The Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has gone on record saying which of the several films of the sci-fi action franchise is his least favorite. Schwarzenegger doesn’t even flinch when calling Terminator Salvation the worst one. The 2009 movie starring Christian Bale had a famously troubled production that resulted in an extremely expensive movie that didn’t captivate the fans of the franchise, and even caused its production studio to go bankrupt. To this day, it remains one of the lowest-rated Terminator movies on Rotten Tomatoes, registering a critics’ score of 33%, and an audience score of 53%.
While Schwarzenegger seems to be the common denominator of the universe created by James Cameron in 1984, he hasn’t actually participated in all the movies and TV series. While appearing on the web series Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen to promote Season 2 of his Netflix series FUBAR, the actor was asked which of the Terminator movies he believes is the worst of all. His pick, of course, is the one he doesn’t technically appear in:
“I would say the worst was probably the number four [Terminator Salvation]. Because that was done during the time I was governor, and I was not in it. How do you make a Terminator movie without me being in the Terminator movie? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s impossible.”
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The statement by the actor is only partly serious, given the tone of the web series he was on. He continued the joke by saying, “I called immediately, I said ‘I’m going to pass a law, it is forbidden to do movies that suck.'” Nevertheless, this opinion resembles the reaction audiences and critics had with Terminator Salvation back when it was released.
Despite grossing more than $371 million at the box office, the film’s production budget of $200 million was simply too high. Critics were also pretty harsh towards the movie, but since then it has gained a cult following. Famed critic Roger Ebert wrote in his review: “It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it.”
Directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels, The Babysitter), who worked with several drafts penned by different screenwriters, Terminator Salvation was supposed to be a franchise reboot. Rights had gone to the Halcyon Company, and the project went through a creative overhaul. The production was not an easy one, but unfortunately, what still stands out from it is Christian Bale’s meltdown and outburst against the cinematographer, an incident that was documented and went viral on the internet.
Is Schwarzenegger Right With His Take on ‘Terminator Salvation’ Being the Worst in the Franchise?
We know better than to argue against Arnold Schwarzenegger. At 77 years old, the FUBAR star is still as active as ever, and we don’t want to mess with the man behind Conan, Dutch, Ivan Danko and the Terminator. Nevertheless, we can’t help but disagree with his take. Terminator Salvation is not the worst Terminator film ever made.
Sure, we understand that he isn’t part of it. But Christian Bale does a reasonable enough job (as much as he doesn’t like the film) at leading a film that shows the gritty and bleak aspect of the Terminator universe, the aftermath of a war that James Cameron had only shown in big action set pieces. Terminator Salvation is certainly a long way from a perfect movie, but it isn’t worse than Terminator Genisys, the lowest-rated Terminator entry on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 26% critics’ score and an audience score of 52%.
Source: Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen (via YouTube)
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
