Terminator Salvation
Director: McG
Who’d ever have guessed that we’d be missing the thespian nuances of Arnold Schwarzenegger or complaining about the coldness of a robot movie?
Terminator Salvation sadly lacks not only The Guvernator in his iconic role but also the humour and warmth that made earlier instalments (especially the first two) a genuine pleasure.
This one is more of a chore, and the story has become needlessly complicated. Woe to anyone going into this thing cold.
Set in 2018, just as machine overlord Skynet is wrapping up its job of subjugating humanity, it stars Christian Bale as John Connor, leader of the human insurgency against the robots. Bale attempts to impart the same sandpaper gravitas of his Batman character to Connor, but it’s not as successful here.
More interesting is Sam Worthington as a death row convict who is unexpectedly inducted into Terminator lore.
It’s a peek at the kind of work he’ll do as the star of Avatar, coming to theatres soon.
Director McG is out of his depth with this kind of blockbuster, but he and his designers do bring a grim reality to bear — the blood-red eyes of the film’s robots could haunt your nightmares.
Bring back Arnold!
There’s a bucket load of extras, including a director commentary, numerous features and both the director’s and theatrical cuts.
