Terminator Salvation Movie Review

Terminator Salvation

Movie Review

Picture the scene: you're an average middle aged parent and your child, a bright nice boy if easily misled, brings home a new friend to play (who we shall call Christian). You recognise the boy from neighbourhood streets. He seems a bit boisterous, but you agree that they can play in your son’s room. An hour passes, and you ascend the stairs to check on the pair. You open the door and are greeted by a massacre. Your son and Christian have systematically dismantled and strewn all of the component parts of your son's favourite toys about the carpet. Your son, normally so quiet, is laughing like a jackal whilst wrenching the head from his – for arguments sake – Zac Efron action figure. You cock your finger, shake it and, deciding your son's fate can wait until later, scream at Christian “Now you wouldn't do this in your own house, would you?”

Terminator Salvation, directed by Joseph McGinty Nichol, left me feeling like the shocked parent in this scenario. The fourth instalment in the Terminator franchise deals with the events surrounding a young (ish) John Connor's first meeting with his teenaged father Kyle Reese and the story of Marcus Wright, a convicted murderer put to death in the year 2003 who inexplicably finds himself alive in a post Judgement Day earth. As a footnote, I should mention that for the duration of this review I will not be calling the Director McG, his much used nickname, that being best reserved for Irish hip hop stars.

So, why was I left finger wagging the Terminator credits? Many reasons, the first and best of which is that although the special effects which the movie burns into the screen are jaw droppingly believable, there is nothing behind the gilded frippery. The clichéd, paper-thin story smacks of the worst kind of affected bad assedness, which at times is laughably unbelievable. For example, in between jumping from helicopters into submarines and repeatedly being the only man to survive encounters with the enemy, John Connor somehow finds time to give – apparently untraceable - radio addresses to the troops whilst sparring with resistance high command for their hearts and minds. If that great American creature The Fonz ever taught the world anything its that trying too hard to be cool instantly negates any coolness there was to be had.

Further, what story there is manages to delve too far into parts of the Terminator mythos best left to an audiences imagination, whilst at the same time treating the meat of the plot in such a shallow manner as to be unengaging. In previous films human existence under Skynet was only glimpsed in brief snippets, before reverting to a timeline contemporary with the present day. What James Cameron (Co-Writer and Director of the first two movies) grasped – a point which remains elusive to his successors - was that future events were best left to the fertile machinations of the audience member, who was – and is - much better equipped to do them justice than any CGI. Now that the plot line has moved through the looking glass to occupy a point that was reserved for background thought during previous instalments, this movie needed – and failed – to introduce some new element to plug the imaginational gap.

I additionally counted numerous examples of borrowing from other source material. Some instances are welcome allusions to previous movies, such as the “come with me if you want to live” line which has become a staple of the series and a CGI “cameo” by Arnie whilst other scenes ape Transformers and War of the Worlds. What cannot be forgiven though are plot points which should never have seen the light of post apocalyptic day. The “you're relieved of command, soldier”, or the “we have a secret weapon that we can use to win the war” segments have been done past death. Their unengaging and simplistic nature contributes to the collapse of any attempt this movie makes at intelligent storytelling beneath a pile of borrowed ideas and hackneyed plot.

The last big problem with this movie is Christian Bale. McGinty arguably sacrificed too much to cast arguably the hottest movie star in the world as his leading man. McGinty rewrote the script with Bale, put up with his on set persona and even allowed him into the editing room to shape the finished product. Listen to the tapes of Bale famously berating and threatening cinematographer Shane Hurlbut at length. Not once does the director suggest that the star may be acting like a spoilt preadolescent. The irony of this is that for all the hassle he had to endure to secure Bale, what McGinty got was a slight variant of the stars Batman portrayal; growling, unrelentingly brooding intensity regardless of context which, without a cape and cowl to hide behind, makes John Connor seem less heroic mercenary, more raving lunatic with a Messianic complex.

Ok, enough of the bad stuff. What should make you want to open your recession lightened wallet for this movie? Well, as mentioned above, the special effects are spectacular, as is the camera work. The money, for the most part, is up there on screen, with technically inventive camera work and plenty of explosions and loud noises.

The cast, Bale apart, turn in decent performances. In particular Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington deserve recognition – more than Bale at any rate - for their portrayals of future father Kyle Reese and death row inmate Marcus Wright. I liked Michael Ironside as General Ashdown, the leader of Resistance High Command despite the fact that he's presumably hired more for his weathered looks and distinctive gravelly voice than his ability to tailor his acting to a particular character. Bryce Dallas Howard is almost non-existent as Connor's wife Kate, whilst Moon Bloodgood is passable as Sarah Connor clone Blair Williams.

If you can view this as a stand alone movie, just another summer blockbuster, there are enough well thought out action sequences to keep the pace from sagging, which, at a little under two hours running time, is an achievement worth mentioning. If not then don't bother. Go see Star Trek, or wait two weeks for the next Biggest Movie Ever.

6/10