Terminator Salvation Review

A Terminator movie without Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to be difficult to digest after all Arnie had made Terminator a household name. Terminator Salvation is the latest in the Terminator series after The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Joseph McGinty Nichol, better known McG who had directed Charlie's Angels and Full Throttle helms the movie. The Dark Knight's Christian Bale takes up the responsibility of saving the world and Sam Worthington plays a mystery character.

The movie is set in 2018 and the atmosphere is post-apocalyptic. An artificial-intelligence network called Skynet has arranged for the earth"s machines to rise up and launch an attack on mankind. Only a few men and women led by John Connor (Christian Bale) stand between the machines and extinction of mankind. Skynet's pinpoints John's father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) as their main target. John and others live in the fear of being spotted and killed by digitally-enhanced exterminating robots. Things get complicated with the arrival of a stranger Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington).

Marcus faces a death row and awaits execution. He is visited by Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) who offers him a kiss if he agrees to allow his body to be used for cyborg research. There is a lot of mystery that surrounds Marcus. John Connor has doubts if Marcus, who roams around with a mixture of guilt and aggressive machine-blasting fury has retained his human traits or whether he is an agent implanted by the enemy among their ranks.

The screenplay of the movie is weak and it seems robots being programmed to destroy the human race is the one and only plot in the movie. Christian Bale seems ordinary in most of the movie and allows Sam Worthington hijack the attention of the audience. Arnold appears as a robot for a brief period in the movie reminding us of the hay days of the Terminator series. Other characters have been wasted and hardly make an impression in the movie.

Terminator series has been famous for showcasing effects and technology ans setting benchmarks for Hollywood but most of the technology showcased in Salvation is pretty average. Many a times it seems like a flashback of the earlier movies in the series. The sound effects in the movie lack the degree of sonic sophistication which die-hard Terminator fans are used to. The movie seems like a misfit in the Terminator saga.

McG's direction ordinary and nothing to write about. If Jonathan Mostow's direction was considered bad in Rise of the Machines than McG has made an apology of a movie. The Terminator franchise perhaps should go back to James Cameron who had delivered two back to back hits with Terminator and Judgement Day. The 114-minute running time will surely give headache to many of you. Arnold has been definitely missed in the movie. The verdict well if you haven't seen the other movies in the series Terminator Salvation may seem average to you but if you are Terminator fan its a disappointment.