Terminator Salvation: Review

Terminator Salvation is movie whose story does not progress, and does bring salvation to the robot-enhanced franchise. Cutting to the chase, my fears regarding Terminator Salvation all came to fruition. Despite sweet trailers and Christian Bale portraying the John Connor, the movie fails. Immediately after seeing the film I did not think it sucked, but found myself thinking that just was not good, yet, why?

I quickly came to the realization that nothing really happens. I will spare details, I do not want to include any spoilers for those planning to see this film, but in summary I found myself exiting the theatre saying “so what”? I wish I could go into more detail concerning the lack of storytelling in this film, but I hate providing to many details to a recently released movie.

Terminator Salvationcertainly has its moments with nice special effects, explosions, and exciting chase scenes. Christian Bale is, well, Christian Bale or Batman if you prefer. Bale’s Bruce Wayne side is not so visible, but whenever John Connor yells in Terminator Salvation, I am consistently reminded of Batman’s deep incoherent shouts. So, despite failing to tell a story, what else did Terminator Salvation do wrong.

Briefly, when I paid close attention to the writing, I found myself cringing quite often. I am fairly certain John Connor yells “What are you” two times, probably more, throughout the film. The repetition and minimalist writing pulled me immediately out of the movie. Ruminating on the film, Terminator Salvation was clearly not created as an end in itself, but as a means to more Terminator films. This is its failing. Terminator Salvation attempts to do for the Terminator franchise what Batman Begins did for the Batman films. It is brutally obvious and painful in reflection. I was really hoping for more.