Movie Review - 'Terminator Salvation'

Terminator Salvation Starring Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, and Anton Yelchin Directed by McG Rated PG-13

It's 2018. John Connor (Christian Bale), the prophesied leader of the resistance against the continuous waves of machines built on destroying humanity, is coordinating his independent groups of fighters along the Pacific coast to launch an attack on Skynet's San Francisco headquarters. When we last saw Connor, he was watching the beginning of the end of civilization some 15 years earlier, an event engineered by Skynet, but his role in this revolution was preordained. He was born to lead the resistance, according to his mother, and he's always known this day would come. In one of the more interesting science fiction narratives the motion pictures have ever produced, this is one of its more compelling chapters: When John Connor becomes John Connor. So how in the world could Terminator Salvation fail so miserably? There are a few culprits. Obviously, with any bad movie (especially one that should be good), you look at the director. McG is not known for this kind of film, and when he was announced as the director, purists took great exception to the former music video director and the man behind the camera for Charlie's Angels putting his hands on Terminator. But this is not solely McG's failure, and as far as the direction goes scene-by-scene, it's actually decent. He does not, however, manage his film and its parts very well. The screenplay by Michael Ferris and John Brancato (who also wrote T3) is almost non-existent. Indeed, for entire sections of the film, no script is even required or evident. Where the screenplay is involved, Ferris and Brancato have concocted dreadful dialogue backed by very little motivation. The film has two primary plots, the first of which is finding Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), who will be a stranger to you if you've never seen the first Terminator. Reese is John Connor's father, the man Connor himself will send back to the 1980s in a future installment of the series to save his mother from the Schwarzenegger Terminator. Reese, of course, can't know Connor's his son, but that's hardly the point here. We just need to find him. The other thrust is the only real salvation in Terminator Salvation, a death row inmate named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) who wills his body to science in 2003. Fifteen years later, Wright wakes up, not realizing he's been dead or that he's now mostly machine. He's a more human character than Bale's John Connor, and Wright would be destined for a big breakout even if he didn't have a few other major projects on the horizon, beginning - oddly enough - with James Cameron's Avatar. Think a younger, slightly more empathetic but slightly less polished Russell Crowe. It's hard to blame Bale for being such a letdown in this. He's given almost nothing to work with, outside of finding Kyle Reese and yelling about Skynet and machines. The character is just so incomplete. Still, it's ironic that Bale's much-publicized outburst at director of photography Shane Hurlbut comes on a film where the cinematography is several steps ahead of Bale's performance. There is a signature action scene in Terminator Salvation, a terrific 15- to 20-minute sequence, and you have hope at that point that conditions will improve. But none of the action after that matches it for gusto, intensity, or purpose, and the story has already thrown just about everything at you it can. The real problem is that merely finding Kyle Reese isn't enough of a movie. Anyone who has watched the previous films in the series knows that answer already. So there is no suspense in saving Reese from giant robots, and the story doesn't put anything else out there for John Connor to do. Again, the Marcus Wright subplot is much better, although it doesn't have any connection whatsoever to the John Connor arc, at least not organically. So Brancato and Ferris wrote themselves into a corner that Bale's intensity can't get them out of.

Comments

[Sean]

Wow Colin you really railed against this one didnt you...

For months prior, me being a loyal follower of this site, thought you were in total support and admiration of the film, but apparently the film didnt meet your expectations.. uhmm im surprised to be honest but any whoo..

"Still, it's ironic that Bale's much-publicized outburst at director of photography Shane Hurlbut comes on a film where the cinematography is several steps ahead of Bale's performance "

--OUCH! lol ... nice little jab there!

One question though, are you really comparing newcomer Sam Worthington to a younger Russell Crowe????
--can you elaborate on that a bit because that is a very BIG comparison, and quite a compliment I would say, so I was wondering if you can elaborate more, by responding to my post! : )

and what do you mean less polished?

THANKS

PS ... oh yeah I must say I love Anton Yelchin, he has a lot of experience on film and made a lot of connections, and is very young what 20 or so? he has a huge future and is very talented in my opinion, great actor

[Get The Big Picture]

1 - Being wowed by trailers is a completely different kettle of fish. It's pretty easy to separate the two, actually.

2 - Worthington has a real muscularity in her performance here, and even though he's only 5'10" (like Crowe, oddly enough), he fills much more of the screen than that. Crowe is one of the more naturally gifted guys in the business, and he's been able to put that to good use over the years when he's up to it. He's a real craftsman. Worthington just isn't there yet. He's raw, slips on his accent a lot, stuff like that.

3 - Yelchin is OK in this, but he doesn't have a tremendous amount to do. I'm sure that'll come down the line, though.

[Michael]

Marvelously accurate.

You may want to correct the misspelled "prophesied" on the first line, though...

[Lengthy Johnson]

Bravo, Colin.

Explaining why a move works or doesn't work is the most essential part of a film critic's job.

Making a good action movie requires a lot of IQ and EQ to make the audience invest emotionally in the characters and story.

There has been a huge trend to put style over substance, which rarely works for any type of genre, but especially not for films that require suspense to work.

Also, I am still at a loss to understand why people have not realised that Christian Bale is the most overrated actor in his generation. He has been up-staged, over-shadowed and out-performed in every film he's made since The Machinist.

How can he become celebrated for not delivering the goods?

[orinn]

so see it cause I'm a fan and expect an ok movie. Maybe I'll wait until the dollar theater.

[Adam]

Wow. Sounds like they should've kept the leaked ending.

[Thornrage]

I completely disagree with this review. Wow. The movie was an extremely fun experience!

[MRPigg]

Spot-on assessment. The script was terrible, and it was not wrong to be overly excited going in, because the trailers are showcasing the mostly solid visuals and not the story. I agree that McG is not completely at fault, but you have to also point out that maybe he's not so good at directing actors.