PG13 is not even this movies biggest problem

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2009)

The one thing I feared the most when Salvation came out was the PG13 rating. I am sick of greedy producers, turning adult franchises, kiddie-friendly, just so they can sell more tickets. They ruined Die Hard 4 and Indiana Jones 4, with this ridiculous rating, that Spielberg should apologize for.
However they really pushed the limit within this rating, with Salvation. It is pretty violent. But there is still no blood and they are still not allowed to say the f-word. I will never understand the double standard when it comes to American censorship. It's okay to show people having their necks broken or being choked to death as long as there is no blood and no nudity. And nobody says the oh so horrible f-word.But the rating is not the biggest problem here. The problem is Mcg, Bale and a really dumb script.
Why they chose Mcg as a director (for god sakes, use your full name, if you wanna be in the big league, you're not a black rapper) is beyond me. The man has musicvideoes, Charlies Angels and episodes of Supernatural on his resume. Not exactly impressive. Cameron should never have signed off on the rights to the franchise. Mcg, tries his best, but he has several problems, Bale can't act. He is the most overrated actor of his generation. Both Edward Furlong and Nick Stahl, did a ten times better job, portraying John Connor. All Bale does is fight and yell and scream. He shows no depth, no emotions, we really don't care what happens to him. And I rooted for Marcus Wright in the end, not John Connor.
And the script oh my god... first of all, what the hell happened to Marcus, in the 15 years that went by since they turned him into an infiltrator?? That is never explained. If he was being used to get to John Connor and Kyle Reese why did'nt they activate him sooner? Why does it come as a surprise to Connor that Marcus is a cyborg? He has met Terminators twice before in his life? Reese says in the first movie: "you stay down by day, you can move around at night, but you still have to be careful, because the H.K's use infrared." In this future the resistance move around in broad daylight, there are no battlefields with skulls on the ground and cars with skeletons inside. They have no ray-guns or other futuristic weapons.But they have military-choppers that look too new, they even have a submarine. Where would they get that kind of stuff in the middle of a nuclear war that has destroyed everything? In flashes of the future in the first movie they live underground in bunkers. Here they have a hanger and camps like in Iraq and Afghanistan. Where they can be killed anytime by H.K's and terminators. But apparently terminators only appear in this future, when the resistance play music. Yeah that makes a lot of sense.
They eat coyotes and they have milk. Would'nt all animal-life have been wiped out in a nuclear-war?? Don't even get me started on the cgi-Arnold.
The little brat: Star, has no lines and there is no point of her being in this movie.
Bryce Dallas Howard is ugly, she's a bad actress, and her role in this movie is pointless. On top of that she spent the entire movie, looking pregnant, but it's never explained if she is pregnant. In Rise of the machines Kate was fighting side by side with John. Here she is reduced to being a doctor who is never in the field with Connor. And there is no chemistry what so ever between her and Bale.
Moon Bloodgood (is that a real name?) as Williams is annoying and her relationship with Marcus is pointless as it never evolves anyway.
The only two people that gives good performances are Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin as Marcus and Reese. Especially Yelchin acts a lot like Biehn did in the first movie. He has potential to become a great actor. And Worthington should have played Connor.
The actionscenes are great though and I love all the new terminators.
But it is a PG13 future. Had the movie been R-rated like the previous films, it would have been a completely different film.
But without a decent script, decent acting, a good story with heart and soul and humour and loalty to the flashes of the war in the previous movies, even an R-rating, would'nt have saved this sinking ship. And in the end when they blow up Skynet, as easy as boiling an egg and kill the only interesting character: Marcus and Connor gives his tenth speech, you realize that the franchise has been ruined for good.