Back in the year 1984, a little movie about an unstoppable robot from the future was released. During that movie there was a fifteen minute sequence that showed the robot infested future. It was a dark future with a ton of chrome, purple lasers and skulls as far as the eye could see. TERMINATOR SALVATION is the movie based on that sequence.
Actually, I guess you could call this movie the prequel based on that sequence, since lasers of any color seem a ways off and the landscapes are composed of dust instead of human brain-holders. It starts out as some guy named Marcus (growled by Sam Worthington) is about to be executed in the present for a crime that he committed in his past, but feels awful about. Before he’s put on ice, he agrees to donate his body to science. This comes into play later.
With that little bit of history out of the way, the movie jumps ahead to the year 2018, where an action sequence is taking place. You see, in between the execution of that guy and the next scene, a googlesque computer program named Skynet became self-aware (I do look fat in these pants!) and decided that it was sick of people and launched a bunch of nukes to wipe us out. But we’re tough bastards, so there are survivors who call themselves The Resistance who resist being killed.
So we’re dropped into it as jets trash a bunch of satellite dishes and a giant robot. We also get introduced to John Connor (Christian Bale in unshaven and gruff mode) who kind of leads The Resistance even though he seems pretty low on the military food chain. Despite his rank, people listen to him anyway because he inspires them over a CB-radio like the Bandit. I guess he’s like their mascot. Since everyone likes him so much you’d think he would be a higher rank, but his bosses don’t want to acknowledge his accomplishments and either promote him, give him a raise or even give him a coffee mug with his name on it so he has somewhere to put his pens because he doesn’t drink coffee. The more I think about it, the more I realize it must suck to be John Connor’s commanding officer because you can give him an order, but if he doesn’t feel like doing it, it’s not getting done. You can’t even go to another underling to do the mission because he’ll look to John, who’ll give him a stern stare and…it’s just not happening.
Anyway, John Connor’s chopper lands and he shoots a terminator in its metal face while disembarking as someone says “John Connor is on the ground” over the radio. It’s a great introduction. The rest of the scene was awesome as Skynet counterattacks. The whole thing has a fantastic feel to it as the camera follows the action and tries to make you feel like you’re riding on John’s lap. It’s definitely good stuff.
The movie then shows us that Marcus is still alive. He wanders into what’s left of Hollywood and bumps into a young Kyle Reese (they could have used that de-aging technology on Michael Biehn like they did Patrick Stewart, but decided to go with Anton Yelchin instead) and his mute, child sidekick. They form a merry band and try to escape from L.A. with Reese playing the role of Map to the Stars Eddie to Marcus’s Snake Plissken. Eventually, Reese and the sidekick are abducted by a giant robot and the rest of the movie is about Marcus and John looking to save Kyle so he can be sent into the future and killed after knocking up Linda Hamilton.
The biggest plus in this movies favor is that the action is top-notch. Special accolades go to the John Connor opening and the Harvester attack at the gas station. All the robot designs were pretty cool too. Take the Harvester for instance; a flying prison that has a giant robot attached to its back and the giant robot has two motorcycle robots hiding in its legs. It’s like a robotic, killer Matryoshka doll. I also enjoyed the look of the T-600’s. They really look like the prototype of the Arnold model; bigger, clunkier and not able to infiltrate as well because of the lack of human skin, gatling gun hand, etc. It also wore a duster, but sadly, no cowboy hat or sombrero.
I will now discuss the movies faults in reverse order of terribleness.
In my most humble opinion, the movies second biggest problem is the splitting up of the story between Marcus and Connor. Marcus spends most of the movie brooding and walking; while Connor talks about leading people a lot but doesn’t actually do much leading. If the movie had picked just one snarling lead and followed his adventures it would have felt more complete.
The movies biggest problem is the ending, which was a little dumb. I’m going to forgive the whole “Skynet not killing Reese immediately so that John Connor never exists” thing because Skynet might not have known that Reese was actually John’s father, but just that John really wanted to talk to him; perhaps about sports. But (now people may call me crazy for this) I’m afraid I cannot condone helicoptering in a very pregnant Kate Connor (whose only purpose in the movie is to exist, played by Bryce Dallas Howard) into the heart of a killer-robot factory during a dangerous rescue mission/raid. She didn’t even wear a bullet-proof vest. That is just poor parenting even by apocalyptic standards. I know that might seem like radical thinking because pregnant women have proven time-and-time again to be excellent front-line soldiers, but that’s just who I am.
The heart-transplant thing also felt really forced; like they had to find a way to have a dramatic ending because saving hundreds of people and blowing up a factory of doom isn’t enough. But really, it’s a little too convenient that the two leads were blood-type matches and viable organ donors for each other. It also didn’t make a lick of sense on a strategic level. I mean, who would you rather fight Terminators with, a guy who is recovering from heart-transplant surgery and will probably never be the physical specimen he once was, or someone who is half-man-half-machine that did pretty well going toe-to-toe with the latest and most Austrian model of killer robot? Connor really wasn’t looking out for The Resistance on that one.
So, in summation, TERMINATOR SALVATION is a good action movie that’s light on story and let down by its ending. On the plus side though, there is a digitized Arnold clone that is fantastically done and when his nakedness emerges from the smoke…it’s a great moment. I should also mention that the lighting is excellent and not the least bit distracting.
