The A-Train’s Pullbox

TERMINATOR SALVATION

Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin, Helena Bonham Carter, Common
Written By: John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris
Directed by: McG

Synopsis: The year is 2018. Judgment Day has come and gone. The war between Skynet and the Resistant is in full swing. John Connor is not yet the leader of the resistance but has established a reputation. Marcus Wright has been in a coma for a long time and awakens in a time he’s unfamiliar with, in the middle of a war he didn’t know was happening. He meets Kyle Reese and John Connor, and may be Connor’s best chance at defeating Skynet. But can Wright be trusted? Is he one of us? One of them? Or something else?

My Thoughts (spoiler free):

Alright… I had huge expectations for this film. I’ve been waiting for it all year. The trailers filled me with the same excitement the WATCHMEN and THE DARK KNIGHT trailers filled me with. And since X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE was comparable to last year’s THE INCREDIBLE HULK, (although Incredible Hulk was much better), and STAR TREK was this year’s IRON MAN… I was really holding out hope that TERMINATOR SALVATION would be this year’s THE DARK KNIGHT.

Those expectations were way too high. Luckily for me I waited quite a while after the movie premiered before watching it. By the time I saw it, mostly everyone I knew who saw it told me it was terrible…

“Christian Bale’s worst movie.”
“Plot holes everywhere!”
“Bad Performances.”
“Too many Matrix-Like-Elements.”
“McG’s a horrible director!”

…and I could go on. So as you can imagine, at this point before watching the movie my expectations went WAY down. I mean, it’s been running at a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s pretty horrible. Add to all that the fact that STAR TREK was pretty much flawless and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

So now that I’ve officially seen it, how was it? Well, I can sum it all up by saying: Its far from perfect, but its not the horrible film people have made it out to be.

I’ll try to even out the positives with the negatives as best as I can here. We’ll start with Common. Who in the heck thought that Common was a good enough actor to be in a Terminator film? He’s not. He’s not good enough to be in anything. Every line that guy said yanked me straight out of the movie. Conversely, the rest of the cast was pretty good. Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin, and Helena Bonham Carter were all very good in each of their roles. In fact, the chemistry and dynamic between Bale and Worthington was pretty great. You really bought it. And Worthington totally pulled off his task of standing up to Bale on screen.

Then there’s the editing. There was something about it that seemed off to me. McG put a little too much “music video” into this movie. Some bad cuts, coupled with some cheesy transitions, and a mediocre credit sequence that gave us, not one, but two title cards and TWO mentions of McG as director. Why? I don’t know. Maybe its ego. On the flipside, the opening credits, albeit mediocre as mentioned, were a nice nod to the original Terminator movie’s opening credits. And despite the editing problems, the special effects and action sequences were very well done.

The story has its problems in some spots. The ending seemed a bit rushed and anti-climactic. I suppose its better than the original ending, but even though the original ending was bad, at least it was ambitious and epic. This one just seemed like the best they could do on short notice. I do, however, enjoy the Marcus Wright storyline, as well as the Kyle Reese element.

I especially enjoyed seeing the impact of John Connor on the resistance, even before he’s officially the leader. This film has some problems, and McG was the wrong director for it. But the fact is, it takes the franchise seriously, unlike Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. And it’s deep seeded in Terminator mythology. You’ve got the creation of the T-800 (Arnold’s model), great throwbacks to the original two movies, including the location and nature of the final battle, and, of course, some classic Terminator lines.

The score was okay. Nothing to write home about. But good enough for a cool action flick. I wish there was a little more use of the Terminator theme but otherwise its pretty good.

The fact is, this is not Christian Bale’s worse movie. I’d position REIGN OF FIRE and HARSH TIMES lower on the list than TERMINATOR SALVATION. And I enjoyed those two films to a certain extent too. And I’d definitely say SALVATION is better than RISE OF THE MACHINES.  Its ultimate undoing was McG. In the hands of another director, it may have ended up much better.

Its definitely a movie you have to watch at least once. And watching it in the theatre is recommended, if for no other reason than the action and special effects. Its not THE DARK KNIGHT. Its not even THE INCREDIBLE HULK. But its definitely not CATWOMAN or ELEKTRA either. Also, for the record: There is nothing Matrix-like in this movie. Its the opposite. There are Terminator-like elements in The Matrix. Remember, Terminator came first. And here’s hoping the deleted nude scene with Moon Bloodgood is on the DVD because that would REALLY move the movie up a couple of notches.

… I’m kidding.

… Sort of.

The A-Train’s TERMINATOR SALVATION Rating: 3 out of 5 machine guns.