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Review, Terminator: Salvation
- By Crystal Carroll
- Published 05/20/2009
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Unrated
Crystal Carroll
Crystal is a 30-something writer living in Northern California. She divides her time between writing technical documentation (techy, tech, tech requirements docs), analytical essays on television shows that hold her brain for ransom, and the occasional bout of fiction (like plague, only with characters). She enjoys Pinot Noir, but not during robot apocalypses, and feels all movies could be made better if they had a Sleestack in the background.
View all articles by Crystal Carroll
Terminator: Salvation delivers on all the action explosions that a summer movie requires.Yet it still addressing the basic philosophical questions of a science fiction story. What’s with all this fear of machines? What does it mean to be human? Do the ends justify the means? What does it mean to connect?
For those who want to see action and adventure, there's plenty of that. In this future landscape, the mechanical apocalypse has occurred. The machines have risen and the central machine, Skynet, has razed the earth, which now swarms with mechanical threats that seek to stamp out what remains of humanity. Our characters flee and fight an entire array of mecha that range from river dwelling mechanical serpents to massive mechanical men that spawn smaller motorcycle machines from their legs to flying people collectors.
The essential plot is fairly basic and will not be a surprise to anyone who has either seen the previous movies or, you know, seen a post-apocalyptic movie.
We follow two main plot arcs.
The main arc is that of Marcus, played by Sam Worthington, who is on a classic journey of self discovery through the post apocalyptic landscape with the ever present threat of Skynet’s murderous machines looming.
Marcus, in a way, serves as us within the story. He wakes from his own apparent death in 2003 to a world that's been gutted and destroyed. LA is a desert wasteland full of rubble. He does an excellent job as a man driven by his desire to understand why he's still alive and by those brief moments of connection to the survivors he meets.
The only two inhabitants of LA, that vast city, are a teenager Kyle Reese, as played by Anton Yelchin and a little girl, Star, as played by Jadagrace. Here, Anton really impressed me by conveying to the audience the similarities between Kyle Reese and John Connor. Kyle Reese is not only a fighter, but someone who believes in hope. I hope that it’s not a spoiler to reveal something from the 1984 movie, and I certainly hope no one goes into the movie not being familiar with the time travel elements of the previous movies. Otherwise, how teenage Kyle can be 30s year old John Connor would be confusing.
However, Kyle, like his son, is the sort of person, who instinctively pulls people together. This is interesting in the context of the world.
The other main arc of the story is that of John Connor, who struggles with the burdens of leadership and how to responsibly go forward into a future landscape he only partially understands. His mother, now dead in the past, he seeks out his father. He is himself soon to be a father.
Christian Bale's John Connor is a driven adult. It's easy to see why his people follow him as their leader, not blindly, but with purpose. It is also easy to see why other leaders might not want to cede control to a man who speaks in terms of what will be. This John Connor is someone who has spent his entire life knowing that this moment was coming. He is someone driven by his responsibility to the future.
The Terminator fan in me was happy to see that Connor is married to Kate Brewster-Conner, as played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who is a doctor. She is strong and passionate, and very pregnant. Yet there is no question of keeping her out of danger. She's like a MASH doctor, fighting against loss under grave conditions.
The role of beautiful warrior maid/love interest goes to Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, a fighter pilot. She's beautiful, smart, and capable, a planner up to a point. I'd have liked to have seen more of her, and hopefully will see more of her in subsequent movies. While Marcus does need to rescue her at one juncture, it is somewhat necessary to setup what follows.
The look of the movie is gritty and dirty, with jiggling cameras full of motion, but without the claustrophobic sense of the small screen. This is a movie made for a large canvas. All the machines have a real sense of visceral grease and dust, and there are plenty of types to look at. The world is a wasteland and, I think, there was only one clean spot in the entire story.
So if you're looking for thinking person's action movie, give Terminator: Salvation a one arm loaded shotgun shot.
Spoilers follow in the subsequent sections as I’m going to discuss some of the overall themes in the movie. If you don’t want to know what happens in the movie, please stop here.
For those who want to see action and adventure, there's plenty of that. In this future landscape, the mechanical apocalypse has occurred. The machines have risen and the central machine, Skynet, has razed the earth, which now swarms with mechanical threats that seek to stamp out what remains of humanity. Our characters flee and fight an entire array of mecha that range from river dwelling mechanical serpents to massive mechanical men that spawn smaller motorcycle machines from their legs to flying people collectors.
The essential plot is fairly basic and will not be a surprise to anyone who has either seen the previous movies or, you know, seen a post-apocalyptic movie.
We follow two main plot arcs.
The main arc is that of Marcus, played by Sam Worthington, who is on a classic journey of self discovery through the post apocalyptic landscape with the ever present threat of Skynet’s murderous machines looming.
Marcus, in a way, serves as us within the story. He wakes from his own apparent death in 2003 to a world that's been gutted and destroyed. LA is a desert wasteland full of rubble. He does an excellent job as a man driven by his desire to understand why he's still alive and by those brief moments of connection to the survivors he meets.
The only two inhabitants of LA, that vast city, are a teenager Kyle Reese, as played by Anton Yelchin and a little girl, Star, as played by Jadagrace. Here, Anton really impressed me by conveying to the audience the similarities between Kyle Reese and John Connor. Kyle Reese is not only a fighter, but someone who believes in hope. I hope that it’s not a spoiler to reveal something from the 1984 movie, and I certainly hope no one goes into the movie not being familiar with the time travel elements of the previous movies. Otherwise, how teenage Kyle can be 30s year old John Connor would be confusing.
The other main arc of the story is that of John Connor, who struggles with the burdens of leadership and how to responsibly go forward into a future landscape he only partially understands. His mother, now dead in the past, he seeks out his father. He is himself soon to be a father.
Christian Bale's John Connor is a driven adult. It's easy to see why his people follow him as their leader, not blindly, but with purpose. It is also easy to see why other leaders might not want to cede control to a man who speaks in terms of what will be. This John Connor is someone who has spent his entire life knowing that this moment was coming. He is someone driven by his responsibility to the future.
The Terminator fan in me was happy to see that Connor is married to Kate Brewster-Conner, as played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who is a doctor. She is strong and passionate, and very pregnant. Yet there is no question of keeping her out of danger. She's like a MASH doctor, fighting against loss under grave conditions.
The role of beautiful warrior maid/love interest goes to Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, a fighter pilot. She's beautiful, smart, and capable, a planner up to a point. I'd have liked to have seen more of her, and hopefully will see more of her in subsequent movies. While Marcus does need to rescue her at one juncture, it is somewhat necessary to setup what follows.
The look of the movie is gritty and dirty, with jiggling cameras full of motion, but without the claustrophobic sense of the small screen. This is a movie made for a large canvas. All the machines have a real sense of visceral grease and dust, and there are plenty of types to look at. The world is a wasteland and, I think, there was only one clean spot in the entire story.
So if you're looking for thinking person's action movie, give Terminator: Salvation a one arm loaded shotgun shot.
Spoilers follow in the subsequent sections as I’m going to discuss some of the overall themes in the movie. If you don’t want to know what happens in the movie, please stop here.