Terminator Salvation
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: May 21, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
23
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
A fast-moving, rock 'em-sock 'em movie that continues the man-vs.-machines series begun 25 years ago. Read full review
80
Total FilmSimon Edwards
The Terminator story recharges with a post-apocalyptic jolt of energy. Frantic and full of welcome ties to the past, it also ploughs new ground with purpose. Read full review
80
EmpireDevin Faraci
McG has sparked a moribund franchise back to life, giving fans the post-apocalyptic action they’ve been craving since they first saw a metal foot crush a human skull two decades ago. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
With its idea of an insurgency striking against an implacable evil empire, there's more than a little "Star Wars" in Terminator: Savlation, although not even at its "Empire Strikes Back" bleakest was Lucas' series this dark. Read full review
75
PremierePatrick Parker
Despite some laughably silly plot elements, McG has created an overall entertaining movie experience. It's a great kick-off to the summer explosion season. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A couple of scenes directly reference the Iraq war and the Holocaust (where the humans are herded into cattle cars), and this is taking things much too seriously. This is a big blow-'em-up franchise movie. It should not under any circumstances be confused with a Statement. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
Darker, grimmer and more stylistically single-minded than its two relatively giddy predecessors, Terminator Salvation boasts the kind of singular vision that distinguished the James Cameron original, the full-throttle kinetics of "Speed" and an old-fashioned regard for human (and humanoid) heroics. Read full review
70
Washington PostJohn Anderson
The result is a movie that takes itself far more seriously than the "Hasta la vista, baby" tone of previous installments. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It parades neither the egghead aspirations of "Star Trek" nor the thick-skulled pretensions of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," but instead feels both comfortable with its limitations and justly proud of its accomplishments. Read full review
70
NPRBob Mondello
It all contributes to making the story breathless and nerve-jangling. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The way-too-familiar climax feels less like a comment on destiny than like watching a finely crafted but soulless product roll off an assembly line. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's basically a zombie movie with machines instead of the walking dead. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Grim, post-apocalyptic, special-effects extravaganza. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Yet what makes this movie is the digital effects. It's got all the heart of a demolition derby. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A dark-and-stormy sci-fi shoot-'em-up directed by McG, T4 has enough hardware and havoc to satisfy the crowd of action junkies and gamers who sped to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on opening weekend. (Terminator Salvation is a couple of liquid metal drops' more satisfying, but only a couple.) Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Bale even cedes the juiciest part to Aussie newcomer Sam Worthington, who is star material as a machine with a conscience. T4 is a mixed bag, but it's not f***ing amateur. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
If you're a "Terminator" fan, though, "Salvation" is mostly worth it. The machines are mindless, yes, but there are enough pyrotechnics and heavy artillery to feel like Armageddon squared. And when the story starts to crumble around Bale, Worthington is there to pick up the pieces. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's a deafening, sometimes boring, occasionally startling and ultimately impressive war movie with a concern for what it is that makes us human. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Director McG proves perfectly adept at blowing things up in interesting ways, but there's not so much acting here as there is yelling at different volumes. Read full review
60
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Terminator Salvation is one of the most visually impressive films in the series. The action is non-stop and the look borders on dazzling.... But ironically for a series that's supposed to be about an embattled humanity struggling against those who lack it, there isn't an emotional moment in this. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
In Arnold's absence, an important ingredient of the "Terminator" iconography -- namely, the fun factor -- is in short supply. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The most timid in the series. There's no invention in it, no sense of discovery. Only the impressively orchestrated action sequences feel fresh. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Among the many things junked in McG's chop-shop is the notion of pleasure. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Though competent in its B-movie way, Terminator Salvation lacks the humour, heart-tugging moments and visual pleasure that made the first two movies of the series modern pop masterpieces. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Most of the running time is occupied by action sequences, chase sequences, motorcycle sequences, plow-truck sequences, helicopter sequences, fighter-plane sequences, towering android sequences and fistfights. It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This fourth "Terminator" film is the ultimate heavy-metal parody. Better make that travesty, because there are next to no moments of comedy. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The predictable story feels as if it were written by a computer program labeled "sequel." Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineJason Buchanan
With the exception of one breathtaking sequence in a helicopter, the action in Terminator Salvation is astonishingly dull. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The latest installment in the venerable sci-fi action franchise turns out to be a straight-up war film, grim and muscular and thundering and joyless. It's the color of cement, and it weighs as much, too. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
A good summer movie isn't just an uninterrupted crescendo of cacophony. You need stuff IN BETWEEN the fireballs and the cyborgs. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverStaff (Not credited)
Granted, it's great action. Terrific special effects. Pulse-pounding pacing. But it's a case of diminishing returns. Salvation so keeps its characters at arm's length that after a while it really doesn't matter what happens to them. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
Not only does the largely disposable Terminator Salvation fail to advance the franchise's overarching rise-of-the-machines storyline (a better title: "Terminator Stagnation") but, worse, it never manages to distinguish itself from any other reasonably budgeted action film. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The movie's only unmitigated pleasure is a too-brief fight scene between Connor and a naked combatant made up to look precisely like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Terminator Salvation is a tale told idiotically, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Read full review
50
Film ThreatScott Mendelson
It is occasionally a first-rate action spectacle, but it is only the spectacle that merits recommendation. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
With McG's migraine-inducing jerky-cam and monochromatic palette (livened only by splotches of rust), Terminator Salvation puts the numb in numskull. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Missing is Cameron’s signature action modification, best exploited in Aliens: the strapping female heroine. McG’s testosterone-juiced world feels a little doomed without her. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom Huddleston
Terminator Salvation isn’t the gritty, futuristic blitzkrieg for which fans of the first two films have been salivating. It isn’t even the slick, entertaining Hollywood blockbuster most were realistically expecting. It is a shambolic, deafening, intelligence-insulting mess, a crushing failure on almost all counts. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
A confused, humorless grind. Read full review
35
Film.comLaremy Legel
The sound is great, the explosions are great, the look and feel could have been turned into something special. It’s the words and plot that are huge negatives here. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Terrifically dull, full of ear-searing sound design and much yakkity-yakking about the fate of humanity but entirely lacking any sort of soul or sense of good old summer matinee fun. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Terminator Salvation has no brains and no soul; it's just a mass of stiff, creaking metal joints. Clearly, the machines have won. Read full review
30
TimeMary Pols
What's lacking is the sense of emotional balance and urgency that the original Terminator, though just a B movie, was blessed with--the quality that earned it fans in the first place. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
When Christian Bale allowed himself to play Bruce Wayne in "Batman Begins," he was slumming - and to good effect. But with Terminator Salvation, this ostensibly serious actor takes up residence in the action ghetto, and it's not a good fit. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
With much buzzing, beeping and whirring, the Terminator franchise comes to an absolute creative standstill, or even goes clankingly into reverse, with this fantastically dull fourth episode. Read full review
20
The TelegraphSukhdev Sandhu
It’s a catastrophically bad movie whose aggressive dullness and dumbness can best be reproduced by picking up a brick and slamming it against one’s forehead for two hours. Read full review
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