Paradise Reel

Terminator Salvation

Synopsis: John Connor, prophesized leader of the human resistance, must rise to his role in the war against the machines.

Two years ago, I got wind of a continuation of the Terminator franchise. After the dismal third outing, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the last Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, the studios wanted to edge in some buffer time before launching another ‘Terminator’ effort. Then I got news that they had hired McG to direct the next Terminator installment. This was the guy who not only brought to the world the fluffy “Charlie’s Angels” but its much lauded sequel, “Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle” as well. The ‘best man’ they could find to helm one of Hollywood’s most revered movie franchise is the guy whose resumes’ two biggest highlights were critically panned TV-film adaptations? I honestly hoped that he would be able to break out from that mould and do some justice to the Terminator storyline as James Cameron (“Terminator” and “Terminator 2”) had lay out but I had an inkling that this would not be the case.

And I hate it when I’m right.

There is a term that people use when they foresee something bad happening. It is called a “recipe for disaster”. And I wonder what went through the studio executive’s head when he/she decided that it would be a marvelous idea to couple director McG and screenwriters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris in the same movie. These were the two authors responsible for both “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and “Catwoman”. Needless to say, “Terminator Salvation” is devoid of any decent dialogue and any semblance of a plot for that matter. The scriptwriting is shoddy and the resulting film is peppered with gaping loopholes.

“Terminator Salvation” is a classic example of handing the next movie of a well-conceived franchise to a lesser director. James Cameron (“Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) laid the foundation of a world at war with machines in the first two movies but he also gave us characters for us to invest our emotions in. McG populated his movie with flimsy paper caricatures that we could care less for. There is negligible characterization and even less direction on his part. The film meanders between the two main leads (Bale and Worthington) but never decides whose story to tell.

Christian Bale has solidified his acting talent over the course of his movies (“The Dark Knight” and “Prestige”) but here in “Salvation”, all he seems to be given to do is frown, spout juvenile dialogue, run and shoot. This goes for Bryce Dallas Howard (“The Village” and “The Lady in the Water”) too as she never gets any screen time to truly shine. The only actor here given any room to act is Sam Worthington (“The Great Raid” and “Hart’s War”) but his role is lost to the audience because no one bothered to develop his character’s story deeper.

And the action sequences are disjointed at best. You will encounter explosions and scenes with no lead-ins and a plethora of redundant shots. It is as if the director took a grand look at all the shots he made and cobbled together all the ones he thought was ‘cool’, and THEN tried to weave a story between them. Fans from the franchise will wonder why McG decided to recreate the ironworks fight scene from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” in this movie. Even the initial battle scenes felt like it was just “Black Hawk Down” in the year 2018. Which is fine but with McG’s cursory characterization, his film ends up looking like Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbour”. A lot of flash and bang, but hardly any substance.

The moral of the story is a simple one. If you want to reboot/re-launch/re-envision an already lucrative franchise, do not choose a director whose name belongs on a MacDonalds’ menu. New inductees to the Terminator world would probably enjoy this movie but true fans would much rather watch reruns of “Terminator 2” for the umpteenth time.

A tagline from the trailer of “Terminator Salvation” has John Connor lamenting, “This is not the future my mother warned me about…”

Hell, this movie is definitely not the future that James Cameron told me about.