MOVIE REVIEWS
Terminator: Salvation
He said he’ll be back, but who knew that the best of the ‘80s action flicks would come with him? “He” is Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose CGI-generated face appears on a new body, in a crucial battle of “Terminator: Salvation”. A fast-moving, rock ‘em-sock ‘em movie that continues the story of man vs. machines beginning 25 years ago. Between “Terminator: Salvation” and “Star Trek,” popcorn-movie reboots have hit into high gear recently. The previous title in the saga, 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”, was the Governator’s final starring role. It ended with a reluctant messiah, John Connor and his girlfriend Kate, in a fallout shelter as the sentient computer Skynet, launched nuclear attacks upon the world.
Fifteen years after “T3” (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) took place, Connor (Christian Bale) commands a network of resistance fighters battling against robots that rule a post-apocalyptic world to corral humans into making cyborg parts. Connor has another goal: to ensure his own birth by saving the teenage renegade, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, also in “Star Trek”), who’s fated to go back in time and save Connor’s mother. Thus fathering him to become the future leader of the resistance, as seen in James Cameron’s 1984 original. Meanwhile, there’s another chase to find Reese, involving a Terminator prototype named Marcus (Sam Worthington). Early on, we see Marcus in jail at the present time on death row, signing away his body for postmortem-experimentation. His story, a narrative graft from “Frankenstein”, has him seeking the scientist (Helena Bonham Carter) whose research blended his heart, mind, and skin with an cybernetic skeleton. The now “indestructible” Marcus awakens in the future and believes he’s still a man. His evolutionary journey is more interesting than Connor’s , which requires him to be inhuman to save humanity.
The strength behind most the storyline is due to Worthington’s subtle, empathetic performance. Bale’s rumbling “Dark Knight” voice is great for shouting, which works for the barking militarism and may have scared his subordinates, but doesn’t follow the sympathetic aspect of 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” John Connor. When Connor says “I’ll be back”, it’s surprising. It lacks stoicism, as if it seems he’s forgotten about the good T800 of the ‘90s. Yelchin, for his part, apparently got the right DVD rentals to prepare for his “Red Dawn-like” cub-commando role. Which clicks, since at its heart, “Salvation” is a return to “Reagan-era” style of sci-fi. Director McG even keeps the gripping, “Road Warrioresque” action scenes linear and kind of retro, avoiding today’s nervous, “chop-shop” editing style. When you add the tons of mushroom clouds, Bale, Yelchin, and even Schwarzenegger’s brief turn, it all fits to a “T”.
