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No Salvation for this Terminator
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Bale showing his angry side
Say what you will about Christian Bale’s little “tirade” a few months back on the set of Terminator Salvation, the man can act (The Prestige, The Machinist), so he gets at least one pass from me, because I am sure that nobody else has ever acted out at work and regretted it. The producers of this movie knew what they were doing by hiring someone with the pedigree of Bale, because otherwise I could have cared less about a flamed out franchise that lost its star player to age and politics. I mean the director is McG and he directed both Charlie’s Angels movies, they obviously needed something. So my anticipation level for the latest about The Resistance and their fight to keep the human race alive against Skynet, grew largely due to Bale. What was my reward? Mixed, especially from Bale’s performance, not due to anything that he did, just lack of material to showcase him, which is something that we knew going in.
Bale is John Connor, who has been anointed the leader and prophet of the movement to save man since before he was born, and he is very aware of that, continuously playing the tapes that his mother made him from the past. We are reminded before the movie starts of the Judgment Day that pitted machines against man, and basically why the people of 2018 are in this mess. So if you are new to the franchise you don’t need to see the first two (I know there is a 3rd), but I would recommend it. They are both better than this movie for one, and at least it gives a back-story to Connor, who otherwise is pretty close to a machine himself. The best parts are given to Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin, as the machine/man who helps the Resistance and Connor’s future father, played by Michael Biehn in the original. When they are the focus the movie really shines, especially the first 45 minutes when we get the only real human elements. An early battle scene starts to hint at what is to come, but the eventual explanation falls flat, taking too long to get there.
Maybe my expectations were too high because of Bale. The action sequences were done well, especially early on, but nothing new was really introduced. The trailer for the new Transformers movie was more interesting. Sadly this wasn’t even the case of a sequel retreading old ground; it is new ground, just done very blandly.
It was good to see Michael Ironside (Total Recall) back in his element, and there is a brief CGI cameo that was kind of cool, although that sums up the movie, kind of cool. While the movie did come in at under 2 hours, there was a good amount that was left unexplored, and in this case it would have made a difference.
As always with summer movies, the talk of the next chapter has begun, and I would have been all for it about mid way through Salvation, unfortunately I grew weary towards the end, signaling to me that there really is not a need to explore this anymore. If they do go back to the well, I would put the focus back on the terminators, as the humans aren’t very interesting. In the end this movie did achieve something I didn’t think was possible…it made Christian Bale seem boring.
Grade: B-
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