Terminator, yes Salvation, no!

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2009)

This review contains spoilers.
Where I come from, a lot of people have seen Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) before gaining access to the rarely obtainable The Terminator (1984). I had seen bits of T2, but not enough to become familiar with the concept. So my fortune of seeing The Terminator first made me eager to watch the second, and when I did, both the movies went to the list of my childhood favorites.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) was fairly good according to me, although I had wanted more content, not action. And Terminator Salvation what happened, McG?
I remember seeing an interview of director McG, where he had commented on the unnecessary amount of money spent on a film's special effects. He believed in being economical and optimal. He achieved that, but at the cost of the story, the drama and the ideals that the Terminator series stood for.
In order to understand TS, one has to recall the past, the future, or whatever the directors James Cameron and Jonathan Mostow had presented in the earlier installments.
Right now, I am trying to piece the time-lines of all the four movies in a coherent manner.
*** Spoilers Begin Here ***
The year is 2018. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn in the 1980s, Anton Yelchin in TS), a boy who had grown up in harsh apocalyptic Blade-Runner-The- Matrix-Transformers-like surroundings, was rescued by John Connor (Christian Bale) and Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) from Skynet, a self-aware Artificial Intelligent system. John does not get to hand over a photograph of his mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) to Kyle even after all this.
This is the franchise's backbone, but when it was completely dismissed, a true Terminator fan is bound to be disappointed.
What is landmark about this subplot? Reese (Yelchin) will be infatuated with the woman in the photo. He will also be sent back in time to 1984 to save her from a cybernetic assassin: a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). In the process, Reese (Biehn) and Sarah fall in love, and she later becomes pregnant with his son: John Connor.
The next issue is to do with the resistance movement that is given a lot of importance in the previous Terminator outings. John Connor (Michael Edwards in T2, Bale in TS) was spoken of as an extremely inspirational character. He had motivated the surviving human race against the machine tyranny. Kate Brewster, now Connor (Claire Danes in T3, Bryce Dallas Howard in TS), was painstakingly introduced in T3 as well, so one will imagine their presence in TS as potentially magical.
Those who are waiting to see the John Connor as prophesied in past tense statements of characters sent back in time will have to wait more because Christian Bale is not ready yet. It is always up to the Terminator (Schwarzenegger and Roland Kickinger), T-1000 (Robert Patrick), T-X (Kristanna Loken), Marcus Wright and Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) to charm the audiences.
Even the small fry Earl Boen gets to shine in the earlier parts, but filmmakers have still not decided what to do with Connor. Anyhow, one saving grace is that Kyle Reese stood the test of time, literally.
What about the lines? Schwarzenegger had a prominent accent, so his "I'll be back" was repeated in a different variation in each movie. Biehn's "Come with me if you want to live" was done by a different actor in each sequel. "Talk to the hand" in Terminator 3 had come about as a surprise, and it remained untouched in Salvation. Yet some questions linger with every release. Who'll be back? Who will go with whom? And who will live?
*** Spoilers End Here ***
Moving on to the technical side, sources say that The Terminator had a budget of $ 6.5 million. So it was only obvious that James Cameron had to place a write-up at the beginning indicating the events. He corrects this in the second part by actually expanding on the futuristic scenes to the extent of revealing a rugged John Connor (Edwards). Judgment Day in every way was a masterpiece. Jonathan Mostow carbon-copied the idea for T3, and there were no complaints. McG could have very well inserted Bale's voice-over to narrate the machine takeover. He could have spent extra time on the introduction of the resistance movement. One simple conversation between the rebels would have done the trick, but that was not meant to be.
Music Composer Brad Fiedel was a pioneer, and Marco Beltrami saluted him by incorporating the famous Terminator soundtrack into the third installment. Danny Elfman, on the other hand, delivers a fair Salvation theme that resembles The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) on some notes. What happened to the master who weaved amazing nuances for Spider-Man (2002, 2004), Hulk (2003), Men in Black (1997) and Batman (1989, 1992)? Only filmmaker Tim Burton gets the best results out of him, so let us not dwell on that.
What is the verdict on Terminator Salvation? The truth is I'm divided. I loved and hated it at the same time.
At the end of the day, this movie reminds me of the bizarre Planet of the Apes franchise spawned after the original 1968 classic. The 2001 remake was pathetic. Strangely, Helena Bonham Carter and Danny Elfman are a part of that cinematic entry too.
One should take a cue from J.J. Abrams whose Star Trek (2009) has a smart screenplay to back up, or cover up, an average storyline.
What did we learn after 11 artistes portrayed the same hero? Too many Connors spoil the franchise.