For any die hard Terminator fan, the prospect of Terminator Salvation should have been very exciting. Finally, we get to see the war between the humans and the machines that we've been hearing so much about since 1984! When McG (Charlie's Angels, We Are Marshall) came on to direct, I can understand some wind being taken out of those proverbial sails. But the casting of fanboy demigod Christian Bale as the legendary John Connor allowed me to hold out hope for this film - hope that spurned me on to see it on opening weekend and not allow the surprising bad word of mouth to dispel me from taking my chances with a franchise I've come to love. As it turns out, the bad word of mouth is no longer surprising.

Director: McG

Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin


It's hard to talk about this film without first mentioning the stunningly mediocre script. This movie leads me to two conclusions: either this script was a casualty of the Writer's Strike, or the writing team of John Brancato and Michael Ferris simply isn't that impressive. T3, while enjoyable as a stupid action movie, does not possess the same level of commentary on the human condition as its predecessors. For some reason unknown to me, these same guys were allowed to write Salvation, which has become the first in another planned trilogy. I should have known, then, that Terminator Salvation would not live up to the massive hype that followed the film up to its release date. It is also an unfortunate indication as to the direction this series is headed over the next few years. Spoiler alert - it's not "up."

Does all this mean that I wouldn't recommend seeing the movie in theaters? Well...yes, actually. Hardcore fans should see it anyway (and you probably will, if you are one), but as far as the casual Terminator fan goes, I would wait for the DVD/Blu-ray. There are a lot of solid-looking movies coming out this summer, and I'd save your hard-earned money for something like The Brothers Bloom or Public Enemies. As far as an action movie goes, there was definitely some cool stuff present here: I'm thinking specifically of the gas station set piece where we see a giant robot releasing motorcycle robots out of its legs and the ensuing chase and explosions resulting from that. The rest of the action felt like we'd seen some variation of it before, and wasn't really that stunning to me.


Visually, Terminator Salvation is pretty quality. Shane Hulbert (whom Bale ranted against months ago) knew what he was doing when he was shooting post-apocalyptic environments. Something about his style gave the impression you could almost feel sand blowing across the frame, making it easier for you to relate to these characters because you subconsciously feel like you're there in the desolation with them. Another fantastic sequence was the long shot of Connor getting into the helicopter, the crash, and the explosion in the first few minutes of the movie. While not really one take (it was pieced together to make it look seamless, Children of Men-style), I don't think I've ever seen a helicopter crash from that perspective before; when a movie can present something new that I've never seen before, I can at least respect it for that reason if nothing else. That's not to say there weren't a few other things I can respect about Salvation (the aforementioned gas station scene), but it just didn't live up to my high expectations for this franchise. But that sequence placed you right there with John Connor as he endured those bumps, scrapes, and rattles, and allowed the cool visual reveal of the explosion from right behind his shoulder, placing the audience beside him and begging us to feel what he's feeling.


For all the attempts to keep us invested in the characters, it's too bad that they are so poorly written it's hard to care about any of them except for Marcus Wright. The cyborg (the trailer gave it away, not me) has the most complete story arc of anyone presented, as one dimensional as that arc may be. In fact, Marcus is a microcosm of the movie itself: a hollow robotic thing with identity issues posing as something more, ultimately predictable, and kind of ridiculous. That being said, Sam Worthington definitely showed some promise in the role, giving sci-fi fans a glimpse of the talent expected to be displayed in December when he plays the lead role in James Cameron's highly anticipated Avatar.