2 out of 5

Director: McG

I’ve seen many an average flick, and a good selection of dreck.  It’s actually kind of refreshing to watch a movie like T: Salvation, which I don’t have to think about (or vehemently react to) to conclude that it’s just not a good film.  Although T3 writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris return to keep some series consistency, neither of their entries pitch the same campy happy-go-lucky sci-fi logic of T1 and 2, and T4 can no longer sidestep the grand conceptual flaws of their take on the world that ‘Rise of the Machines’ avoided by accepting its own hokiness and by being pre-Judgement Day.  But now in 2018, with John Connor ‘grown up’ but not yet the resistance leader – still just a grunt in the man vs. machine war with an underground following – we must rely on some world building that just never takes place.  And Salvey is a serious, serious movie, its winky references to past entries (certain lines, certain scenes) not seeming so much like loving tributes as hopeful bids to be recognized as part of something legitimate.  However, there is credit here in that we finally flip the formula – whereas T1-3 were mostly machine chasing man, it’s now the opposite, taking the fight right to Skynet, and there’s a cog in the form of Sam Worthington’s Marcus, who donates his body to Cyberdyne in 2003 and then wakes up in 2018… providing a worthwhile missing link in the exo-skeleton to Arnold chain.  Beyond that, though, the dialogue is atrocious, characters adding helping exposition to explain exactly what we’re seeing on screen and “J.C.” ‘s transformation to prophet has apparently wiped his memory of having dealt with this nonsense a couple times already.  Since this didn’t bother me in 3, we’ll assume the blame lies with McG, allowing all of his actors to pursue heady, one-note performances, Bale in particular sticking out as the complete opposite of a charismatic, trustworthy leader.  Worthington still has common man charm and Bloodgood does the strong female bit well, but the short runtime is too clouded with endless action to wring that for much worth.  That being said… the most surprising aspect of the movie ARE the visuals.  McG frames all of the action well and shows that he can make the shift from the more cartoonish Angels to a grittier setting, smartly deciding to keep as much practical as possible and framing some pretty noteworthy in-frame trickery.  It suffers the fate of all Terminators of falling back on (as Ebert was keen to point out) punching robots, but in general, the action felt fittingly sudden and drastic and ruthless – more in line with how I’d imagine an automaton would pursue its prey.  It doesn’t add a tick of emotional heft to the film, but I appreciate that he meant well.