“That One Time …” review of ‘Terminator Salvation‘ DVD
by Eric Fell for MovieSet.com
The fourth chapter in an ongoing franchise, ‘Terminator Salvation‘ is a big, dumb action movie with a lot of stuff blowing up in a post-apocalyptic future. If that’s your thing, then by all means, you’ll enjoy it. Sam Worthington plays Marcus Wright, a criminal who is executed in 2003, only to wake up in the year 2018, in the midst of a war between man and machine. Christian Bale is resistance fighter John Connor who is prophecised to lead humanity to victory. They fight robots. Stuff blows up. Someone says “come with me if you want to live.” Someone else says “I’ll be back.” More stuff blows up. The credits roll.
"Christian Bale plays John Connor as a grim, sour-faced ball of rage who manages to shout his lines even when he's whispering"
In a performance that will surprise absolutely nobody, Christian Bale plays John Connor as a grim, sour-faced ball of rage who manages to shout his lines even when he’s whispering. And yes, he does pull out his “Gimme a Lozenge” Batman voice a couple of times.
Worthington does well enough with what he’s given as Marcus Wright. Unfortunately, what he’s given is not much. Marcus discovers a lot about himself, signaling each revelation with a primal scream (including a Vader-like “NOOOOOOO” which made me giggle). The rest of the time he’s pretty quiet, only uttering dialogue when it’s time for a cliche.
Anton Yelchin gives the most compelling and likeable performance in ‘Salvation’ as Kyle Reese. Reese is a pivotal figure in the ‘Terminator’ mythology as he will eventually be sent back in time and knock up one Ms. Sarah Connor (making him John’s Dad). One of my biggest gripes about ‘Salvation’ is that about an hour into the movie, Reese is literally plucked out of the air and put into a cell until the climax. He just sits there until the end of the film.
Helena Bonham Carter cashes a very large cheque as Dr. Serena Kogan, and Moon Bloodgood kicks as much ass as her name does as a resistance fighter. The ‘Terminator’ franchise killed one of cinema’s strongest female action characters off-screen between ‘T2′ and ‘T3′, and if there is to be a future to the series, I hope Bloodgood is part of it. Finally, in a casting coup, Michael Ironside plays the Michael Ironside role. He’s the Ironsidest he’s ever been, and I mean that in a good way.
The effects, of course, are incredible. You throw that much money at a movie and it had better look good. Not that this is a difficult feat, but McG is far better at directing action than Michael Bay. I’ll go one step further with that and say that McG really knows his way around an action scene. He manages to make each sequence have its own feel to it. The Metal vs. Meat here is far more exciting than a certain two hour-long ad for GM and Maxim. Where else are you going to see a giant robot launch deadly motorcycles from its shins?
The major problem is the story. The movie doesn’t know whether it wants to be about John Connor or Marcus Wright. Connor feels shoehorned into the plot, and, in a way, that’s correct. Earlier drafts had Wright as the protagonist, and Connor as a mysterious figure, seen only in a handful of scenes and motivating the resistance over the radio. Once Bale was cast as Connor, he brought in Jonathan Nolan (screenwriter of The Dark Knight) to beef up the Connor part. The resulting decision hurt the movie. Where the first two films were as single-minded as the Terminators themselves, ‘Salvation’ feels very scattershot. And for a movie that is very light on dialogue, much of it is surprisingly redundant. It also follows some wonderfully standard action movie trappings, like if you scream while firing a machine gun, the gun does more damage. And we can’t forget the requisite attempted rape scene, where someone thinks the female lead is “purty” so the man can swoop on down and save her.
The third act falls apart under its own weight, but we do get a reminder of just what kind of an unstoppable badass the Terminator can be. We’re then hit with a tacked on Deus Ex Machina in the denouement accompanied by a voiceover about the difference between human and machine. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Battlestar Galactica, but the speech really needed Edward James Olmos. ‘Terminator Salvation‘ does its job as an action movie (and does it better than the other Giant Robot movie of 2009), but without a focused narrative, it feels incomplete. That said, it’s certainly done better for itself than another action franchise from the mid-80s. Yes, I’m looking at you, Highlander.
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One Comment
Cyborg Sam brings it home
Not to be a biased Aussie, but the only good thing to come out of this movie is the dynamic performance delivered by Sam Worthington. There is a black hole in the script where the character depth should have been, yet this up-and-coming talent rises above the machines and a bad plot.
Sorry Christian, but as Heath Ledger outshone your flat performance in The Dark Knight, you again take a backseat. Please loose the grunting, monotone Batman voice—It did you no favours in The Dark Knight and pays no compliment here.
I find irony in Worthington’s performance, who executes more human characteristics and qualities as a cyborg than Bale can manage as a human and the only hope for the Human Resistance.
It’s a shame Worthington’s major movie debut was coupled with an easily forgettable sci-fi flick.
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