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TERMINATOR SALVATION |
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The first thing that comes to mind
before seeing "Terminator: Salvation" is the one word question: Why? The one word answer: Money! |
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"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"
cost $200 million to produce and grossed $433 million worldwide. You don't
need a calculator to figure that one out. Tapped to present this latest
version of the franchise was Joe McGinty Nichol - aka McG. He was armed with
a sizeable budget and a fancy new soundstage in Albuquerque, NM. He was
handicapped with the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger enjoys his current job
as Governator of California. Let’s face it; Terminator and Schwarzenegger are
one in the same. His stiff posture and robotic butchering of the English
language (because of his heavy Austrian accent) is what made the franchise popular.
Everyone remembers the first time he utter those words: I'll be back! McG decided to cast Christian Bale
as John Connor - the guy who saves the world from the machines. Sam
Worthington is cast as Marcus Wright, and convicted murderer who is converted
into a terminator. A terminator T-6 to be sure. But this is a kinder gentler
terminator who doesn't even know he is a machine. |
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Advanced design has him half human
and half machine with a programmed memory that has him believing he is human.
This is merely to fool the humans when they welcome him into their fold. Meanwhile, the humans under the
rogue leadership of Connor have devised a way to destroy the machines using a
secret signal. Wait a minute; doesn't this sound a little bit like "Star Wars: Return of
the Jedi"? Yes it does. Sadly, that is one of the problems
with "Terminator Salvation" - it merely steals pieces of plot from other [much
better] films, deviating from what made the franchise successful. McG had an interesting idea of
keeping the story in the present future but he fails to add the one
ingredient that makes the franchise. Terminators kill people. That is sorely
missing from this latest installment. |
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It's almost like this is a
placeholder film. Are they waiting until Arnold leaves the governors office? That’s
what it looks like. Christian Bale, as fine an actor as he is, is wasted.
Worthington was adequate as a terminator, but his type of terminator was far
too wimpy. With about 15 minutes left in the
film, when the action finally picks up, there is a brief revelation when a
kick ass terminator finally comes after Connor, but it is too little too
late. So is the rest of the story.
Hopefully it won’t be back! --GEOFFREY BURTON
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