Synopsis:
After
Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a
nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by
John Connor struggles to keep the machines from
finishing the job.
The Freak's
Rating: C- : In 1991 I was 15 years
old. As one of the earliest movies I can
remember seeing in the theater without my
parents' permission, Terminator 2: Judgement Day
was fascinating to me on a number of levels.
The special effects were revolutionary.
Bending humans into metal, then transforming
them into other objects was a groundbreaking
achievement for Industrial Light and Magic.
Terminator 2 was one of the rare circumstances
(Godfather, Star Wars, etc...) where the sequel
was better than the original. Having more
heart, better effects and superior direction
than the original, T2 is the benchmark for the
franchise...and after seeing the latest venture
will probably stay that way.
Not
many can forget Christian Bale's psychotic
outburst on the set of Terminator Salvation.
If you haven't heard it for some reason, come
out from under that rock and
click here. It eclipsed all the
marketing and press junket tours that Warner
Brothers could throw the cast into and audiences
who can't seperate themselves from it may have a
tough time cheering for Bale. WB just
hopes that audiences continue to see him as
Batman and easily get behind him as the lead.
Good luck with that WB.
Terminator Salvation is the next in the line of
summer blockbusters trying to get your hard
earned dollar. It is engineered nicely on
paper with stylish director McG, Bale as the
lead and, of course, endless CGI to keep you on
the edge of your seat. I heard some
critics are claiming it has "too much action,
not enough substance". This is a ludicrous
angle to take on a film like this. You
shouldn't go to see Terminator Salvation for its
character development; you should go for fun.
If the character development happens to exist,
then the film should soar up your ratings chart
and if it doesn't then it is somewhat forgivable
(see my review of
Fast & Furious
if you don't believe this is my methodology).
The
action is nice here, with Skynet bigger and
badder than ever with its "machines" who hunt
humans. A new motorcycle creature is
introduced (see photo above) along with other
larger than life machines that we've never seen
before. All the old bad guy robots are
back here as the inescapable T-800 is built to
upgrade the T-600, leading you to the inevitable
scene where you will see Arnold's new model for
the first time. Side note: decent CGI to
recreate Schwarzennegger but still a tad fake
looking.
The
cast has typical action lines to deliver and
typical stunts to endure, so nothing is
spectacular here. Anton Yelchin, who seems
to be cast in nearly everything since his turn
in Alpha Dog (great film by the way), appears as
Kyle Reese. You can also see him as Chekov
in
Star Trek. Yelchin has a likeable face, but just doesn't put off
the action hero vibe that he needs to for this
role. I question his casting. He is
barely believable as the future father of the
leader of the resistence. Micheal Ironside
(1980s-90s most overcast bad guy), shows up on
screen again as the leader of "command".
He hasn't skipped a beat in his notable abscence
in film and is able to play the stereotype
perfectly. The film's biggest oversight is
casting Bryce Dallas Howard as Bale's love
interest. There is no onscreen chemistry
between the two of them, I mean zero.
Howard exudes all the sexuality of a baked
potato. It is nonsensical that John Connor
would choose Howard's doctor over Moon
Bloodgood's biker chick badass. Also, it
may sound harsh, but Bryce you are simply not
"built" for pulling off a role like this.
Your bloodlines do provide you with real acting
chops, but the ugly stick seriously whacked you
hard. Don't take my word for it, just
click
here for Howard,
here for Bloodgood. As notably the
biggest badass left on the planet and the leader
of the free world, who would you choose?
McGee
maintains his stylized directing. The film
is tightly knit together, though it would have
been nice to have a nod to James Cameron's T2
and add a hint of bluish tone to some scenes.
Fans of the series would have melted had you
added just a couple scenes that took us all back
to where we fell in love with the franchise.
Now
onto the real heartache of the film, the script.
Starting out strong with a nice twist on how
Skynet would have taken one of its first human
subjects (within the first five minutes, so no
spoiler), the film strongly heads to the bottom
of the believability pool and never comes up for
air. I am fine dismissing realism for a
film like this but not consistency. I
won't bore you with a complete dissection, but
here is an example. At one point in the
film we're told that you travel during the day
because Skynet's tracking machines' infrared
devices see you far better at night. Not
long after we see that the people are tracked
quite well in the daytime as Skynet easily spots
them in the most remote of locations. Soon
after that discovery we are shown a group of the
same resistence fighters starting a bonfire at
night, then conducting a lynch mob affair of
sorts (machine guns and grenades...again at
night) that could be seen from space.
There is zero consistency among this argument
that is put forth as fact early in the film and
therefore the characters that introduce it lose
all credibility. OK, just one more - we
also see an outdoor airplane hangar area that
could easily be spotted from space due to its
size. I suppose we were meant to believe
that the fishnet stocking garb the production
crew draped over it would fool the machines,
right? The script is flat out ridiculous
in parts. Bale and the cast do what they
can with it, but even the cameo by Arnold
(kinda) obviously injected to get the fanbase
heartbeats pumping can't save it.
The
summer season started out with a bang with
Wolverine and Terminator Salvation is more like a whimper. Just
barely a decent nod to the franchise, here is to
hoping they either let it die with this one or
give it a respectful reboot next time.
click here to review
it yourself!
