The Terminator mythos is one of the most intricate and complex in science fiction history. Although its story timeline is ever changing due to the constant time-travel theme, die-hard fans are still quite aware that the entire story revolves around the ultimate plot hole of all time. With that irritant accepted, fans were looking to this fourth installment of the series to not only answer some debated-to-death questions, but also to kickoff a post-apocalyptic trilogy. Regrettably,
Terminator: Salvation’s primary mission appears to be to widen existing plot holes and blast a few more into the already swiss cheese storyline. Its mission was a dreadful success.
Terminator: Salvation picks up in the year 2018, 15 years after the lukewarm reception of
T3. John Conner is not yet the indisputable leader of the resistance against Skynet and its Terminator machines. There appear to be some experienced military personnel that have survived the apocalypse and are very weary of letting a civilian like Conner run the show. However, Conner has captured the heart of the resistance members due to his prophetic knowledge of Skynet and his unshakable confidence that they will win the war. But when a new model of cyborg shows up, Conner is not sure whether to make friend or foe of it; an alternate future to the one his mother warned him about may have emerged.
Terminator and
T2: Judgment Day were both directed and written by James Cameron. When
T3 went into production Cameron was gone, and along with him went the grit and overall feel of the Terminator genre.
T3 felt like a Rolex that was purchased on Canal Street. It had all the right parts, but it just felt disingenuous.
Terminator: Salvation has trouble just trying to be a copy of a copy.
The story centers around Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington. Immediately the story is flawed when John Conner is the secondary character. Marcus is a convict in the year 2003 and sentenced to death for crimes that are never fully disclosed, this is just the beginning of the question mounting that goes on in this film. Right before his sentence is to be carried out, he donates his body to a company that was originally responsible for the creation of Skynet until the events of
T2 transpired. Somehow Marcus awakes in the year 2018 transformed into a very advanced cyborg that runs on a supercharged human heart. Although Worthington plays this part very well and is actually featured in the film just as much as Christian Bale’s John Conner, the character has no development at all. Nor does any other character for that matter. Marcus Wright is just dropped into the story with no real explanation in a series where everything depends on details. Ironically, Christian Bale gives as robotic a performance as the machines he is fighting. It just seemed like he never really bought into his character. Another mistake was not bringing back Claire Danes from
T3 as Kate Brewster, John’s wife. Instead Bryce Dallas Howard, (
Spider-Man 3), throws in an excruciatingly vapid effort as the now pregnant Kate Connor. Not that any of these actors had great dialogue to work with. The script is childlike, and director McG (
Charlie’s Angles) is inept at handling a heavy sci-fi story. There was some nice eye candy in the form of action scenes, but even they became inconsistent and nonsensical as the machines intelligence and abilities kept shifting throughout the film.
The Terminator story counts so heavily on everything making total sense because every plot device is in an infinite orbit around a monstrous and accepted plot hole. I’m of course talking about the infinite time loop of Kyle Reese. In
The Terminator, Kyle Reese was a soldier sent back in time by John Conner to protect his mother Sarah from a Terminator also sent back in time to kill her before she ever gives birth to John. Where things get really sticky is when Kyle is revealed to be John’s father after he shared an intimate relation with Sarah while on his mission to save her. This is where brains bleed out from the audiences’ ears. If Kyle is the father, how was John ever born the first time to send him back to become his father? Everyone loves
The Terminator and
T2 so much, that this was eventually just accepted by the fans in hopes that it would someday be explained. However it’s because of this that everything else in the Terminator universe must be detailed and make perfect sense.
Terminator: Salvation blows down the proverbial house of cards that the series stands on by crowbarring in new characters with no explanation, leaving established characters blowing in the wind, and ignoring the chance to finally answer the biggest questions in the Terminator saga.
Story: 4.5
Acting: 5.0
Writing: 4.0
Captivation: 6.0
Replay Value: 6.5
Total: 5.2
