Terminator Salvation: A Battle Half Lost

I can remember back to being a eight year old child during the summer of 1991. This was the summer of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. It's presence was felt everywhere, when Subway even promoted the film their slogan became: "Terminate your hunger and terminate your thirst with our subs and collector cups". I had seen the original film on television numerous times already, and like everyone else was waiting to cash in on the hysteria. The only problem was my parents didn't find it appropriate to take their eight year old son to a film geared for people of seventeen years and older. I begged and pleaded but the answer remained the same: "We will rent it for you when it comes out on video". The night they went and saw it I waited on pins and needles for information, I was sure I was missing out on one of the greatest action films ever made. I was right. My dad sat me down and told me all about it and my determination to see it only grew form there. Later that summer while on a trip to Chicago, I noticed that you could watch films currently in theaters form the convenience of your hotel room. My parents agreed to purchase it for me. What followed was a cinematic experience that will stay with me forever. The opening scene depicts Los Angeles incinerated in a flash, and the war of the machines swinging into full effect. I bring all of these childhood memories up because of that opening scene in T2 and various moments of the first Terminator. I have always thought how cool would a terminator movie be that is all about fighting in this future war. Well with Terminator Salvation we now have an answer, and I must say I am a little less than pleased with the results.

I've always loved James Cameron's bleak vision of the future. The futuristic landscape of a annihilated civilization fighting back from the brink. The steely blue night skies lit up by the occasional fireball or purple plasma blast. That is what I wanted from this movie, instead what I got was a dusty brown barren desert where machine gun bullets hit very little and gas station outposts spring up here and there. The action comes in waves instead of being continuous like I assumed a future war movie would be.

John Connor (Christian Bale) is having serious doubts about the fate of mankind, but at least he has the decency not to get all mopey about it. He plays John like a born leader by giving morale to his men, defying his commanding officer, and even sometimes kicking some metal ass. Bale and the rest of the cast are one of the high points of the film. Sam Worthington plays Marcus Wright, a death row inmate who donates his body to science fiction, and as a result becomes a human/machine hybrid. He has the metal endoskeleton and the red eyes, but his heart, mind, and soul were also left intact for reasons I will let you discover. Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) is but a teen trying to earn his place as a resistance fighter, and I have to admit Yelchin did a rather good young Michael Biehn impression. Bryce Dallas Howard takes over for Claire Danes in the role of Kate, Connor's wife and eventual mother of their unborn child. And Michael Ironside is General Ashdown the current leader of the Resistance (it's great to see him in a movie again).

The film revolves mostly around the Wright character as he meets various members of the resistance, and wonders how he came to be a stranger in this strange land (he was executed in 2003). He doesn't become aware that he is part machine until the second half of the film. From there the movie goes into this "who or what are you/am I, and can I trust you/myself" mode. Bale is really only in the first and final action sequences, only sporadically popping up in the middle here and there. It seems the machines can be smarter than the humans only when the plot requires them to be. The motorcycle terminator models can narrowly avoid debris when on the chase, but as soon as Connor needs a ride he snares one with a trip wire one could see coming a mile away (Dumb).

Terminator Salvation is a film that could have been fantastic. I blame most of its downfall on the decision to put McG in the director's seat, and to tame the whole process down with a PG-13 rating. What in the hell were they so afraid of? The first three films were major successes and they all had R ratings, so why change the format? Did anyone in Hollywood learn anything from Speed 2: Cruise Control or Alien vs. Predator? And who came up with the idea to get the director of Charlie's Angels and creator of the short lived Miami Vice ripoff Fastlane? (writing this last paragraph made me realize how much worse this film could have been). If watching man and machine duke it out after the world is destroyed while simultaneously discussing topical current events, and debating over the existence of God. I would recommend checking out the 2005 version of Battlestar Galactica It to me was like Terminator in outer space minus all the time travel.

It seems clear that this is the beginning of John's fate as a leader of men, and I'm sure that once this film becomes a hit more installments of Terminator post Judgement Day will emerge. I will look forward to them in the hope of one day seeing that sleek, cool vision that Cameron once created. C (P.S. When Arnold said "I'll Be Back", he wasn't lying.)