Film is Pwn

Finally got around to seeing Terminator: Salvation Friday night.  This is one of the big, Summer 2009 movies that ended up on my “Maybe” list with mixed reviews and an uninspiring trailer, and I never got around to it.

All in all, I kinda liked it.  Lowered expectations might be a good thing, this is nowhere near as good as James Cameron’s original Terminator or the terrific sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but fortunately far from the disaster of Terminator 3 sans Cameron.

Gone is Arnold Schwarzenegger, though Arnold is paid homage to with a Terminator with a CGI of Arnold’s visage at one point.  It’s a neat idea but since it comes at a pivotal point in the film when you’d like the audience to be thinking: “Oh no, our hero is in trouble!”  Instead the Arnold clone inspires you to elbow the guy sitting next to you and point out that it’s Arnold, albeit the faux Arnold is as life like as the 2003 animated Incredible Hulk.

The nuclear war and robotic revolt known as Judgment Day foreshadowed in the earlier films is now a fact and we’re dealing with the fallout.  The main character is John Connor (Christian Bale – who better?) a key figure in the Resistance, leading the fight against the evil robot overlords.  Much more interesting is the story of Marcus (Sam Worthington) who wakes up in the middle of the war, his last memory being a condemned man donating his body to science pre-Judgment Day.

Even the least astute viewer will probably surmise there is more to Marcus than meets the eye so to speak, and his character’s journey is the most intriguing in the film.  Sam Worthington will be a star, as he steals the movie from Christian Bale, who is no slouch and doesn’t phone it in here.

What Terminator: Salvation suffered from most, in my humble opinion, is the lack of an identifiable villain.  The evil machines are represented by a rotating series of terminators, in various shapes and sizes.  There are humanoid terminators, sea serpent terminators, motorcycle terminators, giant terminators, etc.  But there is no face to put on the bad guys, someone to ultimately be overcome, something big movies like this desperately need.

There is no time travel in Terminator: Salvation, though a bizarre devotion by both protagonists and antagonists that  the time travel of the first film, not yet occurred in this timeline, is key to winning the war.  Connor is determined to find Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), the man he is destined to send back in time to save his mother’s life, who he knows will ultimately become his father.  How weird is that, dude?  Why don’t you go back to the 80s, and have I mentioned my Mom is totally hot?  Take an extra week off while you’re there.  Take Mom to the movies.  Have a good time, you crazy kids!

Anyhoo, the machines have targeted Kyle Reese, which implies that they know Kyle Reese will ultimately spawn their current nemesis Connor.  How do they know that, it’s not clear.  If they want to stop it, it’s pretty easy: Don’t send a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese will never have a chance to go back in time to meet Sarah Connor, and boom!  No John Connor, right?  Too simple? Too complicated?  I’m not sure.

But put time travel conundrums aside, and Terminator: Salvation is “pretty good,” a decent sci-fi action flick.  I give it a mild recommendation — it’s entertaining enough if you’re into this kind of film, certainly not worth going out of your way to see.