If we stay the course we are dead! We are all dead!

Rating: 7/10 (12 December 2009)

This is the sequel we never wanted, with the director we never wanted. A film that was made hoping to make a lot of money because of the fanbase, but really just annoyed the Terminator fanboys straight away.
Terminator Salvation is the first Terminator film that does not have a Terminator going back in time with the mission to kill John Connor in some way or form. This one film looks at the war between the Human Resistance and the Machines after the nuclear war known as Judgement Day. Set in 2018, John Connor (Christian Bale) has been an iconic but rebellious member of the resistance. He leads a team in the fight against the machines. In a raid his team receive information about a signal that could disable the machine and win the war for humanity. They also discovery that the machines have a kill list, with Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) on the top of it. During the raid, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a convicted killer is awaken from suspended animation. He is shocked to discover that Los Andreas is a hollow deserted city and ends up meeting Kyle Reese and a mute child (Jadagrace Berry). Along his travels Reese is captured and he ends up joining the resistance. He becomes their best hope at stopping the machines.
I wanted to like this, there was some potential and no way it could have been worst then Terminator 3. I think critics were willing to brash this film for two reasons, first misjudging T3 (which was T2 made as a parody), and simply because McG directed this film. There are some positives, there are some good action sequences, especially when the Terminator was on the screen, references to the previous films, and Sam Worthington was very good in this film.
But there are a lot of problems with this film that really held it back. I am also critical of McG as a director. He is a music video director who only knows how to direct 3 to 4 minute sequences. He is not good at story or character direction and he over stylises scenes, like when John Connor tried to take off in the helicopter. He over edits, and there are scenes when the camera can't stay still when it really should. He is not good at directing actors. The film lacked the dark and gritty feel it really needed, some moments were be a bit too melodramatic. It wasn't dirty enough, compared to Lord of the Rings where you believed in the medieval style world it was set in. Some of the ideas and scenes were pretty much copied from other films. These include, The Mute Child (Mad Max 2), Steady Cam Battle Scene (Children of Men), The jet plane dog fight (Independence Day), the human harvesting (War of the Worlds (2005)), the radio messages (I Am Legend), some of the robot designs (Iron Man), the CPR scene and the bridge attack (Mission Impossible III). But McG can direct an action scene, and more then a glorfied camera man like Brett Ratner. He can do smaller projects like We Are Marshall and should do more to build up his skill level. And really needs to change his name, because a grown man should not call himself McG!
But I think the main problem with the film is the script. It was written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who wrote the Terminator 3 and Catwoman (not good signs). It was rewritten a lot by Paul Haggis, Shawn Ryan, Johnathan Nolan and Anthony E. Zuiker, even during the middle of filming. It shows because some of the dialogue was weak, stiff or overdone: in T1 and T2 it was so cool, but not in this. The story too was nothing special, with both the writers and McG not sure whether to focus on Marcus or John Connor. The story reminded me of a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction which was a lot better then this script (and I really mean that because it was the fanfiction was well written). This Terminator film also suffers from a lack of a Terminator as either a good or bad guy. He is a compelling forces because of his power. There were ideas that were not used well, like the fine line between man and machine who how would humanity survive a post nuclear world. I also felt the resistance shouldn't have been an organised military force, but more a guerrilla force like the Viet-con or the Iraqi insurgency. This was meant to be the point when humanity was loosing really badly. Kyle Reese in the first film stated that he was born in a machine camp and it was John Connor who saved him. That should have been shown and not him fighting alone in LA. If the story was stronger, it might have worked better as a stand alone film.
Whilst Sam Worthington was good in this film, most of the actors didn't do so well. Christian Bale, an actor I like a lot and normally picks his films very carefully, is on auto-pilot in this film. This is particularly specially because he had a famous rant when on set and he was staying in character when it happened. Common as Bale's second in command was really poor and wooden, and it must have been a struggle to carry him in the film. Bryce Dallas Howard was underused, and Helena Bonham Carter, one of my favourite actress didn't give her role her all. Moon Bloodgood and Anton Yelchin were decent, but their character's lacked depth, especially Moon Bloodgood.
The trailer pretty much shown the best scenes of the film.
For the Terminator film no one wanted I give it a 2 out of 5. I wanted to like it but ended up getting disengaged with it. I think a director like Bryan Singer or Darren Aronofsky could have done so much more with it.