"Terminator: Salvation":It's Back![This review contains SPOILERS for the Terminator franchise.]
The Terminator franchise has always been one of my favorite action franchises. I've seen T2 over 20 times and the 1st and 3rd ones at least 5 times each. So I was definitely looking forward to this new movie, especially after its awesome looking trailer.
I was of course aware that this would not be anything like the first 3. This movie is set in the future, after Judgment Day and is a sequel/prequel to the first 3. Despite the message of T2 being that the future can be changed, Hollywood does not change and more money is more money so T4, just like T3, ignores the message of T2 and turns the storyline into a circular time travel story. In this one John Connor must save his teenage father so that he can later send him back in time to bang and impregnate his mother, so that he can be born. Yeah... maybe it sounded cooler in the 80's.
Because of this anyone who has not seen the first movie will most likely be confused by this new movies plot, although it won't matter much since the plot is arguably the weakest part of T4. (It was written by the same guys that wrote Catwoman... yeah)
I still really loved this movie.
The look and cinematography of this movie are amazing, the post apocalyptic wasteland is very reminiscent of the desert setting in T2 when the heroes are on the road (Sarah's gun stash). This is just one of many nods and references to the other movies and the franchise as a whole, and something a fan like me can really appreciate.
Despite not following the "single Terminator hunts and chases, good guy runs away" formula, T4 still manages to have some really cool chases sequences and a bunch of amazingly planned out 5-minutes long Steadicam set pieces. You'd think that the director of Charlie's Angels would be a bad thing to have in a Terminator movie but McG knows how to direct action and it really shows.
One thing to point out is that even tough the robots are bigger they are never as threatening as the T-800, T-1000 or T-X in the other movies and that bothered me a bit, this film is however set before the future of the first Terminator film so it is understandable that the robots are weaker.
Despite what may be inferred by the trailers the story isn't really about John Connor, we spend most of our time with Marcus Wright. Marcus is introduced at the beginning of the movie (15 years before the story) as an inmate sentenced to death. He is killed but then reappears during the real story as a cyborg/infiltrator-terminator/plot device that does not know he is a robot. Sam Worthington (Australian actor, soon to be seen in James Cameron's Avatar) who plays Marcus is really good, despite falling in and out of his American accent, he still manages to convincingly play and bad ass cyborg robot and actually shows some good emotion during scenes that would have been otherwise really cheesy. Christian Bale is good as usual although its hard to believe that John Connor in T2 grew up into this grittier angrier John Connor. Anton Yelchin also does a good job as a young Kyle Reese. The other characters are all pretty much there for no reason. Moon Bloodgood's acting isn't convincing enough and without her topless scene (that they cut-out) to distract us its even more evident.
The final part of the movie takes place in the Skynet base where a lot of the Terminators are manufactured. A cameo from a computer generated Arnold, a final battle taking place inside a factory with molten steel, a little voice imitation from the T-800 beta model and a final epic fight between it and Marcus just made the Terminator fanboy in me really happy.
With its very stylish post-apocalyptic look, amazing looking effects, strong performances from the three main characters, really nice Steadicam set pieces and enough references to the first two movies to make any Terminator fan happy, Terminator: Salvation has successfully managed to revive the Terminator franchise. We can be quite sure that "It'll be back!"
Terminator Videos:
T2 Sweded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mTCgIHpQXE
Mad TV parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnq7N6X4x84
Bale Meltdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLXVuy0h29c
Bale Remix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48
-BeaverMoose
I'm going up north for an entire week, no internet! Oh no! About 4 reviews will be up next week though.
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