He Said, She Said: Terminator Salvation
By D. James Ruccio III
June 1, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With each of the previous three Terminator movies, there was always a brief scene teasing what the world would be like with sentient machines locked in battle with remnants of humanity which they had attempted to destroy through an apocalyptic "Judgment Day". The scenes always evoked a desolate, ravaged wasteland where Terminators - robot killing machines - ruthlessly hunted down the remaining humans. The machines had cool ground attack ships and the robots themselves seemed to enjoy crushing the fragile, bleached skulls of dead humans each time. It was these scenes that secretly excited the audience (especially certain demographics like teenage boys, myself included). I think those of us who loved those individual glimpses into the grim dystopia hoped they'd dedicate an entire movie to expanding those single moments into fully developed movies. This, then, was the potential of the fourth entry in the franchise Terminator Salvation. The audience finally gets a chance to delve into the world only briefly suggested, where the self-aware system of Skynet unleashes nuclear devastation in an attempt to eradicate what it perceives as the threat of human existence.
Terminator Salvation begins in 2003 where convicted death row inmate Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) donates his remains to Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) of Cyberdyne Systems and her research. Judgment Day occurs. The movie then moves forward to 2018 and the introduction of the Human Resistance Leader, John Connor (played by Christian Bale), who is seen launching an attack on a Skynet research facility where they are holding captured humans in an effort to create cyborgs, robots with organic parts. Unfortunately the machines counter-attack and kill all, save for John Connor and Marcus Wright, who mysteriously re-appears.
Returning to the Resistance Headquarters located in a submarine (a very neat science-fiction concept), John Connor is made aware of the existence of a radio frequency that disables all Skynet machines. This turns out to be supremely fortuitous as the Resistance is aware of a Skynet plot to assassinate the human leadership. Oddly, to most of the commanders, atop the list of targets is a seemingly random young man, Kyle Reese (played by Anton Yelchin who also had the good fortune of playing Pavel Chekov in J.J. Abrams' wildly entertaining remake of Star Trek). The Resistance does not understand, as they do not know that Reese will be the father of their eventual leader. Only John understands the significance.
Marcus eventually makes his way to the destroyed remnants of Los Angeles and is saved from a T-600 by Kyle. They soon decide to band together and make their way to the Resistance. Unfortunately, they are attacked by Terminators that are engaged by Resistance fighters flying the appropriately placed A-10. (Also, in a bit of realism the creators of the movie very much got the choice of Resistance fighters, the A-10, correct. The A-10 was designed as a Tank Killer whose primary mission it was to blunt a massive Soviet Union armored thrust through Germany most likely at the start of any WW-III. It was designed as essentially an armored flying bathtub with a massive tank busting gun in the front. Every ten years or so, the US Military attempts to retire the plane and replace it with yet another delicate, expensive high tech jet. However, due to its incredible sturdy condition, relatively low cost and lethal effectiveness it continues to remain in service. It is altogether accurate that this plane would survive a nuclear holocaust and be used by humans to combat killer robots...but I've geeked out enough). During the attack, Kyle and Star are captured by the machines while Marcus rescues one of the A-10 pilots, Blair Williams (played by Moon Bloodgood of TV's excellent Journeyman fame). What follows is a spoiler but not really if you've seen the commercials or been even vaguely aware of the movie.
As Marcus and Blair make their way to the Resistance he is injured. It is then they and the audience finally discover that he is in fact a cyborg. He is slated for execution by Connor but saved and freed by Blair, who has formed a bond with the machine. As he escapes his pursuers, Connor among them, they themselves are attacked by Terminators. Marcus and John later form an understanding, in their common desire to free Kyle Reese from the machines, and embark on a rescue mission. I'll leave the rest of the plot here as to continue would spoil the climax and ending. And here is the part of the review where I'll do what all silly movie reviewers do and discuss what is wrong with the movie and what it should have been and a little of what it was.
As much as I anticipated seeing this film I can't help but feel let down by what was ultimately produced. The movie suffers tremendously from apparent script rewrites. Initially, the movie did not feature the character of John Connor except for a minor appearance at the end and it was only upon Bale's attachment to the project that the title role was expanded to include significantly more screen time. Unfortunately, the movie suffers from the re-writes and character expansion. The movie is not really about the character of John Connor at all. It never touches upon the relatively unexplored sci fi theme of what must a character be like to assume the near Christ like responsibility of savior of Humanity. It never discusses what the effect of this new life and world would have on the survivors. Sadly, both ideas were beginning to be well explored by the TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles before it was canceled. Instead, the movie returns to the well covered sci fi theme of "What is the meaning of humanity?" or more broadly, "What is the nature of existence?" Unfortunately, these ideas have been explored relentlessly in mainstream science fiction. In fact, this material is covered very well in the first sequel. The problem with returning to these ideas is that it's not particularly well done. Nothing new is really given to the audience to consider. This has all been covered since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. And it's ironic that Christian Bale has now starred in two franchise tent-pole movies as iconic characters that are nearly secondary in each of the films.
Unfortunately, when a film loses its audience, its minor faults are no longer excused. There are too often silly science contrivances to advance a plot point - the radio frequency "kill switch", for example. And I fully expect Skynet to simply attempt to go back 100 years and try to kill a distant ancestor of John Connor because they are not adept at time travel assassination. Apparently, Skynet likes to make the same mistakes repeatedly, with the only variation being the time and target of choice. Simply irradiating the planet to destroy the possibility of any organic material surviving hasn't been thought of, apparently. (I hate myself for doing this. I hate geeks who sit in theaters and pick apart movies like this...why am I doing this? At least I am, however, self-aware regarding this particular human flaw in myself.)
There are things, however, that are enjoyable or well done in Terminator Salvation. The relationship between Kyle Reese and Marcus Wright, as the cyborg teaches the young man how to survive, is a compelling portion of the plot. The relationship is almost paternalistic. The audience feels as though without this mentorship, the human may not survive to fulfill his role in history.
And Sam Worthington's performance is the surprise stand-out of the movie. There is something interesting in his performance that attracts the audience's attention. He is also subtle in his mannerisms as a cyborg. Anyone familiar with the franchise knows how the Terminators scan the horizon as done classically by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Worthington has the characteristics down without being obvious. He seeds scenes with small hints to his true nature in his physicality. The performance is also well done as the character struggles with the opposing nature of his machine/human existence. In the one interesting variation of the common theme (the nature of existence) he is not attempting to achieve humanity but resist those attempting to deny it to him. Given with what he has to work with, Worthington achieves a fair degree of success with the performance.
Stan Winston, the legendary effects coordinator, who died while working on the film, would be pleased with the visual result. The shattered world that remains after Judgment Day and the robotic nightmares who hunt humanity are as real, relentless and frightening as ever. It is a fitting final product for the man who was involved in such significant classics as Aliens, Predator and Jurassic Park. The effects are for the first time in the franchise entirely realized, vivid and frightening. The various Terminator models from the T-1 to the T-600 (the predecessor to Arnie's T-800) as well as all new versions are imaginative and take advantage of different types of terrain, environments and sizes.
In the end, Terminator Salvation never delivers on the promise of the earlier glimpses of the post-apocalyptic world. It fails to have as significant a genre-expanding impact as its predecessors, each in their own ways having had remarkable significance (the first being a fantastic robotic version of a horror film, the second exploring sci fi themes and the third with a brave and unexpected ending). It retreads familiar ground with easy plot devices and ordinary characters. It neither innovates nor advances the series in any way. It is standard summer action fare with disappointing pretenses of other things. As a fan of the series and the understanding that they are apparently intent on making two additional sequels with Bale, I hope they take the opportunity to explore other aspects of the interesting world available to them.