Salvage

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 2016)

Set in 2018, this fourth film in the 'Terminator' franchise takes place entirely in the post-apocalyptic future as only ever talked about in the previous three installments. The plot has John Connor trying to finally find Kyle Reese (who he is yet to ever meet), while Reese tries to survive on his own, helped out in part by a mysterious stranger, played by Sam Worthington. While the secret behind Worthington's identity is always obvious from the get-go, the film successfully plays on ambiguities as to where his loyalties lie. He also gets some great personality crisis scenes late in the piece. With such a unique and original plot, 'Terminator Salvation' gets full points for not just imitating its predecessors, but through neglecting the formula of the original films, the results are less immersive overall. The film sorely lacks the chase thriller plotting of the earlier movies where everything is about surviving a nonstop killing machine who nobody else believes is really from the future. There are several lulls in the action and without an actor as charismatic as Arnold Schwarzenegger in a key role, the non-action scenes simply lack oomph. The whole muted colour scheme also comes off as a heavyhanded way of showing that the future is miserable, though the heart symbolism at the end takes the cake for lack of subtlety. If not a definite success, 'Salvation' is at least daring different at all times. It is also admittedly interesting to see the war against the machines in action; it is more a case that the war on its own is problematic when it comes to sustaining a feature length film.