Come on, people, it's not THAT bad

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2009)

I definitely consider myself a fan of the Terminator franchise, so not seeing this film simply wasn't an option for me. Both the original Terminator and its follow-up T2: Judgement Day are masterpieces, each for very different reasons. I also rather enjoyed the problematic third film Rise Of The Machines, which succeeded in adding new dimensions to the established tale, even if it did so with way too much stilted humor. The downer ending left with us at the conclusion of Rise turned key elements of the franchise upside down in a way that still made narrative sense; no easy feat considering the entire series involves the rather tricky device of time travel.
What Terminator Salvation was supposed to deliver is an extended look at the war against the titular machines, which has been teased for three films with some far-too-short glimpses of mechanized carnage. Though the entire film is set in the not-so-distant future shown to us in these brief but breathtaking flashes, when we join Salvation, the war is already well underway. Humanity is already losing the battle (in fact, one of the most morbidly awesome aspects of the entire series is that we are never told who triumphs in this epic struggle between man and machine), and our tired and tireless human resistance fighters are joined in the throes of what must be just another day in paradise for them.
That right there should be enough to make Salvation an awesome film, but even though we spend the entire movie fleshing out what has previously only been offered to us in tantalizing mini-sodes, the film as whole doesn't offer much more than a longer glimpse. The story we see resolved here isn't the conclusion of the war with the machines, it's merely the tale of one battle along the way. This bodes well for future (inevitable) installments in the franchise, as there is still plenty of material left to engage. But since we've waited over 20 years to see this bit of the story's history (or future, more accurately) played out, the little we are given here in the way of mythic enhancement is a bit too meager to make this film epic in the same ways the previous three films were.
A big part of the problem is knowing exactly how the story is going to turn out. The only thing the film-makers could do here to surprise us is kill off one of the main characters, but that would negate the events of the first three Terminator films and derail the entire story arc. Not a possibility, apparently.
Though the film offers plenty of worthy additions to this franchise's rich legacy, the sense of predictability works directly against those. There's no real tension in John Connor's quest to save his future father (or past?... See, this time travel business does get screwy), since we already know dad is saved, otherwise we wouldn't be watching John Connor try to save him.
But, I did give this thing a 7, so I should probably explain why. By far the most enjoyable aspect of the film is the notion of a machine that doesn't know it's a machine. This human/cyborg hybrid can only be viewed as a prototype, as the machines would certainly realize after the events of this film that using human parts to make a machine, and not removing the emotional and recall functions of the human source material, is a dire mistake. (It certainly doesn't work out so well for Skynet here). There is a fantastic turn thrown in in regard to this, which I won't spoil here, so the film is at least keenly aware enough of its lack of shock potential to offer us something in the way of a plot twist.
As we would expect, or at least hope for, there are some splendidly spectacular action scenes, although none of them rival the most over-the-top bits in the previous Terminator films. Again, predictability sours this a bit.
Shockingly, the weakest link in this film is Christain Bale. Bale is certainly one of the finest actors currently plying his craft, but his stiff turn as John Connor here finds him so on autopilot, we can't help but wonder if the ultimate twist is that Connor, himself, is a machine. He barks his dialogue with the same raspy croak he gave Batman, and since the core conflict of this tale is the differences between humanity and machines, it's very strange that Bale doesn't show us anything resembling emotion here.
Bale's limited energy leads to some very bad dialogue, and the most absurd moments in the film (most notably, Bale re-interpreting the Motley Crue song "Kickstart My Heart") offset the refreshingly dark and humorless tone that sets this outing apart from the cheese factory found in Rise Of The Machines. While the first three installments all followed their own twisting logic, there are things in this film that definitely do not make sense, such as why cyborgs using human hearts to create hulking body-building killing machines would bother keeping old women and children alive in their experiment waiting cells. You also have to ponder exactly what blood type these robots have to make the ridiculous finale possible.
Should this be the penultimate Terminator film, then the franchise is destined to go out on a considerably lower note, granted. But there are still plenty of angles to flesh out in this narrative, and perhaps future Terminator installments can answer some of the questions raised here. The machines will rise again, there's no doubt about that. In the meantime, a so-so Terminator film is still a lot better than most of your other options.