Movie Review: Terminator Salvation, or how to waste money and talent on the mindless hordes

My wife took me to see Terminator Salvation last night for my birthday date. I love going to see movies with my wife, because I then have someone with intelligence and taste to discuss the movie with afterwards. Well, we were both less than impressed with this last instalment in a series that is practically pre-written for anyone willing to tell the story.

The visual effects were outstanding, as I have come to expect from Hollywood. But the story, or lack thereof, was more of a let down than usual. Of course, let me start by saying that Arnold Swarzenegger is not a great actor; actually, he can hardly be called an actor at all. But he carried the Terminator franchise to heights completely unexpected by the producers of the first Terminator movie. The second Terminator movie is still one of the great science fiction stories of our century. The third movie in the series was not as well received as the producers expected, but I still found it enjoyable. At least, by this point, the story still made some sense.

But Salvation performed that marketing ploy known as the reboot, or what I refer to as the bait and switch technique. By purchasing the rights, new producers get to use the brand to draw audiences in, but then provide them with a sub standard product that is not at all what the brand represents.

I have always believed that the Terminator story had a major plot hole in it; the machines think like humans, and Skynet has no strategic capabilities. From what we've been led to believe so far in the story, Skynet has complete control over the military arsenal of the USA. From what I understand, if humans are the primary threat to Skynet, would not biological weapons be a far more effective and efficient method of disposal of this threat? Why even bother creating bipedal Terminators at all? With this line of thought though, there would be no story at all, and we would not even be discussing this topic.

Salvation introduces us to an experimental infiltration Terminator model, in the guise of Marcus Wright, a death row inmate scheduled for execution, who sells his remains to good old Cyberdyne, to do with as they please after his passing. Of course, the script spoon-feeds us the idea that this would be a way for Marcus to get a "second chance"... Later on in the movie, when Marcus discovers the nature of his existence in this time period, the idea that Marcus is Skynet's first forays into cybernetic organisms, why would his entire skeletal and muscular structure be remade, but his organic heart be still in place? Of all the organs in the body, a simple pump does not seem to be beyond the capabilities of Skynet at this point. Oh well, I guess those "detailed files" are just not that detailed after all.

It was, as revealed at the end, a simple plot solution to the "deadly" injury sustained by John Connor and a convenient way to set up the audience for a sequel. A sequel of a reboot of a trilogy... Hmmmm, not sure where this will go, but unfortunately, with what I've seen there is always room for making things worst...