TERMINATOR: SALVATION
SONY
RELEASED 3 June 2009
There was great hope for this relaunch of the Terminator franchise. We were finally going to see the future war between man and machine as glimpsed in the first two movies, and we would finally see the legendary John Connor leading the fight. What we’ve ended up with is the most disappointing blockbuster of 2009, a rambling, confused mess of a movie that underwent drastic plot rewrites from various writers, which clearly show. John Connor was barely in the original script, a shadowy hero whose importance was seen more as a rallying call rather than for what he actually did physically. It should have all been about Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a killer sentenced to death in 2003 who awakes in the future with no idea where he’s been or why he’s still alive. He runs around the desert, encountering small pockets of the resistance, one of whom is Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), who will one day be the father of John Connor when he’s sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor in the first movie (cue mind-bending time-travel problems). All the time Marcus is trying to uncover his own secrets, John Connor (Christian Bale) is shouting at people to fight the machines. He shouts on the radio, he shouts on a submarine, and he shouts on a motorbike. And that’s pretty much all he does. John Connor shouts. There is no character there whatsoever. He’s a boring, shouting, uncharismatic disappointment. Why people follow him just isn’t justified. At least Marcus has a story, which has an end in sight. Sadly, his story is also something of a mess, and for this latest movie, it’s not time-travel that’s the potential problem, it’s just plain bad logic. Skynet get Marcus to bring Connor to them so they can kill him, but there are numerous chances to kill Connor earlier in the film which aren’t taken. And Skynet actually hold Kyle Reese prisoner, although how do they know he is the resistance leaders’ father if he hasn’t gone back in time yet? There are multiple plot holes in the film that gradually force you to throw your hands in the air and declare defeat!
What makes the film so frustrating is the fact that visually it looks superb. The action and the effects work are tremendous, and there’s loads of it chucked onscreen. Sound effects really rumble beneath you, and it certainly sounds like you’re right in the middle of a war. New Terminator designs are introduced (obviously inspired by ‘Transformers’) from huge, hulking ‘human farming’ robots to ‘mototerminators’. But enjoying the visuals and sonics was the only thing I could take from the film. Anton Yelchin does a great job as Reese, but with no help from any other character, he’s stranded. Worthington is good as Marcus, but the total lack of logic in the film pretty much destroys anything he has to offer. Christian Bale is guilty on two fronts for the failure of ‘Terminator: Salvation’. He read the original script after being offered the role of Marcus, but decided he wanted to play John Connor, but not as the shadowy character originally depicted. So he had the director bump up the role of Connor, but the end result is a character that says a lot but doesn’t really have anything to do. He’s an unnecessary main character that drags the film down.
If you’re a sci-fi fan, like I am, then you may enjoy the work that’s been put into creating a devasted future wasteland that’s fun for an audience to play in. But halfway through, you’ll realise the film makes no sense, and you’ll also realise that you don’t care what happens. I can’t remember caring less about what happens in the final fight scenes of a major blockbuster before. I was sat there thinking, ‘well the director McG did make those two lousy ‘Charlies Angels’ films, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised really!’ A great opportunity to explore an iconic movie world only hinted at in the orignal films has been utterly wasted. I’ll be very surprised if this film makes enough money to warrant another chapter, and perhaps that may be for the best. Consider this franchise terminated.
TWO OUT OF FIVE