Terminator: Salvation

Synopsis: John Connor (Christian Bale) is now one of the leaders of the resistance against Skynet. Skynet has ordered his death, but he’s only number 2 on the list. A young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) is number 1. A mysterious newcomer Marcus (Sam Worthington), a death row prisoner whose last memory is of receiving a lethal injection, may be the only way to save Kyle and preserve the future for humanity.

Okay, this is the fourth Terminator film. The first one invented a modern day myth that has rooted itself in popular culture. The second one took special effects film-making to a whole new level. The third was a sad joke, a deliberate parody of the first two, full of self-referential jokes and big loud action. But it had a few cool ideas too. So now, number four, what’s it like?

Well, it’s heaps better than the third one, which is a relief. The self-referential humour is limited to a single joke that’s genuinely funny, and other reused lines work very well in context. The action is tight and exciting, the story moves at a good clip, and all the actors are good. But, and there has to be a  but, does it stand up as a continuation of the Terminator storyline? Well, not entirely. There are plot holes so huge they’re impossible to ignore, leaps of logic that are an offence to the rational intellect, and a few elements that whilst thematically congruous, are just poorly executed.

In the first film it was established that the humans lived underground. Skynet ruled the surface. Now, it seems, humans wander about in ruined cities, have their own airbases and even a submarine. Call me crazy, but if I was a homicidal supercomputer plugged into the world’s military computer systems, I’d find the airbases with a few quick satellite scans then send a volley of missiles their way. Same for any other joker who thought they could attack me with direct military force. Of course, this can’t happen because then there’d be no film as everyone would be dead.

The main problem is that Skynet just doesn’t seem that smart or threatening this time around and as a result, there is no sense of the urgency and danger to the guerrilla-fighting. The story goes that Christian Bale initially refused to sign onto the film until the producers showed him a good script. Although they duly hired Jonathan Nolan (writer of The Prestige, 2006, and The Dark Knight, 2008) for this purpose his name isn’t anywhere on the film, so one can only assume that the script that got Christian Bale on board got re-written yet again. No wonder he chucked that famous tantrum. I’d be annoyed too.

Despite its shortcomings, Terminator: Salvation is a lot of fun. It sets up what could possibly be a really awesome fifth Terminator film, and it doesn’t completely trash the franchise the way the third one did. It’s a solid film with a lot of action, pace, movement and some decent performances. Anton Yelchin as Reese is incredible. The film moves so fast the stupidity of some of it can be overlooked, and it’s one of the better action films of the year. It has its lapses, but it also has some great character moments and lots of things going boom. Good, just not great.

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