Terminator: Salvation (Movie Review)

The Terminator franchise is one that I have enjoyed quite a bit. Despite the first two films being very different from each other, they were both executed wonderfully and hold up very well today. Terminator 3 had some major shortcomings but I still found some things to like. And the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show has been a fantastic addition to the mythos.

Coming into "Salvation", I wasn't sure what to expect. The visual look of the film looked appropriately bleak in trailers, but the PG-13 rating had me concerned that it would lack the violence that makes this franchise what it is. My estimates were not too far off.

From the opening of the film, we're introduced to a new character, Marcus Wright. Surprisingly, he seems to have more screen time in the movie than Christian Bale does as John Connor. Although the Marcus character is interesting, the focus he stole from John Connor was a downside of the movie. This franchise has always been about the Connors, and to spend so much time on this character seemed to take the movie off center.

The story is alright, mainly focusing on the mystery of Marcus Wright and who/what he is. It also spends time developing John Connor's place in the resistance movement. Reportedly, before accepting the role, Christian Bale asked writers to re-write the script into something that would be interesting to simply hear read on stage. I'm glad he did this, since even in its finished state, the plot and characterization were adequate, but not gripping.

In Terminator 2, we saw a wonderful character performance by Linda Hamilton, who presented a very complex and damaged Sarah Connor, yet Christian Bale's John Connor doesn't have any traits that separate him from a number of other heroes in this genre.

Bryce Dallas Howard is given virtually nothing interesting to do, a complete waste of her talents. Hopefully she will be given more, should this planned trilogy continue.

The Marcus Wright story does pay off enjoyably in the end and gives a sense of closure to the film, though the climax doesn't reach anything close to the intensity of the first two Terminator films.

The last charge I have against this film is that the Terminators didn't seem to do much terminating. They capture people and sometimes manage to kill them, but we see very little of the cold, brutal killing so common to terminators in the movies and even the TV series. This is partially because there are (almost) no T-800's yet, which are made to look human, resulting in a more ruthless portrayal of their actions. But T-800's or not, this movie missed the mark on a vital component of the franchise.

I don't blame this on the PG-13 rating. The TV show has terminators doing a fair amount of killing, but shot in a way that minimizes the gore/violence. This film just seemed to avoid killing in general. A very strange decision. As a result, I never felt dread upon seeing a terminator or other Skynet machine. I didn't really fear for the characters and the machines did not make me worry.

Now, on to what I liked. The color scheme in this movie is wonderfully grim and captures the post-apocalyptic feel perfectly. In a world dominated by machines, seeing everything in shades of gunmetal grey feels right on target.

I don't say this often about films, but I really enjoyed the special effects! They used a combination of physical and digital effects when representing the machines and terminators that made the world feel real while still being fantastic. At one point, the film also uses special effects to digitally recreate an actor, and I've never seen this done better. They wisely used smoke and other ambient visuals to mask the imperfections of their CGI work. I would say that a full 50% of the digital character's "face-time" I thought to myself, "That looks completely real"! Hopefully, they will use this effect again in the future films, as it was a moment that definitely reminded me that I was watching a Terminator flick. Likewise, I hope to see film-makers take notice here and continue to push CGI forward, while hiding it's defects in the meantime. A VERY good use of the technology.

If you come to this movie to see action, you won't be disappointed. From top to bottom it has plenty and the accompanying explosions and other visuals do not fail to be fun. This is also a world that is VERY cool to look at. The variety of Skynet machines and the ways in which they behave create world worth exploring.

Now to Relevance. Does this movie say anything relevant to the human condition or the true nature of reality? Undeniably.

First, we unfortunately have to hear Hollywood's spiritual motto yet again. At one point, while listening to a recording made by his mother, John hears her instruct that when he isn't sure what to do, "just follow your heart". (Yeah, THAT'S the most reliable decision-making system.) Once again, I'd prefer that Hollywood say "do what makes sense and hope for the best" or even "Do what you think is right"(as opposed to what FEELS right). We'll do a lot less damage to ourselves and others that way.

The Marcus Wright character seems built into the story specifically to ask one question: What does it mean to be human? The premise of this movie, and stories like it (The Matrix, Battlestar Galactica) seems to lean toward the idea that humans are really just complex machines, with no spiritual component, since machines can apparently become "self-aware" and develop feelings and all the other traits that make us human. We're meant to sympathize with the machines equally, since they have become "just like us". These kinds of stories are usually implying (purposefully or not) that we either have no spiritual component, or we are able to give machines spirits like our own, placing humans in a pseudo-god position.

"Terminator: Salvation" says something surprisingly different at the end. In a voice-over, one of the main characters delivers the "moral" of the writer's story by saying that what defines humanity "can't be programmed into a chip."

With a few exceptions, sci-fi largely comes from a darwinian/naturalistic view, where there is no spiritual component to humanity. But this movie clearly implies that there is something beyond the physical that makes us what we are.

In the final analysis, this is a great movie that doesn't feel as much like a Terminator flick as it should, though many will still enjoy it with good reason. It also lends itself to meaningful conversation at several levels.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language

Quality: 8.5/10

Relevance: 8.5/10