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Terminator is not Back, Just Yet
| 29 June 2009 | By Andrej Klemencic
As the first moments of the new Terminator evolve into a dynamic action sequence, you hope that Terminator Salvation caught some of the gloomy, yet dramatic spirit of Terminators 1, 2 and 3.
Humanity is continuing the war with machines, which started at the end of Terminator 3. My greatest concerns were about just how well the director would portray the world after Judgment day.
This we learned about from Sarah Connor, mother of John and leader of the human resistance. That apocalyptic world, although as technically advanced as film industry can portray it, lacks a few important things.
First and foremost, it lacks Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although the governor of California is not entirely absent from the film, those who said that making a Terminator film without the genuine embodiment of metal terror was a task best left untackled, were right.
John Connor the hope for humankind, is played by Christian Bale, the current Batman. Bale’s love of action hero roles is exceeded only by his inability to play them. His portrayal of the savior of the human race swings from Keanu Reeves in the Matrix trilogy, to Mel Gibson in the apocalyptic Mad Max. He never really seems to have a personality of his own.
Director, McG, seems to have less experience working on the big screen, than he does with making TV series or writing lyrics for soundtrack pieces, and little or no acting in the new Terminator goes beyond the passable.
Had this been anything but a part of the most successful film saga of all times, perhaps, he could have got away with dialogue that at times is almost farcical and settings that are so similar to those in the Matrix trilogy that it is almost unhygienic to have them brought to screen. Indeed, the best actor in the film is the mask of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
However, studio bosses have a strong weapon in their hands, when they decide to make a sequel of a global hit and that is: everybody will want to know what happens.
And, because the war between men and Skynet has been installed in our subconscious since 1984, when the first Terminator was made, we need to know how it’s all going to end up.
Hundreds of millions of fans are not a guarantee, though, that the film will be a critical success.
Terminator needs a hero and this time it is Sam Worthington, an Australian actor who plays a half human, half machine character, alongside John Conor.
Worthington, and the female heroine, Moon Bloodgood, who plays rebellious Blair Williams are both time-served TV actors. But whilst making a TV series is by no means a less noble task than making a sequel to a film of such legendary status, it is an entirely different level of enterprise. Worthington’s accent and acting are so stiff, you could almost believe he is trying to replace Schwarzenegger in the series.
Writers, John D. Brancato, and Michael Ferris excelled themselves. Brancato’s career highlight is a Razzie Award in 2003 for worst scenario (Catwoman). Co-recipient of the award that year was Michael Ferris and the two seem to have become very close, and surprisingly, the producers of Terminator Salvation hired them both, believing that the touch of their pens would be the magic formula for the continuation of the epic. Despite the fact Catwoman is an unsurpassed masterpiece of cinematographic awfulness, the lows of the new Terminator are as deep as the submarine in which the headquarters of the resistance are located.
Even the melodramatic edges - a helpless child who can not speak - even the holocaust-like sequences, create an uncomforting contrast to the brutal apocalypse that the film is desperately trying to portray.
Sadly, a few good action sequences and impeccable sound editing are not enough to make us believe we are watching a true Terminator movie. After all this we can say only that he may be back, but not just yet.
