Terminator Salvation: A Review

There are a few things that must be considered when looking back at Terminator Salvation, both in regards to its stand alone value as summer blockbuster entertainment and to the place it holds as a continuing element of a beloved franchise and mythology.

In the first regard, Terminator Salvation succeeds in being an exciting, fast-paced action movie experience that isn't quite as smart as Abrams' Star Trek but is itself not lacking in thought-provoking material. Of course, that is were the comparisons should end because Terminator Salvation is not trying to do what Star Trek did, which is reboot a franchise and try to endear new generations to decades-old characters. Salvation is moving a story forward, past anything the first three movies were and into a new paradigm it is creating along the way (with lots of cool action sequences set to a dramatic Danny Elfman soundtrack.)

Thus we must consider the second regard: does Salvation work as a "Terminator" movie, and what does it mean to the franchise? The short is answer, is yes; the movie works and, more over, it steps the game up, transforms the series, and manages to grapple more seriously with the series over-arching themes then Terminator 3 did. The fact is, Terminator (1984) as a movie isn't all that complex. For its time and place, it was amazing. Cameron brought to life a low-budget action movie that introduced some intriguing and vaguely-original concepts and captured audiences imaginations with its simple, efficient story-line that is essentially your basic monster movie plot. The sequel (Judgement Day), the best of the original three, is the same movie told again with a few frills attached--as is the third film. As entertaining and classic as the original film and its sequels may be, they don't do much to expand on what is established in a 8 or so minute monologue by Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) half-way through the first movie. In comes Salvation, looking to not only expand on the premise, but to give the story an engine that drives the mythology onward. Salvation isn't the monster-movie "Terminator", it is a sci-fi war movie that continues to explore the man vs. machine dynamic I so expertly elaborate upon HERE.

McG said as much, and thus I will judge him by his own words. The man presents us with a film that takes itself very seriously and he, to his credit, is able to keep a consistent tone. The film doesn't become laughable, which is good because for a movie about people fighting robots in the desert it is markedly humorless. The funniest part of the whole movie is probably McG's jackass name, and that's only funny in a sad way. McG as a director manages to bring us into a post-apocalyptic world that is fascinating to look at. I am a sucker for these sorts of stories (The Road Warrior is one of my all time favorites) and Salvation borrows heavily from the best elements of contemporary dystopian fantasy (the aforementioned Road Warrior, McCarthy's The Road, Blade Runner, etc.) both visually and narratively. Though obviously highly influenced, the film doesn't come across as plagiaristic, rather the recognizable elements seem respectful homages. Visually, the film is a huge success and there is some outstanding camera work, and more than one "wow" sorts of shots. The action is thrilling and continuous, and never once does the film fail to capitalize on its future-war setting. However, there are some pretty bad cuts (to my taste) that jarred me out of the story.


Yet, McG as a director clearly cannot handle the human element. Many of the negative reviews I read, at least in summary on rottentomatoes.com, make note of how the human drama is weak and (as journalist are all so fond of their cheesy puns) "robotic." To an extent, this is true. There are only a few "character" moments where the film slows down and has two or three people simply interacting apart from the plot, and these moments by and large fall flat. This is due to three reasons:
1) Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, and Anton Yelchin are movie stars and handle their material with the intensity and talent we can expect (it easy to see why Bale was so keyed-up on set now), or will come to expect (Worthington is fresh-faced from Australia but is destined for greatness. Yelchin was most recently seen as the lovable Ruskie Chekov in the new Star Trek. Just as a side note, all three of the aforementioned actors are foreigners.) Thus their intensity and strength as actors helps them to rise above McG's lame direction thereby throwing them in stark contrast to the others, particularly because...
2) ...There are no strong female characters, which is only really worth mentioning because of the importance of Linda Hamilton's presence in the first two films and Len Hedly's in the TV series. Like Claire Danes in Terminator 3, Bryce Dallas Howard is just along for the ride. Her character has no real purpose in Salvation, and I don't even think her character's name (Kate) is even once uttered in the movie. The other female lead, Moon Bloodgood's Blaire, is even worse. She is meant to be a Sarah Connor replacement; a tough as nails, warrior woman. Unfortunately she has some of the worst lines in the film and her character isn't given enough development to justify her actions. It appears as though good deal of her role was cut, and had they gone all the way and just sliced her out of the movie entirely it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.
3) McG obviously doesn't know how to get good performances from actors (i.e. direct.). Other than the stars, who know what they are doing, the supporting cast is mostly serviceable at best and in Common's case, absolutely abysmal. Why does this man keep popping up and ruining his scenes in my action movies? You'd think after his continually worsening performance in Smokin' Aces and Wanted somebody would have figured out that, sure he looks tough, but he delivers lines with the emotional equivalence of a brain-dead ten year old.

Bale takes some shots in other reviews, but those clowns are simply wrong. Bale nails this role. This is John Connor, a man whose whole life has been a battle to survive so that he can become mankind's savior. Now, the war he has been trying to stop his entire life has arrived and he is just some soldier in This Man's Army. He isn't treated like a savior, he has to take orders from men who don't know what he does, and his ineffectualness is straight pissing him off. The TV show touched on what Bale brings to the character, an anger at not getting to be his own man. Bale's Connor is everything the savior of mankind would makes himself if he knew his destiny from day one and had seen what he had seen in his life and then reached that climatic point only to be pushed aside by lesser men. He is hard, determined, focused, and highly frustrated.

The film's story is engaging, and manges to continually raise the stakes and throw in a few unexpected twists despite a brief second-act lull. If you are a "Terminator" fan, you will find that the story honors everything that came before and manages to kick start a whole new chapter that I hope gets a chance to play out over the two planned sequels. Ultimately I liked the movie, even though it did not achieve greatness and in many respects is a mess (particularly, as another reviewer pointed out, the last third wherein heavy editing and studio meddling is apparent.) To a degree, how much you enjoy the film really depends on how invested you already are in the characters beforehand, since McG and the screenwriters didn't seem to care too much about that "development" stuff.