Terminator Salvation

The future begins in this sci fi epic about the war between humans and machines. Fun, action, and a lot of explosions are packed into this new installment in the Terminator saga, Terminator Salvation. In this film however, a few changes are made to the film including seeing what's happening in the future, a new starring cast, and the most disappointing fact...there is no Arnold Schwarzenegger .

The film opens with a man named Marcus Wright(Sam Worthington) who has caused the death of two cops and his brother and wants his life to end. A woman soon visits him and says that he can have a second chance at life by donating his body to science. He signs the paper donating his body to Cyberdyne(a company that creates Skynet.) Fifteen years later, the world has been bombarded by Cyberdyne-created robots called Terminators. There is talk of a man named John Connor(Christian Bale) who is said to be the messiah that will help win the war with this advance machine system that has become known as Skynet. The commanders of the war inform John of the hit list that Skynet has which includes himself at number two but his father, Kyle Reese(Anton Yelchin), at number one. On top of that problem, John and his wife Kate(Charlotte Gainsbourg) stumble across Marcus Wright who is no longer a man but a new kind of Terminator. While trying to unlock the secret to this Terminator, John recruits him to help rescue his father.

BOOM BOOM BOOM! Explosions echo throughout the entire film. Whether it's a bomb, a robot, or a building collapsing, not many scenes go by without action. The film is lathered in fast-paced action of all kinds including chases, hand-to-hand fighting, and large battle scenes. These scenes are made even better with insane CGI that isn't found in many films(if you want a comparison think Transformers.) The CGI is smooth, well done, and used abundantly from creating a large flying battleship to making a robot in the end looking exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

My problem with this film is that, like X-Men Origins Wolverine, the heart that was found in the earlier films is absent in this one. This film consists of violence, death, and hate. There isn't a strong message that stuck out to me in Salvation. There isn't a big feeling of hope or reassurance that the best is coming despite the encouraging words of John Connor. Where's the love? What has happened to sacrifice and fighting for the greater good? And above all where is the humanity? Machines don't sacrifice themselves for another machine, only humans do that. That is part of the puzzle that was missing in Salvation.

For those who are wanting a fun flick with relentless action, this is the film for you. However, if you want a movie with action and depth, you may want to stick with the classic Terminator films. For me this film was fun to watch but I just wish it could have been a little more inspirational thus making it a great film. 2.5 stars out of 5.

Terminator Salvation is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language. The running time is 1 hour and 55 minutes.