early part of the 1st Terminator movie but I'm guessing that the John Connor that was portrayed there was already old when he sent back Kyle to the 1980's so hopefully, this is going to happen in a future film. There's bound to be problems with how the continuity is going to play out as far as T4 is concerned. T2 obviously changed the timeline completely by delaying J-Day (as how in TSCC, Sarah and John traveled 10 years into the "present" timeline to stop Judgement Day and in the end John was sent to the future, meeting his father-to-be Kyle Reese). But despite the changes occurred, elements of great importance are ever more present nonetheless like the meeting of John and Kyle as well as the existence of Sarah's taped voice recordings to John (special cameo by Linda Hamilton).
My not-so-good take:
T4 also have its own share of problems, if you could call them "problems" actually. the movie is split in two different points of view, one from John Connor, the other from Marcus Wright. Like a balancing beam, the movie is focused too much on Marcus and less on John. Although we get to see how his character played out, it kinda made me wondering whatever happened to John right on the middle of the movie. I guess it's just me because the actor who played Marcus was indeed a scene stealer for T4.
The supporting characters (Kate, Kyle, Blair, etc) were also given due relevance in the story and most if not all were used that necessitates their presence, not a one dimensional character hang onto a wallpaper.
I may have missed it but I feel certain that the trailer was a bit deceiving with what they showed early on. In the trailer, John said something about the futre was not the "future" his mother warned him about, but there wasn't a scene that showed him said that nor anything else in relation that would have made a great impact to the movie as a whole.
Nevertheless, the movie is still worth your Php150 movie ticket. There was never a dull moment and more or less, the movie is very satisfying indeed. It may have flaws but it is outnumbered by a lot of good points.
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