Terminator Salvation review
After 25 years of waiting for the war James Cameron tantalisingly shown us glimpses of in T1, we are finaly given TS, the first film in the series set after Judgement Day.
For those of you unfamiliar with the plot or confused by it all, here is a recap of what has happened so far. In 1984, a machine from the future travels back in time to kill Sarah Connor, who's unborn child will lead the human resistance against the machines in the war, but her future child, John, sends back a young soldier called Kyle Reese, to save her. In the proccess the pair fall in love and have sex, which is where it gets realy confusing, because Kyle gets Sarah pregnant with John, so Jonh'd dad is actualy younger than him. Eventualy the pair kill the Terminator but Reese is killed in the process. As a waning of things to come, the location is revealed to be the factory of Cyberdine Systems, who we are told will start the war with humanity. The Terminator is completely destroyed and taken by the police, apart from a damaged CPU and a forearm, which is secretly taken by Cyberdine.
Fastforward to 1992, and Sarah is in the nut house and John in foster care. Cyberdine send back an even more powerfull terminator, which can change shape and is made of liquid metal. Again, Future Connor sends back a savior, this time in the form of the same model Terminator that originaly tried to kill his mother. Young Connor and Good Terminator save Sarah and eventualy kill the Bad Terminator, but Good Terminator is damaged and, in the saddest part of any of the films, the two Connors have to lower him into a pool of molten metal to prevent anyone from getting hold of a Terminator again (during the film, Cyberdine and the man who would be responsible for the creation of Terminators, are destroyed). Judgement Day is stopped and so ends Cameron's involvement in the series, and the greatest blockbuster ever made, and ever likely to be made. But thats for another time as to why these two films are two of the best action blockbusters ever, lets just sum it up in two words: James Cameron.
Moving on to 2004, John is now an adult and living off the grid, when another Terminator is sent after him. This one has a metal skeleton again, but more importantly, this one is a female, and one of my favourite scenes in the series is when it sees an advertising boarding and makes it tits bigger! Anyway, another T-800 (the Arnie Terminator from 1 and 2) is sent back to pretect Connor and his wife Katherine 'Kate' Brewster. We find that Sarah has died of Leukemia, but faught long enough to make sure Judgement Day never happened when it was meant to, but the pressence of Terminators proves that it DID/DOES happen, and the future can only be delayed, not prevented. Also, Cyberdine has been bought by the USAF and is part of the Skynet Defence System, headed by no less than Kate's father. The trio race to stop him, but it is too late, the T-X, or as Connor puts it, the Terminatrix, beats them and so does Skynet. It is activated and becomes self aware. The first machines come online and kill Kate's father, who tells them to go to Crystal Peak. They believe that this is where Skynet can be destroyed. Meanwhile, T-X reprograms Arnie to kill Connor, and he shuts himself down to prevent it, only to come back online to kill the Terminatrix and save Connor and Brewster, now safe in Crystal Peak, which is revealed to be a fallout shelter for VIP's, not Skynet's system core. In the best part of the film, which is mostly pants, Judgement Day finally happens and John Connor takes command, setting things up nicely for TS.
TS is the fist film in the series not to be released in the year it is set, because the saga is now in the future, at long last. We begin with the opening credits, an updated version of the credita from T1, complete with the music from the first film, the first of many references to the old films. After the credits we are treated to a non-stop action thrill ride, which I won't go into in to much detail, lest I ruin it for you, but basicaly, the Resistance think they have a way to kill the Terminators, but it turns out to be a trick, a dead person is found alive and turns out to be half machine half human (I would keep that to myself, but the adverts gave that away long ago), Connor meets and rescues his father, and we see the creation of the T-800 101, or simply Arnie's Terminator.
The film is a sequel more than a prequel, and makes the time paradox thing more confusing. Judgement Day happened later than in the old future, but the T-800 is created earlier, due to the fight with Sarah in the first film, the irony is that by killing the Terminator, she allowed it to be created, and she, in trying to stop the war, helped start it. The film asks more questions than it answers, but is a very interesting and exciting film which sets things up nicely for T5, with Connor now in command and Kyle Reese safe.
It is not perfect, Bale, possibly the best actor of his generation, is wasted because all he does is shout and get angry, although that being said he is still fairly good. Star of the show goes to Sam Worthington, who plays cyborg Marcus Wright superbly and is the acting highlight of the film, even if everything he does is predictable (that he is a terminator, and what happens at the end).
Good point:
Gives us the war we have been waiting for
Stunning effects and visuals
Some decent performances
Aliens levels of action
It's a Terminator film
Still 'feels' like a Terminator film, alteast most of the time
Lots of references to original films
References handles well
Bad point:
Fairly predicatble
Not too easy for newcomers to understand
Bale is wasted
Does not feel like a Terminator film at times
Much better than the dire T3, but no match for T2. An entertaining and pulse pounding film with fantastic effects, stunning visuals (Skynet HQ especialy) and some interesting new machines. Very dark and lots of refernces to the original films, which are done very well and do not feel cheesy, in particular when Connor sas the infamous "I'll be back!", which so easily could have felt silly and cheesy, although Kyle Reece saying "Come with me if you want to live comes!" close to beeing cheesy.
More than worth the admision price, if you can handle the confusing plot. It may be confusing and challenging, but it's great, deffinately the best action movie plot ever, and TS expands on this and I can not wait for the next two films to end the amazing story now TS has set us up with the long awaited future war, and done it rather well.
Must see for Terminator fans, and action fans with a brain for the plot.
And anyone who wants to see Arnie bollock naked, which for a straight guy, is quite disturbing.
7.5/10
Steve Buscemi = win
