Salvaging the Future

[emeraldstag]

Terminator: Salvation

The next iteration of the Terminator franchise is here and wow is it a polarizing film! I was disappointed to see that it wasn't available on IMAX but I saved a few bucks that way so I didn't mind that much. In preparation for the film I watched Terminator 3 the night before, and I was a bit disappointed that my memories of the movie didn't hold up. Or maybe it's fallen into the area the other Terminator films have gone with only being worth an occasional viewing every few years or so. The first film feels dated with its techno-style music and Sarah Connor's pink waitress uniform that I can't get out of my head and I never liked the sequel as much as everyone else did for whatever reason.

I'll start off by saying that I absolutely love the fact that Helena Bonham Carter is showing up in practically every film I've wanted to see the last few years (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, Harry Potter) and she's probably the oldest celebrity I have a crush on. Just an amazing actress and an eccentric woman but even with the small role it was nice to see her. :)

Marcus was clearly the main focus of the movie, helping him figure out who he is whether he was still a man or now a machine, a turn on the T2 premise of a machine learning to be a man. I like the actor they casted for the role, he carried the role of half-man/half-machine very well. The way he looked around at times, never eating and his calm, no-nonsense attitude to others were great hints, and bringing the Terminator bonding aspect with Blair was a nice touch.

I loved the surprise entrance of Arnold's terminator model inside Skynet to attack John Connor in the trap. This far into the film I had gotten so into the rescue operation that with the revelation of Skynet's trap I had completely forgotten about the Arnold terminator cameo and when it happened with the busted down door and the slow reveal like they've done with that model each time it debuted in a movie, "Oh, damn!" popped into my head.

I really liked the actor they selected for Kyle Reese. It blew me away afterwards when I found it was Anton Yelchin who was just seen in Star Trek as Chekov. His ability to play two different roles so well and convincingly stunned me to my core. I thought he had a great similarity to the actor from the original Terminator movie and fit the character perfectly.

With the story, it clearly felt like they took two ideas - a John Connor Future War movie (which I assume most fans wanted) and a new take on a Terminator finding his humanity with Marcus and bonding with a human resistance fighter in Blair and smushed them together into one movie. I was surprised John Connor was in the movie as much as he was, and I would've been fine if they had just focused on Marcus and Blair and made John a smaller part setting up the next films. The purpose of the film seems like it was to make John Connor the sole leader of the Resistance ( the command sub was sunk) and bring Kyle Reese into his group and protection.

I thought the movie was okay. Not near my favorite film of the year so far and probably slightly ahead of Street Fighter: Chun-Li in terms of enjoyment. I'm definitely looking forward to the next films if they decide to continue with this premise, and I'll probably get the DVD. I did like it more than Terminator 3 though, it didn't hurt that it had actors I liked like Bale, Bonham Carter and Yelchin.