Terminator Salvation Review [2]

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 05.25.2009

Back to the future at last...

Directed by: McG
Written by: John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris

Starring:
Christian Bale - John Connor
Sam Worthington - Marcus Wright
Moon Bloodgood - Blair Williams
Helena Bonham Carter - Dr. Serena Kogan
Anton Yelchin - Kyle Reese
Jadagrace - Star
Bryce Dallas Howard - Kate Connor
Common - Barnes
Jane Alexander - Virginia
Michael Ironside - General Ashdown
Terry Crews - Captain Jericho
Roland Kickinger - T-800



Running Time: 115 minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language

When it comes to science fiction action franchises, there are few that resonate as iconic the way the Terminator franchise does. Star Trek and Star Wars are both iconic of course, but they seem to be science fiction first and action second. Alien and Predator may compete, although they both stray more into the element of horror then action. The James Cameron-created franchise has spawned three films, video games, comic books and even a television series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles which was cut short by Fox just recently. It helped launch Cameron’s career into becoming a huge name in Hollywood as well as the careers of Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn, to say nothing of action megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger. The franchise seemed dead as a film series after a lackluster response to the third film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Warner Bros. didn’t seem to get that memo however and they pressed ahead, determined to keep their cash cow going. With Christian Bale cast as John Connor and Charlie’s Angels director McG signed on to helm, the plot was pushed ahead into the future the past films have talked about but only briefly touched on, and thus Terminator Salvation was born.

The film begins in 2003 with Marcus Wright (Worthington), a convicted murder on Death Row in Los Angeles, about to take the long walk to his execution when Dr. Serena Kogan (Bonham Carter) appears to make a last appeal to him. Kogan convinces Wright to sign his body over to her so she can use it for research. Fifteen years later, John Connor (Bale) is a soldier in the post-Judgment Day reality, when the artificially intelligent computer system Skynet destroys much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust. Connor knows because of his past that he went through with his mother that Skynet is on the verge of creating cyborgs, robots with human tissue grown over it in order to become better hunters and to eventually go back in time and try to kill him. When the Resistance movement uncovers a piece of technology that might allow them to end the war once and for all, Connor is assigned to test it out. In the process he learns that there is a kill list from Skynet to take certain targets out by the end of the week—targets that include him and a civilian named Kyle Reese (Yelchin). Connor knows that Reese will eventually go back in time to become his father and of course wants to protect him, but in doing so he finds himself butting heads with the Resistance’s grizzled commander (Ironside). Meanwhile, Marcus appears in the future, with no memory of what’s gone on in the last fifteen years. He encounters Kyle and starts travelling with him. When they get separated he becomes determined to track him down and runs into Blair Williams (Bloodgood), one of the Connor’s pilots. Blair brings Marcus back to the headquarters, a place which will bring answers, new questions, and hard truths that no one—John, Marcus, Blair or John’s wife Kate (Dallas Howard) are quite prepared to answer.

One thing that should be made clear to all fans of the franchise: Terminator Salvation holds no continuity with the television show. That series should be considered an entirely separate reality from the film franchise after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It was a wise move on the part of the studio to do this, as it allows the film to continue the continuity created in the flawed yet underrated Rise of the Machines. John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris wrote both the scripts to that film and this one, though the script for this one was reworked by Paul Haggis (Crash and Casino Royale), Shawn Ryan (The Shield) and Jonah Nolan (The Dark Knight), and the final script does a good job of holding to the previous films’ continuity while evolving it beyond the standard “One is sent to kill; the other to protect” set-up created by the last three films. This film is more of a war film, and it’s refreshing that the producers and writing team have finally decided to take us out of the present and put us in the future, to the war that fans have wanted to see for years. The film starts off with a somewhat confusing set of scenes that occasionally seem stitched together due to the dual storylines of Marcus and John, and some of the early dialogue is less than sparkling. Once the two main characters are put together midway through the film however things pick up very nicely. The writers do a good job of developing the characters, making Marcus a new and interesting dynamic to the franchise and taking Kyle Reese back to his teenage years without making him the annoying Skywalker-esque character. Reese is to this film what Sarah Connor to Terminator and John Connor was to Judgment Day, and on the page at least he is a stronger character then either of them. John Connor is written quite well as the man who wears the weight of the world heavily on his shoulders and feels the responsibility that his mother spent his entire life pressing upon him. Where the duo fall down however is with the female characters; Blair Williams is supposed to be the tough female a la Sarah in the second film, but her subplot of a romantic entanglement with Marcus is too rushed to seem believable and Kate Brewster, who was such an important element of Rise of the Machines, has very little screen time here. Despite these flaws the script mostly holds water, keeping continuity nicely in place. Skynet has learned over the years that John Connor holds Kyle Reese very dear to him; they may not realize why, but they know that he is important to the leader-to-be and thus he is a target.

As if inspired by the characterizations, the acting in the film ranges across the board. Most of the weight of this film would seem to fall upon Christian Bale as John, and certainly he is the big-name star of the movie. Bale has proven himself a very bankable actor who can almost always be called upon to deliver great performances. For Salvation there are moments of worry early on, as he seems to carry the painfully hushed and throaty voice he used for Batman in The Dark Knight over with him. The scenes where he uses it make sense within the context of the scenes though—a retrieval mission for example or just after a knock-down drag-out fight with a T-600 robot. When it comes to portraying John as Sarah Connor’s successor of Keeper of the Future, Bale plays him well with a driven, heavy responsibility. John’s journey in this film is to realize that he’s no longer the one to be protected, but the protector himself and Bale realizes that role ably. Sam Worthington is also quite good as Marcus Wright. The Australian-born Worthington seems unsure whether to hide his accent or not, but other than that he more than holds his own as a worth actor to add to the franchise and shows that with the right roles he could become a major player in Hollywood. Marcus is the most complex character in the film and in many ways seems to be the true lead; that Worthington handles it as well as he does is impressive. Anton Yelchin, who is also burning up the box office as Chekov in the Star Trek reboot, could have really screwed up the film by making Kyle the kind of whiny, unsure guy that we’ve seen in the kind of role he plays could easily inspire but he manages to keep Kyle strong, merely unfocused and not disciplined. This makes complete sense—it will be another eleven years before he goes back in time, and he has a lot of military training to gain during that time.

The rest of the cast is not quite as good as the three lead males. Bryce Dallas Howard and Moon Bloodgood do as well as they can with very limited roles, but they certainly aren’t competing with their counterparts. Michael Ironside is distressingly weak as General Ashdown, playing a type role he’s done many times before but hamstringing himself with a terrible accent and making no attempt to make his lines seem like anything more than clichés. Jadagrace Berry plays the obligatory “cute kid” character with little more than the mute role requires, which is not saying much. There are other beacons of quality though in Common as resistance soldier Barnes and Helena Bonham Carter’s brief but pivotal scenes as Serena Kogan.

McG is a director who has some maturing to do, of that there is no doubt. His promotional tour for Salvation proves that. He also has some maturing to do as a filmmaker, but for the most part he acquits himself well here. He dresses the film in a post-apocalyptic theme, bringing to mind elements of films such as Mad Max and combining them with the technological stylings of The Matrix, although the film never feels exactly like either of them. The look and feel of the film is dark and gritty, with few points of light to be had, and that works within the nihilistic theme of how some of the humans within the Resistance—characterized by Ironside’s general and Common’s Barnes—are becoming as cold and unfeeling as the machines themselves. However, there are times in which the director feels like his grim theme is so singularly focused that the film loses some of its fun factor. This is a war film in which humanity has been decimated and the darker elements work well for the most part, but there are times in which it starts to bear down too oppressively. Perhaps a more nuanced director could have guided better by letting the theme lead itself on, but under McG’s heavy hand it does make the movie drag at points and seem longer than its 115-minute running time.

One thing that McG does do very well is the action scenes. It is entirely refreshing to see an action film helmed by a director who is experienced and comfortable with action, and McG for the most part avoids the frenetic quick-cut scenes that consistently dot the landscape these days. It pops up a couple times but in small doses it works far more than what we typically see. The special effects teams kick in very nicely as well. They create thrills both in the detailed, impressive and sinister looking machines that include the scariest motorcycles ever and some nasty flying Hunter-Killer ships and in the CGI, which allows a cameo appearance that is truly amazing in the effect and puts Wolverine’s Patrick Stewart CGI to even more shame than it already had. The one flaw in the technical department is some absolutely terrible work by the sound mixing team, who crank up the explosions and combat sound so high in some scenes that the dialogue is completely drowned out. Dialogue is there to be spoken, not guessed at, and it is a glaring and painful flaw in otherwise spectacular scenes. Danny Elfman provides a great score, keeping some elements of the original score—both the iconic bass line and some subtle but recognizable elements of Brad Fiedel’s score from Judgment Day—but bringing forth a new feel, one that is more Ride of the Valkyries in scope. It sounds very good and adds to the film quite nicely most of the time, when it’s not making it hard to hear what the cast is saying.

This film does certainly have its flaws and is not the amazing film that many were hoping. The climax and denouement may leave some feeling cheated or betrayed, and there are some logic problems in what occurs. Casual fans who are not familiar with the Terminator mythology may be lost in the convoluted mythology of the franchise, but people intimately familiar with the mythology will be impressed by the way several elements are tied together. In doing prequels—which this film, in a very odd sort of way, is—it can be difficult to bring all of the continuity together and have it make sense; when time travel is included it becomes exponentially more difficult. Against all odds Terminator Salvation does it, and does it fairly well. That’s all a fan of the franchise can ask for, and for those unfamiliar, it still makes a good, if not great, action film.

The 411: To call Terminator Salvation a great film would be a lie. In the days where films such as the Star Trek reboot have raised the bar on science fiction, McG's continuation of the James Cameron franchise simply has too many flaws to claim a place among the top films of the genre. However, great action scenes and a strong sense of continuity with the films that have come before make up for most of those flaws, and the plot continues the story that we know while adding more than enough kicks to keep the audience interested throughout. Christian Bale and Sam Worthington provide good and very good performances respectively and the special effects are breathtaking. The sum of the film adds up to be a very enjoyable summer blockbuster that may not be as smart as it wants to be, but is very far from being a dunce.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]