Correction appended
When it was announced that the one-named director McG of the frothy "Charlie's Angels" movie franchise had been tapped to helm the latest "Terminator" film, many message-board fanatics openly called for his head. As it turns out, their outrage was justified, but not for the obvious reasons. Rather than a slight, lightweight sci-fi thriller, "Terminator: Salvation" is a humorless and self-serious clunker.
McG also known as Joseph McGinty brings none of the epic, visionary quality of James Cameron's first two "Terminator" features to this latest installment of the action franchise. McG also fails to allow any leeway for self-referential humor, which was the only thing that sustained "T3: Rise of the Machines."
The film begins in a high-security prison, sometime around the present day. Prisoner Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is up for execution. He signs away his body to Cyberdyne Systems for research, at the request of Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter, who is above this movie).
To non-devotees of the "Terminator" franchise, Cyberdine is the technology company that developed SkyNet, an artificial intelligence system purchased by the U.S. government. Naturally, this system, when implemented, co-opted the U.S. defense network and took out most of the humans on Earth. The surviving humans fight this machine-led autocracy under the leadership of General Ashdown (Michael Ironside, of "Starship Troopers" and "Total Recall").
One of Ashdown's officers is John Connor (Christian Bale), whose story arc we've been following through "T2" (in which he was played by Edward Furlong) and "T3" (Nick Stahl). Protected from cyborg assassination attempts in those films by Arnold Schwarzenegger's iconic character, Connor is now beginning to fulfill his destiny as savior of humanity and a member of the resistance, though not everyone is convinced of his pseudo-divinity.
Connor's goals are twofold: first, to defeat the machines, and second, to find his father, Kyle Reese, in order to send him back in time to meet his mother and conceive the young John Connor.
Marcus, who has mysteriously come back to life in McG's "Terminator," comes across Reese ("Star Trek's" Anton Yelchin) and helps him stay alive just long enough to get captured by the machines. Marcus then meets up with resistance fighter Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood), earning her trust and following her to Connor's military base. Without giving away the major plot twist (as the trailer idiotically does), I'll say that Connor and Wright agree to work together to infiltrate the machine compound in San Francisco and save Reese.
One of the biggest problems with "Salvation" is that it takes itself far too seriously, as exemplified by Christian Bale's clench-jawed, one-note performance. With a variation on his overwrought Batman growl coloring every line, Bale's John Connor is obnoxious and self-righteous. The sparks of cultural reference and humor that humanize the first three films are completely absent from this installment, and Bale's delivery only helps to underline this fact.
Apparently, nothing screams "gritty, post-apocalyptic world" like a flat, gray color palette. This kind of desolate and monochromatic look works in a film like "Children of Men," where director Alfonso Cuaron's elegant framing and camera work create an almost tangible setting. McG's vision, however, is starkly two-dimensional there is an almost complete absence of depth of field. This artificiality is accentuated by some of the ridiculous set pieces in the giant machine city that Connor and Wright attempt to infiltrate: In particular, seemingly functionless exhaust ports that belch balls of fire into the air like the pyrotechnics at a Kiss concert.
The closest "Salvation" comes to good acting is with Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese, whose emotion and excitability are in perfect contrast to the robotic performances of almost everyone else.
There is nothing unique about "Salvation" to distinguish it from any other post-apocalyptic thriller: the effects and action sequences are nothing to shout about, the acting is inconsistent at best, and the plot moves forward in fits and starts. Strong female characters, a hallmark of the first two films in the series with Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, here are simply non-existent.
Ultimately, "Salvation" is a reminder that the lifeblood of the "Terminator" series is Schwarzenegger, and that without him it is just another trite sci-fi story.
Although the ending screams "sequel," as reviewer Yahtzee Croshaw once said of the video game "Super Paper Mario:" it is more than time to put this franchise to bed. And then kill it in its sleep.
