If you're going to San Francisco...

Rating: 6/10 (21 June 2009)

...be sure to wear a gadget in your hair. Marcus Wright does, and although it can't save him, it helps him to die later rather than sooner. Much like some flowers might have gotten you into Haight Ashbury back in the day, the control chip at the back of his head gets him into Skynet central. Hippies and robots, they're not so different after all. Okay, perhaps "Salvation" isn't the best part of the series. Perhaps the series wasn't all that great to begin with. Taken at face value, this isn't a bad movie at all. Given all the paradoxes and pitfalls time travel can bring, the plot is a lot less messy than I expected. In fact, it almost works better as a stand-alone road movie than as a save-the-world sequel. Despite one or two bouts of nostalgia, Arnold is only a distant memory. This is really more "Salvation" than "Terminator". As an apocalyptic road movie, it shares the genes of younger stock like "28 Days Later", "Resident Evil Extinction", or "Reign of Fire". In fact, Christian Bale's gruff John Connor feels like a darker version of Quinn Abercromby, Bale's character in "Reign of Fire". CSI's Moon Goodblood, as Blair Williams, makes a very handsome sidekick in her form-fitting rebel suit. But the stars of "Salvation" are the twin Robobikes that drop from the giant Terminator's knees. You never see them coming until they're right behind you. They're disappointingly stupid in actual combat, but their entry is to die for.