Terminator Salvation

73 Ratings: 2.3

A movie directed by Joseph McGinty

Terminator Salvationrestores some of the balance of huge freakin' explosions and emotionally compelling plot to theTerminatorseries. Set entirely after the nuclear assault that left the computer system Skynet in control of the world,Terminator Salvationfollows … see full wiki

Tags: Movies, Action Movies, Science Fiction Movies, Science Fiction, Scifi, Terminator Movie

Cast: Christian Bale, Helena Bonham Carter, Anton Yelchin, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood

Director: McG

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A Worthy Addition To A Much Loved Franchise.

Jul 21, 2009

by Steveo
posted in Movie Hype

Rating:

As a fan of the entire Terminator movie series, you would be forgiven for assuming that I would hate this movie. The truth is that I didn't watch this movie hoping it would match the brilliance of the original movies as I knew that simply wasn't going to happen. What we got was not a film that captured the terrifying doomsday essence of what made Cameron's two Terminator films so brilliant. We also didn't even get the cool and slick looking destruction heavy style of the third Terminator film. What we got instead was, what I felt, to be a perfectly captured post-apocalyptic world which contains a marvellous depiction of the human race when faced with what seems as the impossible fight for survival. Director McG has received a lot of doubt about his ability move the Terminator saga into the post-apocalyptic world which we first gained a glimpse of in the first Terminator movie. That doubt had no foundation and what McG presented in the finished piece, although the plot could do with some polishing, was a fantastically frightening environment with some cool effects and worthy acting throughout.

The plot sets John Connor in the year 2018. The machine uprising has begun and only small pockets of human resistance movements exist with the soul purposes of surviving and destroying the machine threat. John Connor has finally entered the position he was fated to enter since before he was born and is now the leader of the human resistance. He has encountered the machines before which gives him and his teams the advantage when knowing what they will be put up against as the human/machine war continues. As the resistance fight continues Connors father, Kyle Reese encounters Marcus Wright who we see at the start of the movie receiving lethal injections on death row just before the war begins. Marcus doesn't know what's happened as he woke up in the post-apocalyptic world with no memory of the machine initial attempt at destroying the human race. Marcus quickly partners up with Kyle Reese and a child we know as Star who are also on a mission to find the resistance leader and join the fight. The mystery eventually unfolds and we find out whether Marcus was sent from the future or is merely a survivor of the past and he becomes pivotal in the fight against the machine threat.

The film itself was very touch and go throughout. Some parts worked where others didn't but the entire piece presented an enjoyable action movie that doesn't go too much into the fight for survival on the psychological end of things but does retain the aura of desperation that the humans feel in their fight. Christian Bale was surprisingly awful in this and I honestly expected more from a man taking the reigns of the legendary John Connor. Bale presented an ultimately one dimensional character and you had to question his motives of taking the role of this infamous movie character. The mysterious Marcus Wright character, played by the brilliant Sam Worthington is a movie saving character from start to finish. His whole performance is brilliant throughout and manages to drive the plot along successfully with very little to work with in terms of original character depth. Kyle Reese played by the brilliant up and comer Anton Yelchin is also a delightful addition to the movie and adds again a bit of depth to the movies plot. Other supporting cast include Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams and Bryce Dallas Howard as Connor's wife Cate. Also, a cool little cameo piece goes to the delightful Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Serena Kogan who is a Doctor for Cyberdyne Systems and actually turns out to have a more pivotal role.

The action is brilliant throughout and with the apparent unbeatable nature of the machines this manages to present quite a daunting aspect to the theatre of the battles that ensue. The scale of the machine warfare is quite disappointing as when we first glimpsed the human/machine war in the first movie, we gained a glimpse of what seemed to be a constantly chaotic battle which left us wanting more. This film doesn't use Cameron's image as McG takes away the futuristic lasers and hoards of machines lined up executing human after human and he exchanges it for the odd flying scouting machine, a large harvester robot which merely collects the humans for what seems to be mass slaughter and of course, the T-600 machines which are a less advanced model of the T-800 machine which we all know as the 101 machine or Arnold Schwarzenegger who we all miss from this movie. This is probably what the movie is lacking the most as the absence of Arnie is certainly a drag for the Terminator franchise and I'm sure that if the effort were put into the writing, they could have found a role for the older Arnold in this film.

There's not denying that Terminator Salvation lacks the charm and excitement of its trilogy of predecessors, however, there's a lot that this film brings to the Terminator universe. The possibility of John Connors son, the look at the early models of the Terminator machines and the new machine concepts make it quite enjoyable. Had the acting been a bit better and the supporting cast a higher level of significance, this film could have been on par with the original 3. It's still a good film and a worthwhile waste of just under two hours.

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