Terminator Salvation

Title: Terminator Salvation (Terminator IV)
Rating: 2.5/5
Genre: Action
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood
Director: McG

I wasn’t intending to watch this, for after the fiasco of the abominable third things looked like they were not going to shape up to much more, even with a larger ensemble of cast members reputed to be able to act, a larger budget, and a plot that isn’t just a re-imagining of the first three, and yet the result was not as bad as it easily could have been. Skipping to the year 2018, the resistance waging war against the machines seems to approaching its conclusion with the discovery of a frequency capable of disabling the enemy. With a major assault on Skynet imminent, it is the discovery of straggler Marcus (Worthington) – an ex-Death Row inmate given a second chance by a bio-research company – that has Connor (Bale) worried; speaking of his father Kyle Reese (Yelchin) trapped by Skynet, he will need to infiltrate the enemy to rescue his father before all is lost.

What made the first two impressive was not the special effects – despite them being fairly forward thinking for its time – nor was it the actual plot itself. No, it was the idea of Sarah Conner; flying wit and punch lines running around keeping that twat meant to be the saviour of the human race from dying doing something stupid. As a character he was boring, given nothing to work with beyond some special figure destined for great things, warned of an abominable future. Fast forward to a time without her looking after him and we’re left with Christian Bale’s image of an adult Connor; still stupid but now without his boyish charm. At best melodramatic and whiny, screaming even his most mundane lines in a manner that you can just imagine the outtakes of his soldiers mocking him as soon as his back was turned, like school children rebelling against an ignorant teacher. At his worst, we see him interact with his wife, except you wouldn’t know for all his scenes with her involve him telling her to get out of his way.

Then there’s the female lead role with barely a line to say, only in the script as a fleeting love interest and a means to fill a couple of gaps, and whilst given no opportunity to develop her character in an even minor way, remains disappointing when you realise her most memorable scene was the end credits when you saw her real name. Even the role Worthington’s character – often cited as the highlight – in the script is given little time to really develop into something realistic, but at least in this case he succeeds in remaining interesting, if not quite lending a unique flair and descending into mediocrity all too often. No, for me the highlight remains the little girl not yet with an age in the double digits, somehow always with the right tool and a smile that says “would this help?” When someone so young with a minor role and no lines to say makes a bigger impact than the rest of the cast, you know the acting can’t have been exceptional.

There are other small nuances as well; the fact that everything appears so shiny and new, or how we’re reminded every time Connor utters “if you’re listening to this, you are the resistance” that the machines aren’t smart enough to tune into a different radio station, or that the stragglers on the edge of survival may not have enough food or fuel but have enough explosives to carpet bomb an entire area in the hope of hitting one man, but these are prevalent in almost every action film and so it feels unfair to criticise it too harshly in this regard. What is deserving of criticism, however, is the ending; it seems as though they went out of their way to make an original film in the saga, only to intentionally return to an almost identical ending involving one particular CGI cameo that was simply unforgivable.

I went into this expecting a bad plot and worse acting, saved only by the action sequences, and whilst not proven wrong the end result I find fairly polarised. The plot – whilst not a replica of the last three films – was fairly awful, the acting left a lot to be desired and many of the characters felt superfluous to the film, all leading to a fairly poor effort. And yet on the other hand the actual action felt interesting, even inventive at times and performing well above what I expected. The gas tank that failed to explode when shot (as seen erroneously on so many films) only to be fixed with a flare or the manner the machines intersected and interlocked demonstrates a creativity missing from ‘The Matrix.’ After all is said and done, the good must be taken with the bad and the result sits in the middle, neither truly deserving of praise nor derision. No, this wasn’t the abomination of its predecessor but I can’t help and think, why not make the next one about someone more interesting?

Below: Connor trying to teach two T-800’s to play ‘Hide and Seek’