MOVIE REVIEW: Terminator Salvation
Rarely a film franchise goes by without a few bumps in the road, entities that come along with the possible threat that their very existence may tarnish all those that came before them. In recent years Hollywood has been on a bit of a roll when it comes to not only releasing remakes but, more importantly, sequels. It’s one thing to re market something for a new generation, it’s another all together to keep a well known one going; especially when it already has an established fan base.
Last night (or more accurately, this morning) I attended the midnight screening of Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the franchise. It was an interesting event, to be honest, because something happened that I didn’t expect: there were people in “costume.” I use apostrophes because to call them actual costumes would be a disgrace to all the nerds out there who actually put time and effort into their own.
Now, I’ve been to a lot of midnight movie premieres and I’ve seen a lot of people dress up for said occasions. When I attended “Star Wars: Episode III” there were plenty of people dressed up as Jedi, Darth Vader, etc. “X-Men III: The Last Stand” brought out those who wanted to be Wolverine and/or other X-Men. “Terminator Salvation”, on the other hand, brought out a bunch of people who entered the theater wearing aluminum foil wrapped around themselves. It was rather sad.
However, that’s not important. What is important is if the movie was any good.
First thing’s first: so far everyone I have made the follow joke to as simply groaned when I say it, but it bears repeating because it mostly sums up this entire review in two words. The film shouldn’t have been called Terminator Salvation, it should have been called “Terminator Callback” (insert cricket noises here).
What do I mean by that? Simple. Before the movie even began they had one of those “Behind the Movie” things that they play so you’re not bored by reading pointless movie trivia that gets replayed over and over. Of course they did a “Behind the Movie” on “Terminator Salvation” and they had an interview with the director wherein he said something along the lines of, “we wanted to keep it faithful to the rest of the franchise, we wanted to make fans happy.”
As a fan of many franchises, many of which have broken my heart previously with bad and unnecessary sequels, I’ve heard this plenty of times before. Promises that further films would be kept cannon, that they would respect the source material and other bullshit just to make you buy your ticket. Of course, at that point I had already purchased my ticket so there was no going back. At the same time I am a fan of the series so I had obligations to the inner-fan boy within me to stay in my damn seat. I did. While I wasn’t entirely disappointed by what I watched I was irked by a few things.
While it did stay “true to the franchise”, there were way too many callbacks to the entire franchise as a whole. Most, I would say, that were entirely unnecessary. Having a young Kyle Reese echo his words by saying, “Come with me if you want to live” and John Connor saying, “I’ll be back” just felt forced and cheesy. I half expected them to turn and look directly into the camera after saying their respective lines and wink at the audience. Also, while it was nice that Arnold was able to make a short cameo, it was dampened by the fact that it wasn’t really him and merely a body double stand-in that had Arnold’s face super-imposed upon it via CGI.
Now, maybe I’m nitpicking, but I couldn’t help but feel like their were other callbacks in the film that were just being shoved in my face. The whole ending climax where the T-800 skeleton is trying to kill John Connor, it seemed quite reminiscent in both the endings to “Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Also, I could have sworn I saw that 7-11 in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”…but that’s enough of that. Let’s move on to the things that I enjoyed.
The main focus of the movie besides continuing the mythology of the franchise, mostly as far as John Connor coming into his own as a military leader and Kyle Reese getting to know him in turn, the overlying plot of the movie dealt with the notion that has been in place since the first one and it’s something about the movie that I enjoyed. It was a callback from the rest of the franchise that felt welcomed. “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” was all right, but it was mostly an action film that helped to move along the plot of the franchise. It didn’t seem to have any heart to it, that is to say that in the end you didn’t really feel for the characters or take much away from it as the credits starting rolling.
To me the Terminator franchise has always been a case of simply man versus machine and how, day by day, we are all becoming like machines as we become more and more dependent on them to live our everyday lives. It gets to the point where you have to start questioning your humanity and ask, “Am I a man, who thinks for himself, or am I a machine that is programmed to do what I am told?” That is the main message that I have always taken away from the Terminator films and “Terminator Salvation” brought that back to the fold for me.
I won’t give away any key plot points to tell you exactly what I’m talking about, but once you see the movie you’ll know what I mean. With that said I highly recommend this movie, especially if you’re a fan of the other films in the franchise. There is plenty of action, reasonable acting and while the plot can be confusing at times and the dialogue a little cheesy it’s certainly one Terminator film that I am happy to have included in the series.
(RATING: 6 Beards out of 10 Jackets)
