Terminator Salvation

If you love stuff that goes boom, have I got a movie for you! The rest of us need to put in the ear plugs and wait for something better to come along, or see Star Trek again.

Set in 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor – a major leader in the resistance force after a computer system, SkyNet, starts a nuclear war to wipe out all of humanity. Some people survived, so SkyNet hunts them down with evil machines known as terminators (as if you didn’t know that already). Connor thinks he has a way to shut down the system and make humans safe again, but the plan gets complicated, when a mysterious man shows up, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), and claims to know the whereabouts of someone very important to Connor and the future.

Can Marcus be trusted?

Will John be able to find this person before the big attack on SkyNet?

Terminator Salvation is the antithesis of Star Trek (Don’t get angry with all of the Star Trek references. I may have to compare every movie to Star Trek until something better comes out, so get used to it, kind of like when your best friend has a new boyfriend or girlfriend and can’t stop talking about them). While the new Kirk and Spock adventure welcomed non-fans with a story that did not require you to know the difference between a Romulan and a Tribble, as well cool action sequences, Terminator Salvation’s script from John Brancato and Michael Ferris relies too heavily on previous knowledge of the Terminator world, in those rare moments when storytelling is attempted. I have seen all three of the previous movies, but I can’t say that they were among my favorite of all time or that I memorized every character and line of the script, so I felt left out of Terminator Salvation.

Director McG fashions the movie into one where you feel like you have been dropped into the middle of the story and action, instead of starting at the beginning. Sure, he’s OK showing us stuff that goes boom (again and again and again and again), but if you want more than that, you’ll be more empty handed and lonely than Jennifer Aniston on a Saturday night after she dumped John Mayer. This is not a movie about the acting, story or anything else you might refer to as artistic.

Then, Bale starts doing his best Batman impression, but is that what we want in Terminator Salvation? For some reason, he trots out that distinctive, raspy voice we know him for. However, you would think he would want to show another side to his acting ability and create a new character for the audience to embrace and worship. Plus, Bale is overacting at almost every turn. So much of his dialogue is yelled that you might think he was in a conversation with an 89-year old grandmother.

Terminator Salvation is one for the fans, but that might be enough to prompt another sequel.

Terminator Salvation is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.