Quick Reviews - Terminator Salvation
* Spoilers follow. Proceed with caution
For all its talk about the power of the human heart Terminator Salvation showed very little when of it when it came to the stuff that really made Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 such great movies.
I feared as much when I saw McG's name came up as director in the opening credits. He is at best a POPCORN director, in the mould of a Tony Scott or a Michael Bay who have the god given ability to craft and bring to life fantastical action sequences and integrate the power of sound, visuals and effects with explosive results but at the same time suck the emotional resonance of a movie with equal aplomb. His earlier works such as Charlies Angels (and sequel) prove as much.
Though to be fair some of the blame should be attributed to the writers, but somehow I feel a lot of the good stuff from the script must have been either left out by the director or got cut in the editing room, especially in terms of character building and exposition.
For instance I'm confident there was a good reason the movie was titled Terminator Salvation? Surely for all the emphasis on John Conner and the resistance, the only character who qualifies for any form of Salvation is Marcus, the half-human, half-machine, confused wanderer, a man who in a prior life had committed some grave sin worthy of a death sentence but to which we're given no details or back-story.
How does this individual go from a death row convict to a hero sacrificing his heart to save the life of John Conner is never fully explained. Marcus's character is only half developed and all the we're led to feel is his overwhelming 'need to be human'. Probably McG may address in a future installment. Sam Worthington does what little he can with his half-baked character but comes across as a force to reckon with.
John Conner exists as a fully grown person showing no signs or reference to the kid who once was. And Christian Bale carries his role with such amazing conviction and charisma, you can't but help admire his character. But when Conner comes face-to-face with Marcus (the human but who for all scientific purposes is fully robotic) he instantly distrusts him.
"You're a robot" he says "You killed my father, you tried to kill my mother, but you'll never kill me".
But surely he was old enough to recall in Terminator II (or for that matter Part III) how Arnold Schwarzenegger (robot with human tissue) sacrificed his own existence so John and his mom could go back to live a normal life. But this movie never dwells on such matters. Conner later goes on to confess he can no longer tell who the real enemy is; as if this is the first time he (or anybody) encountered such a conundrum. This was already explored wonderfully in Terminator II, when Sarah Connor had to accept the evil Cyborg who killed her lover and almost killed her in Terminator 1, had now returned to save her life.
In fact true to his nature McG spends a good 15 minutes soon after depicting Conners actions to track down and recapture an escaping Marcus.
The ending leaves much to be desired. It all unravels too easily like a ball of yarn and, save for a well-done gimmick, single-handedly pulls the movie down. The fact of the matter is there seems an abundance of good ideas flying all over the place, but the director just cannot seem to give equal attention to all (given the time frame) and as a result the end product seems a little haphazard.
But what really stands out are the action sequences. Gripping narration and cinematography is suitably engrossing, allowing the audience to feel they're right in the middle of the action. Almost like a first person video game, something Alfonso Cuaron achieved with similar success in Children of Men. MCG scores well here and the first 30 minutes or so is superbly paced.
But for godssake why is this a PG-13 movie? Where is the gruesome violence from Terminator 1 and 2? I'm absolutely convinced certain scenes were excised to allow for a PG-13 certificate. There were at least 2 separate instances where there was jarring disjoint between two immediate scenes. And the climatic portions also seemed a little too mellow. Will have to keep an eye out for the directors cut DVD.
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For all its talk about the power of the human heart Terminator Salvation showed very little when of it when it came to the stuff that really made Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 such great movies.
I feared as much when I saw McG's name came up as director in the opening credits. He is at best a POPCORN director, in the mould of a Tony Scott or a Michael Bay who have the god given ability to craft and bring to life fantastical action sequences and integrate the power of sound, visuals and effects with explosive results but at the same time suck the emotional resonance of a movie with equal aplomb. His earlier works such as Charlies Angels (and sequel) prove as much.
Though to be fair some of the blame should be attributed to the writers, but somehow I feel a lot of the good stuff from the script must have been either left out by the director or got cut in the editing room, especially in terms of character building and exposition.
For instance I'm confident there was a good reason the movie was titled Terminator Salvation? Surely for all the emphasis on John Conner and the resistance, the only character who qualifies for any form of Salvation is Marcus, the half-human, half-machine, confused wanderer, a man who in a prior life had committed some grave sin worthy of a death sentence but to which we're given no details or back-story.
How does this individual go from a death row convict to a hero sacrificing his heart to save the life of John Conner is never fully explained. Marcus's character is only half developed and all the we're led to feel is his overwhelming 'need to be human'. Probably McG may address in a future installment. Sam Worthington does what little he can with his half-baked character but comes across as a force to reckon with.
John Conner exists as a fully grown person showing no signs or reference to the kid who once was. And Christian Bale carries his role with such amazing conviction and charisma, you can't but help admire his character. But when Conner comes face-to-face with Marcus (the human but who for all scientific purposes is fully robotic) he instantly distrusts him.
"You're a robot" he says "You killed my father, you tried to kill my mother, but you'll never kill me".
But surely he was old enough to recall in Terminator II (or for that matter Part III) how Arnold Schwarzenegger (robot with human tissue) sacrificed his own existence so John and his mom could go back to live a normal life. But this movie never dwells on such matters. Conner later goes on to confess he can no longer tell who the real enemy is; as if this is the first time he (or anybody) encountered such a conundrum. This was already explored wonderfully in Terminator II, when Sarah Connor had to accept the evil Cyborg who killed her lover and almost killed her in Terminator 1, had now returned to save her life.
In fact true to his nature McG spends a good 15 minutes soon after depicting Conners actions to track down and recapture an escaping Marcus.
The ending leaves much to be desired. It all unravels too easily like a ball of yarn and, save for a well-done gimmick, single-handedly pulls the movie down. The fact of the matter is there seems an abundance of good ideas flying all over the place, but the director just cannot seem to give equal attention to all (given the time frame) and as a result the end product seems a little haphazard.
But what really stands out are the action sequences. Gripping narration and cinematography is suitably engrossing, allowing the audience to feel they're right in the middle of the action. Almost like a first person video game, something Alfonso Cuaron achieved with similar success in Children of Men. MCG scores well here and the first 30 minutes or so is superbly paced.
But for godssake why is this a PG-13 movie? Where is the gruesome violence from Terminator 1 and 2? I'm absolutely convinced certain scenes were excised to allow for a PG-13 certificate. There were at least 2 separate instances where there was jarring disjoint between two immediate scenes. And the climatic portions also seemed a little too mellow. Will have to keep an eye out for the directors cut DVD.
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Labels: hollywood, Quick reviews, Terminator Salvation
posted by Nav at 12:35 AM
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