One of the trademarks of the Terminator franchise has been the gradual revelation of the hyper alloy chassis beneath star Arnold Schwarzengger's skin. In the first Terminator Stan Winston and his team struggled to create the effect to their satisfaction, but by the release of the sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991 the special effects team had refined their techniques and were able to use state of the art prosthetics and make up trickery to realistically unveil the chrome endoskeleton underworkings beneath the T-800's synthetic skin sheathe. Unfortunately in 2003's sequel the production team relied too heavily upon CGI effects and the final effect seen in the movie made the Terminators chassis look fragile beneath Arnold Schwarzeneggers skin. For Terminator Salvation the effect was applied to franchise newcomer and Avatar star Sam Worthington. Though the effect was comparable to those seen in Terminator 2, the low lighting and the unfamilarity of character Marcus Wrights endoskeleton lessened the effect.
As can be seen on the front cover of the new issue of Empire above, the filmmakers behind the movie have tried to showcase their interpretation of said trademark effect as mentioned above, unfortunately the effect is cringeworthy, with many images manipuated by fans looking better than what a multi-million dollar movie studio can produce, such as the widely available image below...
Most of the other images that have been released are either conveniently captured 'poster moments' or images that showacse elements of the movies plot...
Even the most critical of critics will have to admit that even with grey hair Arnold Schwarzengger shows in the image above that he still has a hefty screen presence, probably enough to still portray the Terminator. But Arnolds capability of portraying the character has never been in question - he proved that in 1984 and again, definitively in 1991.
The familarity being showcased from J. K.Simmons in this scene suggests his character and the character of the Guardian Terminator are known to each other. Is he a friend of Sarahs deceased parents, or the detective in charge of investigating their deaths? Bizzarrely enough the recent plot leaks made no mention of J. K. Simmons role, or the role played by former Doctor Who Matt Smith.
While many have criticized Emilia Clarkes casting as Sarah Connor we can understand why she was cast. Though she does not really bear any resemblance to original actress Linda Hamiltons appearance in the 1984 original, Clarke does bear a slight resemblance to how Hamilton looked in Terminator 2. Of question however is the actresses own ability to portray the role of a woman holding the weight of the world upon her shoulders; destined to mother the saviour of mankind at the cost of 3 billion human lives. Unfortunately in the scene above, as can be seen in the trailer, it appears as though Clarke is smiling while saying her line.
With it being highly publicized that Arnold Schwarzeneggers character of the Guardian Terminator raises Sarah Connor from the age of 9, Empires comment on the picture above is either laughably sarcastic or brain-numbingly dumb. And while the idea of Terminators being around in the 1970's is grating enough to Terminator fans, nothing, absolutely nothing compares to the obvious and evident wig being worn by the actor (possibly Aaron Williamson) in the pic above.
Remember those storyboards that showed the assault on Skynet, with one showing a Terminator driving a truck - well here is the finished product. While the dashboard looks like something from a 1950's B-movie we have two issues with the above pic. First is the plastic detailing on the hands and forearms. Which look brittle and inferior when compared to the same detailing on the T-800s used in Terminator 2, as shown in the pic below. Furthermore the eagle eyed among you may have noticed that this same plastic detailing is also missing on the magazines front cover at the start of this article. The second and much bigger issue we have with the above pic is that if Skynet can create self autonomous robots, aircraft, tanks, drones and walkers surely it is capable of creating an autonomous truck.
