Terminator Salvation Needs Saving

Jan 11, 2010 by Nathan Smith

Movie Review:

Terminator Salvation

Now on DVD is the fourth instalment of the long running Terminator franchise: Terminator Salvation.

Skynet is once again hunting down human saviour John Connor (Christian Bale), only this time he doesn’t have Mr. Arnold “terminator-gone-governor” Schwarzenegger to protect him. In fact, Arnold isn’t even in this one at all.

The absence of the starring character isn’t the only major change though; Terminator Salvation now boasts a depressing post-apocalyptic setting, just to keep up with the times. It seems no one makes a movie these days unless the modern world is somehow left in shambles.

While Skynet is busy enslaving humanity, Connor tries to figure out what he’s supposed to do to save everyone. It almost seems like the screenwriters couldn’t answer that question either.

Bale is certainly one of the better actors around, but there isn’t much for him to do here. He just seems to grumble through most of the film like he’s rehearsing for the next Batman sequel. I wouldn’t put much of the blame on Bale though; John Connor just isn’t very interesting this time.

It also doesn’t help that a lot of screen time is dedicated to another character, Marcus Wright, played by the soon-to-be-huge-star Sam Worthington. Marcus is a death row inmate who, after signing his body over for medical research, wakes up in the future with no idea what’s happening. He’s also a machine, a twist the filmmakers oddly wanted to show everyone before they watched the movie.

I haven’t really said much about the story yet, and that’s because there isn’t much to say. Marcus’ struggle of being part-human and part-machine is one of the highlights of the film, but even this is wasted potential. Terminator Salvation is by no means a character-driven film, so there isn’t much substance or thought put into Marcus’ unique position, or the relationship he builds with Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood), a fighter pilot for the human resistance. These elements all sound great on paper, but unfortunately were left straggling behind in execution.

So what’s left then? Action has always been a big highlight of the Terminator franchise, and Salvation proves no different. Bullets are spent in excessive amounts, there are some large set-piece battles, and of course, more terminators sent through time to fix the mistakes of…other terminators sent through time.

The problem with the film relying on this is that nothing really stands out. Some of the action sequences are filmed quite well, but without any substance to back them up, it’s hard to care about what’s happening.

It seems the filmmakers just didn’t capitalize on some of the great ideas that writer-director James Cameron built a foundation on with his original two films. Salvation is certainly a step-up from the disappointing third instalment in the franchise, but ultimately, it just feels like wasted potential.

Verdict: **1/2

(Out of a possible ****)