The End Begins

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2009)

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is 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, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. 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.
Let me start off to say that each Terminator film is different from one another. The first was a sci-fi. horror, I guess you may call it. The second and third, both very similar to each other, were sci-fi. action movies, opening to the summer audiences. Now, this, this is different. I don't know how to explain it. It's more depressing and gritty than the previous three films, having less jokes and comedic relief than ever, which is kind of encouraging and unfortunate, I suppose. The tone is very different, which is quite great, because I love to see different things from sequels by different directors, this, here, being McG.
In fact, from the opening sequence, you can tell the movie will be in a different vain. You can start with the score by Danny Elfman. In this film, I don't remember hearing the main theme for the Terminator films. As a person who never really thought the Terminator theme was that great in the first place, I'm grateful to say that I just fell in love with Elfman's new theme, bringing in freshness to the franchise, as well as hinting the original theme. I might be in the minority, but I don't care. The score was fantastic.
What I also like about this is how everything fits together. This is the film where we meet a much younger Kyle Reese, John Conner's father, before he was sent back in time where we finally meet him in the first Terminator film. With that being said, this film didn't really add anything to the story. In other words, we could have gone without this film. However, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I look at it that this film is just a set up to what will happen in the next sequel.
Now comes the kicker: McG. As a director, I appreciated his previous works, including the pilot episode of the TV show, "Chuck," along with the entertaining Charlie's Angels films. I love his energetic feel whenever he directs something. Without a doubt, this guy has a good eye. Technically, the film is stunning. He said before that he wanted to take long shots, and boy, did those scenes stick out in the film. There is one early on the movie that has John Conner coming out of a base, getting into a helicopter, having it hit by a Terminator machine, having the helicopter fall down, having Conner crawl out of the helicopter, and having Conner look up at a huge mushroom cloud hundreds of feet away. Now that's just one. I think these shots are an amazing technical feat.
Christian Bale comes into the franchise as the new John Conner. Although he doesn't have that much of a screen time, he did well, honestly. Sam Worthington was suggested by James Cameron for McG to be in the film. In fact, Cameron praised Worthington so much that Worthington became an overnight star. In this film, though, I thought he was decent. He is not really as good as people make him out to be. Anton Yelchin had appeared in "Star Trek" a couple of weeks ago. In here, he does no less of a fantastic job, playing the young Kyle Reese. He's a great, young actor.
Bryce Dallas Howard replaced Claire Danes as John Conner's wife, Kate. I really thought she pulled off well in here, with the limited screen time she appears in here, as well. Moon Bloodgood is the last actor worth mentioning in this film. She does a great job as Worthington's love interest. One last actor I would like to name here is Jadagrace Berry, who plays a mute kid. She put in some heart and soul into this film. I appreciated that. With these actors named, I felt that this was a great ensemble picture.
I think the look and feel of the film is incredible. Well, with a budget of $200 million, it better be. The post-apocalyptic look was vast and gloomy. The CGI was flawless, I think. There were some unbelievable action sequences as well. I won't name them here to ruin the surprise but some of them are jaw dropping. As a big summer blockbuster, I think this film is great. I mean, if you're going in to see this film, you better see it as a big summer blockbuster that offers the most explosions I've ever seen on one film, some great action sequences, and some great imagination in work. It's a fun, entertaining movie and the running time shouldn't be longer than it really is now. I can't compare it to the other Terminator films but, if I must, this is as good as Terminator 3 (yes, I liked that movie) and better than the first.