Terminator: Salvation Review [3]

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 05.26.2009

The war between the humans and machines has begun. Does the movie live up to years of expectations or does a confused script ruin what should have been a home run?

Directed by McG
Written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris

Cast
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
Comon ... Barnes
Jane Alexander ... Virginia
Michael Ironside ... General Ashdown



The story for Terminator: Salvation is a very narrow and slight tale, focusing on what should have been the most important moment in the war against the machines. Unfortunately, it comes off as just another action flick, nowhere near as great as what led up to it and only being one battle in a giant war that left so much unfulfilled promise.

Movies, as a storytelling device, should leave you guessing and reveal clues to where the story will lead as the film progresses. One of the most important details of the story was spoiled in both trailers and the opening of the film itself. Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is being executed for a crime that apparently led to the death of his brother. What he did and the damage it caused is not discussed here nor is it revealed anywhere in the entire script. He gets a visit from a cancer stricken doctor (Helena Bonham-Carter) who wants him to sign a release of his body for experimentation, apparently to help find a cure for her and to help mankind in the long run. Marcus is a jerk, but he signs the papers. We then see him executed by lethal injection.

Anyone who has seen a Terminator movie has already figured out what happens to Marcus’ body.

We then meet John Connor (Christian Bale), the guiding light of the resistance in the war against Skynet. Connor and his team find an underground prison filled with humans held captive by the machines. We see during this mission that Connor is not viewed with the same respect we have seen him given in prior glimpse of the future. Luckily for Connor, he is sent topside to find out why they have lost contact and sees the machines have attacked his men. The entire underground prison explodes and only John Connor is left alive.

This is the scene that should have opened this movie. The entire execution of this sequence was exciting and energetic. Instead of starting the film with an exposition sequence that introduces us to Marcus, it should have exploded right out of the gate with John Connor. It is one of the many problems with the script’s structure.

I assumed the problems the film suffered would be because of McG. The director has proven to be pretty good at schmaltzy, over-the-top movies. Charlie’s Angels was, if nothing else, overkill of the notion of never taking yourself seriously. If Terminator was to go in the direction of the war against the machines, it needed to be presented in a threatening and dire manner. If nothing else, McG proves he can shoot this type of movie in a professional style.

The problems lie, surprisingly, in the script. I am not surprised the script would be so scattershot since it was written by the men behind Catwoman, the movie that made the world forget Halle Berry was an Oscar winner. What is surprising is neither Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) nor Paul Haggis (Casino Royale) could fix it. The movie is damaged because of plot holes that can’t be overlooked.

Marcus walks out of the explosion wreckage that almost kills Connor. He makes his way to Los Angeles where he finds Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), the man who becomes John Connor’s father. At this point in the timeline Reese is a teenager and leads the two person Los Angeles resistance force with a young mute girl named Star (Judagrace). Marcus saves Reese’s life and the three set off on a road trip, Marcus wanting to go north while Reese wants to find the resistance and his hero, John Connor, in the west.

Meanwhile, Connor finds out that there is a death warrant issued by Skynet on resistance leaders, with him and Reese at the top of the list. While Reese and Marcus are heading into the land of the computers, Connor is doing everything he can to find and secure Reese is safe. Along the way, Reese is captured and Connor and Marcus finally meet up. When the resistance finds out Marcus is a Terminator they turn on him, despite him not knowing he is a computer and not understanding what is going on.

We meet a resistance fighter (Moon Bloodgood) who believes in Marcus, a tough as nails fighter (Common) who lost his brother in the war and Connor’s pregnant wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard). None of these characters are developed beyond the stereotypes. Connor never even speaks of his unborn child and the fact that his wife is pregnant is never mentioned outside of her large belly. The only character developed is Marcus, the script expecting us to already know what John Connor is about and have slight knowledge about Kate. The other characters are plot devices, so the script doesn’t care enough to let us know them. We barely get development on Reese’s character.

The climax comes when Marcus gets Connor into the lair of the computers to rescue Reese and then we get a twist. I want to stop here to mention that I read script spoilers months ago and believed I had spoiled the biggest moment in the movie for myself. I kept it to myself, refusing to spill the beans to my friends so they would be surprised when this major event happened. Well, I was MAJORLY disappointed in the final climax of the movie because they did not take the angle the script originally called for, making the safe choice instead.

In the original script that was leaked John Connor dies at the end of the movie and his face is grafted onto Marcus, who leads the rebellion withouth letting any of the fighters know Connor was gone. If they had taken this road it would have pissed a lot of people off but would have made for a fantastic next chapter changing the contect you watched the original movies. The rest of the script was not so good, but that ending would have rocked.

It would have been a brilliant twist.

The movie ended on a whimper instead.

There were things that made me scratch my head. At the very end, Marcus helps Connor escape Skynet headquarters. The next scene is Marcus and Barnes helping Connor to the helicopter and escape. However, last we saw Marcus and Barnes in the same room, Barnes was trying to kill Marcus. It seems there is a huge missing scene in between those two moments and that happens a lot in this movie. It seems clipped to hell, taking us from one moment to the next, but sometimes seeming to skip important connecting events altogether. The final attack was supposed to end the war if they succeed in destroying the facility. Everyone mentions that destroying the San Francisco headquarters would end the threat and win the war for the resistance. However, there is a final voice over from Connor stating they won a battle but not the war. But the entire mission, a success, was supposed to end the war. It feels like two different people wrote a script, without talking to each other, and they mashed the two together.

That is a disappointment. This should have been an epic war movie but is instead an average rescue mission flick. The action is directed well by McG but he is hampered by a very disjointed script. The acting is solid. Christian Bale is decent as John Connor. I am a huge Bale fan but he is just gruff and nondescript throughout the film. Anton Yelchin, who brought the goods to the role of Chekov in Star Trek, continues to develop into a great young actor. Sam Worthington is a superstar. His portrayal of Marcus Wright is a star turning role and he steals the movie out of Bale’s hands at every turn. I can’t wait to see him in his next big role in James Cameron’s Avatar.

There are also some great moments in the movie that brought a smile to my face as a fan of the original movies. When Connor prepares an attack on a robot riding motorcyclist, Guns n Roses You Could Be Mine blared. There are also lines resurrected from prior movies and while Reese repeating his character’s classic lines were fun, I groaned with John Connor said “I’ll be back.” One last homage came when Connor was attacked in Skynet by a very familiar Terminator. The CGI needed to make the facial features of this Terminator looks a bit plastic but he is a robot so it can be excused. I was just excited to see his addition into the movie.

However, despite all the geek moments and the wonderful performance from Worthington, this movie failed due to the script. McG can’t be left off the hook since the script is bad because he did not cover up the holes due to his poor pacing. I wanted to love this movie but left with too many complaints to consider this a successful addition to the franchise.

The 411: The Terminator returns with a whimper, not a roar. The war movie that should have kicked ass became an average action rescue flick. The robot action is really cool and there are some eye dropping moments but at the end of the day the story collapses upon itself. The characters accomplish what they set out to do to end the war but then voice over states the war is far from over. There are a number of characters that could have added to the story left undeveloped and remain meaningless plot devices. There are plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon the script needs to answer but leaves hanging. Finally, the end is a disappointment and is nowhere near as intriguing as it could have been. When I left Star Trek, I was excited to see where they would go next. Leaving Terminator: Salvation, I really don’t care.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]