Movie Review: Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation takes us to the year 2018, in the years after Judgement Day, when the robots have taken over the world. An army of Terminators, controlled by the artificial network Skynet, roam the earth, kidnapping and/or killing all humans in sight. Many of the remaining human survivors have banded together to form the Resistance, a desperate group who relentlessly fight the seemingly indestructable machines. Among the survivors is John Connor (Christian Bale), a man whose life goal has always been to save humanity and stop the machines. Unfortunately for Connor, the human casualties just seem to be multiplying and he must find a way to stop Skynet as it continues to evolve and develop new tactics to destroy mankind once and for all. Terminator Salvation also stars Sam Worthington as an ex-con named Marcus Wright, as well as Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Helena Bonham Carter and many more.
(As a sidenote, the T-800 that appears in the movie is actually played by a fellow named Roland Kickinger, using Arnold Schwarzenegger’s CG face. Howard Stern fans may remember Kickinger from the short-lived TV series “Son of the Beach”.)
I’m sure most movie fans are expecting the world of Terminator Salvation. How could you not? The first three movies were all simply oustanding and are movies many of us grew up knowing and loving. Well, I’m here to report that Salvation is a pretty damn good movie. In terms of action and special effects, it may rank up there as one of the best ever. Sam Worthington’s portrayal of Marcus Wright was the performance that was head and shoulders above the other cast members. For all you hockey fans out there, I found the guy looks eerily like Sean Avery (and that’s not a good thing – for Worthington). The movie moves at a good pace – it’s actually surprisingly short, clocking in at slightly less than 2 hours but with all the fighting and explosions going on, there isn’t too much time to sit back and relax. Some of the action scenes and battles between the Terminators and the humans are simply outstanding. For that, I commend the movie-makers.
Unfortunately, what this movie lacks is the story and easy feeling of at least two of the three Terminator movies. Sure the first Terminator movie was very serious, violent and definitely not chock full of laughs – Salvation really has the same somber type of feeling of the first movie. But those second two movies made Arnie’s Terminator such a likeable and pretty damn funny cyborg and this has a lot to do with what made both of those movies a hit. Salvation, on the other hand,is dark, violent and I’m pretty sure not one person in the entire movie cracks a smile, not even once. Is that a bad thing? I’m not sure if it should be or not but it would have been nice to have one wise-cracking asshole at least once or twice in the whole movie. Instead, you have a bunch of angry characters (and I suppose rightly so) that you have a really hard time connecting with and having any sort of feeling for any of them. And you also have Christian Bale, one of the greatest actors in the world today, and as good as he was, his talent just seemed kind of wasted in this movie. Don’t get me wrong, the guy was good. But he could have had a moment or two in the movie to be “Christian Bale”, if you know what I mean. He really didn’t get that opportunity, at least not what I saw. In fact, I found the Sam Worthington character to be a lot more endearing and likeable and the guy was a convicted serial killer. Something just seemed to be missing with Bale’s John Connor. As a side note, I really wonder what scene it was where Bale had his now infamous outburst…
Overall, I will say that I liked Terminator Salvation a lot, despite all the energy I used typing my complaints about the movie. I didn’t love it like I wanted but I can’t deny that it’s a damn entertaining movie. I guess I was hoping that perhaps an army of human-looking T-800’s would infiltrate the resistance or John Connor would have a big moment or I maybe would have cracked a smile or shed a tear but none of that happened. It just turned out to be a very loud but very action-packed movie and I guess that’s good enough. Too bad it wasn’t great enough. 8/10
Comments
9 Comments on Movie Review: Terminator Salvation
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dave russell on
Thu, 21st May 2009 9:44 am
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Dustin on
Thu, 21st May 2009 7:16 pm
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Aaron on
Thu, 21st May 2009 11:30 pm
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Caleb on
Sat, 23rd May 2009 1:06 am
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dave russell on
Sat, 23rd May 2009 4:35 am
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MightyMad on
Mon, 25th May 2009 1:01 am
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Michael on
Mon, 25th May 2009 8:56 pm
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Brendan on
Wed, 3rd Jun 2009 7:04 am
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easyoneoone on
Wed, 3rd Jun 2009 6:09 pm
the Stand out of this movie was the story not the actors, It was a brilliant tale of what draws the line of being human and machine. it wasnt as simple as “protect the (fill in blank) conner from the robot” this is the start of a new trilogy set after all the “hunting conner” so it is right that it should have a darker feel, the future was dark. But i think the laugh out loud moments that perhaps you missed were subtley placed throughout the movie, most notably the imaginative throw back to Arnie’s one liners such as “ill be back” and “come with me if you want to live” these moments did get some laughs in the theater without showing the humor in the movie and keep the movies atmosphere genuinely dark. throwing in comedic relief for the viewer can often disrupt the pace and tone of the movie and end up spoiling the vision intended by the filmmaker (perfect example = jar jar binks) but by having funny unique throw backs in dialog it let us as a viewer have laugh out loud moment but didnt change the tone of the film.
as far as christian Bale Vrs Sam Worthington acting… Keep in mind this movie is More about the question of what makes a man a man and a machine a machine, this is an important 1st step in this trilogy because John Connor needs to tackle these questions and feelings before he is to battle the new terminators that will evolve in the next 2 movies. i have a feeling this new cyborg terminator is simular to what model is sent back to protect him in the tv show. and i think these events are what will inspire john connor to start USING terminators as weapons against skynet to begin with. (as apposed to just killing them all) but its with all these undertone influences and themes that makes this first movie more about Markus and how he ends up influencing John conner, so it actually should be sam’s move more than christian’s and i think Christian understands this. this movie for him is a stepping stone to get to the final chapter in wich John Conner is the Hero. This story He is not the Hero, Markus is. and wich is why i think it was perfect for christian bale to play this movie as he did to let Sam Shine, it was the only way to be honest to the story. (he himself in interviews has talked about the story coming first in any and all of his acting projects )
So I liked this movie Alot better than you did (9/10) and to each his own. I always read your reviews and for the most part my opinions are dead on with yours. but i cant read your review and let you say “Unfortunately, what this movie lacks is the story” without strongly objecting.
Look forward to your next review.
Dave–
I agree with you on the story…Great action scenes, but just needed a bit more to go on.
Also, not to get too into the whole time travel thing, but in the future, why would Skynet be hunting Connor and Reese? At this point in the timeline, Connor isn’t the leader of the resistance, and Reese is just a nobody kid? Did a machine from our time go back to 2018 and be like, “hey, Kyle Reese is John Connors dad and he’s gonna be the leader of the Resistance”, lets kill them? just got a little confused thats all. (8/10)
Any movie with time travel doesn’t make sense haha.
Christian Bale is, “one of the greatest actors in the world today”? Don’t get me wrong, I like him too, but please. You’re paid money to write reviews of movies and you consider him one of the greatest actors in the world today? Absurd…Can I get a job at Empire Movies???
@Caleb Brendans Opinion’s of Bale holds merrit, not only based on box office records, as well as the simple fact that He has Shined In “almost” every movie he’s been in lately there is no denying that Bale is in his “zone” the question is how long he will stay here with his off film misshaps.
@Caleb: for you to question that Christian Bale is one of the best actors working today kinda prove that you didn’t see nearly enough movies starring Mr. Bale.
But hey, what do I know? Tell you what: name me 5 actors out there could pull off what Bale did in both “The Machinist” and “Rescue Dawn” and, promise, I’ll shut up about this…
I agree with Mighty Mad. Bale is 1 of Hollywood’s finest. Check out EQULIBRIUM and see how he wrestles with doing what is the right thing to do humanely…and what is the socially accepted thing to do…
Thanks for your kind words Dave.
Caleb, the only thing I have to say to you – I’m not paid so if you want a job, just let me know.
just saw the film and i see it got 8 out of ten here may i just ask why? i really wonder what the hell movie brendan was watchin cause 8 out of 10 this aint.if there was an 8 out of 10 film here it ended up on the cutting room floor along with the plot.Mcg coundnt direct my nan across the street bale was wasted everyone else was just pasted in here and there no continuity in the editing its just a mish mash of ideas(mostly bad) plastered togheter to look like a terminator movie,the effects were laughable ilm can make a starship(something that doesnt exist!) look real these guys cant even make a helicopter look convincing i felt like calling the cops on mcg after watching this empire need to get back to actually rating movies giving this trash 4stars is only condoning it if this keeps happening theyll give mcg the reigns for godfather 4
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