Terminator: Salvation

Terminator: Salvation

Back in 1984, James Cameron’s original Terminator was a gritty, nihilistic, low budget masterpiece that rocked America’s consciousness, then in 1991, Cameron returned with T2, a moving, epic extravaganza with enough action to raise the bar for the genre forever. Many years later (without Cameron), came T3, which tried without success to negate the emotional impact of the previous film (which for all intended purposes ended the story) and was obviously made for the purposes of cashing in. Now, in 2009, we get the fourth film, intended to be the “first” of the series to depict the future war of man vs. machine that Cameron had hinted at earlier, and is quickly sunk by bad casting, abysmal writing, and plot holes that Arnie Schwarzenegger himself could have driven a mack truck through. In the pivotal role of John Connor, Christian Bale never quite settles into the role in order to make the viewer comfortable with him: The film (unwisely) opens with him involved in an action sequence, and the only thing which lets us know it’s him are ongoing scenes of him listening to his mother’s tape recordings (which he seems to do a lot of in his spare time). There’s also some question about his role in the hierarchy of the human resistance: EVERYONE seems to know who he is since it’s said that his leadership was “prophesized” (by whom? Did Sarah write a book before the war??) but he finds himself overruled constantly by an asshole general (Michael Ironside) who in the film’s most laughable scene notifies Connor that he’s “no longer part of the resistance” (yeah right buddy). The film’s story strategy is that now the teenage character of Kyle Reese (John’s father in the first film) is playing the “savant” role filled by Sarah and John in the earlier films, and must be saved and protected at all costs. Unfortunately, deservedly maligned director McG goes ahead and casts Anton Yelchin in the role of Reese: Having already gotten away with playing Chekov in the new Star Trek, Yelchin proves unworthy of taking on yet another beloved sci-fi iconic role, as right from his first appearance when he gives Reese’s signature line, there’s no hint whatsoever of the incredibly strong yet vulnerable quality that Michael Biehn brought to the part, instead, we get a skinny, gawky kid playing soldier and yet coming off incredibly weak. Then there’s the king of plot holes involving him, where we’re told early on that Reese is the NUMBER ONE TARGET for Skynet to eliminate, yet when he’s identified in a detention camp and plucked from the others because of who he is, McG drops his character from the film for a half hour only to show that Skynet has placed their “number one target” in a HOLDING CELL?? So much for its usual established efficiency. Other bits, like a ten story tall robot SNEAKING UP on some survivors without being detected, contribute to the hilarity. In other roles, Sam Worthington is cast as an executed killer revived as a cyborg and thrown into the mix, as at times it seems like McG can’t decide if either him or Bale are the star of the film, and Worthington himself fails to make an impression even as he slips in and out of his native Aussie accent; Moon Bloodgood is a resistance pilot who gets shot down and yet even in this desolute dirty world, removes her helmet to reveal that she has perfect hair and makeup; Helena Bonham Carter score a couple of points as a scientist who helped invent Skynet; Jadagrace plays Reese’s little girl companion who is, thankfully, mute; Bryce Dallas Howard brings a modicum of strength as Connor’s wife (played by Claire Danes in part 3); Rap star Common plays a resistance soldier with so little relevance to the story that he’s basically, well, common; and four-time Oscar nominee Jane Alexander is utterly wasted as a kindly woman at an outpost who is quickly captured by Skynet. Worse, it looks like the filmmakers went ahead and paid the Governator Arnold to use his likeness, as a CGI T-800 appears in the final minutes to terrorize Bale and Worthington. While the overall pace is brisk, the overblown action sequences once again use the tiresome CGI technique of having human characters engage in impossible stunts and other feats that would cripple or kill them in real life. Overall, a sure sign that Cameron wanted this thing to be over with T2, and greedy studios should stop trying to squeeze a buck from a once-great concept…

4/10

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