Terminator Salvation (2009)

Released June 4, 2009

James Cameron’s probably rolling his eyes, wondering how his original slice of 80s science-fiction horror has been hijacked by a director with the name “McG” and turned into an action-heavy, CGI-laden war film. While sporadically infused with some of the suspense and fear of the original, Salvation more often plays like a sepia version of Transformers without the Shia LaBeouf wisecracks.

It’s 2018 and the war between the humans and Skynet rages across the nuclear wasteland of Earth, or at least of California. John Connor (Christian Bale), the leader of the human resistance, broadcasts angry radio messages in an attempt to unite the survivors against the machines. Bale seems to be monotonically channelling the rage that he vented on that cameraman; this is not a film that requires an acting range. The evil machines prowl the rubble of deserted cities, on the ground and in the air, sometimes capturing humans for, presumably, extermination.

The real story, if one could call it that, concerns Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) who is executed by lethal injection in 2003 only to be reborn as a bionic machine. Through his wavering American accent he attempts to grapple with his new identity and what it is (or was) to be human. There’s also something about protecting Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), Connor’s father, because without him the first three movies would never have happened.

This is perfunctorily draped around intermittently exciting but always excessive action scenes that drown out the tension. The world feels like a post-apocalyptic Blade Runner, but while it is bleak it doesn’t properly convey the magnitude of the recent holocaust and feels softened for the multiplex (cuts were made to achieve a PG-13 rating at the behest of the studio). Save for a sympathetic character played by the fantastically named Moon Bloodgood and a cameo from Helena Bonham Carter, there’s surprisingly little humanity in a film eager to argue for the resilience of the human heart. Maybe that’s because McG was more interested in designing 200ft-tall terminators and the ensuring, admittedly enjoyable, mayhem and destruction.

2.5/5