Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

McG managed to do something that Terminators were unable to do - McG killed John Connor! Okay, I'm being a bit over dramatic here - McG did not kill John Connor; but McG did make a Terminator movie where there was virtually no character development for John Connor. Terminator Salvation is a redemption/salvation story around a new character in the Terminator Universe.

A warning to those who have not yet seen Terminator Salvation: Please STOP reading now. My review will be full of spoilers and I do not want to ruin your movie watching experience more than I already have with my first paragraph. You have been warned and I take no responsibility for ruining your Terminator Salvation movie experience if you read further. Now to my review...

I do not know where to begin with Terminator Salvation. There are so many things to say about the movie and only a few are good. I guess I'll start off with the good things to get them out of the way:

• Almost all of the action sequences were top notch. Other than a few editing things here and there, the action was first rate. That's one of the few things that McG does well - he can shoot good action sequences.
  
  
• The CGI was top notch as well. All the various Terminators (from the Terminators we've seen before, to the motorcycle and hydro Terminators, to the CGI of Arnold's face on the T-101 for the big climax) looked impressive. At one point, one would think that you were watching a Transformers movie as there were so many different Terminator robots on screen.
  

Alas, in my opinion, that's where the accolades stop. The following, in no particular order, are my main problems with the movie:

• Christian Bale was just not right for the role of John Connor. I was excited when Bale signed on to play John Connor, but something just wasn't right. From his voice (can someone tell me why Bale was still speaking with his annoying Batman voice?) to his uninspired performance (all the more surprising given his infamous rant against Shane Hurlbut while filming this movie because Shane interrupted him during an intense scene). It appeared to me that Bale was just bored as he wasn't given enough in the script to play an inspired John Connor.
  
  
• Marcus Wright, not John Connor, is the major character of this movie. Hell, Marcus Wright IS the hero of this movie as he saved Kyle Reese, Blair Williams (the female fighter pilot) and John Connor. This perhaps is my biggest problem - I was expecting to watch a John Connor movie, but was given a Marcus Wright movie instead. The Terminator Salvation title really implies the redemption/salvation of Marcus Wright above all else.
  

• Why does everyone seem to know that Kyle Reese is John Connor's father? Why is this fact so well known to Connor's team? It's so widely known that even Skynet seems to know who Kyle Reese is as Skynet has targeted Kyle Reese as the #1 person it wants to have terminated by the end of the week.
  
  
• If Skynet is so intelligent (and really has Kyle Reese tagged for termination), why doesn't Skynet have all its Terminators immediately kill Kyle Reese once he is spotted? Instead, Skynet simply has Kyle taken away to a holding cell when he is spotted in the Skynet base in San Francisco! (I realize that all Terminator movies require that I suspend my disbelief in order for the movie to be enjoyable, but this blew me away.) Skynet has the chance to kill John Connor's father so that John Connor would never be born, but it doesn't take that opportunity. How the fuck does that make any sense!?!?!?
  
  
• The Resistance seems to be on equal footing with Skynet. I never get the feeling that the human beings are losing the war against Skynet per the descriptions of the war from T1 and T2. For example, there are areas where Skynet will not go and the Resistance readily has aircraft (and a submarine) at its disposal.
  
  
• The dialogue is sophmoric at best. Here are some of my favorites:
  "So that's what death takes like." - Marcus Wright
  "I'll be back." - John Connor (doing his worst Arnold-impression)
  "His heart isn't strong enough." - Kate Connor
  
  
• The scene that elicited the biggest chuckle was the idiotic cuddling scene between Marcus and Blair after Marcus saves Blair. The entire setup to that scene is laughable. In this scene, Blair takes her handgun out of her tactical holster and hangs it up when she tends to her injured arm/shoulder. You're in potential Terminator territory and the first thing you do is put your fucking weapon away! Are you kidding me!?!?! Of course, she proceeds to get attacked and Marcus saves the day. Blair, of course, then develops feelings for Marcus and cuddles with him and says, "You have a strong heart." A fucking inane scene if you ask me and just way too much foreshadowing.
  

I had high hopes for this movie, but I expected too much from McG and was let down. Serves me right for thinking someone with a douche-bag name would get it right. I just hope this movie doesn't end the Terminator franchise as Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin film almost ended the Batman franchise.