Let down by stale characters and plot holes.

Rating: 4/10 (1 June 2009)

Terminator Salvation has some of the ingredients for a real slam bang action flick, the outstanding production design, the creepy robots, and a director who does not rely on shaky cam (finally). I think the late Stan Winston would be proud of the endoskeleton designs. One of my friends said "they're so creepy" in the middle of the film. It begins on the right note, with a fantastic action scene that shows off the state of California after the nuclear war. John Connor uncovers the plans for the T-800, a welcome nod to the earlier films. The film is about two men, John Connor and a new character named Marcus Wright. Connor is not the leader of the resistance, at least not yet, but he has become a prophet of sorts with a large following due to his accurate predictions of what Skynet will do in the future. The human resistance has a new technology that could defeat Skynet for good. In the meantime, Marcus Wright awakens from a deep sleep. (Minor Spoiler from movie trailer up ahead) Anybody who saw the trailer knows Marcus is a cyborg who was not programmed to know he is a cyborg. His story is basically about him traveling California to figure out what the heck is going on. He has no knowledge of the war against the machines. His path crosses John Connor's after he befriends Connor's father, Kyle Reese, who has been captured by Skynet.
This doesn't sound like a bad plot, but unfortunately it does not generate enough excitement or suspense. It just seems to wander from scene to scene without much direction, but plenty of action. Salvation has some problems with its plot that are found in many action movies. I won't go into too much detail so as not to reveal spoilers, but they basically amount to the scenes in James Bond movies where the villain passes up a golden opportunity to kill James Bond just to deliver a monologue. Skynet's master villain scheme does not make any sense. The film also borrows from contemporary Spielberg films. I caught the Transformers connection but one of my friends noted a similarity to War of the Worlds. The Terminators carry prisoners to their camps in a sequence reminiscent of the scene from WOTW where Tom Cruise and his daughter were carried in the belly of that walking Alien vehicle. I thought a future war story would be a welcome change from the standard plot formula of the last two films, but it ends up being a bit of a routine in its own way.
What really killed the film for me though was the wooden characters. Christian Bale gives an intense action hero performance, but he did not have much to work with. John Connor is just a supporting character even though the series has always been about the Connor family. This might surprise or even confuse some. Sam Worthington gives a good performance as Marcus Wright, but he's just too much of a cliché for me to find him that interesting. I couldn't help but wonder "why are we following this guy around?" Maybe my Terminator fan boy bias made me more interested in John Connor. The original script for Salvation was all about Marcus Wright and Kyle Reese, and John Connor only had a minor role. Christian Bale was offered the role of Wright but he was more interested in John Connor, so the role was expanded. I can understand Bale's point. I don't think I would have liked the original concept for the film either, but once a creative tug-of-war begins it is usually a recipe for disaster unless the director has a clear vision of what he/she wants. Unfortunately I don't think McG was that director. The film doesn't seem to know who the main character is. In the final product, Marcus Wright and John Connor were not developed well enough. I don't think they even established who Bryce Dallas Howard's character was (Katherine Brewster from T3- John Connor's wife). Star Trek was able to overcome its plot holes with fun, interesting characters. Terminator's lack of good characters only makes the problems with the plot more apparent.
*Minor Spoiler* I must commend the CGI they used to paste 1980's Arnold's face onto a bodybuilder's body. I have read a few criticisms of it but heck, I thought it was the best part of the movie!