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When I first heard that they were going to be continuing the Terminator franchise, I wasn’t totally taken with the idea. After all, the last movie in the series, Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines wasn’t exactly great shakes, was it? But then more and more details started to emerge. For a start, the role of the saviour of the human race would be taken by Christian Bale, and for once we wouldn’t be getting a time travel story as the new movie would be set after Judgement Day and show the battle between humans and Skynet in the future, something we had only ever seen in brief flashes before.

But with stories of friction on set and with the directors chair being filled by McG, who gave us the Charlies Angels movies, just what did we end up with? Does it end up being any good or should the whole thing have been “terminated” (sorry!).

Plot

In 2003 Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) has been sentenced to death but before he is executed Dr. Serena Kogan convinces him to donate his body to her for research at the genetics division of Cyberdyne Industries.

In 2018 the survivors of Judgement Day, when the American defense system SKYNET identified humanity as the greatest danger and attempted to wipe us all out in a nuclear attack, have formed a resistance and fight for survival against SKYNET and the various robots that have been created to finish the human race off once and for all.

Taking part in an assault on one of SKYNET’s research facilities John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance in the defeat of SKYNET discovers that the machines are on the verge of creating the T-800 model Terminator, the same model that was sent back in time twice, once to kill his mother before he was born and once to protect him.

But Connor is the only survivor of the raid, after SKYNET launches a missle attack to destroy the facility rather than let the humans learn anything useful.

Out of the wreakage also crawls Marcus Wright, with no memory after his “execution” in 2003. Soon Marcus has met a young resistance fighter by the name of Kyle Reese, who he tries to help reach the rest of the resistance after hearing a broadcast by Connor.

The Resistance have discovered a signal that stops the machines and might help them finally win the war, and have decided on an all out assault on Skynet Central, built on the remains of San Francisco.

When Reese is captured by the machines and taken to Skynet Central, it is up to Marcus and Connor to save not only Reese, but also the future itself. But can these two very different men prevail, especially when a secret from Marcus’ past is revealed.

Review

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting a great deal from this. Christian Bale is usually a dependable actor, and I haven’t seen a movie yet that he’s starred in that I didn’t like, but I honestly thought that this might be the first one.

Happily, I was wrong. I really enjoyed this. The story is gripping and, while the immediate danger to our world that was present in the first three movies in the series has gone as the timeline has moved into the future, I really did enjoy this action packed outing into the desperate future of humanity.

And it truly is desperate. The production design does a great job of showing a world that has been ruined by nuclear war and the struggles that the remaining humans have to go through just to survive from day to day. And the introduction of new types of Terminators, alongside the ones that we are already used to seeing like the HK’s and the T-600’s, is a great move, as it means that we haven’t already seen everything that there is to see in this new world.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good. Christian Bale, who does deliver a good performance as John Connor, isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Like I said, he does deliver a good performance, and you really do feel the weight of responsibility on his shoulders as he lives with the prior knowledge of what’s to come from what he was told by his mother when he was younger, but he never really comes across as the kind of person who will inspire the human race to victory. There is the spark there, especially by the end of the movie, and I really hope it gets explored in a fifth movie, but for now the Christian Bale John Connor has much more room to grow into the person we thought he should be.

Likewise, Bryce Dallas Howard really gets little screen time to do anything truly worthwhile with the role of Connor’s wife, Kate. She isn’t terrible, by any stretch of the imagination, there’s just very little time for her to do anything more than interact with Connor.

Luckily for the movie there is Anton Yelchin as the young Kyle Reese and Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright. Yelchin is great as Kyle Reese, and we finally get a decent look at what turned him into the perfect person to send back in time in the original Terminator to take on a T-800 alone.

And then there is Sam Worthington. If Terminator Salvation has a heart, then it’s him. He fills the role of Marcus so well that, even with the prior knowledge of Marcus’ secret (in what was possibly one of the worst kept movie secrets of all time – they even have a picture revealing it on the back of the Blu-Ray case, for crying out loud!) it is impossible to not like him and really care about him as he travels through this new world. It’s through his eyes we see what has happened to the human race and Skynet and it’s through him that we come to care about the rest of the characters. He truly does turn in the best performance from any of the actors in the entire movie and, without him, I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as enjoyable.

McG does a great job with the look of the movie, really capturing the bleak aspect of this desperate place for humanity and, if he isn’t quite as good at getting the same kind of intensity from his actors as he does from the design aspect of the movie he at least gives it a good go.

The action never lets up and it is a rollercoaster action ride from the opening credits until the end and while it’s a shame some of the performances do get swallowed up by the relentless action, but it’s not the end of the world. And it’s also nice to see some of the nods and references to the original movies that get worked in, which don’t ever feel overused, thankfully!

It’s not perfect, and it’s certainly not a better movie than Terminator 2, but it is a damn sight better than Terminator 3 and one of the best post-apocalypse movies I have seen in a while.

The Video

As you would expect from a modern movie, the Blu-Ray transfer is pretty much flawless. The colours are slightly muted, with a distinct lack of primary colours as would befit a world ravaged by war, but the details on display, be it from the visibility of the pores on someones face to the bombed out remains of a building are wonderous. The contrast between light and dark is high and the details are striking throughout and the CGI truly does look eye-popping in HD, while everything you see, be it the rubber skin over a T-600 or the clothes worn by a Resistance fighter seem coated in either a layer of dust or worn by the ravages of the world they live in.

The Sound

Terminator Salvation has pounding DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack, and from the opening theme music it is obvious just how bombastic this audio track is. The theme tune pounds into your ears and prepares you for a relentless assault which it more than delivers on at every turn.

The dialogue is always easy to hear, and even on the quieter scenes there are subtle soundeffects in the background that expands the scene beyond what you can see. And then there’s the battle scenes….

Oh. My. God. The sounds of battle here are something truly amazing to be heard. From the crack and pop of small arms fire to the much louder sounds of planes and missles flying through the room, it is a pulsing, thrilling, audio track that is quite possibly one of the best I have ever heard! And when the bass kicks in with the HunterKillers or one of Harvesters arriving, it’s a shaking experience. You want to give your HD audio system a workout? Then buy this disc and crank it up! Just don’t blame me when your neighbours complain!

Special Features

Maximum Movie Mode: A Blu-Ray exclusive feature, this has director McG talking us through the movie on a stage with two screens, one showing the movie and one showing behind the scenes footage, alongside infomation popups, image galleries and a timeline. This is a great way to watch the movie, and much more superior to the audio only commentary tracks you get on a DVD.

Focus Points: These 11 mini-featurettes can either be viewed in the Maximum Movie Mode or on their own. Well worth a look, but chances are you’ll experience them through the Maximum Movie mode rather than this option.

Reforging The Future: This behind the scenes feature looks at how the movie makers built on existing Terminator lore but also tried to create movie that would stand in it’s own right.

The Moto-Terminator: A in depth look at how they created and filmed the scenes featuring the new Moto-Terminators.

BD Live: Access to nine “viral” marketing videos from the theatrical advertising campaign and four from the DVD/Blu-Ray release, “The Final Resistance” video which details SKYNET’s plans and Cine-Chat.

All in all, this is a very good continuation of the Terminator franchise. It proves that there is still room for the series to grow and more stories to be told. While some of the performances fall a little flat, a masterful turn from Sam Worthington and good direction from McG comes together to make a very enjoyable action movie that looks fantastic in high definition, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would and the added value of the Maximum Movie Mode extra adds up to a highly enjoyable and worthwhile purchase.

Popcorn Ratings Explained

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Posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 7:32 pm under Blu-Ray Reviews by Gareth.

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