As Terminator Salvation ends, one can't help but witness how far something great has fallen. Nothing, not the film's much higher budget and production values than the original film, not the attempts to inject quality by involving Christian Bale and Jonathan Nolan (as an uncredited writer) from last year's The Dark Knight, can disguise the transformation the films have gone through from something fascinating, human to a cold, soulless, moneymaking entity, somewhat like the adversarial Machines depicted in the film.
Terminator Salvation opens briefly in 2003 where a San Francisco death row inmate called Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) volunteers his body to Cyberdine for research. Fast forward to 2018 where humanity is at war with The Machines. The now adult John Connor (Christian Bale), the prophesied saviour of humanity, leads an assault onto an enemy post where he discovers a weapon to kill The Machines for good as well as a plot to assasinate him and a person named Kyle Reese (for reasons familiar only to those who have watched the first film). Meanwhile, Marcus wakes up in the enemy post, unaware of where or when in time he is and unsure of how he survives his execution. As he wanders, he meets Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) who accompanies him back to San Francisco to seek answers. But San Francisco is now The Machine's headquarter which John Connor plot to destroy and their paths will cross with surprising results (or maybe not, if you have seen the trailer).
The main problem with the film is that it has nothing really new or interesting to add to the existing storyline. All the previous 3 films have more or less the same plot of a good guy and a bad guy being sent to the past to change the course of the future but each film as its own compelling ideas that develop their materials into something better*. This film is more concerned instead about adding more details about the series main players and fan services that are often unnecessary; things like how John Connor got his scar, how Kyle Reese got his jacket and becomes a warrior and Sarah Connor's voice tapes (Linda Hamilton reprising her role). All these, at best, only serve to only explain further what we already knew from the previous films without giving anything new or compelling. At worst, however, the additions ruin the memory of previous films, like the use of Sarah Connor's voice tapes whose voiceover is so crucial in T2 but here she is reduced to a few meaningless sentences along the line of "I don't know what else to say, John, the future is in your hand." While there are attempts to be deeper through the new character of Marcus when we learn who he truly is, but whatever little success the character provides gets lost when we reach the chickened-out ending** whose sole purpose is to continue to another movie and pleasing the fans at the same time.
Like other Summer blockbusters, this film has high budget to bring the best action and spectacles to rival the series benchmark T2 as well as acquiring quality actors like Christian Bale whose presence is much needed to make up for the absence of series stalwart Arnold Schwarzenegger***. However, like a typical summer blockbuster today, higher budget and production values work against the film's success. For some perspective, consider the first Terminator film - it was a product of its time and works splendidly because of it. It benefitted a lot from its low budget, lots of night scenes and 80s setting to create a bleak apocalyptic techno-noir atmosphere. Terminator Salvation, on the other hand, attempts to create a bleak future by showing a lot of desolate desert landscape through a desaturated lens to create a grim, gritty look but it comes off like the prettiest looking apocalypse instead. The first film's Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton and Arnold are hardly award winning actors but they did effectively with their characters to create sympathy, dread and fear. This film has Christian Bale who, to the dismay of many who wants to see John Connor comes of age, rants and rants and shoots stuffs and then rants some more. On top of that, there's the character, Blair, a resistance pilot played by Moon Bloodgood, who is one good example that symbolize what's so wrong with this film. She is a confident and sexy character but that's the last thing a film like this needs and yet she's there. This film has all the money to buy the best special effects, actors and writers but it cannot obtain its heart and soul.
Perhaps this film and the franchise has become a victim of its own success. The first film is strong enough to stand on its own. However, Terminator 2, as good as it is, was such a success that it made Terminator a franchise that demands more movies and merchandise and therefore money to be made. Over the last 20+ years since The Terminator was made, the rights to the franchise have changed hands to different owners who only want to make more money out of this franchise. Therefore, it's only fitting that the series sunk this low. In fact, with a planned Terminator 5 coming with the story having John Connor travel back in time, The series starts to resemble another series that stars Arnold Schwarzenegger's rival: Rocky. However, unlike that inspiring underdog series, there's perhaps no redemption for this one.
Rating: 2/5
Terminator Salvation
Directed by: McG
Written by: John Brancato & Michael Ferris
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Moon Bloodgood, Common, Michael Ironside and Helena Bonham Carter
Footnotes (SPOILER):
* - The first film story cleverly explore the idea of whether fate is in our hand or predetermined. The 2nd film successfully develops the relationship between the child John Connor and the robotic T-800 as a father figure that pays off in an emotional ending. The 3rd film doesn't add anything new but at least it explores the existing themes and in an interesting way: John Connor's complicated relationship with the new T-800 who does not remember him and John's journey and acceptance to be a reluctant hero that mirrors his mother in the first film.
** - In the original intended ending for this film, John Connor is killed and the resistance asks Marcus to be "John Connor" by planting his face onto Marcus' cybernetic body to keep the legacy of John Connor alive. This would have made a much more interesting ending that explores what it means to be a legend and under such circumstances, whether the difference between human and robot still applies. Alas the ending was leaked online before the movie goes on production and the ending got changed to the current one that is safer but shallow.
*** Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most crucial part of the Terminator series. His casting against type as a villain in the first film works spectacularly as his indestructible persona os turned against the audience. The T-800 character mirrors the actor in some way - around the time of T3 release before Arnold becomes the governor of California, Arnold's star has waned and T3 was his last swansong. This adds a lot of unexpected poignancy when seeing an obsolete T-800 model getting its ass kicked by a younger, more advanced T-X model and still carries his mission dutifully to the bitter end. Arnold's absence is so deeply missed that Terminator Salvation best moment is when his CGI cameo comes out for a few second to fight John Connor. Too bad the filmmaker ruins the moment totally by having both characters fight so quickly as if to ignore the bond that has been formed by John and this model.
No comments:
Post a Comment