False Salvation

In retrospect, the build up to Terminator Salvation was brutally unfair. It felt like this could actually be Great. The weeks leading up to its release were riddled with exciting news, awesome posters and production stills, interviews that felt genuine, etc. It also looked good. And most importantly, even the script became promising. There was talk of Jonathan Nolan having some sort of creative control over it, even news of a substantial rewrite by him. All of this made me believe that this would definitely be of a particular level of quality. Christian Bale was involved, and he's an actor that challenges himself, picking roles that have some sort of emotional purpose and Life to them. All throughout pre and main production, McG was saying the right things. And I, Marco the Fool, was sold. I felt some sort of tiny amount of hope and chance that it could actually take advantage of this awesome plot. Terminators. The future war.

The result is, of course, an antonym translated version of the above paragraph. For some reason the finished product was a scathingly ridiculous piece of unemotional bullshit, riddled with way too many plotholes, way too little character development (I know we know these characters, but give us some reasons to care), and horribly written monologues. The machines capture Kyle Reese and use him to capture John Connor. Why? Kill Kyle Reese instead - John Connor would never have be born. Easy. Or how about the older Terminator model (Marcus Wright's) being more realistic and 'normal' than the newer model (Arnold's) ?. These things don't make any sense whatsoever, and ruin the film immediately.

Christian Bale, one of my favourite actors of our time, does nothing in this film. I don't even remember him well in it. Why? Because he was not really acting. He assumed an identity of complete seriousness, and differentiated his character's moods by altering the volume of his voice. There was no life in him - even when he was screaming his soul out through the screen at me.

But. Yes, McG films action well, and there's a cool Helicopter shot.

Besides that, though, I can't really recall much else to be exited about.

No rewatch worthy here.