Terminator: Salvation (2009)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.
130 Minutes

Directed By: McG
Written  By: John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris

Staring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Ironside, Jadagrace, Common, and Bryce Dallas Howard

We’ve been fighting a long time. We are out numbered by machines. Working around the clock,without quit. Humans have a strength that cannot be measured. This is John Connor. If you are listening to this,you are the resistance. -John Connor

Review

The critics have been giving this film a beating, but I’m hear to say as a hardcore Terminator fan, one that doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of T3 because of it’s lack of respect for the two films before it, that this was a good movie.  It had a few problems, but small things that were vastly overwhelmed by the positive, and I assure you I was hard on it in every respect.  Living up to James Cameron’s masterpieces is a feat no one should take on, and while TS didn’t reach those heights of success, it did manage to make a very entertaining movie that payed it’s dues to the mythology of the first two and created something a little different for the future, and as dark as T1 and T2 was, this film was far darker, with a lot more explosions as well.

The future is here.  Judgement Day has happened and the human race is struggling to survive, fighting the overwhelming power of Skynet. John Connor is with the resistance, but not everyone believes the future his mother predicted or the place in the resistance he held as a leader.  Suddenly, the resistance has a chance to fight back, a chance to take down Skynet once and for all, but as usual the all too aware system has an ace in the hole, and one that even Sarah Connor couldn’t predict.

There are direct lines that have repeated through the prior films and also found there way into this one.  Not everything is delivered in the typical capacity as Judgement has already happened the dark and ominous tones of this film can’t be avoided and while this film is far darker than the prior three it’s with due reason.  It is after Judgement day and the inevitable happened with the only possibility of hope being the humans survival.  Even if they beat the machines, so much has been lost is winning really a victory?  The sense of doom and dread never leaves, but it’s a theme that was necessary for this film, although I would have liked a little more comedy, even if it was dry humor.

Sam Worthington and Christian Bale were amazing.  Every scene Worthington is in has you on the edge of your seat.  His raw sense of being and being responsible for the rare bits of dry humor that occasionally float into the film make his character as Marcus enigmatic.  The allusions to his secret, the one he isn’t even aware creates a heightened sense of anticipation with every scene, wondering when the inevitable will happen.  Bale doesn’t stretch his acting range but plays a stoic and resolved John Connor that has brief glances into the wildly passionate kid we saw in Terminator 2, but jaded by years of death and destruction, surviving when everyone else doesn’t, it’s no surprise he is as dark and closed off as he is.  He relies on the words of his mother, and the hope that the future isn’t set, but that hope is constantly challenged.  AntonYelchin was a brilliant Kyle Reece and almost salvaged what an uncomfortable Chekov he was in the recent Star Trek.  He seemed a strange casting, but after his first interaction with Marcus it was clear he was meant to play the young Kyle.  Looking and even sounding like him, this character and performance was one of the highlights of the film.

What didn’t work?  There were a few things.  Small in the scheme of things,  but being a nit-picking Terminator fan I can’t overlook them:

• The over indulgent showing of the red eyes going dead at the beginning.  After three terminators lights going out, we get it.  Us uber fans don’t need an overdose of the iconic shot, nor do the new people need it shoved down their throats.
• The depth wasn’t there.  The film was mostly action and could have used a little more substance.  I relied heavily on the former films to distinguish it’s universe, rather than adding too many new elements into this version.  Because of the overwhelming focus on the action it became less Sci-Fi and more of an action flick that happened to have Sci-Fi in it.  Action is great, but this franchise is built on it’s in depth Sci-Fi, so that aspect was disappointing to me. Just because you are focusing on action doesn’t mean the story or the dialogue has to suffer, but at moments it really did.  Luckily there were unsaid moments between character’s that really made up for that.
• *Spoiler* The last moment with the Terminator sacrificing himself for John does tie in with the sacrifices of the prior three films, but it was far too mushy gushy and frankly an awkward moment with Bale and his thankful mourning eyes, lying next to Worthington’s wistful resolved face………It just didn’t fit not with the rest of the films theme.
• There is a scene in the final battle that is a mirror of Terminator 2 with Sarah Connor fighting the T-1000.  Down to some of the most specific shots John and Kyle were mimicked from that finale shot, and a few more that shadowed scenes with Arnie and the T-1000 throwing down as well.  Subsequently, it didn’t feel like an homage, more of a copy and that just isn’t cool.

Some of the best parts?  Well this includes tons of spoilers, so skip this next section and move on for a spoiler free review,  but I can’t talk about the things that didn’t rule without including these insanely great moments in the movie, the stuff that made it a better movie than maybe it had a right to be.

• The best John Connor moment is when he hijacks one of the Terminator bikes.   He puts down an old radio rocking some hardcore eighties hairband tunes, shades of him riding his own bike back in Terminator 2.  Instead of using high technology, he creates a makeshift trip cord and undermines the technologically superior killing machine.  In pure John Connor style he whips out a much more advanced code breaking tool than the one he used as a teenager in Terminator 2, and reprograms the bike, taking off on it in true rebel form.  Hands down the best scene in the movie, most true to the character and without any dialogue.
• Any scene with Sam Worthington.   Even though John Connor is the main character this movie is about, we show up to the Terminator movies to see the wicked cool killing machine, and while Marcus is a twisted creation of that ideal, he is still our anti-hero, saving the day in spite of who and what he is.  Worthington himself is beyond charming in that rugged, “I don’t give a crap” kind of way.  Must be an Australian thing, but whatever it was, it worked.  He made this movie reach levels of entertainment beyond the mind boggling intense action.
• I don’t care how corny and cliche it was, when Arnie showed up and starting kicking Christian Bale’s butt, I stood in the theatre with a whooping applause. While his moment was brief, it was a moment that gave the film the most important connection tying it to the ones before it.  The machine that started it all.  You just can’t have a Terminator movie without Arnold Schwarzenegger, even if you try to have one without James Cameron.
• I guess people are tiring of the whole time paradox, future messing with the past themes in movies, but Terminator was the first to use this as a full fledged plot point in motion pictures, therefore it has the right to do whatever time continuum contemplations it wants to, while other films may use this as a lazy way to manipulate their stories.  The basis of it’s creation stems from the time continuum and it being the basis for it’s construction is what Terminator is all about.  If you don’t like the time paradox aspects of these movies, then you just aren’t going to appreciate or like the core of what Terminator is.
• Bale says “I’ll be back” and it’s a totally nonchalant injection and it had me grinning from ear to ear.
• We get to listen to the tapes that Sarah Connor made for her unborn child.  So many decades ago, there was a film that alluded to this distant future, and now to actually see how those tapes affected John, and the infamous picture was a great fan moment.
• No Fate But What We Make as the final lines is the truest form of what Terminator is about.  Summing up what Terminator is in a sentence is No Fate But What We Make.  The fact that McG had the insight to add that as the final line gave me a real sense of closure from the movie, especially after the awful Terminator sacrifice moment.  It was redemption.
• I thought it was great that Connor’s pregnant wife was added to the story without any story or explanation to it.  It didn’t insult the audience by avoiding explaining the obvious to them.  Whereas some of the movie could have used some more explaining, this was not one of those moments.

The shots of the older less advanced terminators were phenomenal.  They looked more like creepy Locusts from the video game Gears Of War.  The CGI was some of the best I’ve seen in movies to date.  People may not love this movie, but nobody is going to deny it’s achievement in special effects or sound.  The sound mixing was absolutely insane.  Literally, it was so loud and came across as so real it sent fear through your mind.  It was great to see a film really utilize the profound affect sound can have on a film.  It added layers of enjoyment to it’s entertainment.

T3 should have just been skipped and moved right into Salvation.  There were some kinks that needed to be worked out, but overall it was a pulse pounding action film with great characterizations and allusions to what was done in the past.  It may have not been par to James Cameron’s work, but I think it’s fair to say that nothing ever will be.  What I hope for is movies that pay those films respect while also treading new ground and Salavation was a success in both those categories.  Supreme casting and amazing effects, with some really poignant dues of respect paid to the original films made this movie simply good.  I’m hard to impress and please in this film franchise, but I am here to say Terminator: Salvation was a spectacular summer blockbuster, and a competent addition to the franchise.