14 DAY TRIAL // “This is the moment when humanity takes a stand.” director McG explains in the film’s production notes. As far as the story itself goes, “Terminator: Salvation” does just that, but that’s not to say that it brings any kind of closure in terms of the robophobia brilliantly instilled in audiences by James Cameron in 1984 with “The Terminator,” and then continued with “Judgment Day” and “Rise of the Machines.” The fourth film in a series that should have arguably stopped dead after the second installment is a marvelous architectural piece that shocks viewers into submission by means of atmosphere, sound, color and violence – and utter lack of humanity.
“Terminator: Salvation” is more than just a follow-up for the dizziness-inducing consequences of traveling back in time: it is a justification for the future sequels on the same topic, critics agree, since nothing really gets resolved. Still, it makes for a brilliant way to pass 115 minutes, even if only to witness what almost unbound creativity and imagination can do in terms of new machines and new ways to present what would otherwise be just another moment on film – like the helicopter crash at the beginning, which is presented entirely from Connor’s perspective in one single continuous shot, a true McG moment of brilliance.
It’s 2003 and the action begins with Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) awaiting on death row for an unspecified murder that took the lives of his brother and two police officers. Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter), wearing the headscarf and pallor of a terminally ill cancer patient, comes in to try again to talk the prisoner into donating his body for science, for some project that no one mentions but that will later turn out to be about turning him into the first, almost human perfect machine. Marcus agrees – and once he signs on the dotted line, the viewer is hurled into a very “Terminator”-specific future.
It’s 2018 and the picture presented to the viewer is nothing short of desperately bleak. It’s a desolate, post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic future after Judgment Day from the previous “Terminator” (as a side note, critics point out that, should viewers not be familiar with the chronology or time traveling used in the previous films in the franchise, this is not really the best moment to try and catch up, since the pace set by McG is anything but forgiving in this sense). Skynet has taken over the world and almost destroyed it altogether, but small Resistance groups are still fighting against the self-aware ‘bot in one final attempt to save human race.
John Connor (Christian Bale) is the self-prophesized leader of the Resistance, working under an international shadow authority that has been struggling for long to come up with something that would shut down Skynet for good. He’s about to become a father and, at the same time, lives under the constant threat of knowing that this could be his last day. He’s grown desperate in the fight against the robots and practically sees no light at the end of the tunnel no matter how hard he tries to prove otherwise.
Yet, for all this, it’s Marcus that manages to completely steal his thunder by coming off as the more humane of the two. In what is one of the biggest ironies of “Terminator,” man might stand tall after destroying Skynet at the end, but it’s a machine that gets audiences to relate with its/his existentialist dilemma and being torn between his dual, albeit manufactured by Skynet, condition.
Writers John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris, who are also behind the critically and publicly panned “Rise of the Machines,” construct a world that is seemingly crumbling apart under the sheer weight of the killer machines, but that also manages to hold on to one last shimmer of hope. They also successfully compromise between diehard fans and a new audience by introducing into “Salvation,” a film that stands miles apart from its predecessors, elements that make it a part of the tradition: a CG Arnold Schwarzenegger that can run through walls and is built like the father of all killer machines, Guns N’Roses’ iconic T2 track “You Could Be Mine,” lines like “Come with me if you want to live” and “I’ll be back,” to name just a few. With “Salvation,” Brancato and Ferris also rise above expectations by not making the fourth installment a complete disappointment – at least, not in terms of storytelling.
“Salvation” shines thanks to McG, a director who somehow managed to successfully cross from making videos to being given the reins of one of the most beloved franchises in the history of cinematography. Perhaps out of fear of not letting the millions of fans down, McG packed into “Salvation” an entire arsenal of tricks meant to divert viewers’ attention from the fact that, at the end of the day, this film lacks that very human feeling that made the entire “Terminator” robophobia justifiable. While there are explosions, confrontations and camera angles worthy of a true artist, there isn’t much more behind this spectacular façade. As noted above, the best-rendered character is admittedly Marcus – and this comes as no compliment to Bale, the man who practically re-made Batman with “Batman Begins.”
It’s not the cast’s fault that this has come to happen though, critics point out, as neither it is entirely McG’s. With a project of this magnitude, both in terms of budget and approach, and on which such unbelievably high expectations had been pinned, a compromise was to be expected – and it came under the form of placing more emphasis on action, up to the point of literally chocking the viewer with so much of it. In this sense, “Salvation” comes through and delivers a relatively good sequel to the cult classic, but only if one is to regard it as a promise of what’s to come – preferably something even bigger and better.
“Terminator: Salvation” is rated PG-13 for depicting scenes of violence and runs 115 minutes. It opened nationwide in US theaters on May 21, is now being screened in most European countries, and will conclude its run in Mexico on July 31.
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