Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

After having milked the robot going back in time plot as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger himself one too many times with the thoroughly disposable Terminator 3 there was only one logical place for the Terminator franchise to go: into the future. Ever since the first film in the series audiences have been told of and seen small glimpses of the war between humans and machines that takes place in the not so distance future. The time had finally come to explore this conflict in depth and finally deal with John Connor all grown up and leading the human resistance.

Terminator Salvation takes place primarily in the year 2018. The human resistance is battle the machines all over the world but the heart of the conflict is in California. This is where both the fated human leader John Connor, played in this film by Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) and the main hub of machine-leading intelligence Skynet are located. Connor has a very devout following from other fighters and survivors who believe only he can free them but he is not yet leading the resistance. Connor is under the supervision of commanding generals even as he leads the troops on the ground. In one raid of a machine facility Connor is seemingly the only survivor, however he does not realize there is another: Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington (Avatar.) Marcus was executed for murder in 2003 and donated his body to science, the apparently revived Marcus emerges from the wrecked machine facility having no knowledge of how he got there or the events of Judgment Day or the war that now rages. Wandering around the ruins of Los Angeles, Marcus encounters a young Kyle Reese, played by Anton Yelchin (Star Trek,) the man who will one day go back in time to protect Sarah Connor and also father John (as seen in the events of the original Terminator.) As the resistance prepares an assault on Skynet the fates of Kyle Reese, John Connor and Marcus Wright pull the three together to unravel the mystery of how Marcus came to be there and the implications it has on the war.

Based on premise alone Terminator Salvation already overcame the overriding problem of the last entry in the series: redundancy. Terminator was a wonderfully original sci-fi concept, Terminator 2: Judgment Day upped the action to new levels and gave the twist of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a good guy, and Terminator 3 felt overwhelmingly like a completely and total rehash of T2. Audiences were long overdue to finally get to witness the war that they'd been hearing so much about for so many years. The question became whether or not the reality of that war could live up to what fans had built up in their minds. While the battles in this film indicate small scale skirmishes and guerrilla warfare rather than something on a grander scale the action is still very well executed. Director McG brings the best of what he learned doing the Charlie's Angels movies and brings it to bare here. Unlike so many modern action films the chases, fights and general mayhem is easy to follow and not too shaky or containing too many cuts. The special effects also work quite well, McG wisely used practical effects whenever possible for the terminator robots and cyborgs that audiences know and saved the CGI for newer things like massive human catchers and motorcycle like hunting units.

The cast of Terminator Salvation is quite strong but few performances truly stand out. Bale as John Connor is a decent fit but he feels more like he's just being Batman again with a less graveled up voice. It works but there's a general feeling to the performance that Bale may not have brought the level of commitment to the part that he's usually known for. Then again it may be that the character was just written a little too generically. Worthington playing Marcus Wright has the unenviable task of trying to be a character we care about without knowing most of the vital details about him until later on. It's never easy to get the audience on your side when they know there's important information that has yet to be revealed. However Worthington does fairly well and he certain has a certain authority and general charisma to his presence that helps the audience accept him. The real performance to watch though is Yelchin as Kyle Reese. It's very clear that Yelchin carefully studied the work done by Michael Biehn, who played the character in the original Terminator. Yelchin perfectly personifies everything that Biehn brought to the part (including his voice and general delivery) without it ever feeling like it's an impersonation. Much like he did with the part of Chekov in Star Trek Yelchin is able to both bring back everything familiar about the character and make it his own at the same time. Reese is also probably the best written character, having all the determination that audiences have seen him with before but just lacking some of the age and experience.

Despite well executed action and decent to good work done by the lead actors there are some very significant issues with Terminator Salvation. During the production of the film there was quite a bit of turmoil, and not just Christian Bale's infamous chewing out of a crew member being caught on audio tape. The script went through some rather drastic changes shortly before filming, and it shows. The things that were changed don't flow as well as the movie does in its best moments. Specifically there were two major changes to the script, both dealing with the character of John Connor. As the film was originally conceived Connor would not even appear on screen until about halfway into the movie. He was meant to be a voice on the radio, a beacon of hope, much like Winston Churchill or FDR reassuring and encouraging the ground troops from a distance. However once Bale was cast this was changed. It's not entirely clear if Bale insisted the role be expanded or if it was done by the studio to maximize his star power (and be able to safely give him top billing.) However the results of expanding the role are detrimental to the overall film regardless of whose call it was. After a prelude scene the audience is treated to several somewhat pointless scenes of Connor on the front lines of the war. It sounds good but in a way it reduces what is meant to be a charismatic leader to more of a military grunt. The original intent of the film was always to be Marcus' story and Connor's inserted leadership arc feels forced. The other issue is the ending. Without getting into detailed spoilers the original ending was extremely ballsy and ultimately would have been more fitting given everything that's set up. Unfortunately the intended ending leaked to the internet where the concept was met with outrage from fans. Panicked by the reaction the studio ordered a re-write and the ending used is frankly rather cheesy in terms of how it resolves the stories of Marcus and Connor.

When TerminatorSalvation focuses on Marcus' quest of self discover and the character of Kyle Reese it actually holds up quite well. It's certainly not perfect as the character of Blair Williams, played by Moon Bloodgood (Eight Below) never really works. The character seems undermotivated for the actions she takes in regards to Marcus but thankfully she's not heavily featured outside of the middle section. Ultimately it's the artificial padding of the role of John Connor that causes most of the issues that the film has. Issues of the ending aside Connor (and the film in general) would have worked far better if he had stayed more in the background as a figure of hope and leadership for the other characters to aspire to. This was originally intended to be the first chapter in a new trilogy depicting the human and machine war. But with the Halcyon Company (which had owned the rights and produced the film) going bankrupt and auctioning off the franchise rights the odds are that if there ever is another Terminator film it won't have any direct connection to this one.

Final Score: 3 out of 5