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Terminator 4: needs Salvation
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This is a view of Terminator: Salvation, far removed from my usual indie reviewing style. I tend to let loose on Hollywood films. We are talking the fourth installment of the movie franchise here. Do you remember the movies that really made Arnold Schwarzenneger’s slogan, “I’ll be back”, famous? While Arnold makes a pseudo appearance in this next batch of sequels, as a CG Series Model 101/T-800, it’s not quite same as the original films.
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First off, this movie has a budget, is a sequel aimed at being a dark soon-to-be future, and stars Christian Bale. Here we go…
While the concept is “relatively” sound, which is quirky to say considering the original movies were based on time travel, T4 falls flat on many fronts. In it’s defense, the method of storytelling had to break free of the original films and the movie is quite entertaining in and of itself. However, most sequels fall prey to problems and continuity issues in one form or another. Also, it’s hard to live up to legendary stuff, even here.
Chrisian Bale is a good actor in my humble opinion, but no matter how he acted, Edward Furlong from T2 should have been cast. T3 changed actors and it kept throwing me off from everything, because I couldn’t accept the new guy as John Connor, future leader of the resistance. If you never saw the original movies, I can see that Chrisian Bale is fine for the role he plays, however, it still is a sequel.
Okay, since 1990-something, the end of world ( judgement day ) was thwarted by the end of T2. Then T3 reset the date somewhere before 2010, from what I can tell. If so, audiences should be dead if this timeline were real. I could be off on that date, but T3 did mention judgement day was only delayed. T4 here, now post-apocalyptic at 2018 shows a healthy resistance fighting the evil forces of Sky Net, the supercomputer Artificial Intelligence hell bent on destroying all humanity via Terminators, HunterKiller flying machines, and other cool or ridiculous things. Supposedly, 2027 is when John Connor’s paradoxical father and a pursuing Terminator is sent back in time to create all future events surrounding him, assuming you know the other movies. So, this 2018 shows initial strikes against each other, prototype machines, and John’s father, Kyle Reese as a teenager. It’s safe to assume this is a pre-quel of sorts, considering the storyline.
The story had a new type of human cyborg that consisted of a death row convict from 2003 now in exact same age in 2018. Supposedly, this character is a human kept alive by robotics and you find a plot twist in the making of him. There’s distrust between him and all the other characters, which is fine. However, that part gets old and many of the characters do their own thing, even though the world is in complete disarray, where people would naturally bind together a tad bit better for survival and listen to leadership. Again this is probably a pre-quel to John Connor’s main srikes against Skynet, so a set-up movie is warranted, just like Star Wars Phantom Menace.
Since they have the budget and total access to computer generated digital effects, tons of this crap is constantly thrown at us to appease our willing release of $9 at the boxoffice. I’m all for digital effects, but remember hearing that they should be used only when necessary, not just for the sake of doing so. This rule is golden to maintaining good storytelling, which this movie falls short, and I think I know why! They even have the audacity to throw a giant Transformer-like robot at us for good measure. It’s kind of cool, but as one colleague stated, “the physics of something that large being whipped around and still standing is impossible”! The self-driving Terminator Motorcycles were pretty cool, though, I must say!
Story falls short, I believe, mainly because this is pre-quel style and only sets up the bleak future. The real story is probably the next two sequels, where the original films talk tall tales about. This only set up characters and pretty explosions of nuclear type. That ticked me off to no end, considering most people should be dead from radiation, at least from the initial judgement day. Now they have micro nukes going off all over, in which characters are having open heart surgery after being injured near. If you can find a sound argument favoring the story on that one, please let me know! Underwater Terminator/ eel-like robotics seemed too much like Transformers and even played off robotic digital communications theme. Also, the cyborg human character doesn’t realize he’s half robot until shot up and showed off to himself. C’mon, do you mean that you wouldn’t feel a touch of weight or abundant power ouside of how you felt when originally human? What about a headache with that half-computer connected to your brain? They left too much to doubt suspension of disbelief, and this is coming from a guy who liked Killer Clowns from Outer Space and Critters. Even the beginning of the movie dragged a bit and got cheap when telling the brief story of the Rise of The Machines to get the audience up to speed. Michael Ironside, whom I typically love the characters he plays, simply falls short to the movie premise and his role within it. It’s obvious his role was shot in one day on one set, which is a submarine.
There were some good things that made it all worth being entertained and watching future sequels. A computer generated Arnold making a cameo does a cool personal battle with Christian Bale’s character, despite what I said earlier. Somehow they made the metal skeleton a lot more fierce and dark. The Kyle Reese character is okay, considering he’s a gung ho teenager. The visuals are good, although sensory numbing by the end. It works for Star Wars, which is all fantasy and fits, but Terminator movies have to maintain a tactile feel to allow the “survival” theme to grow off of. They went a different direction than I would have visually. It was still very good looking, but not nearly as dark and realistic as it could have been. The future flashes in the original films had a signature look to them that this only scrapes by on. Those films were made in the 80’s and 90’s. Perhaps a change in director would put it back on track. Hey, I’ve made 2 films already, how about me? Perhaps I’m nostalgic and believe that movies these days lack the look that the sci-fi of the 70’s and 80’s just fell shy of compared to what modern resources now can achieve. If only we had it back then, movies would be extra perfect.
One thing I really liked was a simple thing. When John Connor is almost finished fighting the Terminator T800, it scrapes his leftside face, scarring him. This is along the lines of the original film’s future flashes. All actors playing older John Connor have the scars.
In conclusion, my friend told me the movie premise before I saw it and I’ll be honest…..I liked his version more than the actual movie. Perhaps this is the same issue with reading a book then seeing the movie. It’s preconceived expectations not being lived up to, and considering the significance of these sequels, they have a way to go without the added pressure.
As for the next article…..I’ll be back, Kenny
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