SPOILERS follow
I had semi-big expectations for Terminator Salvation, not because I'm a huge fan of the franchise - not really - but because of the pedigree. Christian Bale as John Connor leading the resistance after Judgement Day? Say no more. Jonathan Nolan (who wrote The Dark Knight) co-writing the screenplay? Yes. Bryce Dallas Howard? Yes. McG? Um... ok, so McG gives you pause. I had a wait and see attitude with him and to his credit, he goes for a look and achieves it. It's just not the look anyone expected or necessarily wanted. Or one that's original.
The future in this movie looks like one that someone who just saw Blade Runner or Mad Max might think would be cool. It's not the dark, cratered landscape suggested in the earlier films, a landscape literally crawling with machines; in fact, the surface is remarkably untended by SkyNet, to the degree that the Resistance somehow manages an fleet of workable A-10 Warthogs and Ospreys that they can park out in a traditional airfield without fear of being nuked to kingdom come by SkyNet. They can fly them without too much fear of being shot down, because SkyNet, despite its name, seems to not have any air superiority. SkyNet in fact has a minimal presence in the world outside of its base in San Fransisco, where it conveniently decides to centrally locate its resources. The entire ethos of the film is wrong. This is the same issue I had the X-Men films; it's hard to take the underdog plight of mutants seriously when they live in a tricked out mansion and fly around in a supersonic jet. The X-Men worked best when they were on the run, living off scraps. The future Kyle Reese described in the original 1984 film is not reflected here.
John Connor is another huge let down. Christian Bale spends most of his time on screen - very little of it - shouting into a microphone. He seems bored. You don't engage with the character at all, and the others, his wife Kate, Barnes - they're just there. The main character is a man named Marcus. Marcus first appears in a misguided prologue as a death row inmate about to be executed. Helena Bonham Carter shows up with some papers for him to donate his organs to Cyberdyne systems - SkyNet's authors - and they share some horrible dialogue and acting and he dies.
Marcus shows up again in 2018, and becomes the focal point of the story. We know he's a machine before he does, but the Frankenstein element has enormous potential. None of which materializes. He runs into Kyle Reese, very well played by Anton Yelchin, also in Star Trek, runs into a Resistance fighter named Blair who has no integrity and no common sense about her, and eventually into the man himself. All of it goes nowhere. They eventually invade SkyNet Central because Kyle Reese has been captured, and John Connor needs to make sure he's born because he's so damned important. Not even his wife seems to think so. SkyNet knows who Kyle is - and rather than simply kill him right then and there, creates an elaborate plan to trap Connor and kill them both. Somehow Marcus fits into this as the only way Connor could be duped, all of its horrifically explained in a EARTH STOPPING scene from Helena - I mean, SkyNet - which rivals the Architect scene from The Matrix as the most stupefying exposition dump in film history.
There are some nice moments - seeing 1984 Arnold for a minute, in what has to be the best human CGI ever (remember The Scorpion King? It was bad!) - but mostly the film fails the promise of the first two. The real issue is who the main character is. That was the failure of the third one, this one and likely every film to come after. The main character is not the T-800. It's not John Connor, who has turned out to be the least interesting protagonist in this genre. It's not Kyle Reese. It's Sarah Connor. She has been the focal point of the series from the get-go, and her absence virtually undid the third one. Her presence in this one, as a ghostly voice, only reinforces the fact that the series has lost its bearings. The original film, like Aliens, was about a woman standing up in the world of men and their machines. The series gradually shifted to John Connor, necessarily maybe, but in doing so it lost its heart. Now, this film can't have Sarah because she's gone and its decades after. This film shouldn't be. It serves no purpose - it ends with only the promise there will be more. That may not be a good thing.
