Review - Terminator: Salvation

Studio/Production Company: Warner Brothers
Director: McG
Release Date: May 21, 2009 (theatrical)
Genre: Action
Strong Points: Masterful visual style; the post-apocalyptic world we’ve been waiting to see for years is fully realized; strong performances by both Christian Bale and Sam Worthington; some impressive camera work.
Weak Points: Good characters, script, and plot have been tossed out the window and replaced with a constant bombardment of action.
Technical Score: B
Artistic Score: B
Final Score (not an average): C
Moral Warnings: The action is intense and frequent; some minor curse words throughout including one use of “son of a *****”.

Buckle up, kiddies. Terminator is back. Under the direction of McG (the visionary director of "Charlie’s Angels" and that one football movie everyone has already forgotten about), the post-apocalyptic world and the war with the machines is finally revealed 25 years after the first "Terminator" film. And it’s war all right, as probably 112 of its 115 minutes are filled with explosions and gunfire and terminators and people screaming. You know. The things that sell tickets.

Salvation takes place in 2003 in the post-apocalyptic...no, wait. That’s later. The opening scene is of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a man on death row in 2003. We don’t know what he did, but he feels pretty bad about it and we get the Oh-the-terrible-things-that-I’ve-done-and-do-you-believe-in-second-chances-blah-blah-blah moment. If my heart was supposed to go out to him for that, it didn’t. After discussing his inner turmoil/angst to a doctor (Helena Bonham Carter), he signs his body away to Cyberdyne for some unknown project (I wonder what on earth THAT could be) and is executed.

Okay. NOW we’re in 2018. For the uncultured, there’s a cute "Star Wars"-ey opening crawl that gives a quick recap on exactly what the heck is going on in 2018, though really it’s pretty easy to figure out if you just watch the screen and don’t fall asleep, which should be no problem considering how many explosions and gun fights and lions and tigers and Terminators-oh-my show up.

Basically, it all boils down to man vs. machine, and this is something that the previous "Terminator" films have all been able to pull off quite successfully. However, since Salvation takes place in the post-apocalyptic world we’ve only seen brief glimpses of in the previous films, it’s man vs. machine on a remarkably larger scale.

For those who have spent significant time dreaming about what this machine-controlled 2018 would look like (because you’re weird like that), I say unto you: dream no longer. Because it’s here, and it’s beautiful. And by beautiful, I mean desolate, despairing, disturbing, and many other negative adjectives that start with the letter “D.” If there’s any place that McG and his team have succeeded in full, the creation of this world is it. It’s barren, empty, and makes you believe that Judgment Day really happened. Think "Children of Men" with Terminators as the bad guys instead of people (coincidentally, "Children of Men" was one of McG’s main influences for the setting).

Add that with some truly impressive cinematography by Shane Hurlbut. Shaky hand held camera work and one-shot takes are all over the place, and it’s gorgeous. They’ve set this world up and captured it perfectly. Mr. Hurlbut, I echo the words of Mr. Bale when he said: “Oh, good for you.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to save "Salvation" (see what I did there?). It’s not a mess, no. Not at all. But its flaws are too significant for it to be the fourth "Terminator" film that we all wanted it to be. The characters are one-dimensional and underdeveloped, particularly John Connor (Christian Bale). My guess is the writers figured they could rely on his development in the previous two films and throw him in as-is, leaving more room for explosions and helicopter crashes.

Okay. I’ll admit it. The helicopter sequence was awesome.

Though, really, the show doesn’t go to Connor. It belongs to Marcus, the Terminator who thinks he’s human. Sam Worthington actually made me like his character, but even then there wasn’t any big feeling of attachment like the one I got out of "Terminator 2" (poor Arnold).

What replaces this character development? Action. Very well done, heart-pounding, visually striking action. But still action, and my mind begins to wander at the possibilities of how much better Salvation could be if just fifteen minutes of Terminators were taken out and well-constructed dialogue put in. Maybe we’ll find out when the sequel is made. Time will tell.

"Salvation" isn’t a light PG-13. It’s a dark film, wrought with intense fire-fights, frequent explosions, helicopter chases, and just overall plenty of violence to go around. Language was surprisingly sparse, though it is there. In one scene, a group of men intend to rape a woman, but they are stopped before they can do anything.

"Terminator: Salvation" has its flaws, and it certainly could have started the “beginning of the end” on a better note. But there’s a lot that’s done right here, and that gives me a good deal of hope for whatever the next step is for this series.

-Zak Mellgren (zak@revolve21.com)


Second Spin by Drew Regensburger

As I read Zak's review, it seemed apparent that I had either had different expectations for the newest "Terminator" film, or that I had watched a different film. I don't know. But after the mess that was "Terminator 3," I wasn't expecting much. What I got was a movie that was both fun and visceral, a movie that didn't betray the previous films in the franchise but embraced them. John Connor, while not the sole main character of the film, really comes into his own here, echoing the slow transformation we began to see in "Terminator 2." Anton Yelchin is in top form as Connor's teenage father Kyle Reese, going so far as to emulate speech patterns that Michael Biehn had in the first two "Terminator" films.

And the visual style is impressive, as mentioned above. But when it comes to the character development already present, I have to disagree. It's not entirely unreasonable to expect viewers to be familiar with previous material in a series; after all, "The Empire Strikes Back" assumed familiarity and didn't rely on exposition in film to establish previously established characters. That means that in the fourth film in a series, focusing more on developing new characters makes more sense than expanding upon a character that has been built up over the course of three films and over twenty-five years.

All of that said however, "Terminator: Salvation" is--barring some clunky and corny dialogue--a treat to watch. It's a lesser "Terminator" film, but then, it's hard to surpass the first two films in the series, simply because of their status as sci-fi/action classics. Still, it towers over the diminutive and unimpressive "Terminator 3," and sets up the continuation of the series, leaving me (much like Zak) hoping that the next film in the franchise will be that much more impressive.