Terminator Salvation
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas HowardDirector: McG
Year of Release: 2009
James Cameron set a pretty high standard with Terminator 2: Judgement Day. It was a smash hit, raised the bar for action, sci-fi movies and was probably the best movie Arnold Schwarzenegger will ever be able to accomplish. But as with any big success in this genre, sequels MUST follow. Terminator 3 was okay but left you wanting more. And ultimately Terminator 4 (aka Salvation) leaves you feeling the same way. It’s not a bad movie but it’s just not a very good one either. And next to T2, it has none of the intensity, cutting edge effects, or even the humor that film was so good at. After watching Terminator 4, you feel like it’s just no big deal.
The story takes place in the future after the machines have taken over but before the events of the first Terminator take place (sending Arnie back and the character of Kyle Reese). The thing I never really understood about the whole Terminator mythology is if it’s entirely based on screwing around with history by going back and killing people who will be important later, why do the machines pick the points in time they go back to and wouldn’t they know immediately in the “new future” if the mission failed or not? Like if a Terminator goes back to kill Sarah Connor, wouldn’t they know immediately in the future if it failed or not. And if it did fail, which it did, why not just keep sending Arnie’s back in time until it was done? Or send them back to kill John Connor’s great grandfather? And they probably figured out that Kyle Reese is John Connor’s dad so why not kill his parents? And if they keep messing with the past, do the people in the future know what’s been changed? Or is it just the same old, same old to them?
There are a million questions that logic wants answers for. And the best the filmmakers can come up is “Ummm, cool robots blow stuff up good!” Which is fine if the movie is as good as T2. But T4 is not and I just wasn’t satisfied.
The acting was actually pretty good. I never liked Nick Stahl in T3. Christian Bale was a little too hard but overall it was fine. I would have liked to have seen more Helena Bonham Carter. She’s basically just a cameo. But I thought the “fake” Arnold Schwarzenegger was a brilliant move. Overall it’s a decent movie but not really worth the effort.
