TERMINATOR SALVATION (2009)

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"Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins... Eventually"

STORY PROS: It's the year 2018 in a post-apocalyptic L.A.: Early in the war between man and machine. A man named Marcus Wright wakes up, unbeknownst to the year and war, naked and muddy, left only with his memories of being on death row. Also unbeknownst to him is that he is a Terminator. This story offers us a fresh uncanny valley take on what separates man from machines. The barren Albuquerque desert in which T4 was filmed makes for a great location to make us believe that we really are trapped in a robotic hell with nowhere to run and hide. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to have solidified himself as THE Terminator in 1990's T2, but Salvation has successfully shown that while acknowledging his importance in the series, we in fact do not need him in every one.

STORY CONS: While the film at first was under influence by the climactic events rather than the climactic effects, CGI quickly lead the story and not vice-versa. Classic Terminator callbacks were then jam-packed in the ending to the point where it became nothing short of blatant plagiarism: Not one shred of inspiration or originality. So much of the actors were underused in Salvation and not even Worthington's terrific performance could save everyone else's from emptiness and mediocrity.

ACTING PROS: The acting allows Sam Worthington, an unknown who's the star of this film in my opinion, to shine and potentially propel into superstardom as Marcus Wright, a man who wakes up in a post-apocalyptic L.A., left only with his memory of being on death row. Though his character's journey is a bit contrived, Worthington delivers a powerful performance that captures the emotion and rawness of Cameron's original concept of the Terminator. Co-star Anton Yelchin surprises doubters like myself with a convincing portrayal of Kyle Reese as a young man, and for that I give him my tip of the hat. I lastly need to give my kudos to Brian Steele since no one else will. Steele played the T-600s. His mechanic acting combined with the rag-dressed, faceless T-600 almost makes it more monster-like than mechanical, which is very cool.

ACTING CONS: Christian Bale's performance as John Connor mirrored Nick Stahl's from T3 as one-dimensional, except this time it was annoyingly hooah! gruff and not annoyingly whiny bitch. Bryce Dallas Howard's performance as Kate Connor for Salvation's story arc was to show us that she's pregnant=POINTLESSLY WASTED. Common, i.e. Barnes, was the forgettable black sidekick to an annoying lock & load Connor=POINTLESSLY WASTED. Moon Bloodgood played Blair Williams, who at best was the could-have-been love interest to Marcus Wright=POINTLESSLY WASTED. Helena Bonham Carter's Dr. Serena was almost pointlessly wasted, but she later in the movie's fourth quarter played a brief, but pivotal role in explaining Wright's story.

DIRECTING PROS: McG had his head on straight when deciding to make T4 a grim, uncompromising war movie. There were times in the first two quarters of watching where I felt a true sense of humanity (the Resistance), going nowhere but to an inevitable doom. You do feel a genuine sense of post-apocalyptic hopelessness.

DIRECTING CONS: McG must have been over-enthused with the CGI because it helms the authoritarian position as far as the story goes. Rather than the story going somewhere good where great action sequences happen to take place, it's "Follow that boom!" There were also many scarcely used, one-dimensional characters that never go anywhere progressive. Though T$ explains the mystery surrounding Wright, it felt somewhat underwhelming as it and other events were rushed to the finish line rather than going at a believable pace.

VISUAL PROS: Much of the CGI was beautifully crafted as provided by the late great Stan Winston. Much of it attributed to a dazzling array of newly introduced machines that make fine additions to the Terminator universe. The Harvester was badass, as well as the Arnie T-800 cameo, which was freakishly dead on.

VISUAL CONS: As the story was rushed near the ending, so were the effects as quantity over quality took it's death grip on T4. Much of the visuals came along with ridiculously loud audio.

OVERALL: An important thing to understand here is that Terminator Salvation really is NOT a bad movie. The biggest problem is that this was suppose to be a revamp/sequel and was treated instead as a video-game homage to James Cameron's T1 and T2. There wasn't anything original enough to switch things up or anything drastic enough to make a lasting impression on future sequels, something in which all 3 previous Terminators were able to do. However, under certain circumstances, this may be a good thing. Though this is an interpreted revamp, this is not enough of a stand alone film nor tie-in film to predict the outcome of T5 or a possible T6. Terminator Salvation is an OK film. Like an attractive stripper who's bad in bed, it's entertaining visually, but irritant and disappointing in overall performance.