Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation (2009, Warner Brothers/Halcyon)

Review

As you might expect, this film features John Connor (Christian Bale) and his mates fighting a slew of huge robots. As you might expect, there is no shortage of explosions and gunfire. As you might expect, there are a few plots twists to keep things interesting...crafty old Skynet, ya know. In these areas, it does not disappoint.

Here's some stuff you may not know: John Connor is married to the same chick, presumably, named Kate that he is courting in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. But now she is knocked up and played by Bryce Dallas Howard instead of Clair Danes. Also, someone special who is in all three of the previous movies has his face digitally glued onto someone else's body. The composite person makes a cameo as one of the terminators. I bet you can't guess who it is! Moving along...

The plot revolves around Skynet's plan to create the cyborgs that we all know and love (you know, the ones that look just like Austrian bodybuilders and are designed to infiltrate and exterminate those pesky humans) and the resistance's attempts to stop them. The prototype living tissue over metal endoskeleton unit, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) plays a key role throughout the movie. He is unique as he possesses human thought, emotion, awareness--not to mention brain and heart...The twisted brain and cold heart of a murderer put to death in 2003 to be exact! But, the guy was nice enough to donate his body to science, leaving it in the care of the good folks down at Cyberdyne Systems. His desire is to find out what he is and help the resistance because he thinks he is human. Yes, that brain became straight as an arrow and that heart warm as freshly baked apple pie...ah the wonders of plopping organs into a terminator.

One thing I couldn't make sense of is how John Connor manages to have an intact ribcage and spinal column after being punch in the chest by terminators like 900 times. Also, Skynet had ample opportunities, in my opinion, to kill a couple key figures in the Terminator saga, namely Connor himself and Kyle Reese, and it just dropped the ball. Director McG should have thought of a way to have the heroes survive without giving Skynet about as much foresight as Dr. Evil. Lets not kill Kyle Reese now, lets wait to call in the terminators with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads...

Bale is in his normal, overly-breathy character. This is not nearly as bad as either of the Batman movies though, in which he constantly sounded like he swallowed a hair dryer. Worthington is great as Wright/cyborg Wright. Common, Moon Bloodgood, and Anton Yelchin all play resistance members. Yelchin's character has a bit of a funny moment when he is about to serve up a standard post-apocalyptic dinner of two-day-old coyote that, as he points out, is "better than three-day-old coyote."

The visual effects are nice and shiny, very well done--but not perfect. The only thing I really noticed is when Worthington's character is missing part of his face, the mechanisms under the skin look kind of flat. Everything else is spanktastic.

If you are looking for "an action thrill ride" and all the other cliché things that other critics will be saying about this movie, you shall receive. And, while Salvation is a pretty good movie, as a fan of the Terminator franchise, I guess I expected a little more.

I'll be back,