Terminator Salvation Review

"Terminator Salvation" is a good summer action film but really fails to live up to the legacy of the "Terminator" franchise. One thing that must be understood about this film is that it is a new kind of "Terminator." Gone is the theme of being chased by a machine from the future and trying to stop Judgement Day. The world has already ended and SkyNet is out to get everyone.

The film starts off being as questionable as it can by showing a man named Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) signing away his body to science before being killed by lethal injection (this takes place in 2003). 15 years later and we see John Connor (Christian Bale) fighting the machines and searching for his father-to-be Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). Wright is back and is apparently some kind of organic Terminator. Connor and Wright team-up to save Kyle Reese.

While there is a fair amount of action in the film (all of it being good), there is little character development. Connor is an almost one-dimensional bad ass who speaks in Batman's gruff voice. I personally never thought of Connor being a kind of BA character since he was never portrayed like that (not even in the flash forward to the future clip from "Terminator 2" did Connor give off the super soldier aura). Connor is more of a thinker, and this was portrayed in "Salvation" when he worked with technology. Overall the character was the least interesting in the film.

Yelchin didn't make a convincing Chekov in the recent "Star Trek," but he rightfully nails it as Kyle Reese. He seemed to almost channel the quirky nature of Michael Biehn, who played Reese in the original "Terminator." Worthington takes the most acting credit in this film because his character is the deepest, but couldn't used more work (mainly in his origins). Sadly we will probably not be learning more about his character.

Bryce Howard Dallas played Kate Connor, the vet woman from "Terminator 3" who winds up marrying John. I think she was merely there to continue the continuity because she really was just any ordinary medic in the film. Oh, and she was pregnant. You get that from looking at her large belly because no one says anything about her being pregnant. No one at all. Quite strange really. I'm sure pregnancy would be a big thing in a time like that. Also in a time like that, I'm pretty sure women wouldn't have the time to put on a full face of make-up. Just saying.

I was told to look at for rapper Common in the film and also Terry Crews. Common played Barnes and had decent time in the film. Crews was a dead soldier lying on the ground. Pretty interesting role. Also in the film was Moon Bloodgood was in the film too. Well, it was a better role than in "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li." And Star, a little girl who hangs out with Reese, is basically there to add some child innocence or something like that. She doesn't even talk (because she can't...).

As I said before, action was pretty great. A scene where Wright and Reese escape a Harvester Terminator is pretty intense with MotoTerminators and Hunter Killers going everywhere. Sadly that is pretty much the only REALLY awesome action scene in the film. There is even one large explosion in a forest area that makes one laugh at the ridiculousness of it. But having many different forms of Terminators makes the film more interesting than just having the lumbering T-600s walking around. When the T-800 finally is revealed, let's just say a CGI Ah-nald actually s pretty awesome.

The cameo appeases fans of the franchise as does many quotes from previous films ("Come with me if you want to live," "No fate but what me make"). And Linda Hamilton, the real Sarah Connor, even lent her voice for recordings that John listens to in the film.

There are quite a number of things to nitpick in the story (including the plot which has plenty of holes) like just what is the melting point for a Terminator endoskeleton, how does John address the resistance across the country through short wave radio, how do they travel from L.A. to San Francisco so quickly, how do they not hear the Harvester attack until it is right next to them and wouldn't the nuclear ravaged wasteland still be radioactive?

Only other point I wish to get across about this film is that it is dark. While all the other "Terminator" films are also dark, there were moments of humor that worked within the movies. There is little humor in this bleak future, but since the future is indeed bleak, I think it might have been set-up with no intended humor.

In the end, the film is a decent action film that doesn't add anything to the franchise. By the end of the film the characters are pretty much where they were at the beginning. The only thing the movie did was introduce new actors for familiar characters and possibly start a new trilogy of "Terminator" films set in the future.

6.3/10