5/5 The cover says it all.
  by A. Romo (las vegas, NV USA)
Danny Elfman IS dark music.

If you want to be completely submerged into a sinister setting in which you almost feel the cold metallic hand of the terminator grabbing you, this is the album to buy. Picture a slow melodic pace of semi-rock instruments that bring to life a haunted steel mill. Only to intensely become charged with a banging of violent drums and horns that amp up the listener to lead their very own revolution against the machines. The thunderous crashing of hammers can only point to one thing, the music quickly continues to highten and the battle lines have been drawn. Surprisingly just when your palms beging to sweat, Danny caresses your ear drum with a silky back drop of strings that lets you breathe before the sound of danger jumps out of your speaker again. Elfman is on his A-game for this one and to this crtitics' belief, creates music that surpasses the film which failed at continuing the highly successful franchise that made Arnold a household name. Thank you mr. Elfman for breathing life into another one of Hollywood's attempts to empty our pockets visually while audibly creating a solid and powerful score.

5/5 First-rate Elfman!
  by steve (DeKalb, IL USA)
"Terminator Salvation" is Danny Elfman in top form. His score is dense and powerful during action sequences, utilizing an enormous orchestra with thunderous percussion; the quieter, more intimate scenes employ a wistful solo guitar. He acknowledges the iconic Brad Fiedel theme without sounding derivative, and his score has a sense of tragic grandeur that none of the earlier Terminator scores achieved.

If you're a fan of Elfman's majestic orchestral writing of the 1990s, don't miss this one.

2/5 This darn thing called ego...
  by Jean-rené Leroux
Danny Elfman said that he would use the famous Terminator theme if he felt it was appropriated. Well, i started to worry from then on. This condescending attitude was the warning. My worst fears came true. A brillant film composer would take on a powerfrul franchise. Worst, a brillant composer would continue to work on an already powerful musical theme known AND loved by everyone. The worst thing was that he would let his ego come in the way and that he would overlook the known theme, make it "better" or simply go on a new path in order to make the music his own. Darn ego.

Why would you want to take away the famous theme? Why would you want to make all the fans angry? Because you're "Danny Elfman"? Because you're better than Brad Fiedel and that you won't go as down as to immitate him? By being condescending, i could say to Mr. Elfman that John Williams or Hans Zimmer could immitate him with their ears closed. He's not God's best creation in terms of film music. He's a great composer and he does have "his" sound. But when you go down that condescending path, it's easy to look stupid after that. it would'nt have killed him to incorporate Brad fiedel's theme in his more-than-normal score.

Anyhow, the damage is done and that will hurt Danny Elfman more than Brad Fiedel's music. For now, every one knows that Danny Elfman thinks of himself as a great composer that will not stoop down at anyone's level. And the fact of the matter is that his score for "Salvation" is not that good nor is it original. You wanna avoid Mr. Fiedel's theme? You wanna play this "i'm better than anyone" game? And you come up with... just that?

Too bad for you, Danny Elfman. You asked for it. You condescending coposer...

I hope for you that the score for "Wolfman" is more than good.

The worst thing is that i love your music.

Darn you.

2/5 Elfman is good, but this sountrack of his....
  by Jamin Koehn (Coldwater, KS)
....not so much.

Danny Elfman. He's one of my favorite composers, but the second that I found that he composed the soundtrack for the new Terminator film, I wasn't happy. Of course, the score was good but it didn't sound any different than any other run-of-the-mill movie soundtrack. That's not what a Terminator score should be. The score for a Terminator film should be immediately distiguisable from any other film score, period, dot, end of sentence. Elfman's got talent, no doubt, but his style simply does not fit this franchise. Why McG went with someone other than Brad Fidel or Bear McCreary is beyond me.

2/5 Only Saving Grace the Opening Theme
  by J. Arnold
As previous reviewers have stated, Danny Elfman could have done better here and the overall effect of the soundtrack is a "dime a dozen" type from Hollywood. However, I'd like to add that the Opening Theme is Elfman's only saving grace. It adds an intriguing, new metallic sound which starts at 00:59 on the track. It has tension and purpose, unlike most of the other dull melodies contained in Salvation. I hope a new composer picks up for the rest of the trilogy -- but they're free to keep that semblance of Elfman's opening track.