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McG, Terminator Salvation
05/22/2009 Every once in a while, that rare summer blockbuster will come along that can both please its target audience and restrain critics from thinking up new ways of saying, “It sucked.” Most times, however, actions films released between the months of April and August are short on substance and, ultimately, quickly forgotten. Last year’s Christian Bale-starrer The Dark Knight definitely fell into the first category. This one, however, not so much. That’s not to say that Terminator Salvation is bad. It isn’t. In fact, as summer movies go, it’s pretty much what one would expect. It’s big on action, even bigger on explosions, and it tries to throw in a surprise or two. But just like 2003’s Rise of the Machines, I doubt people will be talking about this from years to come, if they’re even still talking about it by the time fall starts. The premise itself is relatively interesting. Sarah Connor’s son John (Bale) is all grown up, acting as the leader of the human race in the fight against Skynet and the machines. After listening to an audio tape from his mother, John realizes that he must prevent his future father, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), from dying. But his plans are altered with the emergence of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a figure who appears human but may in fact be something else. Both must eventually work together to stop the terminators, or the rest of the world may face annihilation. It’s a bleak story that starts off fresh but grows stale by the film’s second half. It’s obvious that much more thought was put into the special effects and action than the plot points. Though this keeps the movie from coming close to touching the greatness of the original two films in the franchise, it is a welcome change from the horrendous effects present in a film like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Bale doesn’t have as much to work with here as he did with Bruce Wayne, but he still manages to keep you interested. Yelchin is effective as Reese, as is his adorable silent partner Jadagrace (who plays Star). Some of the other characters don’t really add much to the story. Bryce Dallas Howard is the human physician and John’s wife. The gist of her character is to operate on the injured (which she hardly does, if ever) and worry about John. Likewise, there was little need of Common’s character Barnes. Doing away with him would not have changed the film in any way, except to spare the audience the rapper’s shabby acting. As cool as some of the new machines are (particularly those terminator motorcycles), the real star of the film is relative newcomer Sam Worthington. His character of Marcus Wright is hard to read, but the mystery that surrounds him makes him all the more interesting to watch. I don’t think much about the film will be remembered some time from now, but I do think Worthington will stand out. In fact, the wheels may already be spinning on that one. According to an article from The Herald Son on March 10, Worthington could possibly take over as Batman. Now, Worthington is Australian, and the report comes courtesy of an Australian newspaper, so make of that what you will. But I do have to admit that as I watched him on screen, I could easily picture him in a black cape and mask. The film as a whole is flawed but watchable. There is a lot of unnecessary exposition in earlier scenes (specifically with Marcus and Kyle), and the ending is both predictable and cheesy. Bale may have thought director of photography Shane Hurlbut was compromising the film (even though his shots are some of the movie’s highlights), but the actor should have directed his anger at the writers and the director, who let a decent story with spots of potential get away from them. Comments [post a comment]Comments are closed |
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Wednesday, February 08, 2012
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