IFDB Review: Terminator Salvation: The T4 Cut:

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 mightiest effort in dullness to date. Oh, and Star isn't a walking Deus Ex Machina anymore. Thank you for that. 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, Agent 9). For example, Skynet's system didn't immediately shut down Marcus after he came back and then figured one T-800 would be enough to kill everybody. 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.

More...