Where’s My Salvation?

 

I love the first two Terminator movies. At the time of release they were inventive, interesting, and epic. The story was complicated intertwining the future, the past, people, and robots. They were well written, casted and directed. This may be because the director wrote the story and knew how he wanted to present his vision and they have held up great over time.

Terminator 3 was a let down. It was clumsy, childish, and lacked that dark, intense air that the previous movies had. But at least there seemed to be a point. Even though it was badly told it still moved the story along and for that reason I can’t truly dislike the film, I still have a soft spot for it.

As I sat watching Terminator Salvation I felt nothing but mild confusion, frustration, and utter disappointment.

The confusion stems from the film casting. The out of place Helena Bonham Carter plays Dr. Serena Kogan who convinces a death row inmate to donate his body to science. And later reappears as the face of SkyNet. Her strange doe-eyed face and odd demeanour usually adds to the roles she plays but she just didn’t belong. Sam Worthington plays that death row inmate and a special terminator in the future. He just didn’t do anything. He yelled and screamed but lacked any kind of emotion. Moon Bloodgood was also in the movie. You will remember her from Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. She is one of the worst actresses out there. There was also Anton Yelchin who played the young Kyle Reese. I loved his Chekov in Star Trek he was light and fun but in this movie he just didn’t fit the role.

And then there is Christian Bale. I thought he would be great in the role of John Connor. The man raised to be the leader of the resistance that rises up against the machines and saves mankind. All he did was channel Batman he just didn’t have the mask on. That raspy I-have-a-soar-throat voice he does just didn’t work. If I closed my eyes I may have been confused as to which movie I was watching. 

The frustration was from the script. The writers were trying to pay a lot of homage to the first 2 films (they made no references to the third film that I can recall) but not in simple subtle ways. They pretty much shone spot lights on every reference that was made not wanting anything to be missed. The overall dialogue seemed amateurish like if they picked a fan-script that was sent in by a 40 year old shut-in who flunked out of high school. Nothing new was said and nothing interesting was said there was just a lot of regurgitation.

The utter disappointment comes from the overall film. It just didn’t work. There was no oomph to give Terminator Salvation that awe-inducing factor. There was CG overload in the film (not all of it was good), with grand sweeping landscapes, explosions, chases, dog-fights, and still I was bored. You could tell the film makers were really trying but they just couldn’t get it right. This movie had all the components to make a great action film but some how they just didn’t fit together. I don’t know if I should blame this on the director McG (who has only done a couple of movies but mostly TV and music videos) or if it had to do with the other components, the acting, script, editing, graphics, set design, costume…and more. Or maybe it is simply the combination of these problems that chips away at the quality of the overall film.

I can’t stop die hard fans of the Terminator franchise from watching this. It doesn’t really add to the story but it is now part of the storyline. But the people out there who aren’t into this and for some reason thought about seeing it don’t bother. Just watch the first 2 movies, that is all you really need.

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