The Terminator franchise has been posing to its fans, tantalizing questions regarding time travel and destiny for years. With its latest entry, Terminator: Salvation a different type of philosophical question is posed: What happens when there is a ton of explosions and gunfire and no one who hears it cares. This new film, directed by McG, proves to be an utterly meaningless entry in this classic sci-fi franchise.
The plot, if you can call it that, centers around John Connor's (played this time by Christian Bale) quest to take down SkyNet, the robotics company which has built the terminators. In addition, he's out to make sure his father, Kyle Reese(played by Star Trek's Anton Yelchin), who's just a teenager at this point stays alive, so as not to disrupt time. The two storylines eventually converge, but not in any particularly engaging way.
We're also introduced to Marcus Wright, a convict on death row, who somewhat gets a second lease on life after he turns himself over to Skynet. His allegiance during this war between humans and robots is constantly questioned. This could have been an interesting dilemma, but to sufficently explore it would have meant taking time away from blowing more stuff up, which clearly wasn't going to happen here.
McG's might have had the best intentions with taking over this franchise, but clearly does not have a sense of what made this franchise appealing in the first place. Like many of the machines seen in the film, he has assembled all of the necessary parts to make this a Terminator film, but it lacks heart or any emotion whatsoever. I sat there blankly absorbing it in wondering why any of this mattered. By the time the film ends, I questioned what had been gained by making this film. I'm still trying to come up with an answer.
Of course, the one big question everyone had about this film centers around the Arnold factor. I won't spoil it for the few people who haven't heard yet how it's addressed. All I'll say is that the manner in which it is addressed produced the lone highlight for the film. It's a shame it plays such a small factor in the film, because this film could have used more engaging moments.
While the film falters on many levels, I don't find myself getting too upset by it since I've never been a big fan of the franchise. It's doubtful I would have even seen this one had it not been for the Bale factor. Given my appreciation of a lot of his recent work, I was really curious if he could provide some added prestige to this series. Sadly, he's not given a whole lot to do here (even though according to reports, the role was significantly beefed up once it was decided he was going to play Connor). Bale does a lot of his typical glaring and growling, but not much more. Everything about this film seems like a cash grab, so I'm glad to see it did not really succeed in that regard.
McG has stated that he wants to do yet another Terminator film, but I see no reason to give him the green light after this affair. He added nothing to the franchise for the fans and failed to produce an engaging action film to draw in new faces. This one is just one loud misfire. If you really want to completely shut off your brain and passively look at a bunch of fire balls and metal, then be my guest and enjoy this. For everyone else who would like to keep their brain cells, you're better off giving this one a pass. Instead let's all rise up and request that this franchise be terminated before its reputation is tarnished any further. Grade: C-
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