Terminator Salvation (2009)

2.5 out of 4

Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Common, Michael Ironside, Jadagrace, Helena Bonham Carter

Director: McG

Time: 130 mins

Viewed: Regal Marlboro 8, New Jersey

4th instalment in the Terminator series is the first to be set after the sentient computer system Skynet has laid waste to the world, with the remaining pockets of human resistance engaged in a war against the machines. Bale stars as iconic leader John Connor, Howard his wife Kate, Yelchin (in his second sci-fi franchise this summer, following Star Trek) as the future time traveler Kyle Reese, and Aussie newcomer Sam Worthington as a condemned criminal who wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world and struggles to find his place in it. Grim, humourless film features plenty of explosive action and a feast of cool mechanical marvels, but missing original series director James Cameron's genius for building suspense, development of strong, sympathetic characters (especially female), and overall storytelling elan. After a while, save for Bloodgood's warrior, there isn't really any person worth rooting for (Connor just comes across as an angry leader), and the action sequences become noisy and routine rather than exciting. Maybe it's the sense that we know how everything's going to turn out (since Reese has to be sent back to the past) that leeches the unpredictability out of the movie, but director McG and the screenwriters could have played with this aspect some more (perhaps stressing an alternate reality, negating what we knew of the future). Still, for action junkies and those who like this sort of thing, McG delivers enough destruction and mayhem to satisfy.

(c) Joe Wong (25 May 2009)