I went to see Terminator: Salvation this weekend and can pretty much sum it up with “Transformers meets The Road Warrior.” The effects are great and the movie is entertaining enough to justify an $8 ticket, just don’t expect anything more than that.
***SPOILER ALERT*** The rest of the review is after the jump
Here are a few questions I have about plot details. Why does Skynet headquarters/terminator factory only have a few robots available to fight John Connor, who was lured there by Skynet in the first place? And why do they program terminators to shoot anything and everything EXCEPT John Connor, for whom they always revert to boxing and wrestling? Why do all machines in the future have little access panels that can be pried open with a pocket knife? Why are two-wheeled robots built so that a person can ride them? Why did Skynet keep Kyle Reese alive when John Connor would have come anyway and killing Reese would have assured victory for the machines? How does a rag-tag rebel alliance have an air force? The submarine I could understand, but a bunch of airplanes with airfield(s)? Why do the rebels carry pistols when they don’t do anything to the machines? Why didn’t the rebels use their signal jammer on the new terminator model when he was escaping? Chances are that it wouldn’t have worked because the whole signal jamming thing was a Skynet charade, but they would have learned that it didn’t work and avoided… blah, blah, blah
There were two other major things that bothered me, the first being Christian Bale’s speech to the rebels pleading for them to delay the invasion of SkyNet headquarters ordered by rebel commanders. He didn’t offer any explanation whatsoever why bombing in the morning would be better, he just chastised those that would blindly do what their leaders asked (which they had been doing for years, and which had been keeping them alive and giving the group strength) Why didn’t he say something along the lines of, “You have to trust and believe in me. We have to wait until morning.” Instead it was “You are more than machines. Human beings don’t have blind faith in their leaders.” (or something like that) It was a pivotal scene in the movie that came off as cheesy and completely illogical. (Please tell me this wasn’t when Christian Bale went on his tirade)
The other major thing that bothered me was the heavy-handedly-hammered-home human heart theme. These moments were so awkward they felt like commercial breaks. “This movie brought to you by the human heart – it is our strength and our weakness and that which separates us from the machines. And now, back to you regularly scheduled action movie.”
On a positive note, that was a pretty cool helicopter crash scene at the beginning! I haven’t been that dizzy in a theater since Blair Witch Project.