The Reel Rejects - TERMINATOR: SALVATION (2009) MOVIE REVIEW!!

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

JUDGMENT DAY HAS ARRIVED!! Terminator Salvation Full Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Download PrizePicks today at https://www.prizepicks.onelink.me/LME... & use code REJECTS to get $50 instantly when you play $5! Gift Someone (Or Yourself) A Stranger Things RR Tee! https://shorturl.at/hekk2 The Terminator (1984) Movie Reaction:    • THE TERMINATOR (1984) MOVIE REACTION!! Fir...   Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Reaction:    • TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) MOVIE RE...   Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Reaction:    • TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) ...   With Sam Worthington returning to cinemas in Avatar: Fire and Ash + Christian Bale set to appear as Frankenstein's Monster in Maggie Gyllenhaal's "The Bride," Tara & Roxy continue their TERMINATOR Marathon giving their Terminator: Salvation Reaction, Recap, Analysis, Breakdown, & Spoiler Review! Roxy Striar (Always, Lola) & Tara Erickson (The Rage Pod) brave the dark & war-torn reinvention of the Terminator franchise that shifts from time-travel suspense to full-scale resistance warfare. Follow Roxy Striar YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhirlGirls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxystriar/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/roxystriar Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Fandual Casino, you get even more ways to play. Dive into new and exciting games. And all of your favorite casino classics, like slots, table games, and arcade games. Get more on Fandual Casino. Download the app today. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerned about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

this week's videos are sponsored by prize picks the easy to use fantasy sports betting app more on them in just a bit before i get myself into too much trouble and bring terror down with me shall we watch terminator four salvation we shout three two one i did it so this is the reject nation yeah tell we just watched terminator four and um we have some thoughts. We also are going to get to some patron questions from you guys. And a quick shout out to Preper. Thanks for helping edit us down. We appreciate you always. Also, if you're not already following us on social media at Real Rejects. And if you're on Apple and Spotify, give us that five star, that thumbs up. Tara, let me get your general thoughts on this movie. We were kind of

just conversing a little bit about it during the credits. But I think it's pretty apparent this one wasn't necessarily for us. No, not at all. There's just, there's so many downfalls in regards to the writing and the pacing of this movie. There's things that I think any person in their right mind who has made films would go that, like, the pacing here is wrong. There could have been a better way to say this. Why is she snuggling up to him so freaking soon? Why haven't we talked about John Conner's child with?

the wife like at all why is she pregnant i don't know i mean there's just like there's there's just a lot there's a lot going on but mainly i think my biggest thing because those are small plot points within this bigger picture is that the pacing of even any of the fight scenes and um anything else was not dead on i thought like especially at the end like you said pedal to the metal let's freaking go it's going to be like who we go but no I actually liked a lot of the movie and then there was just some the you just mentioned that I just mentioned

the pacing the performances were strong yeah totally but a lot of it felt unearned is this the worst action movie we've ever seen absolutely not it was totally a fine sometimes I would rather a movie that sucks than a movie that's mid because there's more to like talk about

this movie was mid it's not bad it's not a bad movie It's just mid, it's totally a mid, totally fine mid movie. Have you seen Mick G's other stuff? No. He did Charlie's Angels full throttle. Okay. Let me tell you what else he's done.

I've seen a bunch of his stuff, but I'm blanking on some of it. Hold on. Let me tell you. He did a couple episodes of The Lethal Weapons Show. He did a movie called Uglies that came out last year. um he did this movie he did an episode of chuck he did like i said charlie's angel photo ottle he did 2 000 charlie's angels which is the one we grew up with cameron diaz drubay mar lucy lou um he directed the music video to smashmouth sol star that's funny okay

sugar rays every morning bare naked ladies one week okay okay ever clear one at wonder that's interesting offsprings pretty fly so he was a music video director sublime music video corn music video santa ria it's a lot a lot of music videos before switching over um so that i'm not hearing a lot that i'm like that's a baller moving this was a letdown i don't think it was a total letdown i still enjoyed it but i love the original charlie's it not the original charlie's you know the one we grew up with i do love that i do agree with you on that it's been so long since i've seen it so I can't like pull stuff out but yeah all right um let's take some patreon questions and see what you guys have to say awesome jo movie reviews thanks for the question did you enjoy christian

bale performance as john connor in this also was this future adaptation satisfying to you when it seems nothing like the flash forwards in the previous films let's start with the first part yeah i mean all i i always love christian bail i think him as a performer as an actor he's always great He doesn't really, like, let me down. It's really just the writing and the pacing of it. The future, like, overall, this movie was not satisfying to me. I don't think it had to do a lot with the flash forward stuff. I think it had to do a lot with what I've already said, the writing and the pacing and

the direction, because the director can see that on the page and go, wait, we're filming this. And it does seem like there was a lot left, maybe on the cutting room floor, but I definitely don't want to watch this movie for three hours. It was already a bit of a struggle for two. Right. Well, that's my answer. They needed to cut a lot of the action stuff, I think, to give us more character development.

Yes, so that we care. Right. Christian Bale, and, to be perfectly clear, Christian Bale and Sam Worthington made this movie watchable. Agreed. And the performers. Absolutely. They made it watchable. So, yes, I liked him as John Connor, but no, it wasn't satisfying about what we've seen

in the flash forwards. Yeah. Yeah. If the question is a satisfying answer, it's not. Yeah. It's not. Yeah. Jaden Rhodes. This movie has aged well, in my opinion. I remember when it came out, people didn't care for it. But as of today, people have kind of picked this as the best of the movies that came out after T2. Do we know how many movies there were? Is this the best of all the? Are there more after this? Yeah. But I'm curious what you all think of Christian Bale's version of John Connor. He is my favorite after Edward long you guys are there many many different john conners let me see how many that makes me so sad if people are picking this one as the best movies that came after t2 because right now i'm not satisfied with the writing and the storyline and the plot there's only six though there's only six movies total

so there's terminator okay terminator two which we loved yeah terminator three which we liked yeah terminated salvation which we're not in love with and there's only two more okay that's fine so what that what he's saying is that i would say that we perform for Terminator 3 to Terminator Salvation. Absolutely. So we already disagree with this comment. We do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We already disagree. So we might like the other two better. You asked about Christian Bale. We kind of discussed that already. We did, yeah. But I thought he was good. He's great. He's always great.

You know, he's never a letdown. Love looking at him. I'm glad to hear you think it has aged well. For us, it didn't age at all. It looked great. It looked great. And we did call that. especially, I mean, I think we both

did, but I was like, that looks dope. There's a lot of stuff that I was like, looks very cool. That doesn't make a film to me, but I can tell you, good job on that. Captain Ferdinand's I skip somebody I'll come back. Captain Ferdinand, how many people, nope, many have pointed out

that the dystopia in this film defers from the darker, bleaker one we've seen in previous movies. Do you think this was a story choice or a budget one. Stope in this film differs from the darker, bleaker ones. Yeah, okay. I don't know how this could be a budget one because this didn't look like a low budget

movie. It didn't. That's what I was really trying to reread to be like, I don't think it's a budget one. I think it's a story choice and a lot of the choices for me didn't connect. Yeah. And because we're going to the future, you got to make it look a little different. Mm-hmm. This episode is brought to you by prize picks.

app that finally let me crash my wife's fantasy sports click yes i used to overhear her and her friends bonding while i sat in the corner where my arms folded come to my home and i can't be included trying to pretend like yeah i know what yards after catch means it's felt left out man and then i discovered prize picks so here's the deal it's daily fantasy sports not gambling no playing against sharks or betting against the house it's just you versus your own sports brain you pick more or less on two or more player stats, like will Luca Donchich score more than 30 points tonight? Will Christian McCaffrey rush for less than 85 yards? Sports things, and if you're right, you win.

Another thing, too, it's fast. You can make a lineup in under a minute, playing 30 plus states, and you're not stuck to just NFL or NBA. You've got MLB, NHL, college football, even e-sports. Basically, if it has stats, you can play. And basically, I now can hang out with my wife and her friends. 10 years in the making. one right? It does feel good. So fellow reject, what you can do today is you can download the Price Pix app. Use Code Rejects to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's

code Rejects to get $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup. Price Picks, it's good to be right. Jay Dell, if you were part of the resistance in Terminator Salvation, would you trust Marcus the moment you learned he wasn't fully human or would you keep him at arm's length until he proved himself. I always wonder how I'd react in a world where the line between machine and human gets that blurry. I think it would totally depend on who I was. If I was the girl whose life he had saved,

then I would trust him immediately. Totally. And if not, then I wouldn't. I actually think it's an interesting part of this movie, Tara, that we haven't touched on, is the fact that the resistance is actually just is the government. It's all people.

It's the soldiers. Usually the resistance is fighting the government. Right. Here, the resistance is the soldiers. and all humans. So that was kind of something I wish we explored a little more where we did get

that there's weird rankings. Yeah, but like not really. All the people are the resistance, what does that really look like? Yeah. Yeah, so any other thoughts? I mean, you know, I don't know.

It probably would have taken me a little bit longer, but again, for the sake of this film, there was a thing where we actually really needed. Marcus, and the girl had already said that he had saved her life. She's a human. So I'm like, we have a little bit of a, of a, I don't know, who's word against, yeah, that

we're like, she's like, well, he saved my life. But Bryce sells or whoever says, but she did that just to get, he did that just to get here. So I do get that. And I'm like, yeah. So you'd be so hesitant with machines. It's dicey. It's dicey. I honestly don't know.

I probably would have given it some. time, but for the sake of him being like, Kyle Reese, then you got to make a move here. Yeah. It's kind of like, what do you think he's going to do? He would have killed you if he could kill you. Right, exactly. Pabell, catch mark. Sorry, if I butcher that.

Hello, not sure if this is the first time seeing this movie for both of you. It is. But I remember being fairly cold on it when it came out. However, after how much I hated Genesis, oh, no. And dark fate. Oh, no. I've grown to appreciate. I appreciate Salvation as the one sequel that tried something new instead of old.

Robot goes back in time to kill Arnie Must Help routine. Did you have a similar experience with it? Maybe once we watch the fifth one and sixth one, maybe we'll like this one better. Salvation really came through. Which is sad for us, I will tell you, because listen, it's not the worst film I've ever seen. No, it's mid. It's just like there's so many things that I think any producer or, or person watching this screening

in their right freaking mind would go, this isn't working. Do I feel something? I don't. I get that you're trying to push us with the jacket over him at the end. We're supposed to feel something there. Do we? No. Comes down to character development. This entire issue of this movie is all about character

development relationship dynamics. Like, we just didn't do what we needed to do to make me give a crap. Exactly. And maybe on second watch people give a crap more because they've lived with the characters longer. So I don't know. the ADHD Overlord

What are your thoughts On the casting? Because this could be The most talented cast In any Terminator movie That I feel were mostly All miscast In my opinion

Do the direction choices And this really made it hard To buy into Rest in Peace To Anton Yelchen Taking away too soon Absolutely Watching him in this

Actually made me really sad Especially He's that one One line about Like staying alive Or whatever That really really got to me because it was so upsetting when he passed away.

The miscast thing, I think I mentioned during it, Bryce Dallas Howard was super underutilized. Underutilized, yeah. Helen and Baum Carter. Underutilized, too. Barely in the movie. Yeah, so. I think with his script, you have to have the most talented cast because otherwise,

I'm asleep. Yeah. And I honestly, I did get tired at some points. I was like, oh, nodding. I mean, I stayed awake through the whole thing. Obviously, you saw me. It was just like, ooh, like, I roll. It was tough, you know, and I don't, films are supposed to.

A little bland. Take you out of your life so much so that you get so sucked in. I know. And this did not do that. It needed some garlic powder. It needed some onion powder. Tell me about it. Some salt and peps.

Some oatmeal cookies on top of it. And that sounds gross. I don't even care of something. You want with the garlic powder? You want the oatmeal cookie? I was just saying, add it. I would have spices, would you do? I know, but then I said on top of it, add like a little cookie.

After we do the spices, you could eat it right away. So you eat one meal and then for dessert. Thank you. Oh, my own cooking. Uh-huh. Yeah, I understand now. I didn't, but now I do. Now you do.

She's caught up. Kellefin. Thank you, Kellefin. I'll go back. R-I-P to Anton Yelchen. After seeing this performance in this movie, do you think Anton Yelchen would have made an amazing Spider-Man or perhaps the flash? He's really good.

Yeah. He's really good. I don't know what he could have done. I think that he might have ultimately been too old for Spider-Man or the Flash, depending on what versions you're going with. So maybe not, but he does have a boy's charm to him. He does. I could see maybe the Spider-Man more than the Flash because I don't know him comedically very well.

I'm sure there's stuff I've seen. But I, yeah, I mean, RIP, man. He is, he's a good, good actor. I definitely think he would have had a massive, he's not a household name now. No, he would have been. Yeah, I agree with that. He's really good.

Totally. Dan V-900. The original ending of the movie, which was shot, was John dying, where they grafted Marcus's face to look like him. That way John Connor is able to live on since Marcus,

as John is now the leader of the resistance. I understand the idea, but I'm glad they didn't do it. It wouldn't have been well received by fans. You'd think that you would have preferred that ending. So Marcus becomes John. Yeah, because he has the Terminator body inside of him, which would make sense that you're like, cool, let's take Christian Bale's face, put it on the Terminator,

you live forever, we need you forever, you're leading the resistance versus, well, now you just need a heart, you're still human. I kind of do think I would have preferred that because I didn't like that the message of this movie was, let's just let this guy die because he's partially different. Right. I understand that he's more machine and that he had his time,

but you're going to tell me what makes somebody be able to have autonomy and not be a machine is when they have a heart and a brain. And then you're going to say, you're going to just take his heart for another person. I had a hard time with that. Yeah. I think, I don't, I know you're saying it would not have been received well. And I'm just thinking it's received as that's the thing that makes the most sense.

It sucks. It would suck killing off John Connor. And I get that they're like, let's find any other way. So that's fine with me that they gave him the heart and now he gets to live on. But what would have made the most sense that I think if John Connor knows in his brain, this has to happen. Resistance has to continue. He'd probably go, all right, I'll sacrifice myself.

You can take my face. I'll become a robot. Can't really die. We're good to go. I do want to just read this last one because it is kind of interesting. And then we'll get out of here. Thank you to J. Dell for also sending in to us. Christian Bale was originally supposed to play Marcus, not John Connor.

But after reading the script, he was to take over the Connor role and had the writers expanded just for him. I wonder if that's a problem with the movie. Like, they expanded the John Connor role. Maybe John Connor wasn't supposed to be a significant part of this movie. and that's why we didn't deal with this baby mama drama or anything like maybe it was all I don't know I don't know they didn't have time that's why I was already pushing that two hours all right well what did you guys I'm glad to hear a lot of you guys in the Patreon really liked this movie I hope that we didn't spoil it for you we tried to have the best time that we could

start off really strong and then from there we kind of just mid mid mid hopefully like five and six a little better sounding like we might not we always have other friends We do. Yeah, we're really enjoying scream right now. Catch us on that. All right. Later, Rejects.