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*** May contain spoilers ***
Borinator: Ruination
Selfy from ,
8th June, 2009
Nonsense. Sheer nonsense. I know questioning logic in a franchise that involves time travelling robots is a little rich, but any film or series should at least be consistent to its own internal logic. This ain't. Salvation is so riddled with plotholes and ludicrous logic that the moment you start analysing it it unravels...taking the entire three previous movies with it too. Okay. Opening scene. 2003. Murderer Marcus Wright signs a sheet while on death row to give his body to medical science, entrusting it to the care of a pointless Helena Bonham Carter. Shortly after, Judgement Day happens, humans becomes resistance fighters to stave off extinction, John Connor steps becomes a cult hero, yadda yadda yadda, fifteen years go by... Marcus Wright wanders a post apocalyptic landscape, wondering who he is and where he came from. In a shocking twist that anybody with half a brain, or eyes, knew was coming, turns out he's a Terminator! My gawd! But what kind? An infiltration unit! The perfect way to get a Terminator up close and personal to a target, befriend him, then kill him. And this advanced model is invented...BEFORE the T-800! Arnie, appearing in the film by way of a CGI cameo that looks like the dudes who did the FX from the end of The Mummy Returns did some moonlighting, is a brand new model at this point! Which raises the question...when time travel is eventually invented (T4 is set before any robots go back...) why don't they send Marcus back then, to befriend Sarah Connor, make nice, then do her in when she trusts him? That said...why do they need a death row inmate in 2003 to eventually become their sleeper agent? Surely, with all those humans they're rounding up, convert them into hybrids and send them back in time? An army of undetectable folks who could happily befriend any threats in the past until the time was right to strike? Instead of a giant musclebound hulk with a desert eagle? More glaring errors or crowning moments of dumb? Skynet has a hitlist - number one on it being Kyle Reese. Kill Kyle, change history. They've worked that out. Clever, those robots. So, when they capture Kyle Reese, and identify him, and the big robot hand plucks him out, it's game over right? Right? No, they take him hostage, against all reason and sense, apparently to draw out John Connor. Who was coming to Skynet HQ anyway. And by killing Kyle Reese, John Connor would cease to be. But no - that would mean there wouldn't be a pointless action scene in which John has to save Kyle. The robots seem to break programming because they know how a three act action movie structure works. Marcus' own self discovery of being a Terminator also seems to open up all the perks that brings: previously, we know he can handle himself in a fight, because he batters some wily rapists. Upon learning his true nature, he can punch a T-800 and send it flying, snap off robotic limbs etc. How comes those rapists earlier in the movie don't end up with caved in skulls or as mushy puddles? Other things that you really shouldn't be questioning start popping into your head, a sign that film's quite boring at times, for example: Skynet HQ in San Francisco. It's all machine factories and prison cells... and GIANT PRISTINE SKYSCRAPERS THAT ALL HAVE CARPETS, AIR CONDITIONING AND COMPUTER TERMINALS THAT ARE DESIGNED FOR HUMAN INTERFACE! Really? Why would Skynet go to the trouble to build a massive tower that may as well have 'RESISTANCE: BOMB HERE' written on the side, and THEN make it aesthetically pleasing and easy for all those who wish to try. Then there's just things that the film gets wrong and or doesn't pay off. Kyle Reese's mute, spider-sense having war child? Pointless, save for an unexplained early warning system where she freezes when danger's near (including a massive Harvester that, to be fair, they all should have heard creeping up. Because it's the size of a house.) Common's soldier who just lost his brother? Needless. Pregnant Kate Brewster? A set up for some shocking peril or heartrending tragedy? Nope. Doe eyed battlefield doctor who doesn't do much doctorin' till the closing scene. Those plot devices neat steady hands to crowbar in, you see... Plus...John Connor's a bit of a pillock. There's no sense that he's a knowledgeable leader, in fact the only real way he could have ever gotten such a cult following is to say 'Hey, it hasn't happened yet, but they're going to send robots back in time to try and kill me because I become some hot-stuff resistance leader. Can I be the hot-stuff resistance leader now, or will I have to do some twee Messianic radio broadcasts first? Okay, hand me the mic.' Another thing...Christian Bale forgot how to do Proper Acting (TM) this time around. Apparently barking like a heat-addled rottweiller is okay in the future. Every scene looks and feels like it could be the one during which he freaked out and shouted at the DP. Every single one. Marcus is a far more interesting character on paper, but in execution he's flat. His relationship with pilot Blair Williams is where the film's get's its heart (if you've seen the flick, you know how bad that pun is), but it isn't on screen long enough to care. Believe ot or not, I did enjoy the film. The look and cinematrography is fantastic, the various new Terminators all work and it really does look like a post apocalyptic future. The action scene with the Harvester and the moto-Terminators is tremendous. Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese is fantastic, Moon Bloodgood's Blair deserves far more screen time, and Sam Worthingon does what he can to elevate a role that still stands out as being more interesting than John Connor despite bad writing and logic. Thing is, when the final credits roll - nothing's changed. The resistance wins the battle but Skynet goes on. Nobody's really learned anything. The film is just one big shrug. It's nowhere near as good as T2 or the original Terminator. It's not as good as the ending of T3. It's probably marginally better than the rest of T3. I'll buy it on DVD when it's cheap, but a classic it ain't.
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