Terminator Salvation

Nobody is going to accuse filmmaker McG of being unable to deliver exciting action sequences, but it is likely that his storytelling skills will be called into question. The man behind the light and fluffy Charlie's Angels movies has now taken the reins of the Terminator franchise and steered the action-packed behemoth in the direction of the post-apocalyptic future. This particular instalment has been promised (in some form) ever since the first Terminator movie hit theatres 25 years ago. That is a long time to wait, but McG pays off half the promise by executing the action elements with gorgeous precision while letting character development and dramatic urgency fall by the wayside.

This fourth take on the man-versus-machine conflict created by James Cameron is concerned with the oft-mentioned Judgement Day that saw nuclear holocaust rain down upon the world due to malicious computer program Skynet becoming self-aware. This grim future has been witnessed in brief glimpses in Cameron's original Terminator and its massive, brilliant sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but a full feature-length story focusing on human hero John Conner has always been a potentially exciting idea waiting to be realized on the big screen.

Terminator Salvation takes place in the year 2018 in a world of burnt deserts and crumbling cities. John Conner (Christian Bale, taking over duties from past Conners Nick Stahl and Edward Furlong) is on his way to becoming the hero he has always been described as in the previous movies, playing an important role in the group of resistance fighters who struggle to survive in the crumbling wasteland. But Conner is not the sole hero of this tale. Instead, he shares screen time with Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a man who is seen at the beginning of the movie receiving the lethal injection in 2003, only to wake up alive and well in 2018 Los Angeles.

The paths of Conner and Wright intertwine as the plot searches for ways to stretch the flimsy narrative into a feature-length story that always feels like part one of a brand new trilogy. The script (credited to John Brancato and Michael Ferris) is entirely focused on these two characters and yet it fails to develop either of them in any sort of convincing manner. Conner has already been glimpsed as a teenager (in Terminator 2) and a young adult (in Terminator 3), so Brancato and Ferris already have the groundwork laid out for them. But in making the transition from would-be hero to grizzled war veteran, Conner has lost his soul along the way.

The performances by Bale and Worthington do little to add any depth to the poorly-penned characters. Bale wears a lifeless expression for the entire movie and illustrates how much more engaging an actor he is when he connects with the material, such as in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Unlike the well-established performer Bale, Worthington is an up-and-coming star set to explode. He will appear later this year in James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar (Cameron's first scripted, feature-length movie since Titanic) and is currently shooting a remake of the 1981 fantasy action flick Clash of the Titans. Getting to finally watch Worthington strut around in front of the camera in a big movie is a somewhat intriguing prospect, but Worthington is currently more dim bulb than shining star.

With two leads both battling for screen time and struggling to lend the movie some much-needed dramatic energy, Terminator Salvation is a lifeless exercise in blowing stuff up in style. The movie is really just a series of uninspired events enacted by forgettable characters who are too busy spouting clichéd dialogue to make a considerable impression. There are multiple references to the original movies intended to put smiles on the faces of fans, but famous lines like "Come with me if you want to live" and "I'll be back" now feel more like parodies than well-meaning tributes to the beloved one-liners of the past.

But while the script is a pastiche of old ideas and preposterous plot progression, credit must go to McG, cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, and production designer Martin Laing for making this nonsense look so good. There are a handful of impressive action sequences that are bursting with creativity and pixelated ingenuity. Not only are the digital effects expertly integrated with the real environments, but the camera also captures the action with imagination and beautiful persistence.

One spectacular sequence involves Conner taking off in a helicopter, only to be shot down almost immediately after becoming airborne. The camera swirls and flies alongside Conner capturing the entire experience in what appears to be a single take. Once the smoke has cleared, the topsy-turvy chaos has left the camera so disoriented that it doesn't know which way is up. Such commitment to the action sequences translates impressively to the big screen and gives the movie some brutal jolts of energy at key points in the narrative.

If only the story wedged in between these entertaining sequences could match the intensity and power of the explosions and car chases. Without a remotely engaging script to serve as a solid backbone and saddled with two heroes that act as dead weight, Terminator Salvation is only half a movie. McG and his crew have satisfied one part of the equation, but the lack of interesting characters and absence of any emotional payoff proves too significant an obstacle for this Terminator to overcome. This deadly, deathly future never fully comes to life, instead settling for a pale reflection of a promised vision that was hinted at so thunderously in the past.