Terminator: Salvation – Review
Terminator: Salvation
Let me preface this review by saying first that Terminator: Salvation is the best film made by McG that I've ever seen. Unfortunately, as his highlights include Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, that's no high hurdle to clear. At best, this film is a matinee, but I can honestly say that I did not regret paying the money for my ticket. I suppose you could say that it wasn't horrible, but it's a sad state of affairs when I need to attach that sort of a rider to a film.
...At least it wasn't horrible.
Anyways, continuing.
Terminator: Salvation is something that we've waited a long time for, a terminator movie set during the war. Top notch special effects, lots of guns, and gritty heroes determined to save mankind from the terror that is Skynet and its army of machines. But for a film clocking in at just over two hours long, it wastes time, giving critical real estate to a sub-plot involving the Resistance Command and a 'secret super-weapon'. Beyond that, the plot is sloppy, with a poorly handled middle that gets sluggish, despite giving us some critical down-time that a lot of action films completely ignore. Ten or fifteen minutes could easily be cut, including a bad idea that serves in place of an ending. And sadly, anytime the film isn't focused on the action, it really flags. Still, there are little gems here, like the fact that Skynet really gets to be a proper evil villain, with bad guys that range from hard to kill to downright unstoppable, even though they mess that up by letting Skynet talk. Fortunately, the meat of the film is taken up by action sequences, which are fantastic, and we get a treat in Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, who is the sole reason to watch this movie.
Salvation is plagued by the fact that it has two protagonists, John Connor and Marcus Wright, with John Connor standing in as a pseudo-villain for the first half of the film. While Christian Bale does a fine performance as John Connor, he's upstaged by Sam Worthington, who stands out as the highlight of the film. I have to be honest, he really carries it. Worthington pulls off a great character, the only one to get a real character arc. His battle, literal and figurative, is the emotional core of the movie, and I found myself sympathizing with straight away. Given his character and performance, I think they could've sold this entire movie on Marcus Wright, John Connor be damned. And honestly, it's a shame to see such a good actor as Christian Bale wasted on a movie where he's playing second-fiddle. The supporting cast does a great job with what they have, but I say with sadness that Helena Bonham Carter's not inconsiderable talents are wasted with poor direction and a pointless character.
What is this movie? It's a great big honkin' action film that pays homage to the Terminator franchise while failing to achieve any of the greatness seen in the first two films. Salvation is set at a particularly interesting point in the timeline, before the time-travel machine is built, before energy weapons, before the military is gone. And if it had lived up to that, if it had given us something more than just another offensive in the war against Skynet, it might've been something great. Unfortunately, with a script that sags in the middle and doesn't give us much meat to chew on, we're left with pretty explosions and one man's search for humanity. That’s not much to go on. This film is case in point that when you widen the scope, you need to up the stakes as well.
But hey, at least it was better than Terminator 3.
Spoilers After This Bit
- Unfortunately, the film is really predictable. Resistance Command exists to get killed, and it's fairly obvious from the moment they appear.
- Marcus Wright shrugs off a nuclear blast during his intro sequence.
- Skynet sure knows how to build for stealth. No one heard the 100ft tall robot coming until it had literally snuck up on their building.
- Marcus Wright has a heart for one reason. So he can give it to John at the end of the film. It isn't as stupid as wearing John's skin, but it's close. Better to have him die in action, like most heroes.
- Seriously, his heart? Yeah, really stupid twist. I'm saddened that this is what they thought of when they realized that having Marcus wear John's skin wouldn't work. You'd think with that much stupid floating around, putting the kibosh on the first plan would've let the stupid leak out of the room, but to no avail.
- John Connor is practically a villain for the first half of this movie. It hits the peak when he goes after Marcus with a chopper and gets two of his own men killed.
- Uh...John, isn't it unwise to firebomb the jungle trying to take out Marcus, knowing that it'll help give away your position to Skynet? As in, the position of your entire freakin' base?
- John Connor goes through choppers like Hannibal Smith went through cigars.
- At the end of the film, you'll see the slowest moving nuclear explosion ever depicted on cinema. I think this even beats out the one from Chain Reaction.
+ It's awesome to see that the timeline has changed a little because of John's actions. The terminators are being made way ahead of schedule, and he doesn't know how to cope. And given how tough the T-800 is, looks like they'd better pray for a miracle if they don't get energy weapons sometime soon.
+++ Seeing the T-800 show up wearing the face of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the most awesome cameos I've ever seen. Right up there with Buffy in She's All That.