The original Terminator is a popular sci-fi action thriller and its sequel, T2-Judgement Day, showed that sequels don’t have to be worse than the original film, and that action movies can actually have a decent plot in addition to all the explosions and guns.
The latest addition to the franchise is Terminator Salvation where, in the year 2018 John Connor, played very one-dimensionally by Christian Bale, and the human resistance are trying to destroy the machines and Skynet; the controlling computer. We are also introduced to Marcus Wright, a death row inmate who had donated his body to Cyberdyne Systems before the war with the machines and now wakes up in the post-apocalyptic world of the future. Wright teams up with a young Kyle Reese and together they go about tearing the shit out of the evil, mechanised forces of Skynet.
It’s right about here that any semblance of a plot just disappears, leaving the the rest of the film consisting of the following: destroying robots, move to the next scene, destroying more robots; and repeat. It seems that director McG thinks that plot holes can just be pasted over with liberal use of CGI and explosives. They can’t. Bale, supposedly the lead, is totally outperformed by Sam Worthington’s Marcus, so much so that the mis-cast Bale is reduced to banality. To his credit Worthington does his best, but is let down by an appalling screenplay, an invisible plot line and performances by his co-stars that are worse than that of the CGI Arnie that appears briefly towards the end.
The film is lacking in all that made the first two Terminators great; originality, heart-pounding action, charm and that minor detail; a plot. Please, let’s send Arnie back in time to prevent this film ever being made.
John Milward
