A Dark and Gritty View of the Future

(060409) The Terminator saga continues with Salvation and for the first time we see the war that occurs after the renegade program Skynet becomes self aware. We do not start the film by showing John Connor (Bale) emerge from the bunker seen in Rise of the Machines but by meeting Marcus Wright (Worthington) who is on death row years before the setting of the film. He is being talked to by Dr. Kogan (Bonham Carter) who wants him to donate his body to science and a company that fans are well aware of. When we meet Connor, he isn’t the leader of the Resistance but a soldier on a mission that starts off the action sequences of the film with a bang. Connor isn’t the savior yet but from dialogue we see that some see him as such. The amount of carnage and destruction seen on his mission sets up the rest of the film and does so in a perfect fashion.

As Connor moves on to complete his mission Marcus begins his. He was at the installation destroyed at the start and begins to make his way across the damaged Earth. He doesn’t have any idea what is going on but he knows that he isn’t going to find anything out by staying where he is. The writers use him as a story device to introduce us to Kyle Reese (Yelchin) and his companion Star (Jadagrace), Virginia (Jane Alexander) and then Blair Williams (Bloodgood). As they are working their way across California Connor is dealing with his pregnant wife Kate (Howard) and his second in command Barnes (Common) and the mission that he is on. He is also listening to tapes from his mother (Linda Hamilton) and trying to find his father Kyle.

Salvation is filled with quick and dirty action sequences showing us a variety of Terminator models, each more dangerous than the next. The action sequences here outnumber the character moments of the film save for the segments that deal with Marcus. He doesn’t know what has happened to him since he ‘died’ and his journey to discover himself is the driving engine of the film. Worthington has a star turn here that suggests he can handle action sequences as well as character moments without trying hard. The sequence in which he learns his true nature is one of the best moments of the film and sets up the end of the film perfectly.

If you were to rank the Terminator films in order of quality then T2 is the best of the four, the original is the second best, this film is the third best and Terminator 3 is the fourth best. The action sequences here beat to hell every part of Machines aside from the chase down the streets of LA. The ‘cameo’ by a certain Governor is cool but the technology hasn’t matured enough for it to look natural. There is also a weird transition scene in the film that seems to have been created by the editing out of Moonblood’s topless scene. I would have liked to have seen more scenes with Common and more on the relationship between Kate and John Connor but I liked the film enough to rate it highly. McG does a great job here and people need to give him break. I can understand not liking Charlie’s Angels but he also produces the CW series Supernatural and that’s a damn good show. He also directed We Are Marshall and that was a good movie.