Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past.
As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind
Terminator Salvation
Maxabout Review
An Epic Waste of Time. .
Saturday, May 23, 2009
"Terminator Salvation," a fast-moving, rock 'em-sock 'em movie that continues the man-vs.-machines series begun 25 years ago.
McG is a director with an above-average eye and an original instinct for camera placement. But he has a major weakness as a filmmaker, and that weakness is all over "Terminator Salvation": His grand, elaborate visual sense is completely detached from his brain. What's missing is much of anything that could be plausibly described as fun.
Much is made in "Terminator Salvation" of the strength and sophistication of the new killing machines. All three previous "Terminator" villains looked human and were capable of speech. They could infiltrate human society, too. So how is this new model an advance?
Guns, grenades, and helicopters all have their roles in the battle for humankind, but an obscene tirade of that caliber could've knocked Skynet right out of orbit.
There is some
truly silly dialogue, and a few of the characters are outright cartoons (these are the ones that made me wince every time they spoke). The thing is, this filim is very serious in tone. Darker than
Dark Knight. And it makes the bad characters and dialogue annoying instead of fun.
The palette is a dull steely gray, coarsened by dust and rust and occasionally illuminated by a bright orange fireball. And the action, in spite of some aerial special effects and a few high-tech battles, is accordingly loud and blunt, a symphony of screaming gears, anguished torque and thumping collisions of metal and flesh
Do not get it wrong people just because
Christian Bale is the "star" of a movie it does not mean it is a quality film by any means. As John Connor, he goes through the film gritting his teeth and talking in a growling whisper, as though he still had the Bat ears on. In Terminator: Salvation, by contrast, the supporting performances cannot support the film on their own, and
Bale's deficiencies are on full display. Like the enemy with which he is supposed to be contrasted, he is relentless, impervious, and utterly uninteresting. Indeed, his performance is so uncompromising and devoid of nuance that one half-wonders why McG didn't leave in the infamous outtake in which Bale profanely berated a crew member who'd wandered onto the set.
Sam Worthington, as a mysterious ex-con who becomes a key player in the resistance, is the one element to salvage from the mess. He also
carries himself well in a couple of emotional scenes, despite awkward dialogue and one grimly dramatic, unintentionally hysterical moment that will have audiences howling.
People are sick of films using hot chicks (
Moon Bloodgood) who can't act just to have a pretty face in the film. Also Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard have absolutely zero amount of chemistry on film. Its like they are two people who just met and are not sure how to act around each other. Intense performance from Bale and laughable from the rest of the cast. The only redeeming part of this film are the Terminators themselves.
The movie, less than two hours long, is densely populated with semi-important characters and crammed with exposition and incident, but it rarely feels busy or talky — and a mastery of the vernacular of chases, fights, explosions and crashes.
It's an epic waste of time. Terminator Salvation, digitally engineered to approximate a rough, analog feel, is less a cautionary tale than a consumer advisory. Enjoy your new gadgets, but don’t let them out of your sight, and don’t forget where the off switch is.