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Movie review: 'Terminator Salvation'
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Terminator Salvation/2009 - Directed by: McG
Starring: Sam Worthington, Christian Bale, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin, Michael Ironside
The Plot: A convicted murderer (Sam Worthington) on death row has his sentence carried out in 2003. Imagine his confusion when he wakes up in a room full of chopped up human beings in 2018. Not only that but the world as he knew it has been smoked down to pretty much nothing. Meanwhile little Johnny Connor (Christian Bale) is all growns-up. He's got a plan to take down the Skynet killing machine once and for all. When these two guys meet - it's hot lead and cold feet...
The Good: These Terminator movies should have ended two movies ago, back when the movies had the hard "R" rating and the Bavarian buffness of Dr. Schwarzenegger - right? Take it from the guy who was fairly positive Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was going to be a blot on James Cameron's dynamic duo of time travel/killer robot movies. When it turned out to be pretty good I had to suck down a cold shot of pride and admit that my forecast had been unreasonably gloomy.
Again when I saw the first bits of film and news that my homeboy, McG, (not my "homeboy" per se' - but with that name I can't help but feel he wants us to call him "homeboy" sooner or later) and his new directional take on the Terminator tip - I was skeptical.
But as any good cook will tell you - add a little Christian Bale to anything and it tastes better. Then homeboy released that Nine Inch Nails trailer, and I was hooked. My prediction was success. Complete and total success. So yesterday when I saw all the nasty, negative, all-around unenthusiastic reviews for the new T4 movie, (I didn't read them - didn't want to be tainted - but the odor coming off of these write-ups was pungent) by the film geek community, a tiny little part of me wept. And it kept weeping right up until I plunked down in a theater seat last night and started watching McG's Terminator Salvation. Suddenly the great black cloud that had been hanging over my head dissipated and I found myself having an absolute BLAST with this movie. Sure it's a big summer action movie first, and a small piece of the John Connor mythology second. But it's much better than Rise of the Machines, and a whole lot better than the crap-festival that the critical snozzberries are trying to sell it as. Terminator Salvation, for all intents and purposes, kicks three megatons of serious ass. It sure kicked mine.
The fact that they didn't just make Sam Worthington's Marcus a secondary character, but the character the movie starts and ends with was more than just a big story switch than the advertising for this movie had us believe - it made for a better Terminator movie. Going off of movie adds we're 100% sure we're getting a Christian Bale movie. Christian's in this film, but he's not the main character. Marcus is. And in the Terminator canon the tale of Marcus, as well as the character himself, is completely new, completely unexpected, (well, unexpected until you read this) and the best thing they could have done to freshen' up this franchise. Worthington is a godsend to this film. He's a machine with a soul - lost though it may be. He's also the pinnacle of 21st century badass engineering. Like Mad Max but with no real need for guns of any kind. John Connor spends 90% of his time in the planning booth. Marcus spends his surviving in the wastelands of California. That Sam Worthington manages to pull off a cold, mechanical killer, as well as one with actual feelings, hopes, and dreams, is a testament to how potent this new actor is. We don't miss John Connor on our journey with Marcus. And when the two characters do finally meet up - the pay-off is outstanding.
I can't relate how cool it is seeing John Connor squaring off with a Terminator model he had no idea existed, or could ever exist. When a certain classic T-800 model arrives in act 3 to finally, once and for all, squash the Connor gene pool for good, (they CG'd Schwarzenegger - it ain't perfect but it was soooooo damn cool I can hardly find the strength to bitch about computer-generated models on this account) it only reinforced how ruthless and efficient that famous model could be. The OT (Original Terminator) is all work, no play and never a dull boy. For my money, he's still the best villain running in this series.
Terminator Salvation is a Summer film. By definition that means we're going to get something blowing up, something crashing and burning, something loud, another somebody-done-somebody-wrong song. And in that respect - yep - that's what we get. The action here is pretty much epidemic once the film rolls into motion. I doubt they could have found anything more to stuff into this flick. What could have been general action nonsense (GI Joe!) actually turns out to be an economy-sized vial of action crack. If you're a fan of the product, this movie will get you high brother - real high. Skynet is serious about eradicating mankind - they've got the hardware to do it too. Like I mentioned before, Marcus is more than capable of running and gunning with his cybernetic kinfolk. Once the fight is on - machine vs. machine - well, even Michael Vick will get some rod up for this nonhuman bloodsport. Just don't put any money on the fight Mikey.
Finally, let me just pull out my film-dork over Christian Bale and Michael Ironside starring in the same movie together - again. The Machinist cast in the ultimate machinist movie - totally wicked.
The Bad: Jeremiah 17: 9 says: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? McG adds: The heart can also make for a pretty dumb, late-movie, emotional plot device. I won't give away the scene itself. But when it goes down you'll see the big cheezy hand of a gawdamned writer directing emotional traffic in the moment.
I also had a hard time buying that an artificial entity as decisive and cruel as Skynet can be, ( hey they decided the fate of mankind microseconds after achieving awareness and nuked us to dust right?) wouldn't see Kyle Reese, fully aware of whose daddy he's going to be some day, and then decide to detain him...? Nah - didn't buy that one. Even post-explanation.
The Ugly: The way these man-boy critics are treating this movie - shame on you kids. Does everything have to be fashionable with this group???
The Verdict: If McG wants to take up another sequel for this new generation of Terminator films.... I'll be back.
I couldn't have predicted, or can even overstate now, how much I really enjoyed this film. From Sam Worthington's righteous performance to the spectacle of action this flick puts on display, this movie is every bit as good as it should have been with the name Terminator in the title. I can't wait to see it all over again. Don't let the barrage of negative reviews from the Critical Film Empire keep you away from seeing this film this weekend. Terminator Salvation is Rockn' Roll brother - they even managed to cram Guns N' Roses "You Could Be Mine" into the movie. So stick that up your pipe and smoke it - nerds.
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