Review: Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation opens in the year 2018. The war against humanity has transpired and the remnant survivors fight against the overwhelming strength of Skynet. John Connor, warrior prophesied to lead the human resistance against the machines, is but a foot soldier in this new movie, his knowledge of future events putting him at odds with the leaders of the resistance as well as the soldiers under his command.

As usual, Skynet wishes the death of John Connor--at any cost.

As usual, John Connor must fight for his life.

The man versus machine story we have seen for three movies unfolds again.

The acting in the movie is fair. Christian Bale plays John Connor in this newest incarnation. Bale can become a tortured soul like no other and Connor is certainly that. But sadly there was not much else in the character and Bale's Connor felt flat to me. I knew what to expect from Bale but actors Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington were the surprise of the film. Yelchin, who plays a young Kyle Reese destined to become the father of John Connor, embodied the role once played by Michael Biehn; Worthington plays the most complex character of the movie and turns in perhaps the best performance, playing the role of convicted murderer Marcus Wright who wishes to atone for his sins--at any cost.

I was disappointed to see Kate Connor, wife to John and played by Bryce Dallas Howard, very underutilized, as were the characters Blair Williams and Barnes. The movie was lopsided in that it focused almost entirely on Connor and Wright at the detriment of the others, leaving no character development for those not in the primary roles.

The plot mostly worked. I had some trouble with certain inequities in the story but overall the place they took the Terminator franchise was natural and felt right. Humanity is slowing dying and there are moments that will be near identical with the forthcoming apocalyptic film adaptation of The Road by Cormac McCarthy--lack of fuel, lack of food, lack of hope. There are also moments of levity, where the truth of the human spirit shines brightly and the contrast between man and machine is highlighted and explored.

And there are even four or five moments written into the movie that tie into the previous movies--moments true Terminator fans will absolutely love.

The action worked--actually it was pretty awesome. The chases. The battles. The fight scenes. The terminators and HKs and hydrobots. And with only one exception, the CGI was extremely well done. This is a movie that barely sacrifices story for special effects.

The music supplied by Danny Elfman--is typical Danny Elfman. Great stuff.

So what didn't work?

A lot, in my opinion. Too much.

I believe pretty firmly they had a 3 ½ star out of 4 star movie on their hands. It was flubbed to a strong 2 ½.

First, there were several plot holes and inconsistencies. Fans of the previous movies will see what I mean when they watch Terminator Salvation--especially one large plot flaw that had me gritting my teeth for the rest of the movie. Time travel movies are always tricky, maintaining their logical integrity difficult. It was a problem the scriptwriters chose not to get away from; for the sake of conflict they wanted the story arc of Kyle Reese a certain way and wrote themselves into a paradoxical corner.

Second, there were three or four instances that just rang false, of which I attribute to poor direction. Events lined up just perfectly for the characters--all too conveniently at times, especially at the beginning of the movie. As an example that does not spoil much, two characters fix a radio that hasn't worked for a decade. The moment they fix it John Connor is sending out a message, asking them to join the resistance. The timing was perfect. The characters gain the information to move the plot forward but how they gained it rang false. This happened three or four times in the movie, where events just lined up perfectly, leaving the storyteller living inside of me severely annoyed.

If you are a fan of the franchise don't go looking for T2. It isn't in this new movie--well, there were homages to it which were fun but the overall experience is not that powerful. This movie is better than Rise of the Machines but less than the first two movies of the series.

Overall, Terminator Salvation is an action-packed fun summer movie.

Fans of the previous films will find a lot to like about this one.

For purists though, they will see a movie that could have been great.

I know I did.