Terminator Salvation

*** Stars

I never thought I would say this, but I am defending McG, on both the successes and failures of Terminator Salvation.

First and for most, I will report that the real failure of the newest prequel/sequel/re-boot/spinoff (whatever you want to call it) of the Terminator franchise is the script. The problem? There is no story. Nothing really happens. Yet I found myself strangely intrigued by the film, which feels written as a wasteland, set in a wasteland, and produced with characters playing nothing more than ponds in a wasteland. What we have here is a fascinating look about where our society stands on action and story. Now, if you know me at all, or have read any of my reviews, you probably know I would choose the latter without question. However, I am surprised to say that I actually praise Terminator Salvation for its action and nothing else. This is true for three reasons:

1.) McG has taken a step in the right direction. Who would have thought the man behind the Charlie’s Angels franchise could be such an organic director when staging action scenes? After the opening credits of Salvation, we are dropped directly into a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the year 2018, where John Connor (Christian Bale) and the human resistance are staging off against Skynet and its army of Terminators. Connor stumbles upon the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a human or machine (see the film for the answer to that one) whose last memory is of being on death row years prior. McG gives us a fantastic one-shot action sequence where John Connor is taking off and crash landing a helicopter. Wait, what? Just one-shot? What about McG’s frantic shots from the past? Where’s the Michael Bay-like-antics we were expecting? You won’t find any of that here. McG has found a way to let the visuals unfold as if the film’s multi-million dollar explosions were rehearsed limitlessly until he got the shot just right. The highly-criticized filmmaker has avoided his predictable retrograde, and has embraced a forward-looking stability.

2.) Christian Bale. Say all you want about his temper, the man is a perfectionist. Even with a nothing role like this one, Bale still finds a way to breathe life into a stiff character. Imagine Nick Stahl reprising his role here (he played Connor in T3: Rise of the Machines). That would have failed, miserably. And McG knew it too. After first turning down the Terminator Salvation offer while promoting The Dark Knight, Bale finally agreed to the film after McG personally flew out to Europe to discuss the role with him. Afterwards, Bale stated that he loved the guy’s attitude, about how he didn’t care that everyone despised him because of his name and track record. Bale is a perfect John Connor, and even with a weak script, we are totally taken aback by the method actors unprecedented intensity. The man owns the screen. What don’t you ?#!$%& understand?

3.) Its running time. If McG can do a pure action film under two hours, then why must Michael Bay make us sit through 140 minutes of just-as-impressive-but-much-much-sillier action sequences? Don’t give me wrong, I dug Transformers (although I’m not THAT excited about the sequel) and The Rock is totally bad-ass, but it’s clear that Bay is not interested in structure as much as he is a little kid with $200 million, giving him the ability to blow random shit up (To see one of the many spoofs of Bay, check out this hilarious clip: Click Here). Strangely enough, Terminator Salvation is more action-packed than Transformers, but the way the action is handled in Salvation is far more taut and superior.

McG gave every cast and crew member a copy of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in order to capture a totally apocalyptic atmosphere. The man had a structure in mind, and to the best of his abilities, he succeeded in what he set out to do. Terminator Salvation is no masterpiece or classic in-the-making, but it does have me anxiously awaiting the inevitable fifth installment.