Terminator Salvation - Future Time!

I like the Terminator series. The first was pretty revolutionary for its time with the story of a robot from the future sent back in time to kill a female protagonist who is going to give birth to a child that will one day lead the resistance to victory. The second was the perfect summer action movie and pushed movie special effects further than ever before. The third one, not so much on being revolutionary, but what it did well was set up this summer’s 4th installment of the franchise. There are no more time traveling robots, trying to change the future. There is only hope and hopelessness as the decimated human civilization fights back against its artificially intelligent enemies.

Marcus, a death row inmate who donates his body to science in the 90’s wakes up 30 years in the future to find the world is completely different and not in a good way. He seeks answers and runs into a young Kyle Reese a teenager who will eventually become the father of John Conner the leader of the resistance. Meanwhile Conner discovers a mysterious signal which they believe is the answer to their prayers as it appears to be an off switch for the robots. And of course all these elements come together in one action sequence after another until we reach the conclusion.

That’s all I can say about the movie that was made without spoilers. What I will talk about is the movie they didn’t make. We don’t actually see the machines taking over. We don’t actually see humans trying to put up a fight and failing against an enemy that took them completely by surprise and was frankly too smart for them. After the first scene we’re dropped off well past Judgment Day and just have to accept that these things have happened. I’d have preferred to see Conner in that bunker they left him in at the end of the third movie helping to sort things out and eventually coming into his own as the leader of the resistance.

For the movie they did make, I have issues with it. I didn’t mind the “plot twist” with Marcus being a cyborg. That was to be expected with the price of admission. I do have trouble with the epic T-800 fight where he survives something that killed the old T-800 and T-1000 in the 2nd movie. I have issues with Marcus being a cyborg and not having cyborg strength until it was convenient for him. And I have issues with Conner who is has worked with robots twice trying to destroy something like he’s never seen before. The acting is ok, the action is ok, the effects are ok, the movie is ok at best, but not the movie anyone was hoping for. 6.5/72/C+

On a side note, I did grow quite partial to the Sara Conner Chronicles series that recently was cancelled. The writers of that show did some very interesting things which fit nicely into the Terminator universe the greatest of which being the introduction of the T-1000’s being sentient. If you think about it, the T-1000 model, introduced in Terminator 2, is living metal. It has programming, but no chip, and is self aware and therefore would be able to choose its own path. I can definitely imagine a future where that model decided that maybe trying to destroy all the humans wasn’t the best thing to do. Too bad we’ll never get to see how that would play out. I guess there is hope it could resurface in a future 5th movie.