Terminator Salvation Review
By Joe Lozito
Oy, Robot
Ever since the first "Terminator" movie (and, for the record, it's called "The Terminator", not "Terminator"), fans have been waiting for the day when the future would be revealed. In James Cameron's 1984 touchstone, we see brief glimpses of a bleak, decimated future ruled by machines - red-eyed, metal-framed robots prowling the landscape gunning down the few remaining human resistance fighters. In Mr. Cameron's sequel, 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", we're introduced to a more family-friendly Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 was updated to go along with his image), as well as a nasty "liquid metal" version (thank you, Robert Patrick). All along, the future loomed. Baby steps were taken, but could anything stop the inevitable? Sure enough, 2003's unfairly-maligned "
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" culminated in an apocalyptic coda, like something right out of "Dr. Strangelove".
"Terminator Salvation" is meant to usher in a new phase of the "Terminator" franchise - one that exists post-Judgment Day. As T-fans know, J. Day is when Skynet became self-aware and decided to extinguish us pesky humans in a hail of nuclear bombs. So the world of "Salvation" is one of washed-out landscapes, decaying cities and, yes, hand-held camera.
In all the previous "Terminator" films, the titular machines were sent back from the future to kill - in increasingly unlikely ways - would-be savior John Connor (the initials can't be a coincidence). We've seen John grow from a bratty youth in "T2", to a slightly more responsible youth in "T3" to, finally, a TV-ready heart-throb in FOX's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (since that show's already been cancelled, we don't need to address its franchise altering mythology). Set in 2018, in and around, Los Angeles, "Salvation" finally reveals John as an adult (in the form of Christian Bale).
"T3" writers John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris have a lot on the agenda for "Salvation". The resistance, which John leads via short-wave radio broadcasts, has discovered a way to disrupt Skynet's communication network via a signal that effectively shuts Terminators down remotely. This starts a worldwide effort (led by the always welcome Michael Ironside) to finally pull the plug on Skynet. Complicating matters, John needs to find and protect his soon-to-be father, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), who's still a teenager in 2018 (think about it). Then there's the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), an enigmatic figure who's made less mysterious by an inept spoiler in the film's trailer.
"Salvation" is an ambitious redefinition of a franchise, but it's also loud and clumsy. Director McG has definitely been studying. Since his days helming the "
Charlie's Angels" two-fer, he's clearly been watching the collected works of David Fincher, as well as "
Children of Men". There are some intense (and did I mention loud?) action sequences featuring "Moto-Terminators" (Ducati-based cycles), underwater "hydrobots", and enormous "Harvesters" that pick people off the ground and drop them in cargo containers. Aside from resembling a Transformer, the Harvester also moans with the fog-horn-like despair of the Tripods from "
War of the Worlds" (and like that film, there's no explanation for why humans are sometimes captured and other times killed).
But despite the effort, there's no elegance to this mayhem. Say what you want about "T3", but at least that one felt like a "Terminator" movie. For its first half, "Salvation" is shapeless, finally building up to a climax that's exciting but simply doesn't work. And the real letdown is, after 25 years of "Terminator" movies, John Connor emerges as…well, not much of a character. He's either brooding or barking orders like "Evasive maneuvers! Now!", and he has virtually no relationship with his wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard, all doe-eyes). Ironically, the one character that stands out is Mr. Worthington's Marcus. But this doesn't feel like the John Connor we've been leading up to. And his future, like that of the franchise, is uncertain.
