Terminator Salvation

(2009) dir. McG
viewed: 05/21/09 at CineArts @ the Empire Theater, SF, CA

Like the titular Terminator, the franchise itself lifts itself from the scrapheap to keep clawing and destroying ahead, this time not only without director James Cameron, but also without “the Terminator” (now “governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger).  Terminator without “the Terminator”?  Could it be?  Actually, brought back to life and youth by digital technology, the film manages to get him in, looking lean and young.  But still.

This time around it’s “the future”.  Most of the films took place in the present or relative present.  There’s always time-travel, including this time, but this is the first film in which the story is set after the destruction of humanity by the evil robots.  All that’s left in the post-apocalypse on the human side are small groups of resistance-minded humans, battling the butchering robot horde in high military style.  Christian Bale is the heroic John Connor, the savior of the human race.

And this time, we’ve got film director McG behind the camera, whose prior work had been in Charlie’s Angels (2000) and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003).  When this film was fairly lambasted in the local paper, I figured, “well, it’s McG, what does one expect?”  But actually, the film isn’t nearly as bad as that review would make it seem.  It’s not high art but then none of the films have been high art.  The original The Terminator (1984) was a fun sci-fi flick from the 1980′s and iconic, but it’s still a genre film.  Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) similarly was slickly produced and rode heavily on the special effects that were quite innovative in the time.  As for, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), well, I’d say this was a big improvement.

I predict that this summer is one of the least-satisfying summer movie summers in some time and I’m willing to bet that Star Trek (2009) may be the cream of the crop.  It’s a pretty bleakish-looking road.  Perhaps that’s how I’d ended up at this one, thinking it at least “looked” good.

McG knows how to blow stuff up.  Loudly.  And while not everything he does visually works, a lot of the action is bounding, pounding, and pretty cool.   I guess it all depends on your measuring stick.  That and your level of expectation.

And the story isn’t great, but it’s not awful.  Sam Worthington, the “other guy” in this movie, plays the tough, tougher than tough, so tough that he must be a robot tough dude around whom the story ultimately pivots.  He’s pretty good.  And the big robot, the giant Terminator machine that has a machine gun for a head.  That’s pretty cool.  Probably cooler than what we’ll see in the coming Transformers (2007) sequel (yet another retread sequel that dots the summer movie calendar for 2009.)

Actually, while I’m on the subject, that new Sherlock Holmes (2009) film, despite being directed by the perpetually dubious Guy Ritchie (a guy who makes McG look like a genius at times), looks pretty damn fun.  But that’s not due til December.  In the meantime, if you’re looking for some giant robots and things that go boom, Terminator Salvation isn’t the worst of the bunch.  All we can do is hope that something will come and salvage our summer.