Disappointing and somewhat underwhelming addition to a franchise that many, though excluding myself, exclaimed was dead anyway.

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2009)

I think a certain degree of trepidation hit everyone when it was announced the director of the two Charlie's Angels films would be at the helm for a PG-13 (12A in Britain) Terminator film that was going to go down new roads and take place in the future, during the actual war between man and machine. It has since come to my attention that the writers of this project worked on the 2004 film Catwoman, which should really be a further nail in the coffin before you've even walked in. I do not think Terminator Salvation is quite as bad as either of these prior projects, which suggests a certain progression in both the filmmakers and writers' body of work, but all that counts for just about nothing when we realise this is the Terminator franchise we're talking about here, and whoever's decision it was to opt for these people to execute these ideas, must now come to terms with the fact it was a bad one.
If you know anything about the Terminator films, you'll know it is all about bodies – hard bodied cyborgs learning to become more humane and learning the values of human life; twinned with the soft bodied, deliberately introduced as rather pathetic, everyday-woman who learns of her fate and hardens up to become a fighter; a soldier and a mother. They are additionally about the coming to terms with technology and modernity co-existing in our contemporary world, and the struggles we face in being able to control what is essentially an arms race as these weapons are developed and developed some more. This addition, sadly, lacks any continuation of said study.
Terminator Salvation is a bad film, those that say otherwise are, I think, allowing the fact it's a Temrinator film complete with a few mildly interesting action scenes, to blind them somewhat. But it's that 'annoying' bad you sometimes get with projects you go in really wanting to like. Some may even compare the experience to 1999's Episode 1 of the Star Wars saga. Initially, Terminator Salvation is told on two separate equilibriums. The first sees a cold-blooded criminal named Marcus Wright (Worthington) sign away his body to Cyberdyne Systems prior to execution, in 2003. Upon the happening of Judgment Day and the resurrection of Marcus, complete with his half human-half robotic body, he bumps into a young Kyle Reese, played by a Russian actor named Anton Yelchin. Events transpire that put Reese in mortal danger and force Marcus into meeting up with the man of the hour; the supposed saviour: John Connor (Bale).
Prior to all this, Connor is heading various missions with members of the resistance in fully fuelled choppers and jet aircrafts; the sort that sees a few members die here and there, but nobody particularly important. Connor lives with a few significant members of the resistance; his wife Kate (Dallas Howard); an African-American soldier named Barnes (Common) and a feisty young woman whose study of a hard-bodied female soldier sees her glow on the screen, clad in a zip up tracksuit, whilst submitting to male charm in a false and disappointing manner that is crudely fast-tracked when a male agent saves her from potential rape. Her name is Blair Williams (Bloodgood).
Director McG's heart isn't with this project. It seems we've come to a point in which entire projects are re-written and changed just prior to production because certain story developments and ideas are 'leaked' to the rest of the world. This is not an individual's vision; it is a studio's vision to deliver an experience that no one is expecting – and when people are expecting it, it is removed and changed and re-submitted; for sake people might not pay their money if they know what will transpire. The film attempts to open up a plot that the humans hope will culminate in the destruction of the machines; a plan that revolves around the idea that "Every machine has an off switch, let's find Skynet's". This is introduced by a certain General Ashdown (Ironside), a man that states, after finding a low frequency noise that deactivates the machines, that the humans can win this war with this tool. Trouble is, we all walk in knowing there are planned sequels so there is never really any tension as to whether this plan will work – clearly it won't, and sure enough, a development opens up towards the end that told me I was correct in my feeling vacant.
The final act is completely phoned in, what with a descent into the baddies' lair, crudely put across via lazy iconography consisting of towering, grey chimneys and large vents that inexplicably shoot out fireballs at random intervals. The film transpires into a pretty basic one-on-one showdown in which metal rods, electric cables and tanks of molten steel are readily available – McG has no awareness of space during these scenes and as a consequence, it is horridly put together. Getting there is a chore; McG rips off Spielberg's War of the Worlds with large, hulking, bleeping robots that collect humans in cages for selected further use but gives us a few new, if rather dull, Terminator motorcycles plus reconnaissance bots that look a bit like Frisbees. Where the franchise goes from here, I don't know. All that can be done is the documentation of how Kyle got sent back to 1984 or how the development and production of the T-1000 model came about. These ideas are nothing but mere visualisations of previously unseen events and will offer nothing bar a 'kick' as we see what we've never seen before effectively play out – I ask you: for what? The franchise may not be Terminated just yet, but it's on a bumpy old road to some sort of ruin.