Terminator Salvation

Ah the glorious fireballs of summer. Massive orange explosions of gasoline-y goodness, filling the popcorn-plexes with warmth and our hearts—both human and cybernetic—with glee.

Oh, you want more from your summer action films than just things blowing up in cool and creative ways? What are you, some sort of Commie Socialist Progressive hippie freak? Take your fireballs, embrace your fireballs, love your fireballs!

The Terminator franchise has always been about fireballs--some bigger than others. But it's also somehow packaged hopeless, fatalistic despair as good, escapist, summer fun. And for the most part that angle worked.

James Cameron’s first Terminator film is a sharp little spring-loaded treat that cracks along nicely as part “oh, crap!” thrills and part “oh, wow” time-travel mind tripping. His follow-up, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is much more of a good-natured action-film thrill ride—you know things are a skewing friendlier when the first film’s ultimate bad guy gets rehabilitated into the hero.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (the movies’ subtitles are always a film ahead of themselves) is largely decried as the franchise’s fatal misstep, mostly because fans just couldn’t imagine a Terminator film without Cameron. (U-571 director Jonathan Mostow stepped in.) However, T3 isn’t an awful action film--just a weak Terminator film. And it does eventually get the nasty job done: namely the nuclear destruction of the planet by HAL-9000’s much meaner little brother, Skynet.

Which brings us to Terminator Salvation. It’s nine years in the future for us, 15 years in the future for the folks in T3, and… well, let’s stop there. If you start trying to suss out the franchise’s fictional time line, you’re gonna get a headache. After all, by their reckoning, the big ka-boom was supposed to have gone down in 1999. Anyway, it’s 2018 and robots rule the Earth, having turned cities to rubble and everything else to a gunmetal grey, dusty wasteland. Yep, we’re squarely in Apocalyptic Chic territory, and that clanking you hear in the distance isn’t Johnny 5.

Fighting with (not yet leading) the human resistance is John Connor--played as a sullen, rebellious teen by Edward Furlong in T2, as a sensitive emo loner by Nick Stahl in T3, and now grown up into Christian Bale. (In addition to a cameo adult appearances in T2, there was also Thomas Dekker in TV’s recently canceled The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but keeping the time-flipping T-line straight is going to be hard enough without dragging that series into the continuity.)

Connor’s casting maturation brings with it all sorts of peril. For one thing, J.C. knows what grim twists his future holds—he has an audio road map courtesy of long-gone Mom. For another, there are lots of really cool new kinds of Skynet gadgets trying to eradicate humans in general and (still!) Connor in particular. And finally, adding to audience discomfort, Christian Bale would rather gnaw off his own limbs (or the nearest DP) than crack a smile.

The irony is that Terminator Salvation was never supposed to be John Connor’s movie. Director McG had originally envisioned it as the tale of one Marcus Wright, a prisoner executed in 2003 who finds himself, much to his surprise, alive again 15 years later. Played by Sam Worthington (yet another hotshot Australian newcomer), it is Wright who is supposed to provide TS (T4? T4S?) with its emotional heart and dramatic sturm un clang.

Unfortunately, getting Christian Bale on the project meant pandering to the star’s whims. McG originally wanted Bale to play Marcus. Bale wanted the smaller part of Connor. Then set about making Connor the center of the film. So while I normally hold the director and writers responsible for a film’s overall success or failure, this time it’s all on Bale. He broke it, he bought it. And Terminator Salvation is a bit broken.

Not that the film doesn’t work just fine as robotic, non-stop rattle and grind action. McG takes his lumps for his rap-aggrandizing moniker and the flimsiness of his resume (his only other feature films were the bubble-gum snappy Charlie’s Angels remakes and, oddly, We Are Marshall), but I’m on his side this time. He has an assured, clear eye for mayhem, and T4’s action scenes are just dandy—especially a bravura bit involving a giant evil Tonka Toy “Harvester” that looks like a headless Transformer and honks out a spine-chilling death horn swiped from Spielberg’s War of the Worlds tripods.

And while some of the other various Skynet nasties come off as Matrix rejects, the old-model T-600 Terminators (the hapless dopes the preceded the Arnie model) have a delightfully cocky retro shamble. And we finally get to see all those ultra-cool Hunter-Killer robo-airships we glimpsed back in T1 and T2. Although, as happened in Aliens, the more Terminators there are, the less unrelentingly unkillable they become and the source of their menace becomes quantity, not quality.

No, the action rolls along just fine. But as usually happens as franchises get long o’tooth, people forget the people. The first three Terminator films were not about robots and Ahnold’s Teutonic bulk. They were about the regular, relate-able folks—the poor, put-upon Connor family—trying to come to grips with the Metal Machine Madness raining down on them from the future. Well the future is now and not only is it grim and gritty, but it’s devoid of anyone—human, hulk, or hybrid—to root for. Everyone in the film seems to be motivated simply by the notion that this is what people do in action films (i.e, yelling “Run!!!” a lot at one another).

Blame it on Bale. I don’t care about his little on-set wig-outs (other than as winter amusement), but clearly he’s over-intensified things here. Macho-ing it up for its own sake, Bale seems to have no respect for the material. I know we’re talking about summer movie robot monsters here, but any fan of action, fantasy, or sci-fi flicks knows that the best performances (and films) happen when the actors take the proceedings—no matter how outrageous—seriously.

Despite having done similar duty in the dragons-rule-the-future Reign of Fire, and Nolan's Batman films, here Bale seems to have nothing in his oh-so-serious soul but dismissive contempt for his surroundings. In Reign of Fire he offered humanistic balance to Matthew McConaughey’s Patton-ed scenery chomping. This time it’s Bale who’s the battle-scarred hard case, but all he bothers to do while playing Connor is clench his jaw tighter, bark out more clichéd orders, and pretend like he’s just too tough to care.

As a result, we get no sense at all as to how the personable, likable young John Connors of the previous films turned into this grimacing, robotic buzz-kill. Sure, sure, 15 years at war in a post-Apocalyptic wasteland will harden any man (just ask Max Rockatansky), but there’s no hint, no glimpse at all (other than the prophetic destiny he has a vice-grip on) of who John Connor is anymore. That would have worked fine if Connor had remained a distant figure in Salvation—perhaps just a disembodied voice of hope on the ham radio sets. But Bale’s 500-lb divo participation thrust Connor into the center of the film, and the prima uomo actor seems uninterested in making it—or the character—worth our while.

Worthington tries his best to give Marcus Wright some angsty complexity, but too often he has his hands—and mouth—full just trying to wrestle his American accent into place while out-jaw-clenching Bale. Despite his sharing the center spotlight, Marcus ends up not making much of a mark on the film. The role is pre-loaded with tons of interesting Philip K. Dick-inspired electric sheep dreaming, but by the time Salvation gets around to going all Matrix on us (in a scene Helena Bonham Carter probably won’t be sticking on her career highlights reel), Marcus the character has slipped away.

Anton Yelchin does much better as young Kyle Reese (played earlier… or later… or whatever… by Michael Biehn in Terminator 1), further adding to the summer break-out cred he got rolling as Chekov in Star Trek. Moon Bloodgood is along to pretty-up the screen as a winsome freedom fighter and tries to squeeze a few human emotions in between the film’s glowering leads. I’m also told Bryce Howard is on hand as Kate Connor, the Claire Danes part from T3—though the fact that I barely noticed the actress or the character on screen speaks volumes. Honestly, I was much more excited to see the much-loved Michael Ironside--the gravel-voice, hard-attitude icon of sci-fi B-movies.

As for that increasingly tricky internal Terminator time-travel logic, well, I’ll leave it to you folks to sort it all out in the comments. Even setting the temporal mind-bending aside, there’s plenty of “wait, why don’t they just do that…?” and “How do they know that…?” and “If they can do this, then wouldn’t it make much more sense to just…”

And if you thought it was a handful figuring out what was when in Star Trek a few weeks ago, you’ll have a ball here. Salvation’s time line is straight foward, but the more I start to think about the chronological pretzel that drives its plot (Connor has to rescue Reese so Connor can send Reese into the past to become Connor’s father) the more I’m convinced the Terminator franchise has painted itself into a narrative loop. I mean, there’s no evidence yet that sending Reese back in time in the first film did anything other than allow Connor to be born… so he could send Reese back in time, so he could be born, so he could send Reese… and so on…

(Terminator Salvation is positioned and scripted as the first film in a second trilogy, so maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye. But if a few years from now T6 ends with John Connor sending Kyle Reese back to 1984 and then rolls credits, well I don’t see how all these decades of high-octane hand-wringing have gotten us anywhere.)

In the end, Terminator Salvation is laser-targeted at a very specific audience: young men who love them some Nu Alterna Mope Metal and some no-nonsense war-movie butt kicking. That plus the film’s bleak, ashen color palette sometimes makes T4 feel like a near-future National Guard commercial.

There’s lots of cool this and awesome that, and McG keeps it all zipping along. But for those of us who like just a smattering of humanity—and maybe a few ideas—in our dystopic escapism, there’s not much to swallow between the bash ups. In terms of engaging entertainment, this is more like Terminator Malnutrition.

Comments

[runescape money]

I loved it. I thought it did justice to the series, and I now cannot wait for the following films

[onlyokforme]

i agree with the narrative loop. I saw terminator 1 and t4, none of the other ones and I didn't even feel lost watching it because it just goes back and forth. T5 and T6 shoould try to cover how John Connor is the hero of the whole situation. I did like the character of Marcus Wright, that added a bit more drama to the movie.

[Chris A.]

Great review. You hit all the right points. And as for T5, I don't think that's gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised to see Terminator Begins now. Keep Bale as far away as possible, please!

[Richie]

This film is, to quote Shakespeare's MacBeth; A Tale told by an Idiot, Full of noise and fury, Signifying, Nothing.
The other three problems; Arnold's Terminator doesn't Terminate, just goes WWE on JC >> WHY doesn't Skynet kill Reese after they capture him >> and where is the Resistance getting the fuel/spare parts for all those planes and choppers, to say nothing of the fact Skynet doesn't attack the airbases. Hmm, just wondering...

[Eric]

I thought it was rather good, if not lean on plot. Certainly better than T3 in most every aspect. I thought McG showed a lot of respect for the franchise & source material, giving plenty of nods to the prior films. My biggest complaint would be that this didn't really flesh the plot out like I feel that it could have, & makes me wonder what could've been A) with a longer running time, & B) without Bale's input on the storyline.

Maybe someday we'll see a director's cut released that will give us a film with a little more depth. But by no means do I think this was a bad film.......just maybe a little premature of what it could've grown into.

[SERGEY]

thi is the stupides terminator movie is like a SCI FI MOVIE SUCK BIG TIME

[kristin]

My 13 year old could not wait to see this movie and went on Sunday. He stated pretty much what the reviewer did- some cool effects, but that was it. His main complaint was that there was no main 'bad guy' it was mostly all big transformer type terminators, no foot soldier type, very much like 'war of the worlds'. He said you did not care what happened to any of the characters---no connection, no comedic moments like the other films. There was almost no talking, he got confused as there was no explanations just action. According to him, all the prior movies were way better. This one not worth much more than a $1 rental.

[ANGELIA]

I am a big Terminator fan and this film was very disapointing. We have all the episodes,and this will be one I will not waste my money on to buy, its not worth the film it was printed on.What happen to keeping the origanal people in the movies,instead of new ones.THANKS FOR THE TIME.

[Jill Hockney]

I have watched all the terminator movies and I agree this was not one of the best.
I was waiting for Arnld's terminator to re=appear as a main character..and I'm still confused about the paradox of Kyle and John being alive at the same time and place..I thought for sure one would die so the other could live..what do I know
BUT I'm still glad I saw it and I do think there will be another Terminator released ..

[glenda elschlager]

hAve not seen it