Film Review: Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation
Warner Bros Pictures

Review: Suzan Ryan

“No fate but what we make”, the adage extolled by the young and naïve Sarah Connor in the original The Terminator, is clearly the same belief that director McG wisely assumed in following the James Cameron franchise to its denouement.

Few movies are burdened with the history, expectation and over-delivery demanded of the Terminator series—excluding, naturally, fellow classic series, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Failure, at this level, is simply not an option.

Thankfully, Terminator Salvation delivers. In fact, it over delivers; scriptwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris have conceived a considered and clever approach to working in the 25 years of Terminator lineage—from the nuanced to the overt—without ever falling into the gratuitous; the casting is solid (aside from the single-faceted performance by rapper, Common); the CGI is incredible and the storyline is both relevant and believable.

Sam Worthington (Marcus Wright) is impressive and memorable in his first major Hollywood role, easily holding his own against Christian Bale as John Connor—no easy feat; and while he has always been good, in this role Worthington is great.

The plot is thus: the broad strokes focus on the weeks leading to the resistance’s final attack on Skynet and John Connor’s search to find the man who would become his father, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek). The debilitated underground, led by John Connor on the ground and by General Ashdown (the inimitable Michael Ironside) in the ranks, is facing extinction. However, the film’s humanity lies in the internal struggle of former killer Marcus Wright, a man trying to find redemption in a life wasted. His journey through the wastelands of a world he doesn’t remember (post apocalypse Los Angeles), takes a turn when he meets teenage resistance fighter, Reese, and is forced to defend him against the rampaging T600s.

Terminator Salvation has heart, and balls. Perhaps director McG’s unusual abbreviation actually stands for McGyver, because this is one director who has created something wholly original from a multitude of other parts.