A bleak, apocalyptic future has always been a staple premise for good science fiction and horror film. Suffering and struggling has always partially defined what human beings are made of; what they are willing to do even if they are not capable of it and what they are willing to risk. From a simple concept of a metal endoskeleton emerging from flames, James Cameron, a specialist in showing people in desperate survival situations, created what became one of the most popular science fiction franchises of all time: Terminator. Since the release of The Terminator in 1984, the movie going public could not help but want to know more about this bleak Asimovian future where artificial intelligence is exterminating the human race at an alarming rate. We were pulled in by the story of soon-to-be mother Sarah Connor and her savior Kyle Reese and kept coming back to see a young John Connor struggle to stay alive in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. While Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines proved to be an epic disappointment (ironically being the first film not written or directed by James Cameron), true fans of Terminator still wanted what was missing: a taste of of the war. We wanted to see the battles that followed Judgement Day. So much anticipation. And now we have Terminator: Salvation.
2018 - post Judgement Day. The bleak future we envisioned is here. The world after the first and continuing attacks of Skynet is completely desolate. The remains of a once crowd and over zealous civilization lie buried under the desert. Here we find, John Connor (Christian Bale) taking the role he was destined to: leader of the Resistance and the one destined to bring down Skynet. While John has assumed the responsibility his fate forces upon him, he is not the sole man in charge of the Resistance, answering to High Command and General Ashdown (Michael Ironside). As we begin to learn more about the battle with the machines and the Resistance’s latest plan to end the war, a stranger emerges at a tiny Resistance outpost held down by a young girl and a very determined teen-aged boy. We come to know of him as Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a convicted murderer whose last memory was shortly before his death sentence. After helping the two young Resistance fighters, Marcus joins them in their quest to find John Connor and in his hopes, regain his memory.
I will start off by saying that Terminator Salvation is far superior to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in every way. That being said, how difficult is it really to surpass that mediocrity? The story of Terminator 
Salvation isn’t bad but it isn’t exactly that interesting. Realistically I think what most fans (myself included) were wanting and expecting was a war torn battlefield, riddled with terminators and HKs overhead. We wanted what we saw in the introduction to Terminator 2: Judgement Day. While there were some decent battle sequences and enough BRAWSH to make Michael Bay proud, the action was few and far between. And as such, the story seemed to plod along even more so. While not poorly written, despite being another script from the writers of the previous Terminator abomination, the dialogue was occasionally cheesy and the story predictable. Within the first 2 minutes, I knew everything about the first character and where his story would end. A good writer tries to make the script either extremely epic or unpredictable and this script accomplished neither.
The cast of Terminator Salvation was fairly strong although I tend to be hesitant when musicians (rapper Common in this instance) are cast out of their element…or at all for that matter. It was a nice addition to have veteran sci-fi actor Michael Ironside join the ranks as General Ashdown although I had wished to see more of his Richter-like attitude in the film (could not resist a Total Recall reference). The fact that they got such a talented actress like Helena Bonham Carter to be a part of this film and completely wasted having her as part of the cast was a little disappointing. Seeing her name attached to this film gave me more hope that it would be a higher caliber film than I anticipated. While Christian Bale was by no means bad in the role of John Connor (again, to out due Nick Stahl is no big feat), his performance lacked something important which made it hard for the audience to really care about him. Being the huge Christian Bale fan that I am, I was surprised when even he couldn’t hold my interest. The same could be said for all the characters for that matter, even Kyle Reese who becomes one of the key protagonists. Why watch a film when you don’t care either way what happens to the people in it?
One surprising part of this film was the music. The soundtrack to Terminator Salvation, while not as edgy (although after many years a tad dated) as the first two films, definitely held it’s own and established significant atmosphere and emotion. When I had first seen that the composer was Danny Elfman, I cringed. While I love his music, it is always unmistakably his. You can always spot it from it’s whimsical, pulsing nature like that of a demented polka. But this was unlike anything I expected him and for that I must give him kudos.
There were also a bunch of little things that irked me about this movie, things that just unbalanced the seriousness of the film. While having a little Alice in Chains playing in the movie was an unexpected bonus, awkward moments like Blair swinging all ninja style down chains or the fact that Marcus never really asked much about Judgement Day and the war just seemed strange. It also annoyed me that the audio tapes John Connor repeatedly listens to of his mother (the ones Sarah Connor recorded in the first Terminator) was not the voice of Linda Hamilton. The dialogue was very similar but it seemed like including her in the film would’ve been a given. While things like this never made the movie’s credibility completely topple over, it sure didn’t help it. Oh, and props to the guy who wrote the closing credits for misspelling the word ’soldier’ - bravo.
So what to advise you Terminator fans? I can tell you without hesitation that this movie did not having me ranting in the movie theatre parking lot, cursing all those involved in the film for stealing two hours of my life like I did with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Honestly, I am indifferent to it. It never upset me to the point where I groaned or half-debated walking out but it just made me ask “Why couldn’t you have given me and the fans the Terminator movie we wanted, Mc G?” I somehow envisioned him at the back of the movie theatre at the films premiere, clenching his hands in front of his face and repeating “Please think I’m cool, Michael Bay. Please think I’m cool.” Let’s face it: Pg-13 Terminator movie? Just wrong. It is more important to keep the grit and integrity of a film series by retaining it’s mature content rather than disemboweling it to accommodate a wider audience and bigger box office rewards.
As we reportedly have two more Terminator films in the works, we can only hope that the series will de-evolve to the quality and caliber that the first two films were. This film will wash the taste of T3 from your palette but it will not quench your thirst.
Terminator: Salvation
Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures
Rated PG-13 for intense action, violence and language
Run time: 2 hrs 10 min
Credits
Director - McG
Writers - John D Brancato and Michael Ferris
Original Music - Danny Elfman
John Connor - Christian Bale
Kyle Reese - Anton Yelchin
Marcus Wright - Sam Worthington
General Ashdown - Michael Ironside
Dr. Serena Kogan - Helena Bonham Carter
BONUS FEATURE: Terminator Revolution Graphic Novel Review
By Amber Love
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Lui Antonio
Lettering: Simon Bowland
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Covers: Nigel Raynor, Richard Isanove, Stjepan Sejic
Review: Dynamite Entertainment publishes one of the Terminator comic books while the official movie comics are published by IDW Publishing. Dynamite’s Terminator: Revolution focuses on John Connor and his wife Tara Connor in the popular series about humans in a post-apocalyptic world trying to reclaim the planet from Skynet and its Terminators.
The story hops between the years 1996, 2015 and 2033. Skynet, has continuously upgraded their Terminators and in 2033, it has birthed the latest model called the T-Infinity. The T-Infinity has weaponry built into it never before seen in the Terminator models such as the ability to fire electro magnetic bursts of energy. When John seems to get the critical blow ramming a rod through the TI’s torso, the TI activates its other special power and both of them are transported through time which separates John from Tara and the resistance. They are bounced back to 1996 with Sarah Connor and teenage John along with older models of the Terminators. The TI’s awareness of the time shift permits it to reboot and change missions from targeting Tara Connor in 2015 to terminating Sarah in 1996.
May 27th, 2009 at 8:59 am
“Why watch a film when you don’t care either way what happens to the people in it?”
I definitely agree, and that was really the core problem of the movie.
Lol “whale tail” thong … I’m just going to step away from that one.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:00 am
I think it’s terribly amusing how EVERY interview I’ve seen with the cast and director simply ignore T3. All of them have referenced “the first two” and leave it at that. Ah, the curse of sequels (*cough*Matrix*cough*). Yes we as fans want more but I’d rather live with the longing and yearning than have abysmal chapters to excellent features. I believe the two leads in T3 are good actors which leaves me to believe that their problems were script and directing. With Helena Bonham Carter appearing in this one and music by Elfman, did anyone else expect it to be a Tim Burton film? Where was Johnny Depp?
May 28th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Christian Bale is good but that new guy, Same Worthington, was great… in fact he pretty much stole the show
May 28th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I don’t think T3 is even considered to be a canonical part of the Terminator storyline anymore, is it? The Sarah Connor Chronicles completely erased everything that happened in T3, and also moved back the date of Skynet’s takeover…
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Good review! At this point I stopped caring or expecting anything from this film, but I still want to see it. Hell, with two more movies coming up how can we not watch it? :/