Terminator: Salvation

"The future is not set."-A quote from the very first Terminator, and a point Terminator: Salvation makes in more way than one.

I probably consider the original Terminator to be one of my favourite films of all time, so I approached Terminator: Salvation with a combination of anticipation and apprehension. After all, T3 was bloody awful. However, Terminator 4 was everything it should have been: awesome.

Terminator: Salvation, directed by McG, stars Dark Knight star Christian Bale as an adult John Connor, locked in the midst of his future war with killer robots. However, Connor's knowledge of this future world is shaken by the arrival of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a man shrouded in mystery. Terminator: Salvation finally shows audiences more than a glimpse of the future war between the deadly Terminators and the human resistance, and the result is nothing short of spectacular. The film is a two hour adrenaline rush, just like its predecessors, blending pounding action scenes with competent characterisation (especially with regard to the character of Kyle Reese, ably portrayed by Anton Yelchin).

It could be argued that without a working knowledge of the preceeding films, especially the original Terminator, it would be possible for an audience to get a bit lost amongst all the talk of time travel and the transient nature of the future (although for these people, my only advice is that you watch the first two films!), but for fans of the series, Terminator: Salvation is more than sufficient. The film is also full of sly nods to Cameron's films, although not to the extent whereby it is intrusive (for an example of such intrusive references, ironically, try watching T3). They are there for fans of the series (like myself) to enjoy, but for those who are less familiar (like the person I went to see it with), they do not prevent enjoyment.

The only real criticism I have against Terminator: Salvation is that it didn't really feel like a Terminator film. Whilst Cameron's films focused on the stories of desperate struggles for survival, McG's future war seems much less one sided. However, this departure in tone from earlier films in the series does nothing to dampen Terminator: Salvation's appeal to fans and newcomers alike. Also, I feel that the romantic subplot that seemed to be developing between Wright and Moon Bloodgood's resistance fighter could have been developed further. However, on the whole Terminator: Salvation was everything fans could hope for.

Which brings me back to my initial point. The series' motto was always that "the future is not set," and Terminator: Salvation can be seen as a prime example of this. After the abomination that was T3 (suffice it to say I was not a fan), many believed that the franchise was dead, and any further films would provide nothing more than an insult to Cameron's vision. However, the doctrine of the Terminator films seems to extend to Salvation. Against all the odds, McG has revived what was once dead. Salvation indeed.

(Now let's see if he can fix the Alien franchise.)

Reviewed by Chris Render