Terminator Salvation (review)

Rating: 3/5 Worth watching
*Possible spoilers if you haven't seen the trailers or any previous Terminator movie

This is not the future Sarah Connor warned us about.

It's actually a good deal better. People seem to be doing alright considering a nuclear Judgment Day happened just 15 years ago. Sure they have to fight robots when those robots notice them, but that only happens when you've been too long without an action sequence. As long as you had an action sequence recently you can feel safe sitting next to a fire in the middle of the desert at night, or being on a well sized airfield with plenty of fueled ready to go planes in plain view. No need to hide underground except when the lighting needs to be dark, dreary, and ominous for effect reasons.

To be honest Terminator Salvation is not that bad. Anyone who has watched any part of this series knows that letting some things slide must take place to make it through these movies. At least the previous three movies tried to stay within the bounds of what I call "action movie reality". McG (director) just pushes things so far that you become lulled into a state of not even trying to argue how realistic it is anymore. Which works and makes this movie reasonably entertaining when you shut your reality meter completely off.

It's the year 2018 and people have begun to form a resistance against Skynet (the self aware militarized robots who seek to destroy humanity and unleashed Judgement Day in 2003). The unofficial leader of this resistance is John Connor (Christian Bale) who has been fighting this future since before he was born. To secure the future Connor must save the teenager Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). [spoiler]The man who Connor sends back in time that becomes his father[/spoiler] In order to do this John Connor must defy the true leadership of the resistance and trust his instincts. Along the way he is helped by his close friends and a newcomer Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) who hides a secret [spoiler](he's a robot)[/spoiler] that makes Connor suspicious of him.

The acting is alright though not much was required of these roles. Marcus Wright is about the only character with real conflict. The characters are more like the scenery between action sequences as this movie is a string of CGI laden action with creative new robots but not so creative new characters. It's like Mad Max meets the Transformers.

If you're a fan of the franchise and the action/sci-fi genre then this movie is worth watching for the tremendous pace and great look and sound of the action sequences. There are a ton of references to the other Terminator movies here in music and dialogue but beyond that it's mostly a mindless action movie. It doesn't have those mind bending sparks of challenging fate that you find in other parts of this franchise. This future is pretty secure. John Connor runs the show and is incredibly tough but even Sarah Connor saw that coming.


Terminator Salvation at IMDB
130 minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.

My Statement Of Purpose