Too Many Explosions Not Enough Story

Rating: 5/10 (10 January 2011)

I wasn't expecting much with SALVATION . I thought it was going to be a rather dumb Summer blockbuster full of set-pieces and explosions without the cerebral poetry and impacting imagery that Cameron and Ellison brought to the original just over 25 years ago .. In fact the scene where Kyle remembers the future where traumatised survivors huddle in underground bunkers scavenging for rats and using TV sets as fireplaces is one of the most stunning scenes in the history of post apocalyptic cinema . None of the other films including the over rated sequel come close to this so what hope for SALVATION ?
!!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!!!
As I expected SALVATION plays out in a predictable manner . The only real surprise was that John Connor played by Christian Bale wasn't really the main character but was Marcus Wright played by Sam Worthington . Marcus has a dark secret but you'll be able to work out what it is long before it's revealed on screen . The only other real surprise is that there's so much action on show but this is to the detriment of everything else . For example if someone falls out of a helicopter in to a lake it's not enough that they swim for their life , they must engage in combat with Terminators . If you look at the trivia section on this page you'll see that several screenwriters were brought in to polish the script including Oscar winner Paul Haggis but one has to ask what they did to develop the story ? Did they cross out their colleagues work and pile on their own set-pieces in to the screenplay ? You're left with that impression
There's also a serious gap in logic in having so much action . In the original humanity is on its last legs but here the Human resistance has ample supplies of things like aircraft and helicopters . Considering humanity had been nuked many years ago how on earth are they able to refine the fuel for all these aircraft . As someone who grew up during the cold war the thought of surviving World War 3 terrified me more than dying in it . You can understand artistic licence in that radation sickness being ignored but when you've got a film where post apocalyptic field hospital can still carry out intricate heart surgery then someone on the production may be in need of a brain transplant
That said I did find SALVATION slightly better than RISE OF THE MACHINES and the cinematography is impressive as is the CGI and special effects ,. But it doesn't really have much more of a function than as a cynical money making excersise . I've recently seen all of the Universal FRANKENSTEIN films which ended up with introducing Dracula and the Wolf Man in to the series and you've got the nasty feeling that the next TERMINATOR movie might see a few Predators or Aliens get thrown in to the mix