Join The Resistence!

In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind in Terminator Salvation. 

Darker, grimmer and more stylistically single-minded than its two relatively giddy predecessors, Terminator Salvation boasts the kind of singular vision that distinguished the James Cameron original, the full-throttle kinetics of "Speed" and an old-fashioned regard for human (and humanoid) heroics. Only pic's relentlessly doomsday tone -- accessorized by helmer McG's grimy, gun-metal palette -- might keep auds from flocking like lemmings to the apocalypse. The fourth in the celebrated sci-fi series, "Salvation" opens and closes with humanity at war with the machines. In other words, this thing isn't going to end soon. Nor should it, if it keeps on like this. McG, whose jump from music videos to movies resulted in two "Charlie's Angels" extravaganzas and the blah "We Are Marshall," exhibits an unexpected flair for the dreadful, abrupt and awesome. What we get here -- which was perhaps missing on the relatively sunny mental landscapes of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" -- is a sense of real horror: When humans are snatched up like Cheez-Doodles by skyscraper-sized Go-bots, there's no slo-mo relief or stalling. Stuff happens as it might were the world actually overtaken by demonic appliances. Christian Bale, playing the "prophesized leader of the Resistance" John Connor, may have traded in the Batman body armor for "Road Warrior"-style outerwear, but one thing hasn't changed: He is, once again, a movie star playing second fiddle. Heath Ledger stole "The Dark Knight" away from him and Sam Worthington heists Terminator Salvation from Bale, for the most ironical of reasons: In a movie that poses man against machine, Worthington's cyborg is the far more human character. Marcus (Worthington), on death row for an unexplained crime, gets an 11th-hour visit from Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter), who wears the headscarf and pallor of a terminal cancer patient. She wants Marcus' body -- literally. She wants to turn him into a cyborg. Wracked with guilt, resigned to his execution, Marcus agrees to sign the release in exchange for a kiss. "So that's what death tastes like," he says, as she leaves him to his lethal injection. Bale, meanwhile, playing the adult version of the hero-to-be portrayed by Edward Furlong ("Terminator 2) and Nick Stahl ("Terminator 3"), is as purposeful and furious as anyone played by Arnold Schwarzenegger or Robert Patrick. One suspects he's been studying Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2," although -- let's face it -- this is serious business. It's 2018. Skynet -- the "aware" machine -- has all but accomplished its self-appointed mission of destroying the threat of people.  But pockets of rebellion continue to operate even if, as in the case of a charred and rubble-strewn Los Angeles, the local contingent consists of just two kids: Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and the mute/cute Star (Jadagrace). Kyle -- given a slightly geeky and perfectly plausible portrayal by Yelchin -- will grow up to father John Connor after being sent into the future to meet Sarah Connor (if you haven't followed the "Terminator" time line, this is no time to be catching up). Thus, he has to be preserved. So does John, given that it's been predicted since 1984 that he'll be the one to save the world. There's a lot at stake.  McG's direction is always intelligent. The script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris occasionally goes off the rails. Certainly, their insertion of an existential dilemma for Marcus -- "I need to find out who did this to me," he says, his chrome-plated plumbing having been exposed to the open air -- feels very late-inning. And the obligatory borrowing from the previous movies ("Come with me if you want to live," "I'll be back ...") tend to upset the mood created within McG's bleached-out world, which is very deliberate and doesn't need the comic relief. There are great bits though: The thrashing, centipede-like, killer-snake thingie, which has the personality of a wolverine, is a neat invention. So are the biker Terminators, which molt like malignant pinecones off their towering mother ‘bot. A Schwarzenegger lookalike -- it isn't clear whether it's the ex-actor CGI'd or a complete fabrication -- is funny. 

This is definitely a "summer blockbuster" type film and has enough amazingly awesome moments in it to outweigh any groan-inducing moments that it may also have. In fact, the good moments outweigh the bad about 20 to 1, and for me, they tied up the biggest plot-hole (one involving the Sam Worthington character) in a very satisfying way. If you wanna talk plot points, motivation, character development, and the through-line in the narrative, well...go somewhere else. Sure, that's at the heart of all good movies, and it IS all here, but it gets buried under what makes this movie a "flick" and not a "film". This is entertainment, pure and simple. So if you just want to go turn your brain off, see some incredible eye-candy, and watch what type of shit you can blow up when you have $200M, then you will be in the right mindset to see Terminator Salvation. It's solid...and is hopefully not the last one in the franchise. A solid 4 on my "Go See" scale.