Thursday, May 21, 2009

Movie review: Terminator Salvation

Will smash its way into your heart.

By John P. Meyer

© Warner Bros Pictures

Fun with 37mm grenade launcher

Director McG (Charlie's Angels, We Are Marshall) cements a place for himself in the action movie hall of fame with Terminator Salvation. The movie (T-4 on the Terminator count, for those keeping track of such things) combines awesome thrills, spectacular special effects, gritty post-apocalyptic sets and intense sonic assaults into a thoroughly entertaining summer blockbuster movie experience.

(You'll note that I didn't award it a place in the DRAMATIC action movie hall of fame. Leaving open the possibility that the characterizations and plot points could have stood more development and logistical polish.)

As my friend Greg said as we were leaving the theater, "wouldn't it be easier for the machines to poison the air so all the humans would die?" Which is as good a way as any of saying there's not much point in attempting to analyze the underlying Terminator story line, which posits that Skynet - the brain behind the robot rebellion - is attempting to rid the Earth of the remainder of the human race (post nuclear apocalypse) by building a bunch of clanky mechanical agents to hunt down and dispatch (or snatch) the survivors on a one-by-one basis.

© Warner Bros Pictures

Now, THAT'S what I call product placement!

Without this embedded illogic, of course, there'd be no basis for Terminator Salvation, which finds John Connor (in the ever-intense personage of Christian Bale) acting as group conscience and guidance counselor to the far-flung human resistance movement via his irregularly-broadcast radio fireside chats. Bale, who famously blew up on the set, seems ill-suited for the role of humanity's savior - he's more effective as the morally-confused, troubled outsider or the lone-wolf caped crusader. (Still, he convincingly kicks some T-600 butt.)

Making his first appearance in the pantheon of Terminator characters is Marcus Wright (played by Aussie hunk Sam Worthington), who we meet originally in his ill-fated 2003 incarnation just as he's getting the kiss-off from Dr. Serena Kogan (a deathly-pale Helena Bonham Carter, in attendance on the occasion of his lethal injection in order to wheedle an organ donation signature out of him).

Cut to a dusty battlefield of the 2018-vintage future, where John Connor and a special forces-type strike team are in the process of assaulting a Skynet facility in an attempt to extract some potentially useful computer code. They arrive in a Huey that might easily have served in the late-'60's jungles of Vietnam.

© Warner Bros Pictures

"Friend or foe? How's a guy to know?"

Violent stuff happens, and when Connor attempts to make his getaway in the chopper he establishes the fact that his record in rotating-wing aircraft is going to be a problematic one. In one of the most believable helicopter crash sequences ever filmed, the old warbird takes off, gets immediately disabled and whirls to the ground, ending up on its roof. We see all this from inside the cockpit, looking back at Connor; when he cuts himself free of the harness, he plunges to the ground (which, given the orientation of the 'copter, is over our heads).

Also exiting the battle zone - in his case on foot - is Marcus Wright, who more or less appears without explanation. After some desert wandering (the filming was done around Albuquerque, New Mexico, though you likely won't recognize it thanks to the special effects trappings), Marcus finds himself in Los Angeles, where he's nearly sliced and diced by the mini-gun bearing T-600 Terminator keeping watch on the outskirts. Along comes Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, making his second appearance in a 2009 summer blockbuster) and his little girl sidekick Star (Jadagrace), who deal death-by-railcar-truck to the murderous, evil-visaged metal beast.

© Warner Bros Pictures

Blair with Desert Eagle. (Time to reload.)

Kyle and Star take on Marcus as a robot-bait charity case, schooling him in the ways of avoiding extinction and preparing coyote for dinner. (Which go hand in hand, if you want to survive in post-apocalypse L.A.) But Marcus has a hankering to locate this John Connor character he's been hearing so much about, and so basically boosts a (heavily modified) Jeep from under the noses of his two young pals, who reluctantly go along for the wild, robot-dodging ride, careening down hillsides and tangling with "unmanned" reconnaissance drones.

Only in a (heavily-modified) Jeep.

Along the road to Connorville, thrilling and spectacular stuff happens such that Marcus is separated from Kyle and Star - but as a consolation he makes the acquaintance of an ass-kicking, Desert Eagle-wielding exotic beauty in Connor's employ by the name of Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood, going for the rough-and-tumble look in leather and khaki). He saves her from post-apocalyptic rapists; she owes him one.

Arriving at Connor central, we're introduced to Kate (the ethereal-eyed Bryce Dallas Howard), who we're given to presume is somehow hooked up with Connor, since she hangs around him looking ethereal and appears to be visibly pregnant. There's also Barnes (Common), Connor's trusted lieutenant. Offshore, safely (ahem) submerged in their underwater mobile command post, are the leaders of the resistance, Generals Ashdown and Losenko (Michael Ironside and Ivan G'Vera). They are tasked by the filmmakers with showing us how bad an idea it was to put them in charge of military affairs - instead of John Connor, the people's choice, a man in touch with his feelings. A sensitive, new-age, post-apocalypse kind of guy.

© Warner Bros Pictures

Street thugs just keep getting bolder

Where T-4 excels is in the effects/action sequence area. The filmmakers - through the auspices of 1 Force - here employ enough weaponry (and employ it convincingly) to retake Baghdad, leading to a screen full of explosions and crashes and toppling edifices. The Road Warrior-ish chases, featuring a gyroscopically-stabilized variety of machine-driven motorcycle, are expertly choreographed and quite thrilling.

The moviemakers excelled in their employment of audio effects, specifically in relation to the high-decibel, low-register hooting employed by the towering "harvester" bots: quite a chilling accompaniment to the visual assault of the big metal beasties.

© Warner Bros Pictures

Ethereal. I'm just sayin'.

Events culminate on the home turf of Skynet (in San Francisco, it turns out) - which has been made by the machine entities to look a lot like Mordor, with a brightly-lit central spire surrounded by red flames and billowing smokestacks. (Maybe Skynet IS attempting to poison the air after all.) During this final confrontation, we encounter a blast-from-the-1984-past in the form of a T-800 whose unlined, deadpan countenance could only have been recreated by the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic.

Kick back and enjoy the mayhem - or get out of town.

Related stories

• Movie review: Surrogates (Sept. 25, 2009)

See more stories in:

• Arts > Movies / Film > Mainstream Movies

Comments

Travis Bush Verified

Thanks for the review, John! I'll probably wait till this one comes out on cable, but still definitely one I want to see.

5 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

James Scott Verified

just saw it - great flick! definitely a must-see in person though, visual & audio effects were stunning.

5 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

alexander troup Verified

I too,... have been baptized by this facinating and yet out of date Scifi,to say yes "I will be back"...John Connors...

Mean while the Govenor of the State of California is having a hell of a time, Arnold looks pretty tired...and the men in metal have not been around in this new Century yet.....what I do realize is this, they hit sub urban areas..and that is the scarey thing......a World War one event in the 21st Century....A/T,HMMM, ..better sleep on this one if I can....

5 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )