Ι want to say that I went into this movie, not with the biggest expectations, mostly because I didn’t like how the third instalment of this series turned out. But also because, frankly, I wasn’t sure I felt McG was the right person to handle this movie. Maybe because of my low expectations, I actually came out of the cinema quite uplifted and hopeful. This isn’t as convincingly done as the Batman reboot with Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale, but I felt it was a good beginning for this storyline.
First a little spoiler alert, as I will go through a small recap of the movie.
The story of Terminator Salvation starts out with Marcus (Sam Worthington) who after killing his brother and 2 cops are sitting on death row on the day of his execution, in 2003 if I remember correctly.
With him is Serena (Helena Bonham Carter), who is trying to convince him to sign his body over to her research. Apparently some cancer research, but the company on the top of the page he signs is Cyberdyne systems. This plotline is pretty much the one that carries the movie, as Sam Worthington simply put is the actual lead of this movie. He is also the one that I think McG gets the best performance out of.
I was very surprised and quite happy about this character as a whole. The lead on the page is of course John Connor (Christian Bale), which we find in 2018, jumping out of a helicopter in a lead strike on a Skynet facility. Our first perception is that this is the guy in charge, but we find out that he is yet to become head of the resistance at this point. He is in charge of a group of the resistance, but in a secret hideaway sits the actual resistance command structure.
John Connor however is someone that people look up to, as he instills spirit and will to live and go on, by airing his thoughts and knowledge over the radio waves for everyone who will listen. Marcus wakes up in 2018 somewhat frightened at first, but quickly gets his mind into figuring out whats going on. He bumps into teenager Kyle Reese, who is the one sent back in time in Terminator 1 to rescue Sarah Connor, and who becomes the father of John Connor. This in itself is quite a time paradox, so don’t start trying to figure out how all this time travel works, just accept it as a cool storyline. With them is also a young girl called Star.
Marcus ends up taking them with him in their effort to get out of LA. Kyle and Star is captured by Skynet and Marcus wants to go break them out. He manages to come upon Blair, a member of Connors resistance group, and eventually persuades him to help in a rescue attempt at the Skynet main facility, and this is where things start to get heated, as Connor is led into a trap. Basically the movie revolves around Marcus coming to terms with who and what he is, and that is something you need to find out for yourselves by seeing this movie.
I am not saying it is a big whopper of a reveal, but frankly, Id rather tell you about the feeling of the movie and how well it is done instead.
There are a bunch of other castmembers, amongst others Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, Michael Ironside as General Ashdown, who all help our majors along, but as I mentioned above Sam Worthington carries much of this movie. Theres also cameos in voice by Linda Hamilton and appearance by Schwarzenegger. And for my tastes certainly the latter is a cool moment. I am sure it will be talked about, but it was nice to see him, even for a brief moment.
As for the directing, I find that the action is well executed. However the smaller moments, in which we get to know our characters, isn’t all well done. I believe the best performance is by Sam. The guy playing Kyle Reese, doesn’t do a bad job either. In general the acting is good. I however felt Christian Bales performance to be a little over the top at times. I must say he was propably also the one I had the highest expectations of, and so was the one that would have the biggest job of pulling this off. I cant say if it’s the way John Connor is written or acted, or maybe just the way it all was cut together, but Ive seen better from Bale.
Action is the keyword for this movie, which of course most people who goes to see this franchise will be expecting. I found that it had a little too much action, so that our characters wasn’t told in a way, that we could really bond with them. It lacked some more small moments of quiet interaction. The effects, however, are well done. Theres a bunch of new Terminators, very nice high tech stuff.. It’s a barren world, after the nuclear attacks. It contrasts nicely with the future we see in Terminator 2, where it is all night scenes. In this movie, there are not that many night scenes, and it just feels right, to show the world in this battleworn way, in full daylight.
The last thing I will touch upon, is the music. I usually enjoy soundtracks from all kinds of movies, and I did like the steel on steel sounds that has been with Terminator at least since Terminator 2. I wasn’t expecting great new music I could listen to at any time, but I usually am very fond of Danny Elfmans work, and thought it at times was too loud and big for the movie. Sometimes less is more, and for me, that would have been preferable this time around.
All in all I came out of the cinema with the belief that we may still have great stories from the Terminator universe, and that we at least have a fine piece of action movie, with the potential for a good story arc.
