Terminator Salvation

Rating:

Directed by: McG

The Skinny: Set in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation fleshes out what had previously been glimpsed in passing in the original Terminator trilogy—the war between man and machines and the birth of the resistance behind a haunted man named John Connor (Christian Bale).

The Good: Compared to the original trilogy, Salvation feels like a completely different movie, and that's a good thing. Comparisons are inevitable, so McG wisely sets his take apart by making it more of a war flick than a technological cat and mouse game. The script plods like a rusty T-600, but the action scenes (in particular a sequence that starts out on foot, becomes an intense truck-vs-motorcycles road chase, and segues without stopping for breath into an aerial dogfight) are impressive and, honestly, what you're in the theater for in the first place. And the story problems are part and parcel of the Terminator timeline—anyone who claims that Salvation lacks continuity is clearly viewing the older movies through rose-colored memories. This story has had gaping holes long before McG came along. And there's no need to overthink this. The original Terminator was a well done B-movie. That's all. This is an enjoyable sci-fi action flick. That's all. Isn't that enough? It was never going to top T2, but then again, neither did T3.

The Bad: Like we said, the script is fucking dumb (Moon Bloodgood suffers the worst at its hands, and someone forgot to even write a character for Bryce Dallas Howard), but most of it can, and should, be shrugged off. Hell, it even has a climactic "villain monologue" where the nefarious plan is explained in great detail to the hero—it would have seemed right at home in a word bubble above Dr. Doom's head. But, again, it's all in good fun.

We Got Jokes: The movie is loaded with nods and winks, which range from cheesy (Guns 'N Roses' "You Could Be Mine"?) to fun (a nicely timed "I'll be back") to really impressive (Watch T2 and note the scar above Connor's left eye in the opening flashforward sequence. You actually see how he gets it—McG did his homework on that one).

Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Go see this in a theater, because it is LOUD in the way a good summer action flick should be. Don't nitpick. Just enjoy.