Terminator Salvation: The T4 Cut

Terminator Salvation is a really cool movie. And I'm inclined to say it's good. I think it's a little underrated - there was a lot of good set up in the film. I believe they could've made a fantastic sequel to it, but unfortunately that won't be happening. Of course, the filmmakers only have themselves to blame for making such an undercooked product. The action sequences are fantastic, along with the whole world they've created, but they've populated it with uninteresting characters and a near brain-dead plot. But many fun blockbusters have doldrum plot lines. It really is the characters that ruin this movie.

See, the problem is that they lack basic character development. Which makes us not care about them, which makes us not care about the movie. Unfortunately this brings me to my biggest criticism of Agent9's fan edit. He cuts out many of the very few scenes in the film that actually divulge character points. Worst off in this edit is Marcus (worst off is actually John Connor who barely has a single dimension; but that's present in the original film). While cutting the prison flashback and some of his talks with Kyle and Blair might work in making him appear to be a wholly new Skynet invention (rather than the brain of a human placed in a Terminator), it robs the film of its only interesting character (well Kyle's good but he has little screen time), in a way. Agent9's new version of Marcus is interesting, but there isn't material to properly flesh him out, so to speak. Plus, we never get to really see why Kyle and Blair become friends with him.

But here I am talking about the negative, when I should really be talking about the positive, considering the high score I'm giving this. I'll be brief, though, much of my feelings have already been covered by other reviewers.

Like I said before, Terminator Salvation is cool movie. That's the best thing it has going for it. So well done to Agent9 for making it even cooler. Firstly, he's removed the glaring plot hole that is the hit list, along with some other stupid bits. Secondly, he's recolored the film, and added some choice musical selections. All this amounts to a pretty awesome edit.

While characterization has been made worse by this edit, nearly everything else has been made better. What's left is a fast and action packed Terminator thrill ride. And maybe that's the best that can come from Terminator Salvation. If so, you'll be glad to know that Agent9 has done a fine job.

Warning: I watched this edit in 640p. Please take that into account when reading this review.

There are three problems with the initial release of Terminator Salvation. One: the far from airtight (even for a Terminator movie) story that took itself far too seriously. Two: Sam Worthington. Three: despite some awesome Skynet monstrosities and a surprisingly great depiction of the T-800 it just didn't feel like a Terminator movie, despite heavy handed and misguided attempts to do just that.

Agent9 ended up taking these issues and wiping them out.

A/V Quality: 10
-Video Editing: 10
The cuts were numerous and welcome. That goofy "musta heard the music" gag is gone, as is a lot of Worthington's introduction, which was only a plus and almost made Marcus an interesting character despite Worthington's mighty effort in dullness. Oh, and Star isn't a walking Deus Ex Machina anymore. That deserves nothing but praise.

The color correction was probably my favorite thing in this movie and really added to a much needed bleak atmosphere. When I first saw the green filter I immediately thought, "Now this is a Terminator movie."

-Audio Editing
The reinsertion of the original music was one of Agent9's best decisions for this cut and injected some emotional depth better than around half the actors in this movie. Hearing Sarah Connor's actual line from T2 was a nice touch. The removal of some silly lines was seamless. I couldn't find any inconsistency at all.

Narrative: 8
The pacing has been greatly improved now, but certain decisions are still baffling (through no fault of your own, Agent9). For example, Skynet's system not immediately shutting down Marcus after he came back and, you know, the idea of sending him in the first place. Sadly these were both pivotal things that were impossible to fix without deleted scenes that, from what I know, simply don't exist.
Was this edit still better than its source, though? Oh God yes.

Enjoyment: 9

The quality of this originally bland as all hell film has skyrocketed. Where at first it was pretty much on par with Terminator 3, it's now about twelve steps above it. If I ever feel the need for a Terminator marathon, my DVD copy of Salvation will continue to collect dust. This is my go-to copy from now on.

A much better experience than the original film. It cuts out all the stupid, unnecessary stuff and strengths the film as a whole despite it's fundamental flaws. Marcus' back story is strengthened by actually keeping his identity a mystery from the start and leaving the viewer in suspense as to who he is and why he was created. Unfortunately, there isn't really enough source material to fully support all of the new ideas expressed here, but it's still highly watchable and understandable. This is a huge step towards what the movie should have been from the beginning.

very very watchable, rechnically top notch, very nice quality.

what can i say, fan editor made a bad movie quiet enjoyable
the movie now flows a lot better, pacing is much improved.

sadly, what no fan edit can fix - the stupid storyline that skynet builds one cyborg to find john connor and bring him back to the headquarter.

why not kill him on sight? why have only one t-800 on connor killing duty in a terminator factory?

Agent 9's audio work in this edit is great, replacing the soundtrack in parts of the movie with more classical Terminator-tunes, really heightens the enjoyment. I also liked the new colour for the movie.

Audio/Video-quality could have been better though, a bigger filesize (maybe even 1080p) and more bitrate for the audio-track (128kb/s is imho a bit too little for stereo, 320 kb/s would have been better).

Narrative wise, it all works and makes sense mostly, and the pacing is faster. But it felt like it was over just a bit too fast, maybe here and there a bit slower pacing would have helped. What I missed a bit was a bit more scenes for Marcus and Blair to help with their relation, so that it becomes more beliveable that she would help him escape.

I recommend this edit, especially because of the new soundtrack and colour, and if you like a fast pacing, you'll love this edit.