Author: Tara Bennett
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: April 28, 2009
Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars
In 2009, McG directed the much anticipated fourth installment of the “Terminator” series, “Terminator Salvation”, starring Christian Bale who was red hot off of “Batman Begins”. The film was overall disappointing. This book features hundreds of color illustrations, storyboards and production art. The stills used from the film itself are not that exciting and in fact are blurry. Overall it is not that exciting of a book…just like the movie.
The book is pretty much a visual companion to the film following it from the beginning to the end. What I was looking for in this book honestly is a bunch of designs for the Terminators. There is definitely no shortage of that in this book including T-1, T-600, Aerostats, Hunter-Killers, Hydrobots, Transports, Harvesters, Moto-Terminators and even the T-70 ,which is only seen in the video game. Also includes is a bunch of vechiles both resistance and Skynet. There is some weapons but not a lot and also lacking in character designs. Like I mentioned earlier, due to the low-res of the production still, if you want to see clearer production photos, go pick up the book “Terminator Salvation: The Movie Companion”.
Overall I call this book a one-timer, flip through it once and that is it. The only chapter that stands out for me is “Terminator Factory”, since it covers a lot of well…terminators and it also has the best and clearest photos. Don’t get me wrong though I love staring in the eyes of the terminator robots, but overall this book just doesn’t jump off the page like other “The Art of” books usually do.