(Long Island, NY) Terminator Salvation was pretty good, but it wasn’t the movie I wanted to see. At all. Back in 1984, an unknown director named James Cameron introduced us to a low-budget science fiction film simply called “The Terminator.” It told the tale of a post-apocalyptic future war between an evil supercomputer called Skynet and the remnants of humanity, devastated by a nuclear holocaust the survivors dubbed “Judgment Day.” The eponymous Terminator was a flesh-covered robot sent back in time to the year 1984 by Skynet to kill the mother of the leader of the human resistance, John Connor, before he was even conceived.
The film was a huge surprise hit, and served to launch the careers of both Cameron and a certain Austrian bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzen-something-or-other, who played the unstoppable T-800 Terminator (well, he was eventually stopped, but you know what I mean…). Among the film’s highlights was Cameron’s dark and unique vision of the future: cities blown to rubble, human beings reduced to little more than rats living in dirty underground bunkers, starving and frightened of the killer machines hunting them down. And yet these poor souls still possessed the courage to rise up and fight back against the robotic Hunter-Killers and Terminators, eventually driving Skynet to the brink of defeat. This nihilistic conflict was dubbed the “Future War”, and audiences found themselves hoping for a sequel set in this dystopian future.
Come 1991, a sequel to The Terminator finally became a reality. While it wasn’t the futuristic battlefield movie everyone was hoping for, it certainly was the next best thing. Cameron and Schwarzenegger re-teamed for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and this time Arnie played a GOOD robot, re-programmed and sent back to the past to protect a young John Connor from an advanced liquid metal Terminator called the T-1000. Like the first entry of the series, T2 was a massive hit and raised the bar not only for action films, but character and storytelling as well. Again, Cameron teased us by showing another glimpse of the Future War between Skynet and humanity in a flashback scene (which was originally supposed to be longer, but was cut back due to budget constraints), and again, we all hoped that the talented and creative director would eventually give us the big payoff in a third film.
Alas, this was not meant to be. After another hiatus, a Cameron-less Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines hit theaters in 2003 (directed by Jonathan Mostow), and AGAIN it featured a good Arnie-bot (Schwarzenegger’s final film before becoming Lord and Master of California) being sent from the future to protect John Connor from a bad Terminator. Can you say “re-tread”…? Anyway, while T3 was a competent action film, it otherwise lacked everything that made the first two installments so memorable- a strong storyline and characters, an original plot, and most notably, the Future War! Sure, T3 had the obligatory flashback sequence of that much sought-after event, but it was annoyingly short and appeared to have been inserted almost as an afterthought.
Both The Terminator and Terminator 2 became cultural phenomena, becoming engrained in popular culture and generating millions in merchandising. Terminator 3, in contrast, failed to match both its predecessors in terms of cultural significance, and was seen more-or-less as an inferior cash run, tarnishing the brand. With James Cameron having no interest in re-joining the franchise and Arnold retired from acting to govern California, The Terminator again went into hiatus, its future uncertain.
Eventually, Terminator Salvation was announced, and guess what? Word on the street was that it was eschewing the usual time travel hooey of the Terminator series and focusing on…John Connor (played this time by the awesome Christian Bale, no less!) and the Future War! After so many years of waiting, fans felt excitement welling up…until the director was announced: McG (AKA Joseph McGinty Nichol). Known for the mind-numbingly stupid Charlie’s Angels films, most Terminator fans felt McG lacked the chops to do their beloved franchise justice. And alas, they were right.
Terminator Salvation opens unexpectedly: on Death Row in 2003. Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) has a date with a needle for killing some people, but first he signs an organ donor form supplied by Dr Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter, who almost single-handedly ruins this movie), a representative of Cyberdyne Systems (the company that will one day create Skynet). Then Marcus is executed, but if you think that’s the end of his story, you haven’t been watching the commercials on TV.
Fast-forward to 2018: After the nuclear bombing of the Earth by Skynet, shown at the end of Terminator 3, the machines wage war against the rag-tag leftovers of humanity. We meet John Connor (Bale), future leader of the rebellion against the machines, who we all have watched grow up as a character throughout the Terminator series. He’s leading a group of soldiers in raiding a Skynet facility, a raid that winds up being a trap and leaves him as the only survivor. After Connor makes his escape, we see our friend Marcus from the opening scene stumble out of the same stronghold, 15 years after being supposedly put to death, naked and very confused as to what’s happened to the world around him. Marcus takes some clothes from one of the many corpses lying around and sets out to explore this strange new land. He soon runs into and befriends a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), who Terminator fans will recognize as the man who will one day go back into time and father none other than John Connor himself. Reese is kidnapped by a Skynet harvester and Marcus, despite only knowing the kid for 10 minutes, decides it’s his duty to rescue him. Taken to the resistance for help by a jet fighter pilot named Blair (Moon Bloodgood), Marcus meets John Connor face-to-face. It is at this point that we all discover that Marcus has a wee little secret that even he doesn’t know about, and one that instantly causes Connor to wonder…is this stranger a friend or foe, and can he be trusted to help free Kyle Reese, a man John desperately needs to survive to ensure his own existence?
And in addition to this potential threat, there are rumblings of a new, more advanced Terminator prototype being developed by Skynet as flawless infiltrator…one with living human tissue covering a deadly metal endoskeleton and an Austrian accent…
Early on in Terminator Salvation we realize that John Connor, the man who the entire Terminator universe revolves around, will be basically a guest-star in his own movie. You see, Terminator Salvation isn’t John’s story…it’s the story of Marcus, and that’s one of many problems this film brings to the table. While Marcus’ story was somewhat interesting, his whole plot-line should have not even been in the movie. It not only added nothing to the Terminator myths, it ALSO took away from potential John Connor and character development scenes…all of which were desperately needed.
Where did Terminator Salvation go wrong? It’s both easy and hard to say. Early in pre-production, much was made of Christian Bale’s insistence that you should be able to read the script on a stage with no special effects and still find it compelling, but in the finished product there is no character development whatsoever. None. Not a second of time was spent on establishing who any of the characters were or their relationships with each other. If you had walked into the theater from off the street never having seen a Terminator movie before, you wouldn’t have cared about anything that happens to anyone in this movie- everyone is a blank, featureless cardboard cutout. That alone is unforgivable. Bryce Dallas Howard co-stars as Kate Connor, John’s wife, and was just there to look all googly-eyed and pregnant. I don’t think John even said her name once or even noticed that she was knocked-up. It’s sad, really.
Also, to the chagrin of Terminator fans the world over, this version of the Future War in Terminator Salvation isn’t anything like the awe-inspiring one shown in James Cameron’s Terminator films. Those flicks showcased a blackened, dark, ruined landscape overrun by humans and machines firing purple lasers at each other, sort of like the most awesome G.I. Joe cartoon ever brought to life. And when taking breaks from turning robots into scrap, humanity basically lived a lot like homeless people in NYC’s subway tunnels- dirty, scared, eating rats and using TVs as fireplaces. That imagery was striking, because it really drove home the level of desperation the human race was taken to. But in Terminator Salvation, missing is the incredible nightmare world of Cameron’s films- the resistance casually lives out in the open, have large above-ground bases and hangers, bright white teeth and perfect hair! It’s like modern actors are terrified of looking in any way unattractive, even when it’s called for like in this instance. I mean, these people are supposed to be living in a nuclear wasteland and eating toxic garbage! Where are they getting toothpaste and Crest whitening strips?
Another reason this was a sub-par Future War (and in turn, Terminator) movie is because there was BARELY ANY human vs. Skynet forces action on display. Almost none, really. Sure, the human resistance might run into the occasional, rusty old Terminator prototype or flying gunship, but otherwise that’s it. Apparently Skynet controls the planet with just two minigun-toting T-600s (admittedly very cool rubber-skinned predecessors to Arnold’s deluxe T-800 model), two flying gunships, two robo-motorcycles, and one big robot that looked to be on loan from Will Smith’s Wild Wild West movie (which stomps around loudly yet can sneak up like a ninja on unsuspecting victims hiding in 7-11s). Human vs. robot conflict is aparently given the backseat treatment in favor of shoving a bunch of non-developed characters down our collective throat that you won’t know any more about by the end of the movie than when you were first introduced to them in the beginning. Also, where did the purple lasers go? Everyone is toting machine guns suddenly. Don’t they have…ray guns?
The point I’m trying to make is that I’ve waited years to see a Terminator Future War movie. So where the was my Future War?
That’s not to say that Terminator Salvation was horrible. While McG gets nothing out of his actors (save for Bale, Worthington, and Yelchin, who are all very good), the film itself is fast-paced and full of well-done action pieces. There’s no suspense to speak of, due both to the aforementioned lack of character development and some poor editing, but that’s par for the course when it comes to today’s action movies. Also well-done were the visuals, with a nice mix of excellent CG and real, physical props created by the late Stan Winston. A CG-assisted cameo by a certain governor was especially jaw-dropping- there’s scene late in the film where we meet the T-800 for the first time, and this was achieved by mapping Arnold Schwarzenegger’s computer-generated mug (circa 1984) onto a double’s body. The effect was flawless- it was like Arnold was magically de-aged 25 years, for all intents and purposes. This technology opens up all sorts of scary possibilities as far as bringing back actors that are old or dead for new movies, but the scene itself seemed very convoluted and pointless, inserted just to please the fan-boys. Arnold could have been used better. Still, it was cool.
The cinematography is expertly carried out, with an especially interesting scene early on that involved Connor taking off in and crashing a helicopter, all in apparently one take. The film’s color is desaturated to the point that it almost looks black and white in some scenes, but it does help to convey the desolate nature of the world we’re viewing. Overall, it’s safe to say that Terminator Salvation looks real nice.
But the more I think about it, the less I like this movie. Like I said, it was good in the mindless, plot-less action flick sense, but it was nothing like the kind of movie I (or everyone else) wanted (ot the Terminator series deserves). And it had a lot of silly nonsense that really ruins the experience once you sit down and think about it. That may take a while, however, since it’ll take your brain a while to clear after being assaulted non-stop by all the pretty explosions and CG. Sadly, in McG’s hands, the Terminator franchise has yet another dud. Plot-wise, nothing of any consequence happens in this movie- at the end, both humanity and Skynet are in the same exact places that they started in. Word is that this happened because the producers envision Terminator Salvation as the start of a full-blown trilogy and are waiting for the future entries to really let loose, but in my opinion any film should be able to stand on its own without waiting for other movies to make it complete, or relying on the viewer’s intimate knowledge of the source material to make sense of it all.
I hope honestly that McG never gets to make another Terminator movie again, and the reigns of Terminator 5 are handed to someone who can take better care of the once-revered series, previously known for its heart and soul as much as its special effects. In the end, I’m probably being much harder on Terminator Salvation than I would be if it were simply a stand-alone film without the excellent Terminator 1 & 2 in its lineage, but being a film critic can make you a little jaded, I suppose. Such is the hard life I lead…
