After conquering his fear of flying in “We Are Marshall”, Joeseph Nichol, better known as McG, decided to take on James Cameron’s epic Terminator franchise. Much like “Star Trek”, “Terminator Salvation” looks to reboot the once great franchise by staying in the future instead of sending robots back in time.
“Salvation” focuses on former inmate Marcus Wright (Australian actor Sam Worthington) who was executed decades before Judgement Day, when the military computer Skynet took over via nuclear holocaust. Wright stumbles upon franchise stalwart Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, “Star Trek”) and helps him get to the human resistance’s base where franchise savior John Connor (Christian Bale) is helping to coordinate the defense against the machines and understand the advice of his mother in the form of audio tapes.
It sounds confusing, but it’s all compacted nice and easily and doesn’t get in the way of what the franchise is known for: its action. The first third of the movie roars onto the screen and doesn’t let up for a good 40 minutes. Car chases, gigantic robots, warlike battle sequences and plenty of airships willing to play along make this section one of the best sequences on screen in years.
Another highlight is the sound, which is loud and gritty. Every gun screams and each explosion sounds brilliant., perfectly mirroring the desert wasteland and metallic prisons the resistance live in. Perhaps the setting is a bit over the top, but what else would you expect a post-apocalyptic future to look like?
Unfortunately, the movie cools down and runs away from the roads in favor of conflicts on foot. These aren’t bad by any means, they just aren’t nearly as spectacular as the encounters at the beginning of the movie.
Not helping things are some of the gaping “plot holes”, if that’s what they could be called. For example, Skynet’s base in San Francisco apparently only has one robot guarding it. There’s also a character caught by Skynet that isn’t killed immediately despite his importance to the framework of the plot against the machines which they know about.
Despite these somewhat gigantic holes, “Terminator Salvation” is still a trip worth taking. The plot will only work to satisfy die-hard Terminator fans, but be enough for casual movie-goers to set the table for the explosive action that can only be expected of the time traveling franchise.
Filed under: Review | Tagged: Jeff Mason
